Research Proposal on "Joint Interoperability Literature Seeking"

Research Proposal 12 pages (5820 words) Sources: 1+

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Joint Interoperability

Review of the Literature

Seeking to Define and Understand Joint Interoperability

Fundamental Challenges

Lack of Fully Integrated Interoperable Communication Systems

Problem for Military Joint Interoperability Spans Decades

Network Centric Warfare Plays a Prominent/Dominant Role in Emerging Joint Operations

JOINT INTEROPERABILITY

The objective of this study is to examine the definitions and applications of 'joint interoperability' in terms of what joint interoperability means and what it is perceived to mean in terms of benefits and outcomes in the United States Armed Forces and the different divisions of forces in their interactions with one another during actionable crisis and war actions.

STATEMENT of the PROBLEM

The military's purchase and deployment of information systems has been ad hoc and in a hodge-podge manner and has been fragmented to an extent resulting in a lack in interoperability among different missions, units and sectors of the military.

SIGNIFICANCE of the STUDY

The significance of this study is in the additional knowledge that will be gained in this area of study and the knowledge that will be added to already existing knowledge in this area.

INTRODUCTION

The concept of Joint Interoperability in today's military operations suggests creating an environment where meaningful data can easily be exchanged and interchanged between systems, and then transformed into relevant command and control information, from which timely decisions can be made and executed with precision. In recent years, many have come to think of interoperability merely in terms of being able to communicate with each other and share information. But interoperability means so much more than this. More specifically defined, interoperability is the capability of systems or key elements of systems being able to work with each other, both physically and logically. In fact, this more holistic definition of Joint interoperability is vital in order for the Geographic Combatant Commanders (GCC) to effectively prosecute military actions. This is being proven out in current operations in the Middle East, where United States Central Command (USCENTCOM) is conducting Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom in Iraq and Afghanistan, respectively in collaboration with nearly 70 partner-allied countries. The Joint Interoperability concept is one of the primary military capability goals outlined in Joint Vision 2020. In order to successfully meet the operational goals of coalition and joint warfare, it is crucial the U.S. And allied forces be interoperable. Many instructions and directives from the Department of Defense (DOD) and other governmental and non-governmental agencies (NGA's) have attempted to address the significance of interoperability and accelerate its implementation. Unfortunately, the direction and guidance tends to be broad and often ambiguous, leading to divergent interpretations, creating major hurdles for the GCC's by levying on them responsibility for improving joint interoperability without directing the authority over title 10 (service components) agencies to do it

This situation is the traditional service model created at the end of World War II and has not kept pace with new directives as set forth in Joint Doctrine, the Unified Command Plan or DOD Instructions predicated on the JTF-GNO NetOps Concepts of Operation, impeding the GCC's ability to effectively fight as a joint force. Given this political environment, it is critical that the GCC's take exercise the authority they do possess to influence to bring about a cultural and operational change in the warfighting process to increase joint interoperability. This paper then will be a survey of the joint interoperability concept; its evolution and challenges and will suggest four potential recommendations that the GCC's might employ to gain the necessary influence to dramatically improve joint interoperability.

BACKGROUND to the STUDY

The Department of Defense has been faced with interoperability concerns and issues for more than 4 decades. Achieving true joint Command, Control, Communications, Computer, and Intelligence (C4I) interoperability continues to be elusive for the DOD. Joint Publication 1 tells us "the nature of modern warfare demands that we fight as a team; Joint force commanders choose capabilities they need from the air, land, sea, space and special operations forces at their disposal; Joint warfare is essential to victory."(DOD, 1991) Joint Publication 1 tends to infer that requirements for interoperability are new, and essential only to recent modern warfare doctrine. Nothing could be further from the truth. Efforts to improve interoperability began in 1903, with the establishment of the Joint Army and Navy Board. Although the need to conduct Joint operations has long been acknowledged, the record of success with interoperability has been sketchy. The National Security Act of 1947 reorganized the defense infrastructure and first defined unified and specified combatant commands in hopes of improving interoperability by creating more centralized command structures intended to enforce unity of action and effort amongst the services. 50 years later interoperability problems have continued despite the attempt to increase command centralization. Reorganizations have not improved interoperability because they only treat a symptom of the actual problem; statutory divisions and perceived separate service specific roles and missions that have largely prevented operational interaction between the services. This coupled with lack of enforcement from DOD and a health dose of politics, have led the Services to have historically developed their own C4I systems and suffice it to say that these stove-piped systems have created enormous technical interoperability problems for the Services to operate efficiently and effectively in a joint environment. In the late 1980's and early 1990's DOD Services and Agencies began making progress to improve C4I systems capabilities and interoperability. The Joint Technical Architecture (JTA) was created to define standards governing the implementation of system capabilities and interfaces. The goal of the Defense Information Infrastructure (DII) Common Operating Environment (COE) outlined in the JTA is to establish a commonly defined executable environment for systems intended to drive communication hardware and software developers toward a common set of solutions that work together and that compliment each other. Recently, in an ongoing effort to achieve the Joint Vision 2020 Objective Force and the evolving concept of Net-Centricity, the Secretary of Defense signed a delegation of authority letter, designating the Director, Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) as the new Commander of the Joint Task Force -Global Network Operations (JTF-GNO). This designation levied the responsibility for directing the operation and defense of the Global Information Grid (GIG) to a centralized Functional Combatant Commander (FCC), including overseeing the movement towards interoperability amongst the services. To this end, in April 2004 the Commander of U.S. Strategic Command approved the Joint Concept of Operations (CONOPS) for Global Information Grid Network Operations. This Network Operations (NetOps) CONOPS outlined a common framework and command and control structure to conduct the Unified Command Plan-assigned mission of Global Network Operations, combining the disciplines of enterprise systems and network management, network defense, and information decision management across all the services enhancing the command and support of combatant commanders. It also created and brought together a very interested and engaged community of interest- the Geographic Combatant Commands- to discuss the best ways of achieving joint communications interoperability. Although these types of initiatives are important they remain insufficient. In my estimation, there are several realities that continue to hinder the achievement of Joint interoperability across system and Service boundaries. First, stove-piped systems still remain the order of the day. Service components and Agencies continue to emphasize the development of systems that enable very specific functional applications, services, and address associated data considerations important to their needs rather than consider ubiquitous open standards interface and interchange. Thus, they do not adequately address the needed interoperable infrastructure nor enable standardization of policies and procedures. Second, even when the Service components and Agencies center on standardization, this term takes a differing connotation within each acquisition branch. More often than not, they have a differing view of what specific requirements are to be met and what capabilities are needed to achieve a level of perceived interoperability. Plainly speaking, system functions then also become stove-piped, and capabilities simply do not interact in a Joint environment. Lastly, even when the stars and planets align and the Services components and Agencies have found agreement on all of the requirements and on the same set of capabilities, the margin for error is wide due to implementation choices generally available for each specific capability. Although the C4I systems may be standards compliant, they still might not and usually are not be able to interoperate with each other, often due to the broad language military standards are written in providing the Service components and Agencies with latitude in interpretation and the incorporation of permissible options and capabilities. The DOD has aggravated the situation further by allowing the Service components and Agencies to circumvent the C4I interoperability standards process via an easy waiver process. Finally, Joint interoperability will continue to remain elusive and difficult to reach because senior DOD leadership has yet to institute processes and firm policy on a common set of joint standards and to ensure Service components adhere them. Furthermore, leadership must also enforce the Geographic Combatant Commanders (GCC) authority to control, shape deployed service specific C4I systems into the interoperable forces they require which is clearly within… READ MORE

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