Next-Generation Awareness
After making a major impact through reduced fratricide and improved situational awareness, the FBCB2 program is preparing to move to its next generation.
by Adam Baddeley, MIT Correspondent
After making a major impact on the battlefields of Southwest Asia through reduced fratricide and improved situational awareness, the Force XXI Battle Command Brigade and Below (FBCB2) program is preparing to move to its next generation.
Known as the Joint Battle Command Platform (JBCP), the developing system will deliver a more robust network, faster messaging, supporting larger number of simultaneous tracks in greater detail and all in real time. In parallel, the Army and industry are also mulling the data and software pathways necessary to seamlessly swap information between today’s FBCB2 vehicles and Future Combat Systems (FCS).
The new system will incorporate the lessons of the first 10 years of FBCB2. Designed in the mid-1990s, FBCB2 was originally seen as a tool to give soldiers situational awareness in the field and to help the military avoid future instances of fratricide in response the 1991 Gulf War. Using a relatively secure environment, they could also see where their friends were and talk through instant messaging, in a simple C2 suite. This was later enhanced to enable beyond-line-of-sight operations using basic satellite transmissions.
The first software release that will support JBC-P is referred to as the Joint Capabilities Release (JCR)—following on the current FBCB2 version 6.5—and will kick-off its acceptance testing in December. “This will be the first opportunity for the Army to grasp JCR’s expansion to a robust system with functions and features enhanced a couple of orders of magnitude over current capabilities,” explained Dan Verwiel, director of battle command at Northrop Grumman Mission Systems.
“An integral element of JCR is that it provides the ability to bridge command and control/situational awareness [C2/SA] at a joint level. In addition to serving the Army, JBC-P will be a joint application,” he said. “The Marines have been the first to jump on board, but JCR will also offer opportunities to other Department of Defense entities to engage with JBC-P.”
JCR enables JBC-P, which in turn will contribute to the FCS-era Unified Battle Command (UBC) and C2/SA picture, which establishes a common interoperable picture between the Army’s newest ground fighting systems and legacy platform. The Boeing-primed System of Systems Common Operating Environment (SOSCOE) is a key FCSoriginated bridge to that, and elements of its software code are being actively considered for inclusion in JBC-P.
Current integration discussions are occurring at the senior Army level, complemented by industry activity, “We have had a number of top-level, exploratory discussions with Boeing,” Verwiel said. “Everyone agrees this is technically doable and migration can be achieved, but we certainly haven’t gotten to the stage of sharing code between SOSCOE and JBC-P. Once the Army finalizes its strategy on how to integrate the UBC, there will be many more discussions between companies like Northrop Grumman and Boeing.”
The Army has implemented a new software development approach using what has been referred to as the Battle Command Product Line (BCPL). Under the BCPL architecture, a set of configurationcontrolled software core assets have been established, representing the common software elements of the JBC-P products.
“Once the BCPL and JCR are completed, those core assets will be made available to third-party software product developers who want to develop next-generation JBC-P product applications. Although it is not open source code, the software product line approach and the use of the core assets for development significantly reduce the time and cost to field next-generation applications,” Verwiel said.
In the case of JCR and the JBC-P, core asset executables would be provided to developers who want to bring their products onto the JCR network. They can write a software application that relies on basic core components, eliminating the need to redesign those particular software elements (the core assets), making up as much as 60 percent to 70 percent of the code to make that product operate on the JCR network.
The Movement Tracking System, which was designed for the logistics user, is a good example of a successful product variant that should start transitioning to the FBCB2 network when JCR is fielded.
HARDWARE HUB
The central computing hardware hub for FBCB2 is supplied entirely by DRS Tactical Systems. DRS this year began shipping the latest variant, JV-5, which incorporates multi-core processors, additional memory and data storage and a more open architecture for future expansion relative to the EV-4, the legacy FBCB2 computer that was also supplied by DRS.
The JV-5 is now being shipped at rates of as high as 1,400 units per week to meet high demand, with over 15,000 being fielded so far, and are being sped through to equip high-priority platforms such as mine-resistant ambush-protected vehicles.
The JV-5 adds greater capability, embedded inside the computer functionality previously held elsewhere on the vehicle. It addresses affordability as well as size, weight and power issues associated with having so many “boxes” inside the platforms.
That includes integrating GPS. “The ability to put SAASM GPS inside of the JV-5 provides position location to FBCB2’s situational awareness systems, but also has the potential purpose of serving as a GPS hub for the platform, providing SASSM GPS data to other vehicle systems,” said Bill Guyan, vice president of business development for DRS Tactical Systems.
Some Army platforms contain as many as four DAGR systems, each connecting separately to a different system. JV-5 would, Guyan believes, allow those vehicles to use just one box, the JV-5, reducing cost and providing more capability for the soldier.
Another example is the Marine Corps request to integrate an embedded TacLink Tactical Modem card into its JV-5s via a rugged PCMCIA card.
Guyan is looking at options for integration a little further out. “We see potential for expanding the capability of the JV-5 through the addition of communication devices, whether that is a terrestrial JTRS type transceiver or a celestial receiver for Blue Force Tracing use,” he said. “There’s also the potential for the insertion of a Type 1 encryption device into the JV-5 to meet future requirements that position location information be secure. When the Army wants to go forward with that, we’ll be ready.”
DRS has made JV-5 software agnostic, enabling development such as JCR. “Our job as hardware provider for the FBCB2 Program Office is to ensure that the capability provided to the warfighter is never limited by the computer hardware being used,” said Guyan. “We are always trying to stay ahead of what is planned. The JV-5 development took into account the known requirements for JCR and emerging requirements for UBC.”
As with the EV-4, JV-5 will undergo technology insertion throughout its life, although Guyan notes that in processing, storage and graphics handling, the system is already ahead of the Army’s needs. “We leapt ahead of the requirements, and we are still not at the point yet where upgrades are needed but they are certainly in the works. The processor in the JV-5—the 1.66Ghz dual core—is still a worldclass processor and probably one of the fastest processors you’ll find on the battlefield. We know that many commanders will comment that the processor that they have in their tank is faster than the one they have on their desk. The same thing is true for hard drive size. We have increased the hard drive size by factor of four over EV-4. That, for example, meets the Army’s known needs for the ability to transfer hi-resolution map data to a platform.”
TRANSPORT LAYER
Without communications, FBCB2 won’t work. Improvements in functionally are to great extent dependent on access to greater throughput, Verwiel said. “Unquestionably, the FBCB2 and BFT systems provide tremendous capabilities. The biggest issue users had was the lack of bandwidth, which resulted in slow update rates.” “With JCR/JBC-P, we’re creating a communications architecture using both terrestrial radio and celestial bands for satellite communications, with a network operations center that will handle heavy amounts of traffic on the networks. We can now take advantage of a robust backbone with the potential for other products that can ride that same network,” he added.
JBC-P is designed to function using the current EPLRS, SINCGARS and L-Band networks, with the UBC start point expected to coincide with the advent of Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS)-led waveforms such as the Wideband Networking Waveform and the Soldier Radio Waveform within an FCS network.
FBCB2’s terrestrial transport layer continues to be serviced by the Raytheon EPLRS. David J. Derby, senior program manager, pointed out that more than 21,000 radios have been delivered to DoD, with roughly 12,000 being acquired by the Army for FBCB2. The product backlog now reaches to the end of 2009, with the most recent work order for 532 radios being received in August.
While the physical structure of the EPLRS radios is stable, under the hood Raytheon continues to develop the EPLRS waveform independently of JTRS. “We are lockstep with FBCB2’s software migration plan to 6.5 to JCR, and EPLRS has had number of software changes required to interoperate with some of those JCR changes for FBCB2,” said Derby. “We only maintain one version of software for all of our radios, and so we can roll change back into EPLRS. Our radios for Land Warrior and the new DH500 handheld radio are all the same.”
Tim Strobel, strategic programs technical director, outlined the type of improvement being delivered. “We are adding support for DHCP [to automatically assigning IP addresses], which is something JCR had to have. We are also providing stable, one-pulse-per-second time referencing in the network, which makes it much easier for networks to disassociate with one another and then re-associate at later time. We are making some mobile ad hoc networking enhancement, as well with an extended mode that could do an unlimited number of hops, limited by the IP header.”
Capability enhancements added by Raytheon in the past 12 months also include protocols specifically to enable steaming video. “That has been released out to labs and integration arenas across the U.S., and is going through certification for eventual block release to the Army, which will probably coincide with JCR. That give you a sense of where we are taking the product and what it will be used for, not just FBCB2 SA and short messaging, but also Internet style data,” said Strobel.
An area of the communications architecture being enhanced specifically for JBC-P is the next-generation satellite L-band transceiver, which will increase significantly the bandwidth that the users are currently used to. In April 2007 the Army tasked Northrop Grumman and Viasat to improve the update rates, speed and capacity of the communication system. ViaSat ArcLight spread-spectrum technology is key to providing both the update rate and operational cost affordability. A July demonstration exhibited update rates of under 2 seconds, compared with more than over 10 minutes using the current system.
The accuracy of friendly-force position-location information is a key ingredient to situational awareness and the decision process,” said Ric Vandermeulen, vice president of government satcom at ViaSat. “The operational value of the system is driven by update rate, and speed while the affordability of the system is driven by increased capacity, enabling more users to operate in the same channel space.”
“It hit a home run in the demonstration, exceeding the Defense Department’s expectations and demonstrating an extraordinary increase in bandwidth,” Verwiel said. “The features this capability will provide will really enhance what the soldier has at his or her disposal.” ♦
