77. France is involved in many NRF rotations:

78. Besides, France has already 2 HRF HQ located in France: a maritime HQ in Toulon (southern part of France) and a LCC HQ in Lille (northern part of France).

79. Each time France is on alert for HRF or NRF purposes, it is mandated to setup a special interconnection between NATO HQ and these headquarters. In order to optimise those interconnections from a personnel perspectives and a cost point of view (equipments, leased lines..), the intention is to setup a permanent network. Furthermore, this permanent network will facilitate the exchange of information with NATO and will enable France to be in line with the NNEC perspectives to offer the available services to all the military users.

80. France has participated as the JFACC during the NRF5 rotation. That was the starting point of the rationalisation work which is made in the logical continuity from this participation. The Figure B.3 displays the roles played by the French units and the information systems involved during the certification exercise ALLIED ACTION 05.

 

Figure B.3. French participation in Allied Action 05

81. The French systems used during this exercise were the following:

82. The Lessons learnt from NRF5 participation can be sorted in three points:

87. The availability of the FR NNS is needed for the validation phase of the new maritime system that France is developing: SIC21. This system will have to exchange information with MCCIS and several others NATO systems. As this validation phase will start during summer 2007, it is envisaged to use the IEG that was used during the NRF5 rotation with some minor changes (authorization of MCCIS flows). At the same period of time, the air community will start to move on the NNS: the CASPOA (Analysis and Simulation centre) for air operations preparation, which is a NATO Centre of Excellence, located in Taverny (close to Paris), the CCOA (Air Operation Centre) located in Lyon and the CDAOA (Air Defence and Air Operations Command) located in Paris will be connected.

88. At the end of 2008, all the ICC and MCCIS clients located in France should be able to work directly from their computers on the NNS. This means on the contrary that the people located on the theatre will still require direct links to NATO WAN.

89. Two aspects will be considered after the starting up of this network. On one side new clients will have the opportunity to access those services and on the other side new services will be added on the network. The new clients concerned by this migration on NNS are the squadrons and air headquarters that can participate in NRF/HRF such as flying units, ARS, Ships and headquarters and the new headquarters created in France The pace for moving the units will be based on the next rotation of NRF where France is playing a component command role.

90. For NRF 11, France will be Land Component Command and still keeps two options for its interconnection. The first would be to use the FR NNS and the second to have a direct connection to NSWAN. The choice is depending on the organization of the Joint Force Command leading the rotation.

91. For the NRF 12 France, Air Component command, it is assumed that the FR NNS will be used as it was done during the rotation 5. The only difference would be the availability of more services.

92. The actual network is obsolescent. It was built in 1999 and some client workstations were deployed in various locations. France has contracted a support with a company to install and maintain the various computers. This contract is coming to its end, thus there is an opportunity to re-analyse the relevance of such a contract and the associated cost. Some clients will not be connected with the contractor because there are out of the boundary of the initial contract. France has made the decision to int grate this "service" in the FR NNS. No more upgrade of the actual network is planned; all the new users will be connected via the FR NNS.

93. France will use the opportunity of the movement of the different headquarters during the 2007-2008 period to setup an architecture that will support all the workstations spread out in many places in France. The upgrade of ICC from the actual version to 2.7.1, then 2.8 will give an ideal integration period to migrate towards the new approach. After that migration it is assumed that network upgrades will be necessary for the air community for the arrival of ACCS. All the network evolutions will be taken into account by the FR NNS network manager.

94. During operations, usually a Mission Secret network is deployed. To enable interconnection between network handling NATO Secret information and network handling Mission Secret information, it will be necessary to develop an IEG Case C. The location of this gateway is still under discussion and need to be further investigated. The main objective for this interconnection is to offer all the NATO IP services to the different communities of interest in the theatre.

 

Figure B.6. Interconnecting MS Network

95. The management of such a network composed of systems managed by NATO bodies and national teams will need to be worked out to develop Service Level Agreement between the network providers (NATO and national) so that availability seen from the users' point of view is maximal.

96. The other challenge will be to ease access to the right information. Having authorized the interconnection of the NATO and the national systems does not mean that the various people in the different Headquarters are accessing the information of interest to them.

97. Some systems are currently under development and a more accurate analysis must be undertaken to verify how and when they could go on the national network. That is the case for ACCS and Bi-SC-AIS. This analysis should be followed by a testing phase to ensure that the system continue to provide the services it is supposed to provide.

98. For other services, like videoteleconferencing, France will setup a separate network because of bandwidth constraints. When the quality of service will be spread on all the IP networks, and operational priorities agreed within the nations, this could evolve towards a unique network on which all the services would be made available.

99. If there is a clear thread to use an IP network for exchanging most of the data needed for command and control functions, it must be recognize that non-IP networks will last for at least 5 years. Thus it is important for the services that they support to guarantee that the interoperability between the non-IP systems within NATO nations and PfP nations will continue until the transition phase to IP is accomplished. The services concerned are real-time service (e.g. Link 16, circuit between radar and CAOC,...), telegraphy, circuit switched and packet switched services.

100. To foster and federate initiatives to improve military actions effectiveness within a coalition force, information is the key element. Information management and effect control to reach the desired end-st te have to be taken into account joint, inter-agency and international aspects development of interoperability, using state of the art methods will accelerate adaptation towards using enterprise services across the nations and appropriate networking. The necessity to accelerate the acquisition of the systems and to optimise spending will tailor the experimentation process. In order to take advantage of all the technology opportunities, a structured but pragmatic approach will be taken to enable the different program managers to take into account the interoperability challenges in an international context. In particular, studies need to be done to identify the criteria to determine when Service Oriented Architecture is the right approach and, when appropriate, propose a migration plan in accordance with the other nations involved.

 

Figure B.7. French Battlelab

109. CHANIA (CRETE) - In Joint Project Optic Windmill (JPOW), the computers of all participating countries are linked together, for interoperability is an integral concept throughout JPOW. "Three, two, one, fire", a Greek officer, headphones over his coalblack hair, counts down. A trembling explosion; a grey white cloud of smoke like a small cauliflower. An orange-coloured rocket races up from the launch site and hisses its way into a cloudless sky. Shortly before the projectile intercepts a small target aircraft, it is destroyed from the ground, and its shattered remains fall into the ice-blue Mediterranean waters off the coast near the NATO shooting range on the rocky island of Crete. This pandemonium is repeated three times. It is D-Day in the international air defence exercise Joint Project Optic Windmill. As a highlight, the Guided Missile Group of the De Peel airforce base shoots four ageing rockets into the firmament. JPOW is somewhere in between Star Wars, Star Trek and the US Strategic Defence Initiative. The foundation of the project was laid by the Netherlands, motivated by the first Gulf war (Source: Defensiekrant (MOD periodical), 20 April 2006).

110. In 2005, the Defence organisation, along with TNO and THALES, carried out the first Dutch Joint NEC experiment. This experiment involved setting up a distributed experimenting environment which linked several locations together. Simulated operational sea, land and air systems successfully networked their actions in a single scenario. The experiment demonstrated the added value of the development of a Simulation Environment for NEC Assessment (SENECA) that provides opportunities for frequent experimenting.

111. The maritime dimension traditionally has a strong multinational orientation. Individual units must be interoperable to be able to function in a multinational flotilla. A recent example (late 2005 - early 2006) was the Dutch contribution to Task Force 150, which was responsible for so-called maritime security operations in an area stretching from the coast of Somalia to the Arabian Gulf. TF 150 consisted of a great variety of navy vessels (including an air defence and command frigate), maritime patrol vessels, unmanned aircraft and shipborne helicopters. All these means contributed to the joint mission: identifying and detecting suspect vessels, boarding and searching vessels, collecting information and halting suspect vessels and arresting their crew. Through use of the American CENTRIX network and the Coalition Forces Intelligence Cell, the vessels could exchange information (such as photographs) with each other and with shore authorities directly by e-mail and chat, thus ensuring that the waiting time for merchant ships could be reduced to a minimum.

112. Task Force Fox was a NATO force that was intended to protect the international observers who were tasked with monitoring the implementation of the peace plan for Macedonia in 2001-2002. In this multinational coalition with Germans, Frenchmen and Italians under Dutch leadership, the language barrier was, considering the operational circumstances, a real problem. Because information was shared with the coalition partners using ISIS, and this information was also represented graphically, there would soon be a shared understanding of the operational situation and emerging crises could be overcome swiftly and effectively. It is also thanks to ISIS that Task Force Fox has gone down in history as a successful NATO mission.

116. Spain is aware that there is no single sequence of long-term planned baselines, but an approximate direction of progress, frequently reviewed and adapted to changing technologies, requirements and constraints. Therefore, CEDENEC believes that the best planning strategies under a high level of uncertainty and risk are no longer those that deliver optimum results in the very specific circumstances anticipated, but those that are robust enough to perform acceptably in a variety of potential scenarios. As such a strategic framework to answer the what-for, the what, the how and the when of the undertaking should be and should allow a balance among stability and flexibility.

117. The Spanish NEC Strategic Framework is under CEDENEC's development and covers what Spain must achieve in order to fulfil the operational requirements; Lays down the strategic lines of work including those related with conceptual development, methodology and best practices, design and implementation and shared awareness; Establishes the global plans which include the strategic lines of work and; Goes into details as to short term plans. As it is to be the case for any rolling strategy, operational and technical analysis and studies (including those lessons learned) are to be continuously improving upon this strategic framework. Last but not least in importance is the human dimension including morale, leadership, training, education and, doctrine. The strategic framework is also aimed to this aspects.

118. This strategic framework is to be considered within the Spanish Military Planning Process as well as within those efforts made of Defence bodies having technical responsibilities, research and development competences along with acquisitions responsibilities. In this situation the efforts towards the rolling orientation of running capabilities, programs and initiatives are going to be more important than ever.

119. It is more important than ever to keep alive the operational and technical interoperability awareness that Spain has held essential for so many years and backed by her participating in different demonstrations, exercises and experiments.

120. It is to note Spanish technical experimentation at CWID initiatives. Spanish industry, universities and military bodies with technical competences play a part in the CWID demonstration. A Pilot model for SOA interoperability services, the Spanish Military Messaging System, Spanish web map services and web feature services or COP services have been put to work within latest NATO CWID. As it happened to be within other nations, Spain has its own national CWID. As such, middleware for sensors at C2 networks, or broad band mobile communications for tactical deployments, or tactical mini terminals for satellite band X communications have also been given demonstration airings.

121. Spain is also working on supporting infrastructures for experimentation, training and exercises. Noteworthy here is that Spain is working towards the setting up of a Laboratory for NEC experiments (CENEC) where any practical solutions put forward are to be measured against those operative demands. Advanced joint simulation facilities are to be keep financed next year. NEC related prototypes have been delivered to our Operational Post Command.

122. Following the NATO approach the development of our systems is in keeping with NC3TAv7 and NAFv2. Spain is analyzing its architectures views evolution in keeping with NAFv3 and NISP.

123. The main effort within the short to medium term must be towards achieving the Spanish NEC strategy for the managing of this complex endeavour and its concomitant experimental support demands.

124. In the medium to long term Spain expects to be able to have the run of a fully operative working whole structure, this taking into its scope civilian organizations and other ministries.

125. If there were something that could be called an international net-ready certification Spain could be deeply involved in it. Systems processes, capabilities and even acquisitions programmes could be verified on the basis of net-ready criteria or, to put it in another way: systems, processes, capabilities and acquisition programmes associated with network enabled capabilities could have what it might be call a "net-ready stamping". An interoperability authenticity stamp which would be, but of course, anchored upon the international determination it is concerned with. Which all means that an evaluation of existing systems will be called for to check out whether the net-ready criteria have been satisfied be it nationally or within any given coalition.

126. The Spanish acquisition process is aligned with NATO Phased Armaments Programming System (PAPS). This process came up for review under a new proposal. Among other aspects, it's under consideration a set of criteria that allows PAPS documents go further in the process, in order to enable rationalization as well as the necessary evolution in aspects such as technology.

127. Spain's ultimate vision is of a real federation of military and civilian services and its cross utilization for crisis management and current operations. Civilian and military bodies would natuarally provide any that were to be needed, services that would thus endow us with powerful dual capabilities for defence and security.

164. The Global Information Grid Bandwidth Expansion (GIG-BE) Program was a major Department of Defense (DOD) net-centric transformational initiative executed by DISA. GIG-BE created a ubiquitous "bandwidth-available" environment to improve national security intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, information assurance, as well as command and control. Through GIG-BE, DISA leveraged DOD's existing end-to-end information transport capabilities, significantly expanding capacity and reliability to locations worldwide.

165. This program provided increased bandwidth and diverse physical access to approximately 87 critical sites in the continental United States (CONUS), Pacific Theater, and European Theater. These locations are interconnected via an expanded GIG core.

166. GIG-BE provides a secure, robust, optical terrestrial network that delivers very high-speed classified and unclassified Internet Protocol (IP) services to key operating locations worldwide.

167. After extensive component integration and operational testing, implementation began in the middle of the 2004 fiscal year and extended through calendar year 2005. The initial implementation concentrated on six sites used during the proof of initial operational capability, achieved on Sept. 30, 2004. On Dec. 20, 2005, the GIG-BE program achieved the milestone of Full Operational Capability.

168. The TSAT Program is actually just one node in a broad spectrum of programs known as the Transformational Communications Architecture (TCA). In 2001, the United States Department of Defense (DOD) initiated a Transformational Communications Study to accelerate the delivery of advanced capabilities with state-of-the art technology to the field.

169. The study concluded that the United States Military's existing program plan would not meet forecast communications requirements. It also suggested that there was a window of opportunity to provide an architectural framework for a compatible communications system across the Department of Defense and the intelligence community - one that could increase U.S. capabilities by a factor of ten.

170. Those conclusions, plus ongoing experience in the Global War on Terror and new technology developments like UAVs, helped shape the Transformational Communications Architecture (TCA).

171. TSAT is intended to provide internet-like capability that extends high-bandwidth satellite capabilities to deployed troops worldwide, and delivers an order of magnitude increase in available military bandwidth. Using laser communications inter-satellite links to create a high data-rate backbone in space, TSAT will be one of the key enablers for the American vision of Network Centric Warfare.

172. A visual image from a UAV that would take 2 minutes to process with the Milstar II satellite system would take less than a second with TSAT. A radar image from a Global Hawk UAV (12 minutes), or a multi-gigabyte radar image from space-based radar (88 minutes), would also take less than a second with the TSAT network. Best of all, the recipient can be on the move with a relatively small receiver, anywhere in the world.

173. The TSAT system is currently scheduled to launch in 2013-2016.

174. Wide-Band Satellite communications provides ubiquitous communications with optical quality bandwidth to mobile and tactical users.

175. The Wideband Gapfiller Satellite program and the Advanced Wideband System will augment and eventually replace the Defense Satellite Communications System (DSCS) in 2009 or 2010. These satellites will transmit several gigabits of data per second-up to ten times the data flow of the satellites being replaced.

176. Protected communications will be addressed by a global extremely high frequency (EHF) system, composed of the Advanced Extremely High Frequency System and Advanced Polar System. These systems are expected to provide about ten times the capacity of current protected satellites (the Milstar satellites). Narrowband needs are supported by the UFO (Ultrahigh-frequency Follow-On) constellation, which will be replaced by a component of the Advanced Narrowband System.

177. Capacity gains in these systems will also be matched by improved features, such as multiple high-gain spot beams that are particularly important for small terminal and mobile users. Satellite, terminal, control, and planning segments will utilize emerging technology to ensure the best capability for the cost. Coordination among ground, air, and space segments and between government and commercial assets will help ensure deployment of the most efficient, effective, and affordable communications systems.

178. Net-Centric Enterprise Services (NCES) is a Department of Defense program, managed by the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA), to develop information technology infrastructure services for future systems used by the United States military to support the broad range of applications and data used in a net-centric enterprise. There are nine core enterprise services defined in the Network Centric Operations and Warfare - Reference Model (NCOW-RM):

179. NCES maps these nine services to four product areas:

180. Horizontal Fusion (HF) program refers to the net-centric applications and content needed to provide analysts and war fighters with the ability to make sense of complex and ambiguous situations. Within HF, the first implementation of a Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) in the Department of Defense was achieved. The demonstration proved that the realization of a Net-Centric environment is technically feasible using legacy investments. Horizontal fusion is not just a single program, but a portfolio of net-centric initiatives using a common architecture and integration process. Recent initiatives include the following: