[iwar] [fc:US.'Super-Exercise'.Is.Window.On.Future.Warfare]

From: Fred Cohen (fc@all.net)
Date: 2002-08-06 20:48:40
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From: Fred Cohen <fc@all.net>
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Date: Tue, 6 Aug 2002 20:48:40 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: [iwar] [fc:US.'Super-Exercise'.Is.Window.On.Future.Warfare]
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Jane's Defence Weekly
August 7, 2002
US 'Super-Exercise' Is Window On Future Warfare 
By Kim Burger, JDW Staff Reporter, Norfolk, Virginia 
The US Department of Defense's (DoD's) largest-ever joint experiment,
'Millennium Challenge 2002' (MC-02), is under way until 15 August, providing
a trial run of the new technologies and concepts the US military hopes will
define its future. 
More than 13,500 personnel scattered throughout the USA at nine training
ranges and 17 simulation facilities are participating in the experiment,
which will cost $250 million over two years. All the locations are connected
so that their data is merged into a single operational picture. 
Augmenting the live personnel are 40,000 virtual troops and weapon systems,
generated by 51 simulators, most of which are interconnected in the largest
simulation network of its kind. 
The US Joint Forces Command (USJFCOM) event involves testing and assessing
some of the most innovative concepts and promising technologies for modern
warfare, as envisaged by DoD leaders. As a window on the future, it shows
the armed forces utilising information technology at all levels,
significantly speeding the rate at which decisions are made and action is
taken. This includes service-level communications and intelligence systems,
as well as integrated command-and-control (C2) networks that generate a
timely common picture of the battlefield shared across the military. 
Other concepts being practised in MC-02 involve generating extensive
knowledge about the diplomatic, economic and cultural aspects of an enemy
and building a strategy that weighs them equally against military action.
Initiatives are also aimed at joint operations, like the testing of a
standing joint force headquarters cell dedicated to planning for operations
in a specific region, intended to expedite the establishment of joint task
forces. 
Participants said these capabilities helped the US forces enter the wargame
from a "standing start", while collaborative planning tools and information
technologies shaved the time it took to conduct some tasks from months to
days and even hours. 
In addition to illustrating the possibilities, MC-02 is revealing how far
the DoD still needs to go. US forces are still clumsy at times with their
application of digital technologies and, despite a push for greater
'jointness', many service systems are unable to interoperate with each
other. The recommendations drawn from the event will likely address these
areas, based on early observations from participants last week. 
"The communication and [intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance] parts
of MC-02, we're stressing to the hilt," said Brig Gen James Smith, deputy
chief of USJFCOM's joint training division. "In the process, we're finding
things that need further work. I'm pleased with that, otherwise MC-02 would
just be a demonstration." 
There is urgency within the DoD for creating a more joint, integrated
capability for rapid operations and MC-02 is intended to facilitate that.
The lack of 'jointness' among the services is a "train wreck", said Defense
Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on 29 July after observing the event headquarters
at USJFCOM. "We simply have to find ways to get more people joint earlier.
We cannot allow each service to come up with their own weapon systems that
have not been thought through in the context of how we're going to use them
in the battlefield." 
The exercise scenario is set in 2007 and US forces are involved in a
small-scale contingency operation against a faction within a failing,
oil-producing state. The enemy has access to conventional weapons and
potentially could employ chemical and biological agents, acts of terrorism
or piracy. 
As military operations got under way, commanders utilised a suite of tools
for information sharing and planning that enabled several hundred staff to
participate in briefings critical to generating mission orders. This greatly
condensed planning time, and the quickened pace continued when the joint
task force commander boarded his flight to the field aboard a C-17 equipped
with the Joint Enroute Mission Planning and Rehearsal System, which gave him
continual updates of the situation on the ground. 
At the training ranges, each of the services is also conducting its own
exercises. Tests are being run with service C4ISR systems, including robotic
vehicles and sensors. All are practising with the HSV-X1 Joint Venture
catamaran, delivering entire unit packages to shore, conducting mine warfare
and special operations. Systems like the US Special Operations Command
AC-130H Spectre gunship, Lockheed Martin's Sea SLICE small-waterplane-area
twin-hull ship, the US Army's Stryker medium armoured vehicle, and simulated
CV-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft also are participating. 
'Hiccups' in the operations have occurred when information systems failed,
requiring players to temporarily resort to traditional means of
communication , officials said. 
At other times, the difficulty was with giving up comfortable methods of
conducting planning sequentially for the new, faster technology. 
Issues also arose when commanders came up with different interpretations of
orders for 'effects-based operations', which refers to applying all military
and non-military powers to strategy. Some of the participants said there was
a tendency for information overload, which required careful management. 
Initiatives within 'Millennium Challenge' 
US AIR FORCE/Joint Expeditionary Force Experiment 
Theater Space Control 
Predictive Battlespace Awareness 
Master Attack Plan Toolkit 
Special Operations Forces Blue Force Tracking/Special Team Sensor 
Multi-Sensor Command and Control (C2) Aircraft - Experimental 
US ARMY/Transformation Experiment 
Mission-Specific Data Sets - Reachback 
Rapid-Terrain Visualisation 
Tactical Space Initiative 
Spectral Imagery Initiative 
US MARINE CORPS/Urban Combined Arms Exercise 
Local Area Security System 
Universal Combined Arms Targeting System 
US NAVY/ Fleet Battle Experiment - Juliet 
Netted Force (Distributed C2 and coalition experiment) 
Navy Fires Network (Experimental) 
Unmanned Sensors, Platforms 
Theater Air Missile Defense 
Anti-Submarine Warfare 
Anti-Surface Warfare 
Mine Warfare 
Information Operations (IO) 
OTHER DoD 
Global Strike Task Force 
National Imagery and Mapping Agency Crisis Action Response Team 
C2 of Space, IO, Computer Network Operations Group 
UAV Interoperability 
Unattended Ground Sensors support to Special Reconnaissance of Theater
Ballistic Missiles

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