Defence

Defence Science and Technology Organisation

Looking for the 'X factor' in future war fighting

By Neil Bryans

In the October 2004 edition of Defence, Chief Defence Scientist Dr Roger Lough discussed the impact of technology in shaping warfare. As the primary provider of science and technology advice and support to Defence, DSTO is charged with identifying new technologies that have potential to offer a war-fighting advantage and, importantly, in finding new ways to employ technologies to greater effect than our adversaries. Those technologies must be identified and applied within the context of the global strategic environment.

Recent major changes in the global strategic landscape have been marked by several significant events, the most significant of which are the terrorist attack of September 11, 2001, and the ongoing Iraq operation. These events occurred following publication of the last Defence White Paper. As a result, the Government concluded in the Defence Update 2003 "...that while the principles set out in the White Paper remain sound, some rebalancing of capability and expenditure will be necessary to take account of changes to Australia's strategic environment".

Increasing globalisation has changed the nature of conflict from being largely platform-centric, state versus state engagements to a more asymmetric form where small non-state groups, such as the current raft of terrorist organisations, are a primary adversary. Defence Update 2003 recognised that this new, or fourth generation, warfare possesses "...less strategic certainty..." and demands "...that our emphasis must be on having the flexibility and adaptability to answer the unexpected as much as the expected" if the ADF is to fight and win in the new conflict space.

Defence forces are transforming to meet the challenges of the new era. Because of the increasing emphasis on the acquisition and use of information to provide a decisive advantage in war-fighting; terms such as "information-age warfare" and "network- centric warfare" are used to describe the new paradigm. Application of information and communication technology to warfare is growing at a rate never before experienced, to an extent that a few years ago, defence organisations were heralding a revolution in military affairs. An unprecedented characteristic of the rapid growth in advanced computer and communications technology is that, in many areas, defence developments are lagging behind the commercial sector and defence forces are adapting commercial technologies for military applications. An important aspect of the commercial proliferation of advanced technologies is that they are also available to our adversaries; therefore we must become more innovative in how we use these technologies to gain an advantage.

Science and technology support must focus not only on the development of technology but also on how it is to be employed, bringing into the mix issues of doctrine/tactics development, human/machine interaction, human/human interaction and human cognition.

US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Richard Meyers was recently quoted in this magazine as saying "..the most important area for transformation is the space between our warfighters' ears..." highlighting the human aspects of implementing information-age technologies.

DSTO's strategy must evolve with the strategic threats facing Australia and technological advances. In the current environment DSTO's research in the information sciences focuses on eight strategic areas:

• Future war-fighting concepts.
• Asymmetric warfare and terrorism.
• Information operations.
• National security networks.
• Survivable self-organising networks.
• Sensing transitory and hidden objects.
• Fusion for situation awareness.
• Planning and augmented cognition.

Each of these interdependent thrusts develops an aspect of science and technology that underpins the development of Australia's defence and broader national security capabilities.

The first four of these thrusts also directly address four of the five priority goals articulated in the National Research Priority "Safeguarding Australia" ¹. Some of the key activities being undertaken within these thrusts to support Defence's drive towards an adaptable, flexible, networked force are outlined below.

Support to Intelligence - collection and interpretation of large volumes of imagery and audio is significantly more complex than for text data. DSTO develops tools for collection, processing and analysis of data to support intelligence activities for Defence and counter terrorism.

Information Assurance - with the advent of network-centric warfare and inevitable dependency of warfighters and platforms on the network, a secure, robust, survivable Defence information infrastructure is fundamental to military success. DSTO's Shapes Vector program is developing new capability for protection of large heterogeneous communications and information networks in support of network-centric warfare. DSTO research is providing the essential "barricades" and hardening of Defence networks.

Communications and self-organising networks - dispersed, high-tempo operations place significant dependency on communications to support information exchange for command, control and intelligence functions, particularly for decentralised sensor, weapon and command support systems, as used in network-centric warfare paradigms. Communications infrastructure must be highly adaptive and survivable and deployed forces must generally reconfigure it while on the move.

DSTO research programs in survivable, dynamic self-organising networks and distributed network management systems are addressing these new demands as well as providing ongoing support to existing critical communications projects for Defence, including JP2072 Land Battlespace, JP2008 Military Satellite Communications and SEA1442 Maritime Communications.

Sensing transitory and hidden objects - recent conflicts have revealed a voracious appetite for sensor information over short timescales. Precision strikes against mobile targets demand real-time detection, location, identification and tracking, which depend on an end-to-end capability from tactical sensors to weapons delivery. DSTO research, facilitated by advances in electronics and signal processing, is enhancing existing sensor technologies and developing new classes of sensors.

The research is also examining fundamental assumptions underlying sensor design to overcome concealment strategies and transient targets. Signal-processing research is concentrated on adaptive high-resolution techniques to deal with evolving signal characteristics and high levels of interference and clutter.

Fusion for situation awareness - Nowadays, decision makers' understanding of the world is secured through systems, comprising both people and machines. DSTO's Future Operations Centre Analysis Laboratory is engaged in information fusion research to assist decision makers to better cope with the complexity and tempo of operations by making information more interactive and accessible to humans. The Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance Analysis Integration Laboratory is focussed on developing a fused air and maritime picture to support development of improved situation awareness capability. All this work supports the presentation of a coherent awareness of an evolving situation to decision makers.

Planning and Augmented Cognition - through its LiveSpaces laboratory, DSTO is researching distributed collaborative planning in environments where computers disappear into the backdrop of natural human interactions. The research programs in these workspaces examine integration, coordination, and communications within and between workspaces. Contextual awareness, support for the orchestration of procedural and cognitive activities and learning abilities are also under investigation. This work will be applied to enhance Australia's future command and intelligence environments to support time-critical decision-making in areas such as dynamic planning, analysis, and execution.

Thus, DSTO's information and communications- based research programs are identifying and developing critical technologies and capabilities required to support the transformation of the ADF to meet the demands of the rapidly changing global security and technology environment.

Neil Bryans is the Director of Information Sciences Laboratory at DSTO.

¹ National Research Priorities announced by the Prime Minister, John Howard, on December 5, 2002.

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