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Open Architecture,
The Critical Network Centric Warfare EnablerAbstract
The requirement for network centric warfighting capabilities (NCW) is driven by the threat, traditional, non-traditional and asymmetric, compounded by the complexities of the joint-coalition battlespace in which maritime forces must operate. Current tactical integrated combat weapon system capabilities however fail to adequately meet these threats. Present integrated weapon systems (IWS) were initially developed to support and maintain the “platform-centric” capabilities of the Cold War. These systems are optimized for tight platform collocated sensor to weapons paring, encased in the main-framed computing technology at the time of their development. The modern maritime threat however, has been developed in the rapid internet protocol technology explosion of the 1990’s, resulting in a level of agility that frequently outpaces the existing “platform-centric” systems. To regain the superior level of agility required to meet this modern threat, maritime forces must achieve full enablement of network centric warfighting capabilities (NCW) using Open Architecture (OA). OA allows maritime tactical integrated combat systems to establish the conditions required to net sensors, achieve full joint interoperability, and provide seamless information relationships to the Global Information Grid (GIG).
The GIG provides the enabling foundation for NCW: information superiority, decision superiority and, ultimately, full spectrum dominance. For naval forces, the success of exploiting the GIG in NCW depends in large part on how well it achieves interoperability and force-wide information sharing through the implementation of FORCEnet. Meeting the Sea Power 21 challenges to seamlessly connect Sea Strike, Sea Shield, and Sea Basing with the enabling pillars of Sea Trial, Sea Warrior, and Sea Enterprise, FORCEnet must support relationships between three dimensions of the information space:
· Data Domain- facilitates warriors’ focus on decision making and planning
· Time Domain- allows warriors to reach out to data from a grid of netted sensors and fuse it with federated information coming from non-real time reach back support capability
· Operational Level of Command- provides widespread situational awareness so that commanders are able to more effectively execute command and control over their assigned forces
The Navy faces a daunting task in transforming its high fidelity sensor, command and decision, and weapon fire control software based capabilities into Open Architecture, and once there, incorporating the new capabilities demanded by "Sea Power 21." It requires two distinctive processes:
· The “Open Architecture Transformation Roadmap” is a temporary, specifically focused process that takes the Navy to an initial OA condition by 2008
· The “Rapid Capability Insertion Process/Advanced Processor Build (RCIP/APB)” will complete the transformation and provide the agile modernization structure to allow for new capability insertion for the foreseeable future.
These two processes will be executed sequentially with points of intersection and leverage to support the evolution to institutionalize ‘OA’ processes that will become the essential muscle movers to achieve and maintain network-centricity.
Fundamentally, the Defense Department has no choice in moving its archaic, monolithic, main-framed, integrated combat systems into OA. The commercial market place made the decision for the department over a decade ago. The DoD embraced the decision when it shifted much of its capabilities out of military standard computing environments and into COTS hardware. Unfortunately, it did not move to embrace the modern software structures, companion to COTS, and, as such, retains much of its capabilities in archaic conditions. The only remaining decision for the DoD is when will it make the remaining shift to OA software designs.
The world has entered an era of rapid, technological globalization, marked with the new threat of asymmetrical warfare. It is necessary to seize and utilize the available tools provided by NCW to achieve joint interoperability of military forces on a global scale in order to successfully combat future asymmetric terrors. Now is the time to embrace the power of OA and move aggressively to align Navy and DoD investment, acquisition policy, and budget execution to support it.
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