Exercise tests command-and-control software

[unhappycamper]

Exercise tests command-and-control software
By William H. McMichael - Staff writer
Posted : Saturday Nov 10, 2007 7:05:46 EST

LANGLEY AIR FORCE BASE, Va. — The Air Force is applying the old adage that a picture is worth a thousand words to the future of global command and control.

In one application being studied during a cyber exercise at Langley Air Force Base, Va., hard-to-read, multiple lines of text describing “space weather,” such as solar flares that could potentially interfere with Global Positioning System signals, become graphic representations overlaid on, say, a Google Earth map.

“OK, here’s a hole right here,” said Brig. Gen. Mike McClendon, commander of the Air Force Global Cyberspace Integration Center, describing how an operator might use the application. “No GPS from 5 to 7 p.m. right there. And so you can take one look at it and go, ‘Oh, we better reroute our airplanes because they’re going through that hole.’ ”

What also speeds up the process, McClendon said, is that the software in what is currently dubbed Global-ASSIST — Advanced Suite of Space Integration and Satellite Tools — translates the raw data into the graphic without a human interface.

It’s a step toward a capability not yet present in that application but being tested in others during the ongoing Joint Expeditionary Force Experiment 2008-01: machine-to-machine directive capability. “But we don’t have a machine-to-machine thread all the way through ... yet,” McClendon said.

One application that could possess such capability is a Navy initiative that would streamline communications between maritime operations centers and Air Force air operations centers, sharing Navy-generated potential target lists with an AOC — without human interaction.


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2007/11/military_cyber_exercise_071109/



uhc comment: This reminds me of 'T3: Rise of the Machines'.