Memorandum from General Dynamics UK
SUMMARY
Providing the right information to military
commanders and their political leaders, when they need it to make
a decision, is a key challenge faced in all military operations.
Achieving this is the task of the intelligence cycle.[11]
The enterprise that is driven by and feeds into this cycle is
commonly referred to as Intelligence, Surveillance, Target Acquisition
and Reconnaissance—ISTAR.
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, UAVs, are one example
of the wide range of collection methods used to gather data in
support of military and governmental objectives.
This short memorandum aims to:
(i) put UAVs into the wider context in which
they operate;
(ii) summarise the importance of optimising
integration of UAVs with other ISTAR assets, making the best use
of the information they provide; and
(iii) give an industry view using examples
of the work MoD is already undertaking to address this issue,
explaining the integration capabilities that are needed to achieve
planned improvements.
ABOUT GENERAL
DYNAMICS UK
In this evidence, General Dynamics UK offers
an informed industrial perspective on the challenges of integrating
assets such as UAVs with the UK and its allies' wider ISTAR capabilities.
As the Bowman prime contractor, General Dynamics UK has a unique
expertise in digitising and integrating vital command stations
together with the key communications and data networks used by
all three Armed Services on operations. These include nearly 13,000
land vehicles, for example Armoured Fighting Vehicles, static
land headquarters from Brigade level downwards, the Royal Navy's
sea-based command centres for Royal Marine expeditionary forces,
and RAF air platforms such as helicopters.
As a prime systems integrator of complex systems,
General Dynamics UK has relevant expertise and capability, in
particular through its key role in key UK systems integration
facilities, such as the Joint Networks Integration Body, JNIB,
the Joint Systems Integration Body, JSIB, and The EDGETM UK, an
innovative collaborative working environment currently under development
at General Dynamics UK's facilities.
THE UAV IN
CONTEXT—AN
ISTAR "COLLECTION" ASSET
ISTAR can be viewed as an enterprise with definable
inputs and outputs, operationally driven by the intelligence cycle.
When appropriately directed by the command and control process,
a range of collection assets, which can be both human and technological,
collect data for subsequent processing into actionable Information
and Intelligence (I2). This is disseminated to decision-makers
and other end-users.
UAVs are one collection option, amongst many.
Others include aircraft, submarines, satellites, ground platforms
and, of course, people. Each collection option has its own strengths
and weaknesses. UAVs can offer enhanced persistence and are uniquely
suited to "dull, dangerous and dirty" operations. As
is the case for all collection assets, the significance of their
contribution to the ISTAR enterprise depends on the quality of
information and intelligence they gather. The relatively recent
introduction of UAVs into service in a number of nations has highlighted
a wide range of specific technical and operational issues that
need to be addressed to make the best use of their obvious potential.
INTEGRATING THE
UK'S ISTAR ASSETS
With the delivery of planned ISTAR collection
platforms the UK will be, arguably, well provided for collection
capability. The MoD rightly recognises that a priority need within
UK ISTAR is improved interoperability between systems; additionally,
there is a need for enhanced resource management, analysis and
information management tools across the enterprise. The aim is
to increase operational efficiency and flexibility. To achieve
this, optimisation must be considered across the enterprise and
the intelligence cycle, and not just in a single constituent area,
such as collection.
If this is not done, efficiency and effectiveness
will be compromised by the weakest link in the DCPD chain. Significant
issues, again rightly singled out for attention by the MoD, potentially
include:
— unmanageable volumes of data—much
of what is collected remains unanalysed;
— lack of adequate infrastructure
for getting the results of analysis to those who need that analysis
— processing timelines do not
match operational needs: essentially, the right information, delivered
too late, is of little or no use;
— lack of support for resource
and task management: this means that the analysis work cannot
necessarily be shared out between operators who are overburdened
and those who have available spare capacity. This has been examined,
for example, by the MoD through MEC TDP (see below);
— a limited range of exploitation
tools: not all systems will allow users to see the same format,
for example, ASTOR can read Ground Moving Target Data (GMTI),
but cannot look at all forms of electro-optical imagery; and
— limited interoperability between
systems, hindering operational integration, flexibility and operational
effectiveness.
ADDRESSING THE
ISSUES: SOME
EXAMPLES
It is widely recognised that improved integration
across existing and planned ISTAR systems will be a key benefit
deliverer. Enabling systems to "talk to each other"
allows an enterprise-wide DCPD process, rather than as is currently
the case, where DCPD processes taking place in parallel within
different `stovepiped' systems, for example ASTOR, Watchkeeper
and Raptor.
This is a significant technical challenge. Platforms,
enabling systems and networks were historically rarely procured
together, and therefore not designed to "talk" to each
other. It requires advanced expertise in complex systems of systems
integration to overcome these challenges—experience in integrating
single systems and platforms only is inadequate.
When developing a highly complex system of systems,
a significant amount of specialist architectural analysis, design
and integration testing of the elements is essential. This activity
will be overseen within the ISTAR acquisition community by the
newly formed ISTAR System Engineering Programme Organisation,
ISEPO, which is intending to draw on business practices developed,
inter alia, by the Joint Systems Integration Body (JSIB),
established in 2003 as a partnership between the MoD and General
Dynamics UK; the Joint Networks Integration Body (JNIB), which
de-risks network "end-to-end" communications capabilities;
and the Modular Exploitation Capability (MEC) Technology Demonstrator
Programme (TDP).
MEC TDP—completed in 2006—was a
highly successful technology demonstration programme to show how
individual ISTAR legacy systems could be brought together into
an integrated exploitation system of systems. Additionally, it
demonstrated how intelligence analyst resources could be managed
across the system of systems. MEC TDP was sponsored by DEC(ISTAR)
and managed by the Future Business Group. It is anticipated that
a capability with these attributes will be sought within the early
tranches of DABINETT.
FUTURE PROGRAMMES
In recognition of the gaps that currently exist,
the MoD plans to invest significant funds in the DABINETT programme.
DABINETT aims to address these identified gaps by delivering an
enterprise-wide system of systems, with associated process change
across all the Defence Lines of Development (DLoD) and with the
necessary connectivity and interoperability with UK government
agencies and allies. Subject to Planning Round 08, the first individual
projects within the DABINETT programme are expected to get underway
within the next 12 months.
The defence budget is under significant pressure.
This poses a significant risk to smaller enabling projects, designed
to connect up systems and deliver operational flexibility, agility,
and other benefits of Network Enabled Capability. These projects
deliver benefits out of all proportion to their cost. For example,
the £50m project LISTENER aimed to automate data sharing
between collector platforms in order to ensure timely identification
and tracking of high priority targets. This would have allowed
decision-makers to deliver timely engagement of fleeting targets.
However, its Demonstration and Manufacture phase has been cancelled
in the current MoD planning round. The need to integrate ISTAR
platforms and systems is rightly recognised, and any tendency
to cut such programmes in favour of larger and more visible platform
procurements should be resisted if the benefits of a functioning
ISTAR capability are to be delivered to the forces on the front
line.
Starkly, it is no use collecting data without
the means to fuse it into a timely and coherent picture so that
decision-makers can act upon it. This is a key tenet of NEC. Fusion/NEC
appears to be an ISTAR capability gap. With the cancellation of
LISTENER, which would have done it for airborne EW, one has to
question whether the MoD is giving fusion/NEC sufficient priority.
12 May 2008
11 The process that underpins the UK ISTAR enterprise
is the UK's doctrinal intelligence cycle. This consists of four
constituent elements: Direct, Collect, Process and Disseminate
(DCPD). These are defined as follows:
Direction-the management of resources
and processes to deliver actionable information and intelligence
(i2) to decision makers.
Collection-the gathering of data to
support answering questions.
Processing-this covers analysis and
exploitation of collected sensor data to derive actionable i2.
Dissemination-delivery of the derived
i2 to appropriate decision makers and end-users. Back
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