Future Soldier C4I Capabilities
Requirements
By Patrick Comtois,
Chief Engineer ISSP
DND/ADM(MAT)/DSSPM-10
March 9-11, 2010
Le centre Sheraton Montreal
Montreal, Qc.
Soldier Systems Technology RoadmapC4I and Sensors workshop
• Vision statement• Caveat • Constraints and limitations• C4I Functional and Performance Requirements
• Themes:• Geo-location• Communication• C4I Human Interfaces• Information Integration and Situation Awareness• Security• Interoperability• Integration
• Questions
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Vision statement
In the next 5 to 15 years, the soldier should be capable of obtaining a complete relevant picture of an operation based on current situation with 99% confidence in the information accuracy in near real time within a seamless solution from a weight, volume and cognitive load perspective.
Caveat• This presentation will focus on functional and performance
requirements – not on solutions or products• Convergence/”mapping” of the requirements to potential solutions,
technology options and devices will be performed by the experts, the participants in the room
• The “future requirements” attempt to highlight “fieldable” capabilities within the next 5-10 years – “Fieldable” vs “demonstrable” in a lab
• As part of the workshops, participants are welcomed to challenge the requirements, whether too demanding or too “easy”
• Important note: The Dismounted Soldier System (DSS) is meant to be a fighting capability and the C4I “tools” should not lower soldier’s fighting capability but increase their individual and team lethality and mobility
Constraints and limitations
• Weight (miniaturization of C4ISR related technology)• Volume (miniaturization of C4ISR related technology)• Power consumption• Information overload• Policy (frequency spectrum allocation, security policies)• Programmatic realities – Integration issues highly
depend on coordination between many capital projects• Absence of “infrastructure” (on the ground or in the sky)• $$$
C4I Functional and Performance Requirements
Geo-Location
• Where am I now• Where are my buddies now • Where my buddies are not now• Where is the enemy now
• The user goal for friendly Position Awareness (PA):– 1m precision with currency of 1 second– High confidence in information– Available in GPS denied environment (intentional/non-intentional)– Available in areas where there are no infrastructure
Communication
Local comms -WPAN
Internal Dismounted Soldier System Comms – section level
Internal Dismounted Soldier System Comms – Platoon level
Communication
Internal Dismounted Soldier System Comms – Coy level
COI
COI
COICOI
COI
COI
COI
COICOI
COI
COI
COI
COICOI
COI
COI
COI
COICOI
COI
COI
Dismounted - mounted Comms
Communication
NGOAllies COI?COI?
Communication Summary• Wireless PAN• Dismounted Section, Platoon and company level voice and
data Communities of Interest (COIs)– Video– Imagery– Others
• Task Force wide high confidence Blue PA• Interoperability with vehicles, sensor platforms and JIMP
partners• Over 16 independent voice COIs and as many data COIs
within a single Coy which can be deployed over 1km to 10km wide
Communication Challenges
• A communication system that supports:– pure dismounted ops (no infrastructure)
– Combined-arms (mounted-dismounted ops)
• High throughput for rich services– Adaptable waveform
• Large coverage in different environment• Low volume – low weight: Target is to have a single
comms device per soldier• Flexible PAN: Adaptable to user preference on Tactical
Vest• RF friendly solution (EMC-EMI)
C4I Human Interfaces
• Visual display:– High fidelity visualization capability in a small form factor “device”– Heads-up display?– Virtual reality and 3D visualisation?
• Audio display:– Comfort – not same definition for everyone– Awareness of environment– Depending on the context, some users may want to have access to more than 2
voice COIs but users only have 2 ears– Multiple security domains
• Control and input devices – Location on tactical vest based on user preferences (WPAN)– Hands should stay on the weapon as much as possible. Voice recognition control
consideration?
• Other displays/interfaces?
Information Integration and Situation Awareness
• Appropriate information presented to the dismounted soldiers and commanders– What information he needs to do his job– “Context-based” information (mission based/task based)– Avoid information overload– Pre-processed /”Fused” information
• Decision aids tools in order to:– Support situation analysis– Achieve situation awareness faster– Provide options for better informed decision
Manual / Human-Only Systems?
Automatic / Independent Systems?
Spectrum of Human-Computer Interactions
Silent/Manual Informative Co-operative Automatic Independent
System
Operator(s)Decisions
System
Operator(s)Decisions
System
Operator(s)Decisions
Sup
port
Influence
Sup
port
Influence
System
Operator(s)
Info.
Requests
Influence
DecisionsSystem
Operator(s)
DecisionsDecisions
Synergy
Medium Medium
Highest
None None
Work
Distribution
Operator(s)Operator(s) Operator(s) System
System
SystemSystem
Configuration
Override
Operator(s)
GOAL
Security• Four pillars of security: Physical, Personnel,
Procedural, ITSEC • Policy is a key factor – hard to control• Transparent security solution
• DSS C4I is a tool to increase soldier’s fighting capability by increasing its Mobility and Lethality – security solution should not be a burden
• Simple access control• Prevent unauthorized access• No additional burden on the soldier
• Support multiple security domains
Interoperability• “Land Operations 2021 Adaptive Dispersed Operations” highlight clearly the
Joint, Interagency, Multinational, Public (JIMP) requirements for future operations.
• Interoperability within the Army, other CF elements, Allies, NGOs, OGDs.
• JIMP drives our C4I solution interoperability requirements in the area of communication, security and application space
• How do we achieve Interoperability without compromising the main DSS C4I requirement: “Dismounted Soldier System (DSS) is a fighting capability and C4I “tools” should not lower soldier’s fighting capability but increase their individual and team lethality and mobility”
• Complex security solutions to adapt to legacy systems?
• Complex Gateways to enable data exchange between different organization?
• Multiple communication platforms on soldier to support communication with different partners?
Integration issues and Other key requirements
Integration Issues• Growth flexibility
• Embedded instrumentation to:
– Allow continuous performance improvement
– Allow continuous system operation (TTPs) improvement
– Perform live operational training monitoring
• Mission rehearsal and embedded training
• Address the issue of modularity vs tight integration
– Trade-off: Cost, weight, volume, power, role based configuration, upgradability
• System Management (SM)
– Medium to high complexity for pre-deployment configuration (Big SM)
– Very simple and flexible reconfiguration during mission and tasks (small SM)
– Simple role based configuration – support rapid equipment replacement
• Power and Data infrastructure standards
• Human factors
Summary
• Vision and requirements are continuously evolving
• The solution involves many disciplines
• All of you are part of the move towards solution
Questions?
• Vision statement• Caveat • Constraints and limitations• C4I Functional and Performance Requirements
• Themes:• Geo-location• Communication• C4I Human Interfaces• Information Integration and Situation Awareness• Security• Interoperability• Integration
• Questions
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