Research Across the Atlantic
AMERICAN AND BRITISH MILITARIES JOIN TOGETHER ON NETWORKCENTRIC ISSUES THROUGH INTERNATIONAL TECHNOLOGY ALLIANCE.
Spurred in part by the experience of their coalition operations in Iraq, the U.S. and British militaries have launched a joint research and development effort aimed at improving mutual network-centric capabilities and information interoperability.
The International Technology Alliance (ITA) in Network and Information Sciences represents a new international coalition between the U.S. Army Research Laboratory (ARL) and the U.K. Ministry of Defence (MoD) that is working with an industrial-led consortium.
“With the ITA, the U.S. and U.K. are pioneering a groundbreaking model, drawing upon academia and industry for a worldclass research and technology partnership,” said Paul Horn, senior vice president, IBM Research.
The two countries have come together in the effort because they have coalition operations in Iraq. “Plus, our relationship with the United Kingdom is closer than with any other country,” said John Gowens, director of the Computational Information and Sciences Directorate and U.S. program cooperative agreement manager for the ITA.
Gowens is the U.S. director assigned to oversee the ITA. He and his British counterpart operate as dual chief executive officers for the project.
Overall, the impetus of the alliance is to provide coalition operations to and capabilities across the two countries. “The effort is a large extent because what is going on in the Middle East,” Gowens commented. But the alliance has not been established solely to focus on problems specific to Iraq, but also to the many areas that these armed forces are engaged in throughout the world. The overriding issue is how to provide effective and efficient communications networks for forces transitioning to lighter, more mobile units from large structures such as divisions, brigades and battalions.
“The Army needs to have the building blocks so that it can assemble a task force from multiple units and have them immediately work together through communications and their security as well as the underlining decision model,” Gowens explained.
The units must have the capability of moving themselves within a few hours to anywhere in the world and engaging in full combat. “These are capabilities that are required whether we are or are not in Iraq,” said Gowens.
FLATTENING THE NETWORK
More basic research is critical, say alliance developers, to strengthen networkenabling technologies and capabilities.
“There is a need to flatten the network,” said Gowens. “We need to give our soldiers the capability to be able to connect into a network on an ad hoc basis and provide communications capabilities that are secure simultaneously across multiple echelons.”
Systems need to be in place that provide information so that small-group leaders on the ground can make effective decisions. Such small teams often face threats that are difficult to assess quickly.
“For instance, sometimes when you meet a crowd, you don’t know if it is going to attack you, needs humanitarian aid or requires crowd control,” Gowens noted. “And when you look at an individual, you truly do not know what side they are on. Simultaneously, we need to make sure that we don’t use too much force. During active combat, one of these three threats can happen within a space of three city blocks.”
The objective of ITA is to provide communication, security and information in decision models for soldiers so they can quickly make decisions about the types of threats they are facing and how to react.
ITA’s effort currently involves basic research with members of the consortium responsible for producing research papers that produce solutions. Key academics were tapped for the project, along with industry players that can take the research the academics are doing and transition them into products for military use.
“All of those organizations have a presence in both countries,” said Gowens. “Plus we have some industry specific to the U.K., and some that is specific to the U.S.”
Consequently, ARL and MoD have selected an IBM-lead consortium to undertake ITA’s in-depth research program that will explore advanced technology for secure wireless and sensor networks to support future coalition efforts and how they operate. The consortium, awarded last spring by ARL and MoD, encompasses 23 leading academic and industry partners. It is expected to operate over a 10-year period and could spend as much as $136 million.
IBM was selected to lead the effort following a competitive procurement process.
“As the lead member, IBM is managing the program in both the U.S. and U.K.,” said Dinesh C. Verma, researcher and ITA program manager at the IBM T.J. Watson Research Center. “It is acting as the facilitator of the research, taking steps that promote collaboration across technical areas and organizations in the two countries.” IBM also has a substantial number of researchers working on topics in both nations.
Verma, who is directly involved in the project, said he believes that by cutting across the technology areas of many defense companies and universities, the program will spur innovation and ideas never developed before. The joint fundamental research component is funded by ARL, MoD and some of the consortium members. Separately funded technology transition awards will also be doled out to allow each client to rapidly exploit the research results.
Within the fundamental research program, projects are being handled by transatlantic virtual teams composed of researchers drawn from several alliance members. Technical guidance in each of the four research areas is provided by a team of three researchers, from the British government, ARL and a consortium member. In addition to the research participation, IBM is providing project management and contract administration functions in both countries, and is distributing funds and contributing to the research.
The consortium includes top industrial and academic research organizations in both nations. Multidisciplinary researchers will jointly address key research challenges in network theory, security across a system-ofsystems, sensor information processing and delivery, and distributed coalition planning and decision-making.
Between ARL, MoD and the 23 consortium partners, the program is one of the world’s largest collaborative technology programs. It represents a new way of conducting collaborative research.
“The alliance brings together industrial, academic and government researchers in a close working relationship that has not been seen before,” said Verma. “It is the first research collaboration of this nature across the research community of the two countries. Furthermore, the alliance emphasizes research activity that cuts across different technical areas, and breaks down the insular walls that have existed across these areas in the past.”
Through the consortium, ARL and MoD will leverage the insights gained by IBM to achieve ITA’s goal of developing the scientific foundations for complex and dynamic networked systems-of-systems that enable the a priori prediction of behaviors of dynamic networks that are critical to coalition operations.
“The ITA will stimulate progress in research in critically important areas and will reinforce cooperation in U.K.-U.S. defense technology sharing,” said Roy Anderson, an Imperial College professor and chief scientific adviser to MoD, “The ITA concept has taken the best features of the MoD’s Defence Technology Centres and the U.S. Army’s Collaborative Technology Alliances and applied them internationally.”
HUMAN-CENTRIC FOCUS
ITA will focus not only on new technology for equipment, but also on human factors such as usability and language.
“Ongoing research projects will be human-centric,” Gowens said. Consequently, compatibility and interoperability of the networks are some of the key elements on which ITA will be working. “We have to look at the issues on several levels.”
For example, language is a key element to compatibility. While British English and American English are variations of the same thing, British expressions and words mean different things to Americans.
“Part of our effort will be learning what needs to be done to make sure British and American soldiers are understood when they do communicate,” he said. “We need to make sure we are able to communicate effectively.”
In terms of technology, most will be based on international standards. While communications will not be over the Internet, the Internet Protocol will form the basis of the technology. These need to be modified since commercial organizations are not concerned with the same types of risks as those of military organizations, or need the same type of security.
“There are a lot of differences between the commercial and military sectors,” Gowens noted. “At the same time, we want to make sure that we do not preclude interfacing with commercial technology. It is not to our advantage to try to reinvent everything. We will leverage everything that we can from the commercial sector before making the modifications that are necessary to bring it into the military realm.”
The technologies the ITA plans to develop will provide the capability for quickly assembling smaller units into larger units that can be moved into any combat situations at any time. The focus is not so much on the equipment itself as on the way it is used. “One of the key phrases here is ad hoc networking, making it possible to enter or leave the network worldwide at any time,” Gowens remarked.
A good example is when CONUS-based troops need to be assembled and loaded onto a military aircraft quickly to address a situation on the other side of the world. The urgency of the conflict means that the Army needs the capability of assigning these soldiers their mission, doing mission planning and rehearsing this mission while they are in the air. This way when the soldiers arrive at the destination they can roll off the airplane and immediately engage.
Networks will also make it easier for soldiers to immediate communicate with nearby military aircraft. When an aircraft comes across a ground unit, the ground unit can communicate with that aircraft without having to do anything. Information may be exchanged perhaps within a few minutes, and then leave the network so the network does not fail.
“It needs the ability to leave the network at any time,” Gowens said. “This is a very important network feature that we want to add. It is an enabling technology for network-centric warfare.”
In addition, not only does the network need to operate, but also needs to do so securely. Hence, the equipment also calls for encryption authentication.
“You do not want just anybody to be able to log into your circuit,” Gowens added. “And you have to be able to do this while still allowing items to enter and leave your network automatically.” ♦
