Basic Research Innovation Collaboration Center (BRICC)’s Post

NATO ratifies and adopts ESSOR High Data Rate Waveform specification as STANAG 5651 – NATO HDRWF NATO on 20 October 2023, has ratified and adopted ESSOR High Data Rate Waveform (HDRWF) specification as STANAG 5651 – NATO HDRWF. ESSOR, the European Secure Software Defined Radio Programme, is managed by OCCAR on behalf of Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Poland and Spain. The ESSOR High Data Rate Waveform (HDRWF) is the most mature product of the ESSOR Programme portfolio, that encompasses two ground-centric waveforms (EHDRWF and ENBWF), one air-ground-air waveform (E3DWF), feasibility study for a SATCOM waveform (ESATWF) and propaedeutic engineering activities for the development of a new generation Multifunctional Information Distribution System (ESSOR MIDS) for tactical data link based on ESSOR architecture. The ESSOR Programme is co-funded by the European Commission through the EDIDP initiative. The ESSOR HDRWF’s excellent performances, including its networking (MANET - Mobile Adhoc NETwork) up to 200 nodes, push-to-talk (PTT), data transmission (IP) with a throughput up to 1MB/Sec, radio silence mode, cohabitation (spectrum sharing) features, transmission security that comprises state of the art frequency hopping and possibility to work in environments where global navigation satellite system (GNSS) signal is degraded or denied, have been demonstrated in several occasions at the Coalition Warrior Interoperability eXercise (CWIX), the biggest NATO interoperability event. On 19.10.2023 in Rochester, New York (USA), Mr. Carmelo ROMEO, Through Life Management Section Leader for the ESSOR Programme Division reported to the NATO Member Countries attending the NATO Line of Sight Capability Team (LOS CaT) the promulgation of the STANAG 5651 – NATO HDRWF that is based on the ESSOR HDRWF. This concluded a six month ratification process where 14 NATO Member Countries provided their active support. STANAG 5651 is under custodianship of OCCAR and is the first STANAG ratified by Finland since its entrance into NATO in April 2023. FMN, the NATO supported initiative Federated Mission Networking, has proposed to include STANAG 5651 into the FMN spiral 5 specification, which will foster its operational use among its 37 affiliates (including NATO organizations, NATO Member Countries and Mission Partners) by 2027. This choice reflects FMN’s view on ESSOR HDRWF as being an enabler for a rapid instantiation of mission networks and interoperability by supporting high-volume voice and data traffic between armed forces. The ESSOR ground-centric waveforms (EHDRWF and ENBWF) are complemented by an up-to-date Concept of Operations (CONOPs), created by the ESSOR operational working group composed of operational representatives from the six ESSOR Participating States. 

Having the ability to end-to-end connect the digital architecture horizontally by snap-linking together multiple programs (machine-to-machine) while also connecting these architectures vertically to achieve true All-Domain sensor/shooter agnosticism (JADC2), requires defined endstates, a holistic governance structure to unite the many disparate program efforts/data requirements, and—Unyielding Accountability. Identifying an “integrator” is a step in the right direction, but time will tell: “There is a singular individual with the rose pinned on him from the Secretary when it comes to the integration of all the individual parts and pieces. That didn’t exist before, even underneath the RCO,” Cropsey said. “The Secretary is now looking at me directly, as the individual that’s responsible at the end of the day for making sure it all integrates.” “According to Cropsey, the DAF’s contributions to JADC2 are now structured like this: At the top level is the Battle Network, which encompasses all JADC2 efforts. Under the Battle Network is what the Air Force calls the Command, Control, Communications and Battle Management (C3BM) Enterprise, a collection of roughly 50 programs and their PEOs across the Air Force and Space Force. The C3BM Enterprise, in turn, now includes ABMS, which is continuing to develop the digital infrastructure needed to enable the enterprise to connect to cloud-based command and control, like for a new Space Force effort to deploy satellite payloads able to detect and track moving targets on the ground.”

The Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) is a highly respected organisation, and the author of this excellent article on C2 for Land Forces on a Data-Rich Battlefield, Dr Jack Watling a Senior Research Fellow, has deep understanding of the demands of the land domain, combined with lessons from Ukraine around peer on peer conflict.  The full paper is well worth a read, laying out: key drivers for change; a “strawman” 3 layered network architecture; implications for commanders, staffs and HQs. The author notes “the force that transforms the battlefield tends not to be the first to employ a capability, but the first to work out how to employ it at scale” (p4).  Many, if not all, of the systems needed are in service or readily available and have been demonstrated to the defence community. The article recognises the challenges arising “from the significantly greater number of points that must be connected in a land force, the limited power available to soldier-borne systems compared with more platform-centric domains, and the interference complex terrain generates” (p6) and that the “…communications architecture for command differs from the requirements for exercising control” (p32).   One theme across the proposed architecture is satellite communications (Satcom) extended deeper into and across the land domain enabling tactical flexibility, dispersed operational connectivity and global reach. Layered over a MANET centric deployment, Satcom brings significant capability from the tactical edge to the defence enterprise.  Leveraging commercial and military constellations in GEO, MEO, HEO and LEO and with systems including push to talk (PTT) and Point to Point (P2P) satphones, patrol systems, vehicle mounted satcom on the move (SOTM), and deployable HQ terminals; Satcom, either separate networks or integrated, is an increasingly key capability. The outline architecture is below, but the full article is strongly recommended:   -       Tactical Networks enabling situational awareness (SA), demanding high assurance, low bandwidth and medium-latency traffic - best delivered through mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) -       Fire Control and ISR enabling the “kill web” (sensor to shooter) leveraging edge processing with Machine Learning/Artificial Intelligence (ML/AI) - bearer agnostic heterogenous networks including Satcom, Link 16 and MANET -       Operational Command via distributed HQs, leveraging secure combat cloud for “disaggregated collaboration” for option development, planning, briefing and integrating across the 3 networks -  “best delivered through a combat cloud, accessed through satellite bearers”   RUSI summary: https://lnkd.in/eCfWfjim Full paper: https://lnkd.in/eTAUYgEN

✨Award✨ Illumination Works is proud to announce the award of the second task order on our Air Force Phase III Small Business Innovative Research Data Analytics as a Service contract. For this second task order, ILW will modernize the Air Force Sustainment Center legacy Positive Inventory Control Fusion application with a native serverless and software as a service platform for data transformations, storage, and processing in Cloud One Azure. This effort aims to reduce the administrative and cost burden of maintaining end-to-end accountability of nuclear-weapons-related material assets. Read full article… https://lnkd.in/gV8WmVP5 Learn more about our Air Force Phase III SBIR IDIQ and Task Order 1 https://lnkd.in/gAVAZ-Fy #ILW #IlluminationYourData #AllThingsData #SBIR #AirForce #AI #MachineLearning #NLP #DataAnalytics #Automation #DataCuration #DataExtraction #DataFusion #DataQuality #MLOps #Metadata #EdgeAnalytics

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Discover the innovative approaches found at 'The Intersection of Data Strategy and Modernization' in our new Deep Dive. Access the ebook: https://lnkd.in/gjxNbd2r

Pivoting to the proven modernized data platform, #MarkLogic, with Semantic AI Search, Geospatial analysis, RDF triples for Knowledge Graph. Natively, extra attributes and typical added data such as comments and notes in our documents are not stored/tracked in other legacy data platforms. Tables and Excel sheets cannot take all the "data" we want to utilize in the processes. MarkLogic can capture, store, transform all the data and run models and analytics with the enterprise security and provenance integrated with the modern opensouce technologies like Spark, Kafka, NiFi, Python libraries, and many more.

The Space Data Center is the operational arm of the Space Data Association. It ingests flight dynamics information from the member companies. This includes member provided ephemerides and planned manoeuvre information. By fusing this data with other available sources such as TLE (Two Line Elements) and SP (Special Perturbation) data from the public catalogue, we are able to provide highly accurate conjunction assessment and warning services. Utilising a machine to machine interface, the SDC is an extremely effective and highly secure mechanism for the sharing of operational data The SDC is continuously available due to its distributed, multiple-redundant and high-availability architecture. The best way to ensure you get timely and accurate warnings is to become a member and provide ephemerides to the Space Data Center. Find out more and sign up - https://lnkd.in/eTsmY63i #SDA #spacedata #ssa #stm #spacesafety https://lnkd.in/eTsmY63i

#blog in the #MarketIntelligence portal: Navigating Geospatial Intelligence. Read about how to sell #GEOINT solutions successfully to the #intelligence community, based on keynotes and panels at the GEOINT Symposium 2023. https://bit.ly/43RT9gT

The Space Data Center is the operational arm of the Space Data Association. It ingests flight dynamics information from the member companies. This includes member provided ephemerides and planned manoeuvre information. By fusing this data with other available sources such as TLE (Two Line Elements) and SP (Special Perturbation) data from the public catalogue, we are able to provide highly accurate conjunction assessment and warning services. Utilising a machine to machine interface, the SDC is an extremely effective and highly secure mechanism for the sharing of operational data The SDC is continuously available due to its distributed, multiple-redundant and high-availability architecture. The best way to ensure you get timely and accurate warnings is to become a member and provide ephemerides to the Space Data Center. Find out more and sign up - https://lnkd.in/eTsmY63i #SDA #spacedata #ssa #stm #spacesafety https://lnkd.in/eTsmY63i