USJFCOM Update

Written by Scott Wood and Chip Ferguson

A common theme driving development within the joint training and test communities is “Train like we fight…test like we fight…leverage joint context.” Senior Department of Defense leadership has set the goal for improved interoperability between the testing and training communities; this goal is driven by a desire to lower cost of expensive test and training instrumentation and to better use existing testing and training assets. Each community’s overarching execution programs, “Training Transformation” and “Testing in a Joint Environment,” promote distributed, persistent, scenario-based events that incorporate integrated architectures using the benefits of live-virtual-constructive (LVC) environments. A joint memorandum to the services generated by the under secretary of defense for acquisition, technology, and logistics; under secretary of defense for personnel and readiness (P&R); and director of operational, test and evaluation provided guidance “to solicit support in seeking an interdependent approach to minimize fiscal outlays and achieve test/training mission synergies.”

Early serendipitous activities between the communities included the Test and Training Enabling Architecture (TENA) program that identified common protocols for live range applications and development of the Aggregation Router for peering of networks of like classification.

The director of the Test Resource Management Center (TRMC) and commander, USJFCOM signed a memorandum of agreement December 11, 2008, to “synchronize test and training infrastructure business processes to facilitate improved efficiencies and effectiveness that will benefit both organizations and the DoD.” The organizations agreed to collaborate and annually develop an implementation plan (I-Plan) based on the following four guiding principles:

• moving from test-centric and trainingcentric infrastructure toward a joint enterprise-centric infrastructure;
• coordinating and vetting joint test and training infrastructure requirements to support open and collaborative joint investments;
• providing transparency in joint test and training infrastructure planning and budgetary processes and certification disciplines; and
• developing optimized, multi-use joint test and training infrastructure capabilities.

Planning for the initial I-Plan began in February 2009 when senior leaders from OSD (P&R), TRMC, and USJFCOM met at the Joint Warfighting Center in Suffolk, Va. They reached a general consensus to quickly prepare a draft I-Plan that addressed test and training infrastructure needs, focused on specific areas of common interest and equity. The I-Plan was approved July 6, 2009, and identified four objectives to guide the efforts of each organization:

Objective 1: Requirements and Investment Process. Identify requirements common to both the joint test and training communities in emerging mission areas and to recommend an enterprise investment procedure to leverage efforts. Initial review will focus on irregular warfare, cyber-information operations, joint fires/intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, unmanned aerial vehicles, and theater missile defense mission areas. A list of capability investment/development candidates will be developed by June 1, 2010, with the initiation of at least one test and training capability development project by October 1, 2010.

Objective 2: Test and Training Network Connectivity. Enhance connectivity between test and training community networks. The “Joint Mission Environment Test Capability Virtual Private Network/Information Ops Network/Joint Training and Experimentation Network” customer base will be examined to develop use cases to better understand what data requirements need to be supported by shared assets. Network accreditation and certification challenges associated with distributed test or training LVC events will be addressed by a “tiger-team” to review approaches for achieving cross domain solutions and sharing data across security levels, with multi-service, interagency, coalition partners, and between industry partners (proprietary data).

Objective 3: Common Urban Environment Requirements. Identify common urban environment requirements for test and training. This will complement emerging efforts at USJFCOM in standing up the Joint Irregular Warfare Center, and at TRMC in establishing a Joint Urban Test Capability. Existing and planned test and training actions engaged in urban operations requirements development will be reviewed. The integrated team will extract urban environment requirements, and compare them to ongoing development actions, analyze shortfalls, and identify potential joint development synergies.

Objective 4: Future Opportunity Requirements. Encompasses both organizations seeking potential collaborative targets of opportunity.

These progressions are signs that the development of common capabilities to provide benefits for the joint test and training communities, each respective organization, and DoD are near. Establishing integrated products teams to analyze requirements develop action plans, and coordinate solutions to the stated objectives is the next step. As Vince Lombardi said, “Individual commitment to a group effort—that is what makes a team work.” ♦
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Editor’s note: W.D. “Scott” Wood is the Live Systems Integration scientist for the Technical Development and Innovation Branch for the Joint Warfighting Center based out of U.S. Joint Forces Command. Bernard “Chip” Ferguson is the program manager for TRMC’s Joint Mission Environment Test Capability Program.

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