Defense Improves Network-Centric Warfare, Tech Expert Says

National Journal's Technology Daily | May 6, 2003 | Molly M. Peterson

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The Defense Department has made progress in implementing network-centric warfare and improving war-fighters' communications capabilities since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, a top Pentagon technology expert said on Tuesday.

"Our efforts to integrate joint information networks and enable precision targeting are helping to win wars, to save lives of American and coalition service members, and to save the lives of countless innocent non-combatants," Lt. Gen. Harry Raduege, director of the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA), said during a homeland security conference sponsored by the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association.

Raduege noted that DISA has upgraded the software supporting the Defense Department's Global Command and Control System 22 times over the past three years while leaving the system "fully operational" to serve the needs of the U.S. military's nine regional combatant commands.

The system "has been essential to our operations in Afghanistan and Iraq," Raduege said, explaining that it provides a common operational picture across military branches. "This is the system responsible for providing Predator [unmanned aerial vehicle] feeds directly to our nation's pilots, who have delivered precision-guided munitions to the most critical enemy targets."

Defense officials also plan to finish phasing out their 40-year-old Automated Digital Network (AUTODIN) in September, according to Raduege. He noted that AUTODIN is being replaced by the Defense Message System, which now provides multimedia messaging services for 270 U.S. military installations around the world.

"Message traffic has increased from 4.3 million messages during June of 2002 to more than 5.9 million messages during April of 2003," Raduege said of the latter system, adding that it "will save approximately $140 million per year in operating costs once we turn off AUTODIN."

Raduege said DISA officials also increased war-fighters' access to bandwidth immediately after the Sept. 11 attacks, and those communications capabilities have played a crucial role in the global war on terrorism and the war in Iraq.

"Twelve years ago, during Operation Desert Storm, more than 500,000 troops were supported with less than 100 megabits per second of bandwidth," Raduege said. "Today, for Operation Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom, we provide more than 350,000 war-fighters with more than 3,000 megabits per second of satellite bandwidth alone, and 84 percent of this bandwidth is commercial, distributed among 51 transponders. That represents 30 times more bandwidth than Desert Storm for a force that's 25 percent smaller."

War-fighters' use of enhanced mobile satellite services also has increased "exponentially," according to Raduege. "The number of users has increased 344 percent, and usage is up by 4,800 percent," he said. "This system has allowed special operations forces to call in air strikes from horseback in Afghanistan by permitting instantaneous communications in areas without any infrastructure whatsoever."

But Raduege said much work remains for the military to achieve seamless, network-centric warfare capabilities. "Our operations in the global war on terrorism pointed out that [Defense] needs more bandwidth to support the information-intensive warfare of the future," he said.