Military space capabilities will be featured during Joint Warrior Interoperability Demonstration (JWID) 2000, beginning Monday, July 10, and concluding Friday, July 28, 2000, at Peterson AFB, Colo. JWID is an annual, Joint Staff-sponsored demonstration during which government and industry join forces to demonstrate new and emerging technologies that will shape the battlefield of the future.
JWID is a warfighting demonstration run by a different military organization every two years. This year's event is being hosted by the U. S. Space Command (USSPACECOM). Demonstrations will be conducted at selected locations around the world. Cheyenne Mountain Operations Center, near Colorado Springs, Colo., will be the key site for USSPACECOM.
USSPACECOM will provide support to the other JWID 2000 warfighting commands, which include U.S. Pacific Command, Camp Smith, Hawaii, and U.S. Joint Forces Command, Norfolk, Va. Numerous North Atlantic Treaty Organization nations, Australia, and New Zealand will be running their own demonstrations based on scenario inputs and will be conducting command and control interoperability trials with the United States.
JWID is carried out in a two-year process that includes this year's "Theme Year," and next year's "Exploitation Year."
In the Theme Year, technologies from the private sector will be assessed in a military environment. These demonstrations must meet established technical criteria and fulfill goals defined by the sponsoring combatant command and the Joint Staff.
JWID 2000 will demonstrate support to warfighters that integrates space forces and space-derived information with air, land, and sea forces. The demonstrations will also show global dominant battlespace awareness in a combined/coalition task force setting, and the ability to unify, integrate, and expedite intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance support to the warfighter through a single interface. Enhanced information superiority technologies in a combined/coalition environment will also be evaluated.
The demonstrations will help identify emerging technologies that hold the most promise in addressing communications and information interoperability issues facing the U.S. military and the nation's allies. Joint and coalition warriors will work with multiple demonstrations and choose the "best of the best" for further assessment and integrated evaluation in the Exploitation Year (2001). Termed "Gold Nuggets," selected systems that aid knowledge flow within the strategic, operational, and tactical battlespace are targeted for immediate integration into Defense Department systems.
"Today, space-based assets transmit a significant portion of the information critical to military operations," said Air Force Gen. Ralph E. Eberhart, commander-in-chief, USSPACECOM, host for JWID 2000. "It's clear this reliance on space will continue to grow. Traditionally, we've talked about space as a combat multiplier in a combat support role, and that thinking was on target as we attempted to get all the warfighters to think and integrate space. However, now space has become much more basic and intrinsic than just a force multiplier. Space is a prerequisite. It's not a luxury anymore; it's a requirement for conducting military operations. Space has proven itself vital to our national interests."
Media interested in JWID 2000 should contact Air Force Maj. Perry Nouis, USSPACECOM, at (719) 554-3525, or e-mail address perry.nouis@peterson.af.mil, or Mike Brown, JWID public affairs officer, at (757) 225-2171, or e-mail address michael.brown@langley.af.mil.
More information on JWID can be found at website http://www.jwid.js.mil. [link no longer available]
