Page 32 - Australian Defence Magazine September 2019
P. 32

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DEFENCE BUSINESS
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“There is an underlying commonality within the battlespace when identifying where decisions are made and how information flows.”
For the 5th Gen AMF to achieve its full potential FABRIC will need to work in conjunction with RESCOM (but can work less optimally with traditional networks). While FABRIC will deliver the ability to decide and act, RESCOM will manage all aspects of connectivity; working together to provide the best available outcomes un- der the circumstances.
Think of RESCOM as a smart network manager. It must be resilient, global in reach, adaptively use local channel bear- ers and multi-hops and sense and report to FABRIC on its current and anticipated fu- ture operational health.
FABRIC and RESCOM must be synergistic. Each must not encroach on the other or exhibit unexpected behav- iour or ill-directed optimisations; they must be designed together not stitched together from multiple disjoint sys- tems and standards. The second in- sight is that having real-time data from the battlefield assists decision making at all levels, but it does not describe ac- tion. Reasoning about action is essential for an increasingly automated 5th Gen Force. Action requires thinking in terms of what I’m calling Agency Advantage, a complement to Information Advantage, and builds on the current NATO SAS-
Ramifications of transformation
Continuous improvement of the existing in- frastructure does not inevitably lead to trans- formation, where transformation represents a new way of engineering for the 5th Gen Force. It cannot be cobbled together using current infrastructure or off-the-shelf systems. Once the essential transformed foundations are established then continuous improvement becomes the benchmark for ongoing change, albeit in a radically new direction.
The transformation includes how sys- tems are acquired; they must be able to integrate with the smart fabric and nodes. Security is transformed based on C2 Agili- ty with tasks utilising inbuilt dynamic pro-
tection based upon context, intent and circumstance.
This is in contrast to da- tabase level locking, while traditional network secu- rity domains are rethought. The distribution of updates, agents and behaviours are developed, governed and managed securely and ro- bustly. By providing a frame- work for the management of distributed interoperability
across communities of specialisation, we po- tentially transform how quickly and easily systems and platforms can either be brought into service or retired. Overall, the way com- plexity is managed will be transformed.
How far have these ideas penetrated cur- rent information system design in the ADF and industry?
To date, the principles underlying the 5th Gen AMF have not surfaced in how opera- tional patterns, vignettes and information needs are related to technology architecture. Architectures continue to reflect systems and platforms connected by networks and data. This perceived lack of awareness concerns, given this analysis points to the need for a
paradigm shift to form the basis of an Aus- tralian critical system for the 5th Gen Force.
The Major inversions
Together, Agency Advantage and FABRIC invert ADF’s previously held understand- ing about how to engineer the foundations for the 5th Gen Force. These are a few of the inversions.
The simplistic takeaway from NCW was that the solution lay with more networks, more information and more bandwidth, creating the current ‘upper corner’ model (see grpahic above). In contrast, Agency Advantage requires both smart nodes and a smart fabric, creating the rising tide model. This model hosts actions and supports C2 Agility, optimises outcomes whatever the circumstance, and creates ‘plug and play’ infrastructure for custom systems. It is more analytically useful too. When benefits are lopsided, the results are platforms with disjoint systems – siloed systems, or, unbal- anced processing networks – centralised computing with little consideration given to the tactical edge.
Architecture Comparison
The current information architecture ap- proach concentrates on systems and plat- forms joined together by passive networks and data creating the networked passive data model. The network cloud hides the need for integration and interoperability or implies central processing – encouraging hub and spoke solutions. This leads to the mistaken view that the systems can be created in the fixed domain and then extended with mini- mal change to the deployed domain.
In contrast, the 5th Gen AMF approach inverts the networked passive data model by replacing the passive cloud ‘void’ in the middle of the information architecture approach with the 5th Gen AMF (see figure right) – an active fabric which manages both
085 definition for C2 Agility being “Agil- ity is the capability to successfully effect, cope with and/or exploit changes in cir- cumstances”.
I believe this definition should be broad- ened to include Agency Advantage and propose adding the following words at the front of NATO’s original definition so it would now read: “Agency Advantage is the capability and authority to act, either in- dividually or as a collective; to successfully effect, cope with and/or exploit changes in circumstances”. Importantly, this defini- tion applies to asymmetric warfare, which cannot be addressed solely with Informa- tion Advantage.
32 | September 2019 | www.australiandefence.com.au
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