ACTD to Help Warfighters Break Down Current Communications Barriers

US Joint Forces Command, A current Advanced Concept Technology Demonstration, which USJFCOM is pursuing, is designed to solve communications problems in the battlespace and enable tactical commanders to access and control intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance sensors that directly benefit their operations.  
 
NORFOLK: A new U.S. Joint Forces Command (USJFCOM)-sponsored Advanced Concept Technology Demonstration (ACTD) will change the way joint warfighters communicate on the battlefields of the future by helping to extend lines of communications past the current ranges and barriers experienced by troops in the field.  
 
The Adaptive Joint Command, Control, Communications Computer Systems and Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (C4ISR) Node (AJCN) ACTD has been designed to help warfighters meet specific challenges associated with communications and multi-mission C4ISR payloads during joint operations.  
 
USJFCOM pursues ACTDs like AJCN, a multi-mission radio frequency (RF) processing system, to provide new and transformational operational capabilities designed to benefit the joint warfighter.  
 
“There was a warfighter challenge that we were charged with solving,” said Larry Rhodes, AJCN operational manager.  
 
The challenge came from technical limitations of current equipment and other issues such as terrain and distance.  
 
“During Operation Iraqi Freedom, troops moved so fast and frequently that often they would go past the reach of their communications,” said Rhodes. “When they went past the range, they would have to stop, break out their satellite equipment and, in so doing, they possibly became targets.”  
 
Rhodes and other AJCN developers also saw another challenging issue spring from recent operations; how to optimize an overworked network of high-demand satellites combined with several stove-piped platform-centric sensors.  
 
“We designed AJCN to have the capability to host software which would give tactical commanders the ability to access and control intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) sensors that directly benefit their operations,” said Rhodes.  
 
AJCN helps augment other capabilities such as the performance of signal intelligence, and electronic warfare (EW), as well as, operations vital to winning the hearts and minds of people within the warfighting theater, such as during stability operations when humanitarian missions may be taking place at the same time as combat operations.  
 
Considered a capabilities gateway, according to Rhodes, AJCN allows multiple customers to simultaneously access and use the various software packages in the AJCN payload.  
 
“When they put AJCN together, they said RF energy is RF energy, so why not combine operations that have synergy with one another in one payload,” said Rhodes. “Specifically, the communications community could access a payload and begin to bridge and extend the range of both tactical voice and data communications systems,” he added. “The intelligence community can access a payload and begin to collect communications and simultaneously help EW personnel begin to disrupt and deny the enemy from effectively communicating in the battle space.”  
 
In a typical real world scenario in which AJCN is being used, when U.S. or coalition forces, plan a maneuver and are aware that elements will move beyond the range of their normal communications, they can access airborne assets such as an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) equipped with an AJCN payload.  
 
The UAV will be deployed and loiter in the area of operations at around 10,000 feet, flying in direct support of their current operations. As the units execute their maneuver, they may not need range extension until they cross a particular phase line according to Rhodes.  
 
Operators located in a ground control station can initiate a communications relay at the time of their choosing, when most needed in the battlespace.  
 
“The dynamic reprogramming and reconfiguring of the payload from the ground station, provides the commander with the flexible force mix to support his highest priorities and objectives during a military operation, which he can turn on only when he needs it,” said Rhodes. “When intelligence tells him, 'we need to identify enemy targets forward of this maneuver,' they know the payload is available.”  
 
The ACJN can solve many problems that were once associated with the challenges of several communities of interest performing simultaneous missions. In the past, sometimes the mission of one customer might interfere or negatively effect what another was doing.  
 
“In the network centric, collaborative environment everyone knows what's going on,” said Rhodes. “With AJCN, when a communications officer makes a requirement that may negatively affect what someone else is doing, the operations officer can determine on the spot so they can prioritize what happens to that payload.”  
 
Another benefit of AJCN is its ability to rapidly process intelligence. “Sometimes commanders have to wait for information to come down from a satellite to the ground station for processing and analyzing,” said Rhodes. “The tactical commander has to wait for the whole process to occur before they benefit from the intelligence and in many cases, the utility has perished.”  
 
“Oftentimes, they don't require the intelligence to be highly analyzed or polished, they just need to know what's on the other side of the hill,” Rhodes added. “Sometimes raw intelligence may be good enough in a real operations tempo in a real operation.”  
 
An April VIP demonstration of the capability yielded some positive results, said Rhodes. “The feedback from the general officers was that AJCN is going to be a great asset,” said Rhodes. “They said it was the closest thing they've seen as a solution to the first tactical mile, helping to solve the challenge of not being able to get communications across current barriers.”  
 
Military services along with others are currently evaluating AJCN during the experiment Extended Awareness III. The event serves as a military utility assessment for the capability. “We're hoping to expand the AJCN into other exercises and experiments,” said Rhodes.  
 
Many different organizations are working together to develop the ACTD. Besides USJFCOM, others include: the Air Force's Aeronautical Systems Center at Wright Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, the Air Force C4ISR Center at Langley Air Force Base, Va., and the Army's Communications and Electronics Command. The Army's Training and Doctrine Command's Future Center also provides support for the ACTD.  
 
AJCN managers said the ACTD should enter an extended user evaluation period in 2006.