Commander's Comments

Throughout the history of military operations, conquering armies were led by warriors who possessed an ability to visualize the battlefield. Napoleon had a remarkable talent for this. Using nothing more than his intuition coupled with disparate and often spurious or fragmented information, he could sketch a mental picture of the battlefield. He called this “coup d’oeil,” his “inward eye” through which he visualized the terrain and anticipated the moves of his enemy. Since Napoleon’s time, many methods have been used to capture and translate this mental image into a “picture” to provide a common understanding from which to unify and focus military action.

You may have heard me speak before on the need to visualize the battlespace or specifically on the need for increased situational awareness. To this end, AIA and the Aerospace Command and Control Intelligence Surveillance and Reconnaissance Center, (AC2ISRC), jointly hosted the Air Operations Center Visualization Tool Conference where representatives from across the Air Force and Joint community met to forge a common framework for the development of an automated situational awareness display.

What is the intent of all this effort, you ask? Simply put, we are working to develop a display to help commanders recognize a decision point and react quicker than would otherwise be possible. Our ultimate goal is to act decisively quicker than our adversary can respond to our actions.

Here’s our problem. Our commanders in the field are deluged with battlespace information: multiple sources, databases, stovepipe systems, etc. Air commanders must be able to focus on the decisions at hand rather than spend their time consuming so much data. What makes matters worse is that these multiple inputs don’t necessarily work in concert with one another --they don’t feed a “common picture.” As a result, the AOC’s planning of Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance resources to support an Air Tasking Order package is still a manual process. Additionally, the process of assimilating battlespace information varies dramatically by geographic-theater, leading to standardization and training problems.

We have the tools today to quickly field an AOC system that can give us an immediate 75 percent solution. Imagine how much faster cross cueing and dynamic re-tasking of ISR assets could occur if Tactical Information Broadcast System/ (TIBS/ADSI) were merged with automated order of battle displays (Combat Information System-AA or its follow-on), Improved Many On Many projections with its digitized terrain data, etc., all overlaid on charts for precise geo-correlation. Operators would simply “point-and-click” on an ISR asset to instantly display live Unmanned Aerial Vehicle video, the latest JSTARS picture, or a 5D-imagery product geo-correlated with terrain.

For the 100 percent solution, our sights are focused on the development of an Aerospace Common Picture which will eventually function, not as another planning tool, but as a semi-automated decision aid for every position within the AOC. The display will be hyperlinked to multiple feeds so a commander in an AOC can tailor the displayed visuals to suit the situation.

In this manner, the Operations Floor will see where their ISR assets are located, to include their field of view, accurate to the geography, geo-coordinated, and capable of showing “shadows” where their sensor is terrain masked. Here, the “sensor-to-shooter” concept is critical to our ability to stay inside the decision cycle of a potential threat. If we don’t have real-time situational awareness of all of our assets, we cannot respond to pop-up threats, or new targets.

The Joint military structure is already addressing the challenges of providing a similar display, what they term a “Common Operating Picture” for use by national, theater, and tactical C4I sources. They are guided by Joint Instruction 3151.01 which recognizes each CINC, JTF, and service that have unique requirements, and each should find a means to integrate datasets from their sources into a component picture which would feed an overall COP.

Today, information systems exist which can provide us with a near solution to our current visualization needs. More importantly, the majority of resources and experts necessary to solve this problem can be found within our agency. Whether at an RSOC, CARS unit, HQ staff, etc., each of you see a piece to this puzzle and lurking in the back of your minds is a part of the solution. To recognize it, you must look beyond your immediate work area and understand the big-picture to which your product or service contributes. Clearly, the best solution will come from the ground-up and not top-down.

Too often, the inability to portray a common vision of the battlespace resulted in the imprecise or diffused application of force and forces.

However, with our expertise, innovation and the proper application of technology, we may make the talents of Napoleon available to all military commanders.

Maj. Gen. John R. Baker
AIA commander