International C2 Journal: Issues
Vol 4, No 3
Guest Editor’s Introductory Remarks
R. Douglas Flournoy (The MITRE Corporation, USA) Email
The terrorist attacks of 9-11, Hurricane Katrina, and other recent large-scale emergencies underscore the need to improve interagency coordination and response within the government during times of crisis. Many homeland security missions require shared responsibility between departments including Health and Human Services (HHS), the Department of Defense (DoD), the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the Department of Transportation (DOT). In addition to hijacking, the list of attacks requiring coordination includes Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical (NBC) attack, conventional explosives, and arson. Natural disasters that trigger a multi-agency response include hurricanes, tornados, wildfire, and floods. Each of these incidents brings its own cross-agency lifecycle considerations for prevention, preparedness, response, recovery, and mitigation. Improving interagency coordination and response to these incidents will require understanding and modifying (1) concepts of operation, (2) technology and systems, and (3) policy amongst all of these organizations.
Experimentation is emerging as the vehicle for exploration, understanding, and change in this interagency mission space. The spectrum of possible experimentation activities spans a broad range from tabletop exercises and scenario walkthroughs, to simulation-driven exercises that immerse live role players in real-time vignettes, to events that involve live vehicles, sensors, and other operational systems. Each of these venues can be important in coordinated campaigns of experiments designed to address specific operational seams between agencies.
Effective interagency experimentation requires the skillful application of a diverse set of tools, techniques, and engineering disciplines. During experiment planning stages, modeling techniques and initial stakeholder meetings such as tabletop discussions and scenario walkthroughs contribute to realistic and flexible experiment vignettes. During the experiment, distributed simulation and networking techniques allow the flow of data between player cells that provides all participants with a synchronized “real-time” situation view. Comprehensive instrumentation and survey techniques are employed to collect as much data as possible during the experiment so results can be carefully distilled and conclusions constructed. This Special Issue is devoted to promoting a shared understanding of these experimentation tools, techniques, and lessons learned across communities in order to inform and motivate future interagency experimentation activities.
The paper by Bigbee, Curtis, Litwin, and Harkin focuses on the use of modeling techniques across the experiment lifecycle—from experiment conception and design through post-hoc analysis—to increase the overall effectiveness of interagency experiments. Their work is based on the application of these modeling techniques in several Net Centric Experiments (NETEXs) during a multi-year project called the Collaborative Experimentation Environment (CEE). The model types are described and their use in interagency experiments is chronicled. Lessons learned are presented, including key challenges yet to be addressed.
Bordetsky and Netzer describe the testbed which is at the heart of a longstanding program of interagency experiments known as the Tactical Network Testbed (TNT) Experiments. This testbed provides crucial adaptation and integration processes between people, networks, sensors, and unmanned systems. Over several years the testbed has evolved into a unique research service that allows military, academic, government, and industrial communities to work together to evaluate proposed designs for self-organizing tactical networks.
The experimental methodology developed and employed in a series of experiments within the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Conflict Modeling, Planning, and Outcomes Exploration (COMPOEX) Program is described by Kott, Hansberger, Waltz, and Corpac. This work describes the motivation, objectives, structure, and methods explored in a series of experiments involving complex operations where integrated political-military-economic-social-infrastructure and information (PMESII) considerations play decisive roles.
Simpson and Unal describe how an operational training system was used in conjunction with a fictitious force-on-force scenario to experiment with the use of advanced mathematical modeling methods to better understand and optimize operational air power. In this work, Response Surface Methodology (RSM) was applied to the generation of complex Air Tasking Orders (ATOs) and Airspace Control Orders (ACOs) in a Combined Air Operations Center (CAOC).
Finally, the results of experimentation techniques used to evaluate a proposed mission planning enhancement are presented in the paper by Stanton, Revell, Rafferty, Walker, Salmon, and Jenkins. As mission planning processes “evolve” from analog approaches to digital approaches, the experimental results suggest careful consideration must be taken to ensure the benefits of traditional analog procedures are not lost in the migration to digital methods.