CHIPS Articles: Coalition Warrior Interoperability Demonstration 2007

Coalition Warrior Interoperability Demonstration 2007 is "an engine for discovering solutions for U.S. military, coalition and agency C4ISR challenges."

CWID, a Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff series of technology tests, allows U.S. combatant commands, Defense Department organizations, other government agencies, industry and the international community to investigate command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (C4ISR) solutions that focus on prioritized warfighting objectives.

This year CWID spanned three weeks and concluded June 22. It included more than 40 international organizations and companies with more than 80 emerging technologies selected to participate in information technology trials.

While the focus of CWID is on new and emerging technologies, CWID is also a venue for information technology development or validation of fielded or near-fielded commercial, DoD and partner systems (those already in the research and development and acquisition pipeline) to reduce fielding costs or programmed transition timelines.

CWID trials facilitate development of strategies aimed at responsibly bringing technology solutions to the DoD Acquisition, Technology and Logistics (AT&L) community for consideration.

U.S. Joint Forces Command (USJFCOM), on behalf of the Chairman, is responsible for CWID oversight. In concert with interoperability trail sponsors and industry representatives, USJFCOM assists with coordinating and gathering information required to support post-execution decisions for promising solutions.

The USJFCOM Capability Development Process is the primary method used to identify candidate technologies through the CWID initial selection process and after demonstration results are formalized. The Joint Staff provides guidance for the Senior Management Group and sets the overall objectives of CWID. Objectives are linked to the Joint Battle Management Command and Control Roadmap and Joint Mission Threads.

To connect the geographically dispersed participants, the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) engineered a global network during the demonstration with trial assessment nodes at: Naval Surface Warfare Center, Dahlgren Division, Dahlgren, Va. (U.S. Army and Marine Corps site); Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command (SPAWAR), San Diego, Calif. (U.S. Navy site); Electronic Systems Center, Hanscom Air Force Base, Mass. (U.S. Air Force site); and two combatant commander sites, U.S. European Command (USEUCOM), Stuttgart, Germany; and U.S. Northern Command (USNORTHCOM), Colorado Springs, Colo.

Coalition partners brought more than 25 additional sites to the temporary isolated network.

One more U.S. site on the network, newly established for the 2007 demonstration, was located in the Pentagon. The Warfighter Capability Demonstration Center (WarCap), provided an interactive window to U.S. trial sites for senior decision makers inside the Pentagon and in the Capitol region.

The overarching scenario involved coalition task force operations applicable to the global war on terrorism with terrorist backlash and natural disasters for the NORTHCOM homeland security and homeland defense (HS/HD) component. The primary mission of the HS/HD component is to deter attacks against the United States, its territories, possessions and bases and employ appropriate force should deterrence fail.

CWID investigated systems integration and interoperability solutions for first-responder agencies. This includes NORTH-COM's interagency partners, the Department of Homeland Security and Public Safety Emergency Preparedness Canada.

The National Guard’s number one priority is the security and defense of our homeland, at home and abroad, and to support efforts in the global war on terrorism here and abroad. America insists on a relevant and ready National Guard that is transformed to meet the challenges of the 21st century.

To this end, National Guard Bureau state units participated with two live exercise sites, located in Mountaineer CWID, W.Va.; and Palmetto CWID, Charleston, S.C; Delaware; Colorado; California; Massachusetts; and New York Guard units supported DoD sites with role players and operators for HS/HD scenario events.

Vignettes were focused in areas of interest to CWID participants. For instance, events in the northwest supported Canadian planning for the 2010 Olympics while events in West Virginia and South Carolina supported those states’ annual exercises and technology assessments.

The CWID Senior Management Group, together with coalition partners, selects interoperability trial proposals to satisfy information sharing among military organizations, international coalitions and civilian agencies. Selection criteria are based on how well a potential trial’s proposal satisfies one or more objectives defined by the host combatant commander. The demonstrations are closely tied to network-centric warfare.

USEUCOM is host combatant commander for CWID trials 2006 through 2008. Leveraging new technologies and assuring coalition interoperability are absolutely crucial to USEUCOM’s vision for Europe as a global partner, a self-sufficient and stable Africa, a Middle East at peace, capable regional security organizations, and a transformed and expeditionary USEUCOM and NATO organization.

All those involved, commercial and government sectors, take some risk to realize substantial benefits. Potential technology developers bring hardware, software and package solutions to CWID for evaluation. In parallel with technology assessments, the COCOMs, services, DoD and other government agencies investigate tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTP), employing the scenario and controlled operational environment for low-threat analysis.

To close the gaps in coalition information exchange, CWID’s first objective is cross-domain data sharing. In this objective, efforts focused on technology solutions to share information across multiple networks of potentially different security classifications and requirements. Emphasis was on passing information to U.S. controlled, coalition networks, such as the Combined Enterprise Regional Information Exchange System (CENTRIXS) network, and coalition/alliance controlled networks, such as the Northern Atlantic Treaty Organization Initial Data Transfer System (NIDTS), NATO’s Mission Wide Area Network.

The five remaining objectives are: integrated intelligence, integrated operations, integrated logistics, integrated planning and integrated communications. The objectives illustrate a U.S. commitment to overcoming the obstacles to sharing information between the services, government agencies and the inter-national community.

According to DISA Director, Air Force Lt. Gen. Charles Croom, information sharing and interoperability are at the core of successful operations involving a variety of missions including hurricane relief, warfighting and humanitarian activities.

“Our challenges are to establish a standard, common network for coalition missions instead of developing new, unique networks for new missions and to lead the way in the cultural shift from ‘need to know’ to obligation to share,” Croom said.

CENTRIXS encompasses different security enclaves, such as the Griffin 5-Eyes Domain which makes up the AUSCANNZUKUS alliance: Australia, Canada, New Zealand, United Kingdom and United States. The make-up of the enclaves corresponds to information sharing agreements that the United States has with member nations.

CWID has a CJTF, a Coalition Joint Task Force scenario that runs on the Combined Federated Battle Laboratories Network. There are three enclaves on CFBLNet. The need for scalability and flexibility drove the development of a new classified coalition information space, called the Coalition Task Force/NATO Reaction Force enclave.

The CTF/NRF enclave is classified to the level of secret and protected with type-1 encryption devices. CWID 2007 also used the CTF High Enclave to provide a notionally higher classification enclave for cross-domain solution trials that don’t have an approved guard to pass data between unclassified and classified enclaves.

In addition to the CTF/NRF and CTF High enclaves, CWID used an unclassified network to accommodate homeland de¬fense and security scenarios.

While the NATO organization is a valued participant, it may pursue other objectives and nations participating may change from year to year. But the underlying objective for coalition interoperability is the same for the U.S. and NATO, who are both firmly committed to seamless information sharing.

CWID 2007 involved five perennial coalition partners: Canada, New Zealand, United Kingdom, United States and NATO (the organization). In addition, Sweden, Finland, Germany, France, Italy and Austria participated in 2007.

Trial results are evaluated by an Assessment Working Group, which consists of three distinct teams, each responsible for assessing a different aspect of the trial as it operates within the CWID environment: the Warfighter/Operator Utility Assessment Team, Interoperability/Technical Assessment Team and Information Assurance Assessment Team.

These teams consist of C4ISR analysts who perform the military utility, interoperability assessments. Information system security engineers and security testing specialists assess the information assurance posture of the trials.

Results of assessments are reviewed and integrated into a se¬nior leadership brief. In coordination with the host combatant commander, USJFCOM highlights the most promising technology solutions, focusing on near-term benefit to warfighters. The Final Assessment Report also serves as input to the overall CWID Final Report.

CWID 2006 produced a promising technology called the pTerex Mobile Tactical Edge Network, which was fielded by the Marine Corps and National Guard and is in testing by Special Operations Forces.

MTEN is a lightweight, rugged product suite that manages seamless and transparent network connectivity by enabling routers and subnets to maintain connectivity to command networks with no user intervention or control. pTerex constantly reevaluates connectivity back to command networks and dynamically changes transport carriers between satellite, cellular, wireless and wired, as required to maintain constant connectivity.

Following participation in CWID 2006 as a demonstration, pTerex was also procured by USNORTHCOM for the Commander’s Mobile Communications Suite. The Federal Emergency Man¬agement Agency is evaluating CWID results for possible procurement. pTerex will be fielded by USJFCOM on a limited basis to select combatant commands and joint task force commanders.

The Homeland Defense Mission included participation by USNORTHCOM; U.S. Coast Guard; National Guard Bureau; National Guards of California, Colorado, Delaware, Massachusetts, New York, South Carolina and West Virginia; Department of Justice Seahawk Center; Canada Command; Canadian Government Operations Centre; Canadian Mapping and Charting Establishment; government intelligence liaison officers from both the U.S. and Canada; and the police departments of the cities of San Diego and Colorado Springs.

For more information about CWID, go to the CWID Web site at http://www.cwid.js.mil.