KnIFE Against Terror
Written by HARRISON DONNELLY
JOINT FORCES PROJECT MOBILIZES INFORMATIONSHARING TECHNOLOGY IN THE FIGHT AGAINST IEDS.
U.S. Joint Forces Command (USJFCOM) is deploying the latest in information-sharing technology as part of the military’s intensive efforts to counter the menace of IEDs.
The command’s Knowledge and Information Fusion Exchange (KnIFE) program is a series of databases that provide the warfighter with lessons learned in the war on terrorism. It also serves as an information exchange program, in which databases are connected to a secure Website and a staffed call center.
The program, operated under USJFCOM’s Joint Center for Operational Analysis (JCOA), got a major boost this spring with the announcement of a cooperative research and development agreement (CRADA) with Microsoft to explore ways to better use information technology against asymmetric warfare, in particular the continuing toll taken by roadside bombs on U.S. and coalition forces and civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The agreement will allow USJFCOM to integrate and explore new technologies and solutions to support KnIFE, while allowing Microsoft to test new technology in an open source system. KnIFE organizers have some key areas the CRADA will explore, such as improved data mining capability.
The ultimate goal for USJFCOM is to transform KnIFE into a major knowledge center that will provide expert knowledge. In exchange for its help, Microsoft will have access to USJFCOM’s information technology personnel and various subject matter experts.
The agreement is the first CRADA between USJFCOM and Microsoft.
LESSONS LEARNED AND MORE
The KnIFE effort is just one of the projects underway at JCOA, which was started three and a half years ago as a joint “lessons learned” organization, according to the center’s director, Army Brigadier General James O. Barclay 3rd. Since then, the organization has expanded to include current operation analysis, conducting research on topics requested by the USJFCOM commander as well as the Secretary of Defense and chairman and vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs. “We have about 115 people, with 35 military and the rest either government service employees, contractors or with the Federally Funded Research and Development Centers that work for us. We have a wide variety of missions, including studies in Afghanistan and Iraq, for one of which we stayed two months. We also did studies of response to Hurricane Katrina, the after-action review of which was briefed to the president. We did the tsunami, the Pakistani earthquake and the Guatemalan mudslide,” Barclay explained.
“We do a wide variety of projects because of the makeup of our organization. DoD calls us in to do these analytical missions, which we turn into a report that outlines the lessons learned for organizations that may face the same type of situation in the future. Our operational analysis often finds capability gaps, and we do recommendations into the requirements,” he continued.
After the Joint IED Defeat Organization —the overall DoD task force on the issue headed by Army General Montgomery Meigs (Ret.)—was established, the JCOA became the choice for the IT and data-management aspects of the issue. The result was the creation of KnIFE last year.
Over the first nine months of KnIFE’s existence, a lot of time was spent establishing the initial networks and deciding how many databases were needed. The program currently operates about a half-dozen Websites, all but one of which are classified. They allow users to come into an organization with a round-the-clock capability, with analysts available if they have questions. Requests for information come not only from DoD, but also from other agencies around the world and coalition partners.
“The question will come in, and we will do the research and provide them with a response to their question. If there’s a problem getting the information to them, they can call into the help desk and we’ll help them,” said Barclay, who has two sons serving in the Army, one of whom is receiving treatment for injuries suffered during an IED attack in Afghanistan last year.
Managing the vast quantities of data relevant to the issue has remained a challenge, however. Needing help with the knotty technological problems involved, officials began talking with Microsoft, which led to establishment of the CRADA.
The Microsoft CRADA is one of about a dozen at USJFCOM, Barclay noted. “We’ve made great use of CRADAs because they allow us to interact with business and other agencies and organizations, and both sides get a benefit from it. From that perspective, we started looking at organizations that could help us in our quest to get better at managing and accessing the data, so we can make it available to the warfighter in theater as he’s trying to defeat the IEDs.”
Colonel David Belcher, deputy director for KnIFE, outlined some of the information-management issues involved: “The amount of data available on this topic, or any similar ones, is beyond measuring, and you’re always finding new data. The key is being able to get to the data, and get it back in a form that you can analyze it or answer a question. With all the diversity of organizations and how they store data, lessons learned are stored differently.
“People handle their day-to-day operations differently, with different software and processes. It’s a challenge to do the legwork to get into all those databases and get it back in a form where we can answer questions from the field. We continue to work on that, and to find new places to go to, whether in the private sector, where people are doing research, or in other government agencies or coalition partners. The amount of data out there is mind-boggling,” Belcher added.
FOCUS ON FUSION
From Microsoft’s perspective, one of the important aspects of the CRADA was that it will provide the company an opportunity to see first hand what warfighters are experiencing, according to federal programs manager Ken Knueven. “We have a significant presence in the DoD space, and our solutions are used widely across the spectrum. But when you get into an entity like the USJFCOM, which is trying to improve readiness, training and doctrine, it gets us in front with them to see what they’re trying to improve, what is working and what is not, and where we can help. It also helps us in terms of improving our own technologies.
“If we can get first-hand experience like this, it goes a long way in ensuring that the next solution will have a lot of that experience built into it,” Knueven added.
Microsoft agreed to focus its efforts on KnIFE, he continued, both because of the seriousness of the IED problem and the fact that the program’s needs were well-matched with the company’s technology and resources. “KnIFE seems to encapsulate a lot of the needs that Microsoft could work with. As the name indicates, it’s an information fusion exchange. It’s a fusion center and call center supporting the warfighter in a real-time manner.
“We look at it from a solutions standpoint: What are the needs, requirements and issues, and how can we best solve them?” Knueven said. “While technology is a part of it, KnIFE encapsulates collaboration, information fusion, business intelligence, accessing legacy data systems, getting information to the right people at the right time, and supporting the disadvantaged user—the person with low-bandwidth or no connectivity—which is typical in the warfighting scenario. If you look at all those ingredients, the KnIFE program seemed to be the area where we could get the most accomplished.”
Microsoft’s initial efforts will be focused on making use of Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, which provides a framework for collaborating, sharing content, providing content, doing business intelligence, and communicating real time. “It’s an application framework for users across the community of interest. The warfighters can access it, as can decision makers and content providers. They all have different needs, looking at information from their own perspective,” Knueven said.
“The people who are managing this need to find new and more relevant information constantly. So the question is how to get access to other data sources. SharePoint is an obvious fit for that. It’s the baseline framework, on which we put solutions, whether Live Communications Server for instant messaging, Virtual Earth for visualization, or business intelligence capabilities for accessing data in a large number of legacy stores. There are a number of data sources out there. The key question is how do you get access to that, work with it and make it available real-time,” he observed.
Microsoft is currently working with company called iOra, which provides accelerated access to Web applications and replicates Web- and file-based content to remote servers and laptops, using a fraction of network bandwidth. “The way they replicate data allows SharePoint to be replicated anywhere across the network in a very methodical and efficient manner. It only sends the changes, so the result is that the people in theater have access to the same data that people in the United States do, and that data can be easily updated real time over a low-bandwidth network,” Knueven explained.
Future projects under the CRADA will focus on areas such as visualization and business intelligence. ♦
