Air Force provides information solution to combatant commander needs Published Aug. 23, 2007 By Chuck Paone Electronic Systems Center Public Affairs HANSCOM AIR FORCE BASE, Mass. -- U.S. Strategic Command is charged with providing the national command authority, including the secretary of defense and the president, with precise information on nearly any global contingency. This information must be solid enough to enable often rapid decision-making and comprehensive enough to allow potential response actions to be formulated and directed. Marine Corps Gen. James Cartwright, while leading this key combatant command, realized that each of the services possessed data-gathering and processing capabilities that his operators needed access to. The problem was that equipping his Global Operations Center with all the individual systems and software would be overwhelmingly expensive and cumbersome. "They'd be flooded with data," said Brig. Gen. Pete Hoene, commander of the 350th Electronic Systems Wing within the Electronic Systems Center here. "It would be almost impossible to wade through it all and locate what was needed at the time." ESC, on behalf of the Air Force, sought to solve this problem with a 'simple' solution, according to Senior Executive Service member Bruce Hevey, director of the 653rd ELSW. Using a proven method known as Really Simple Syndication, or RSS, the center is allowing USSTRATCOM and other combatant commands to access what they need, when they need it. A data solution perfected by the news industry, RSS allows users to stay informed by retrieving the latest content from the sites or, in this case, systems of greatest interest without needing to visit each one individually. RSS pushes information to users; users pull information with Web browsers. A typical RSS feed contains a title, a short description of the content and a link to the content. RSS and other commercial standards applied by ESC "automatically fuse incoming data and allow the user to go back to the source for more data as needed," said Roxanne McLean, director of Net-Centric Command and Control Capabilities for the 850th ELSG. As such it underpins a couple of major efforts designed to enhance the United States' global situational awareness and warfighting capability. The C2 Data Pilot along with the Strike Community of Interest relies on this open-source, commercially exploited technology, according to Ray Modeen, director of Integration for the 350th ELSW. "In both cases, we're talking about getting information that is authoritative and accurate to the warfighter, irrespective of its source," said Mr. Ray Modeen. Program managers stress that, while all of this enables more rapid reaction to any given scenario, its greater value rests with the predictive capabilities it fosters. "Having near-real-time intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance data available allows combatant commanders to see what's going on, so they can predict what might happen before it ever does," said Tim Rudolph, director of Integration for the 653rd ELSW. However, it also allows operators to better analyze potential responses. "Courses of action that used to be static are now much more dynamic," said Mr. Rudolph. While in the past operators had to rely heavily on pre-written 'what-if' response options, now real-time data about the threats and the assets available to respond adds a critical extra dimension. This significantly compresses the so-called OODA loop, said Steve Foote, chief architect for the 653rd ELSW. The acronym stands for Observe, Orient, Decide and Act, and more accessible, understandable information at operators' fingertips both reduces and enhances each step. "We can observe and orient the battlefield very quickly, make a timelier decision and act more effectively," Mr. Foote said. Through collaboration with the Defense Information Services Agency and others, this approach is greatly increasing information sharing among the services. And as this happens, capabilities are being expanded. General Hoene and Mr. Hevey agree that ESC has come up with a solid solution that is very effective and inarguably cost-efficient, and that overall U.S. situational awareness has been increased as a result.