Operational Architectures: The Foundation of C2 System of Systems

November 2001

A key to information integration across all elements of the military is a common vocabulary that both warfighters and system engineers understand. The MITRE team at Langley Air Force Base in Virginia, in collaboration with MITRE-Bedford and the Electronic Systems Center (ESC), is building this vocabulary, known as architecture. This architecture details the activities, relationships, standards, systems, information exchanges, and centers of activity necessary for the development of an interoperable Command and Control (C2) system of systems for the armed forces. Ultimately, parts of this architecture will be realized in facilities like the Combined Aerospace Operations Center-eXperimental (CAOC-X), where improvements to the portion of the architecture dealing with the CAOC will be tested in a "live" model.

Architectures are essential for the modernization of information technology systems throughout the federal government, a modernization required by the 1996 Information Technology Management Reform Act. The Department of Defense's (DOD) Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (C4ISR) Architecture Framework has established three types of architectural views: operational, system, and technical. And the Air Force has followed DOD's lead by appointing the Aerospace C2 and Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance Center (AC2ISRC) at MITRE-Langley to develop the operational, and ESC to develop the system architecture views for the C2 domains.

The operational architecture describes the C2 system of systems' activities, tasks, centers, and information exchanges. The systems architecture describes the systems and system interfaces that support those activities. The technical architecture is the minimum set of standards that must be used by the systems architecture in developing solutions to operational architecture requirements. The MITRE-Langley team is working on the operational architecture. All three architectures are considered "views," that is, different renditions of the same object that, when combined, describe the object completely, in the way that a set of blueprints would describe a building.

The project has been expedited, thanks to MITRE-Langley's diverse expertise and to adroit collaboration with the AC2ISRC, MITRE-Bedford, and ESC. While the analytical and engineering methods used to develop architectures are fairly well known within the engineering community, their application to the world of military command, control, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance is a pioneering undertaking. A clear understanding of the major tasks and an ambitious schedule have kept the project on track. The AC2ISRC focused its efforts on the Air Force activities and information exchanges in theater and global warfare mission areas. MITRE-Langley's Dan Finney and Tony DiPietro lead the related development of the Defense of the Homeland architecture.

Led by MITRE-Langley's Carl Schone and Julio Fonseca, the architecture team began publishing operational architecture products early in the summer of 2000. In June 2000, the team published a detailed, hierarchical, referenced list of activities of the Air Operations Center (AOC). Since the AOC is so central to air and space operations, such a tool paid dividends later as architectures were developed to show relationships between multiple other activities and centers with those in the AOC. The document took advantage of previous work in a related area, thanks to the assistance of MITRE-Bedford's Ron Doescher. This initial AOC document, called a functional decomposition, became the foundation of a larger As-Is Air Force Theater C2&ISR Operational Architecture.

The As-Is Air Force Theater C2&ISR Operational Architecture in turn became the baseline for the futuristic To-Be Theater C2&ISR architecture. The value of the As-Is was that it provided a foundation upon which other, more specific, architectures could be built to guide near-term modernization and other activities. An associated effort, the C2&ISR Concept of Operations (CONOPS) White Paper published by Carl Schone and Pat Demartino, consolidated future visions and guidance from the AC2ISRC, the ESC Capstone Architecture, the Air Force, and the DOD into an articulation of a To-Be CONOPS for the years 2010-2020. This effort provided a framework for the future evolution of As-Is activities and for the development of a future vision with the same structure as Joint, Service, Center, and ESC visions and CONOPS. By late summer of 2000, the AC2ISRC Commander released both—the AOC activities document and the As-Is Architecture as the first increment of the Air Force's C2&ISR baseline operational view.

Collaboration: A key to success

The AC2ISRC assigned two uniformed members—Lt. Col. Jay Vittori and Maj. Patrick Godfrey—to the operational architecture development task. They provided crucial assistance, finding key documents and subject matter experts, and actually developed portions of the architecture. The initial detailed list of AOC activities and the As-Is architecture received generally positive reviews by the Air Force as accurate reflections of current operations. Recent assistance from MITRE-Bedford's Ellen Conway, Deb Schuh, Matt McKaig, and John James, facilitated by ESC's Chief Architect Eric Skoog, enhanced the AOC document, and its ability to support acquisitions and prototyping in facilities like the Combined Aerospace Operations Center-Experimental. To maximize use and interoperability between products, the MITRE-Langley team is using the same tools for operational architecture development that MITRE-Bedford is using in its system architecture products.

The way ahead: Forecasting future C2&ISR and "making it real"

The AC2ISRC-MITRE Langley team completed a draft To-Be Theater C2&ISR architecture in early December 2000 and released it in April 2001. The To-Be architecture not only provides the time-phased views of future Theater C2&ISR, but also provides an explanation of the potential gradual evolution into the future—a significant pioneering effort. It also incorporates additional documentation and training into the final product to enhance the user's understanding of the architecture.

Additionally, the To-Be incorporates the lessons learned and innovations from development of the As-Is architecture. One of these innovations was the use of information pools to classify the multiple information exchanges among Theater C2&ISR activities. Langley's Shelby Sullivan developed a two-dimensional matrix that identified each pool by the type of information and its timing within the operations, in recognition that the nature of the information changes as an operation progresses. For example, information needed at the beginning of a battle will be different from the immediate, short-term information needed in the midst of an operation. Classification into information pools has helped the team identify common themes, creating opportunities for simplification and synthesis in information transfer.

"Making it real," to borrow a phrase from MITRE Global Grid Architect Dan Dunbrack, involves making operational architectures relevant to C2&ISR modernization and sustainment. For MITRE-Langley, this objective breaks down into several initiatives that have just started this year. First, for operational architectures to be usable they must be managed as a trusted reference—independent of the personalities that produced them. MITRE-Langley's Doug Maldonado, Gerald Eiden, and Mark Shorter are designing a configuration control process that ensures users have the latest and most correct version of information, without compromising usability. Second, a relevant architecture would aid in planning budgets for maintenance and modernization. MITRE-Langley is currently exploring ways of integrating the operational architecture into the planning, programming, and budgeting processes in time to influence the 2004 budget. Also, through the combined efforts of MITRE-Langley's Gerald Eiden and MITRE-Colorado Springs' Stanley Beckner, an operational architecture development guide was published that promotes a standard "look and feel" for architecture products.

The Operational C2&ISR

Architecture view promises to be a useful, systematic tool to collectively build what the Air Force C2&ISR mission demands. Though progress has been made, the undertaking is as enormous and complex as the C2 system of systems itself. It is only through proactive collaboration that these complex challenges can be met.

This reciprocal collaboration, where each team builds on the foundation laid by the other, continues to exemplify the professional ethos of the MITRE team and the Langley site.

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