Airman 1st Class Ross Tweten, US Air Force,
Nellis AFB NV: The Theater Battle Operation Net-centric Environment and the Battlefield Airborne Communications Node — known as TBONE and BACN — are two of the initiatives being tested during the Joint Expeditionary Force Experiment 2006.
The combined air operations center, or CAOC, is the experiment's environment. It is designed to execute the air and space component of a war, combining operators and systems from all air assets and coalition forces to make one integrated system.
The goals of this experiment are to better integrate CAOC processes, expand the use of data links and extend networks to link the operational and tactical levels of execution.
TBONE is the new engine behind the development of Theater Battle Management Core Systems, version 1.1.4. TBONE is intended to provide a seamless command and control system by enabling a new way of thinking about planning, execution and assessment.
“TBONE is a revolutionary step in the evolution of the combined air and space operations center process workflow and system development,” said Col. Chuck Parks, Air Force Experimentation Office director. “It's designed to address the warfighter's need to plan and execute in a constantly changing environment.”
JEFX '06 is the first experiment to leverage integration efforts with experimentation and test and evaluation to prepare for rapid operational testing and fielding.
“TBMCS 1.1.4 is the capability selected to stress this process that will replace the existing engine of the AOC's operating system,” said Lt. Col. David Weniger, TBONE initiative manager for TBMCS 1.1.4.
“TBONE will shift the CAOC weapon system to a Web-enabled, PC-capable application environment, redesign databases and applications for network-centric operations, and use portal technologies to share information and reduce inherent equipment costs,” Colonel Weniger said.
“TBONE will greatly enhance the flexibility and versatility of TBMCS and offer the potential to greatly simplify future systems development by establishing a common set of interfaces, much like the current Web and Internet,” said Col. Gary Crowder. “This should enable more rapid introduction of newer capabilities into the CAOC at less of a cost. TBONE should not only be able to provide significant warfighting capabilities to the CAOC, but offer a potential to substantially reduce development and acquisition times for future CAOC systems and enhancements.”
BACN, another system garnering focus for JEFX 2006, is an airborne communications relay and information server. It flies at extremely high altitudes, allowing real-time information exchanges between different tactical data link systems.
BACN provides voice relay and bridging between tactical and cellular voice systems. It translates disparate data links that today do not communicate. It also acts as an airborne server that permits data storage and sharing for disadvantaged users, while providing increased situational awareness by correlating tactical and strategic air pictures.
“BACN and its ground component, the Rapid Attack Information Dissemination Execution Relay, are a bridge to cyber capabilities,” said 1st Lt. Brad Powell, BACN program manager. “They will improve combat capabilities in a number of ways. In one way, they will provide a tactical data network gateway that shares information between equipment currently not interoperable.”
For example, Lieutenant Powell said an Army unit on the ground currently sees a different picture than an airccrew, but with BACN, both will see the same picture.
“BACN is also about communication bridging,” the lieutenant said. “It is enabling forces with differing radio capabilities to speak with one another, and it allows forces separated by long distances, large buildings or a few blocks to communicate by relaying and bridging voice transmissions.
“It also provides cell phone-to-radio bridging,” Lieutenant Powell said. “This is important because during Hurricane Katrina, the police couldn't talk to the fire department who couldn't talk to the ambulances who couldn't talk to the National Guard. Now you will be able to fly a BACN overhead and it will be able to bridge those communication systems.”
Communicating over airborne networks at high altitudes and extending the systems line of sight provides warfighters the advanced way to share critical information, Colonel Parks said.
“Because BACN bridges the communication gaps and extends the range of our radio systems, it allows aircraft to communicate with each other as well as ground units more seamlessly,” he said. “It fills a critical warfighter gap.”
