THE LAST MILE FIRST

Lieutenant Colonel Jim Dryburgh

Royal New Zealand Corps of Signals

Capability Branch New Zealand Defence Force

Thoughts

“Give me three good sections, add a solid headquarters and we got the makings of a great Platoon...

Give me three good platoons add a solid headquarters and we’ve got the makings of a great Company...

Provide the right level of organic support from Combat Support and Combat Service Support Arms and we have a Combined Arms Task Group……NZ’s LAND PLATFORM”

Sequence

• A2CBL Overview

• NZ Army Operations

• The Last Mile

• NZ Operating Context

• NZ C4 Enabling Concepts

• The Way Ahead

AC2BL – Role and Function

The role for the AC2BL is to develop People, build relationships , expose and evaluate technology and integrate chosen solutions - Enabling Army to:

-Provide focussed experimentation in Land C4 to support the introduction of a LAND C4 capability as part of the NZDF LAND C4ISR Project.

-Grow as an organisation

-Meet the C4ISR Environment of the future (FLOC)

-Assure the land component of NEC

• Currently an Informal Arrangement. – Product Selection. HP was engaged to help the Battle Lab select the

most appropriate components for experimentation in NZ.

– Knowledge Transfer. Essential for Battle Lab project delivery, and in the longer term to help bridge Army’s knowledge gap.

– Integration Assistance. HP assisted Army to integrate components and systems in order to provide an end-to-end solution.

• Capability Delivery.

– Evolutionary Acquisition. – Architectures. Creation of a deployable architecture within an enterprise

architecture. Use of other best practice, including project management, stakeholder engagement and governance.

– A Partnership for System Integration. A formal role for an NZ based system integrator to work alongside Army.

– A Programme Based Approach. Project teams formed for specific tasks.

Battle Lab Industry Engagement

Industry Partnership

Three Years of Experimentation

• Oct 2005 Start of basic research and winning the internal information campaign thus allocation of resources

• Jun 2006 CWID Internal Experiment

• Jun 2007 2nd CWID Internal Experiment

• Oct 2007 LAV Coy Assessment

• Jun 2008 ISR Experimentation

• Jun 2009 Tactical Area Networked Environment Demonstration

• Oct 2009 Tactical Area Networked Environment Bn Level Exercise

Validated Concepts through Failures and Successes

Operations Since 1994

• Of company size or smaller.

• Battalion deployed to East Timor in 1999 was the largest commitment

• Mounted and Dismounted Patrols mainly operating from FOBs

• Conducted in partnership (Coalition).

• focused on maintaining security, law and order, and providing humanitarian relief.

• Troop Rotation four to six months.

• Characterised by the need to support significant operations simultaneously in different countries.

• Joint effects delivered by coalition partners

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and operations in TEN countries around the world

Today the NZ Army is involved in FOURTEEN missions

The Last Mile

• We have defined the last mile as the provision of the Command and Control Support System to the Soldier, Platform and Command Post at Combat team and below.

The Last Mile (Why)

• NZ Army Developing Combat Team focus

• Operate Dispersed Platoons

• Greatest need

• Efficient and Effective of Resources (People and Finance)

• Tangible

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It is the level at which we Train, Operate and Fight and lays a platform for growth and diversity

The Last Mile

• People– Training, education and change ( Learning Organisation)– War fighters in the Job now – OC, XO, Pl & Sect Comd + Soldiers– Technical Personnel

• Information– Corporate + Tactical blending– Raw + Processed– Near and real-time sharing and collaboration.

• Networks

– Team, Area, Theatre and Strategic

“Launch & Learn”

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Future Land Operating Concept

Future Land Operating Concept

• Is designed to meet future challenges

• Recognises need to engage in close combat

• Realises technology and improved situational awareness enables better combat decision making

• Reflects NZ Army’s enduring ethos and values

• Network Enabled Army provides opportunities to meet the future intent (FLOC)

Deployment

Multi Role - Multi Mission

Operating Environment Outcomes

Cardinal Points

• Degrees of Arrangement

• Degrees of Capacity

• Degrees of Connectivity

• Degrees of Interoperability

Design Drivers

–Force projection and protection

–Coalition support for Situational Awareness .

–Operations are conducted in non-contiguous areas of operations with tailored, widely dispersed units that are mobile and lethal.

–Access to a Global Information environment.

–Need to reduce footprints through reach back.

–Enable the Soldier, Team and Commander to mass effects rather than forces.

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Common Services

• Voice

• Collaboration and Messaging

• Common Operating Picture

• Publish, Discover, Subscribe

• Productivity Tools

Information Flows and Categories

– Collaborative Planning Information– Situational Awareness Information– Intelligence Information– Multinational Information– Support information

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Emerging Concepts and Capabilities

• C4 Support Group

– Theatre Communications Access Node

– Forward Information Systems Team

– Network Operations Section (Including Computer Network Defence)

– Patrol Signaller (C4 Operator???)

• Network Enabled Elements

– Soldier

– Platform

– Command Post

• Key Concepts

– Tactical Area Networked Environment

– TATS ( Team, Area, Theatre Strategic) - Talk Zones

– Common Universal Bearer System

– EOIP

– Interoperability Touch Points

Tactical Area Network Environment

Platform Integration (Command Post, Platform, Soldier)

Tactical Area Networked Environment

Theatre Communications Access Node

Forward Information Systems Team

Common Universal Bearer System (CUBS)

Network Enabled Soldier

• Network-enabled soldier. Secure voice/data communications (Harris’s SPR) integrated with a rugged BMS for the dismounted soldier from Cobham (enabling Battle Lab's Blue Force Tracking (BFT) system). Augmented with Multiband Radios (117G/148)

• Network-enabled platforms. Light Armoured Vehicles (LAV) and Light Operational Vehicles (LOV) fitted with the Battle-Hawk Battle Management System (BMS) from Cobham Defence Communications, and high capacity data communications (HCDR & SPR) from Harris Corporation. LAV also Fitted with Harris 117G

Network Enabled Platforms

Command Post Pod

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DUTY OFFICER

PLOTTERPLOTTER

PRINTERPRINTER

FLAT PANEL ARRAY •COP•ISR

•CP LOG

FLAT PANEL ARRAY •COP•ISR

•CP LOG

•HCDR•VHF NETS•HF NETS

•HCDR•VHF NETS•HF NETS

MASTSMASTS

•UNIFIED VOICE SERVICES•UNIFIED VOICE SERVICES

MILSAT COMBGAN SAT

MILSAT COMBGAN SAT

CELL DUTY OFFRCELL DUTY OFFR

DC2S TERMINALDC2S TERMINAL

CP DUTY OFFRCP DUTY OFFR UNCLAS/RESTRICTED TERMINAL

UNCLAS/RESTRICTED TERMINAL

TANE TERMINAL(S)TANE TERMINAL(S)

CELL OPS CLK/SIGCELL OPS CLK/SIG

COALITION TERMINALCOALITION TERMINAL

DATA ACCESS BRICKDATA ACCESS BRICK

What We Are Doing

• Adopt a common information model

• Adopt an Architectural Approach

• Minimal Application Environment

• 60% of Something...

• Keep complexity at the core - Simplicity at the edge

• Simple things superbly

What we need to investigate

• Where are the interoperability touch points?

• What are the Information Exchange Requirement standards?

• How do we blend Business and Battle space?

• How do we protect?

Way Ahead Building Blocks

Battle lab– a glimpse of the future

Questions