By Robert K. Ackerman
Signal Magazine, 04 November 2005
Changes are afoot in the fleet as the U.S. Navy plans for greater versatility in force and execution. The Navy’s vital FORCEnet program, which is the baseline for the service’s infostructure, will change Navy capabilities significantly. However, it is more than just an end in and of itself. As revolutionary as FORCEnet is to naval planning, it also represents an evolutionary phase that offers to lead to a complete revolution in warfighting amid seamless integration in the joint realm.
The Navy, the U.S. Army and the U.S. Air Force are working to develop a joint networked environment. FORCEnet is at the heart of the Navy’s effort in that arena, and the Navy already is working to quantify and document the new ways of warfighting that will be empowered by FORCEnet. Many of these concepts of operations emerging from Sea Basing, Sea Strike and Sea Shield are still embryonic. Planners must assume that the network is in place, the other services are interoperating with their own contributions, and the culture and policy have adjusted to the new capabilities.
Capt. Robert M. Zalaskus, USN, is the N-6 to Vice Adm. James D. McArthur Jr., USN, commander of the Naval Network Warfare Command. The captain’s title is director of enterprise architecture, and his responsibilities cover three primary areas: concept, integration and development; architecture, which turns those concepts into relationships; and modernization planning that reconciles operational needs, budgets and phased timing.
Capt. Zalaskus explains that the Navy continues to follow the FORCEnet functional concept as it transforms into a 21st century force. Much of this transformation focuses on the Navy’s contribution to the Global Information Grid (GIG). At this point in the transformation, the Navy has “a set of well-behaved types of applications and systems that work pretty well together,” the captain offers.
However, ensuring that the next step will continue to deliver FORCEnet requires that the Navy measure the degree of integration. Many programs are being developed by experts well versed in FORCEnet disciplines, but their efforts must be integrated at various layers to ensure that information flows more seamlessly in the future, Capt. Zalaskus points out.
A key metric in this endeavor may be information in motion. The captain explains that information in motion suggests information at work, which in turn translates to capability. Applying this as a metric for success may help the Navy bring together the diverse capabilities under development. This is vital as it works toward the necessary standards, interfaces and processes that allow that information to flow more readily among those individual efforts, he offers.
Ironically, the future probably will see a decreased emphasis on concepts such as FORCEnet, ConstellationNet and LandWarNet in favor of a more centralized view such as GIG-N, GIG-AF and GIG-A, the captain offers. Such an approach would have all of the services working on a common infostructure to move information more readily and seamlessly.
Moving away from service-oriented architectures will give way to an approach known as services-oriented architecture, which would break down the complex functions that are done by today’s command and control systems. Beginning by determining each system’s fundamental activities, planners would look at making these functions modular so they can be reused by many applications and shared among many users.
But, even that advanced architecture is not the end state. Further in the future lies event-driven architecture, which may represent the ultimate peak of a joint infostructure. In that environment, traditional actions of command and control will yield to radically new warfighting capabilities enabled by information across the battlespace.
However, getting to this event-driven architecture will require establishing the supporting infrastructure necessary for enabling the network. Services must be designed to function in the asymmetric environment. For example, a user’s information request generated as a message would enter the network, where a network broker would distribute it to the appropriate party for action. When the requested information becomes available, it would be sent back to the original sender. In an event-driven architecture, those two parties would not need to remain connected directly.
This infrastructure will evolve over time rather than appearing as a revolutionary development, Capt. Zalaskus continues, adding that a methodical approach is necessary to reach the end state desired for that type of network. However, along the way more revolutionary changes in operations will emerge as a solid infostructure is developed to support the network-centric environment.
Revolutionary changes already are in the works through FORCEnet. The captain notes that the FORCEnet functional concept can be distilled into 15 capabilities. These capabilities become the basis of future acquisition and resourcing strategies, and these strategies can serve as the guideposts for building new systems.
Three aspects of FORCEnet stand out from the other 12 as truly revolutionary, according to Capt. Zalaskus. One is that future warfighting problems will be so complex that a collaborative environment will be necessary to solve them.
Another will allow a unit to have more autonomy to execute the commander’s intent. The network will provide the feedback, which will be the new version of control for the commander. If that commander sees that the original intent is not being executed or it requires an adjustment, then the commander will issue a new intent.
The third revolutionary aspect is the idea of how information is shared—or even owned. The future will see a much greater dependence on refined information, but some users still will want to have access to some raw data. That runs afoul of traditional intelligence community processes that focus on providing knowledge rather than raw data.
When these revolutionary changes come to pass, their effects will be broad. “When you can start aligning operational activities and the roles that people play with system functions and systems that we build through our acquisition process, then you can derive organizational structure—and new organizational structures that we don’t even have today,” the captain observes.
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Citation: Robert K. Ackerman. "Navy Advances Lay the Groundwork for Revolutionary Changes," Signal Magazine, 04 November 2005.
Original URL: http://www.imakenews.com/eletra/mod_print_view.cfm?this_id=481997&u=signal&issue_id=000096422&show=F,T,T,T,F,Article,F,F,F,F,T,T,F,F,T,T
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