Sweden's multiyear network-based defence demonstration programme has just completed the first of two experimentation phases planned for this year, with the underlying information handling architecture having close parallels to how the internet already operates.
The demonstration tested the involvement of more than 900 separate "information service" entities within the network, with the exercise examining common situational awareness shared between operational levels of command.
Sweden's proposed network architecture, planned for introduction into service from around 2010, draws heavily on commercial communications technologies.
The network will identify entities within it by associating each "information service" with its own internet protocol (IP) address.
The approach is based on the realisation that rather than networking individual platforms, the real focus should be on networking the information services that each platform offers to the entire information architecture. An airborne early warning and control aircraft for example, is considered to be a source of air-to-air radar data, fused air situational picture data, electronic warfare data, and as a node and possibly a hub for a variety of communications networks.
Each of these services would be assigned its own IP address that enables it to be accessed from any point of the network.
The command and control chain will be composed of multiple OODA (observe, orient, decide, act) loops, each operating at a different layer of command, but all drawing on the same information services to constantly update themselves on the operational picture and prepare to respond accordingly. Progressively more sophisticated testing of the approach in terms of shared situational awareness will occur later this year and in two exercises in 2005. In 2006 two separate exercises will use the demonstration architecture to examine how the capabilities already explored can be translated into new forms of operational co-ordination.
In the interim, Sweden is awaiting parliamentary decisions this year on how to translate the commitment to network-based defence into a blueprint for specific new capability acquisitions.
Among the programmes awaiting a decision is the Ericsson Carabas foliage-penetration radar system. Ericsson was late last year commissioned by Swedish armaments procurement agency FMV to study what further steps were required to productionise the system and to make recommendations on the host platform.
Ericsson says the studies have examined options on manned and unmanned aircraft integration, and also explored whether a second manned aircraft demonstrator system should be developed prior to production decisions.
Source: Flight International