Page 46 - Williams Foundation Air-Sea Integration Seminar

Shaping an Integrated Force in the Extended Battlespace

In both Williams Seminars this year on force integration, first on air-land, and the second on air-sea, L-3 has
provided solid presentations on the communications side of the challenge.

At the air-land seminar earlier this year, Victor King, L-3 Mission Integration, provided an overview on ways
to shape seamless situational awareness.

In that presentation, King talked to the question of how to balance substantial government investment in
existing military systems designed to remain operational for decades with rapidly changing technology?

His answer focused on three key elements:

• Integrated commercial technology and standards with current military systems;
• Allow the market to drive technology and provide infrastructure;
• Utilize both military and commercial networks for an end-to-end solution.

In the air-sea integration seminar, Captain Rob Slaven, DSM RAN (Retired) and now from L-3, provided a
look at the communications side of the challenge for shaping and operating an integrated force.

Slaven’s briefing was entitled: “Joint Force Information Exchange and Data Integrity in a Coalition
Environment.”

He emphasized that coalition operations are essentially come as you are warfare and requires working the
interoperability piece is very challenging.

“For a Coalition finding a common cause is hard, speaking one language is harder, whilst using common
systems and equipment configurations would seem to be the hardest challenge of them all.”

As difficult as the challenge is, it needs to be addressed for coalitions to be effective. He focused on a multi-
step approach to sorting through a solution.

“Internationally agreed interface standards and programming languages are a first step. A next step is to
initiate a cyber secure program environment from project initiation.”

Clearly, one would like to get to the point of having a shared common operational picture.

But there is a broader problem raised by Slaven’s presentation, which needs to be addressed.

Which allies for which coalitions for which tasks and solutions? The countries which have core security and data
sharing arrangements such as the US, the UK and Australia can seek ways to share data, that will not simply
work within a broader political coalition environment.

How to best two tier solutions but with reasonable commonality as well? And this will clearly affect the training
and exercise side of the equation, a subject addressed in part by the CAE briefing.

The Perspective of Rear Admiral (Retired) Rapp, Senior Naval Advisor,
CAE: The Crucial Role of LVCT in the Crafting of an Integrated Force

Rear Admiral James Rapp is Senior Naval Advisor to CAE. His final operational appointment in the Royal
Navy was as Flag Office Sea Training. Employing a staff of 600, he was responsible for the operational sea
training of all the Royal Navy’s hips, submarines and auxiliaries, and ships from 19 other foreign navies.

Second Line of Defense

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