How to Achieve Software Mobility for CJADC2
On the modern battlefield, the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) has long relied heavily on the collection and distribution of data for information superiority. At the most fundamental levels, this is simply getting the right information in the hands of the right people at the right time to make informed decisions. This goal is evidenced by DoD constructs such as Net-Centricity, Service Oriented Architectures, and the more recent constructs of Combined Joint All Domain Command and Control (CJADC2) as well as the Army Unified Data Reference Architecture (UDRA). These programs are predicated on the overarching concept of “data mobility.” While there is no question that data mobility is essential to delivering information superiority, we must also achieve “software mobility” to continue to dominate in the modern battlespace.
Software mobility is the ability to freely move software (applications, services, AI/ML, etc.) around the entire enterprise and run it wherever it needs to run based on dynamic mission requirements. Data mobility is the ability to rapidly move any data across the network to any location from any system that generated it to make it accessible to other systems and/or users. This concept is the foundation of the “any-sensor-to-any-shooter” objective in support of CJADC2. Data mobility is frequently considered in terms of moving the data toward the software, whereas software mobility is the ability to move the software toward the data and the user. Achieving both enterprise data mobility and software mobility must be critical goals for the DoD.
Software Mobility is Critical to the Kill Chain Equation
Software mobility is a force multiplier for military missions, providing the required adaptability, resilience, and efficiency to mitigate the impact of disrupted communications. By enabling real-time data access, streamlined operations, and coordinated decision-making, it ensures that forces can sense, make sense, and act even in the event of complete communications failure. Throughout the six steps of the Kill Chain (Find, Fix, Track, Target, Engage, and Assess) software mobility enables rapid, flexible, and efficient execution of the chain’s processes in dynamic and often hostile environments.
“Find” requires accessing real-time intelligence to reconnaissance data from sensors, satellites, drones, or ground assets and process data across multiple domains to create a clearer Common Operating Picture (COP) that can be shared across connected systems for collaboration between the field and C2.
“Fix” involves rapidly updating and deploying applications on edge compute devices for geolocation and mapping of targets even in degraded environments.
To “track,” situational awareness must be maintained by providing continuous updates on target movements through integrated sensor feeds, while AI and ML algorithms assist real-time tracking through advanced and predictive analytics.
“Target” requires mobile software coordinates efforts across distributed teams through command-and-control applications that accelerate decisions by providing actionable insights
To “engage,” mobile platforms must adapt to changing operational conditions, enabling mission execution from virtually any location, sharing targeting data with weapon systems and operators for rapid engagement with time-sensitive and/or moving targets
And finally, to “assess,” the collection and analysis of post-engagement data must be done with mobile software to rapidly assess mission execution.
The Alignment of Data and Software Mobility
Common data standards, data meshes, and open application programming interfaces (APIs) ensure that warfighters can extract, ingest, access, and share data from the myriad of (historically proprietary and/or stove-piped) systems the DoD has deployed. Concepts like resilient anti-jam/anti-spoof communications and networks, software-defined networks, dynamic PACE, and others, ensure that operationally relevant data gets to the right person, at the speed of war.
Complete data mobility requires persistent communications and networking across echelons, from the cloud to the tactical edge. In the modern fight, it is unrealistic to expect uninterrupted communications for some part of the operation – a degree of degradation is inevitable. If data mobility is singularly relied upon for Command and Control (C2) or Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR), when communications are denied or limited, mission effectiveness will be severely reduced and risk to forces significantly increases. The ability to have software reside near or at the tactical edge not only mitigates the risk of interrupted communications, but it also allows the operator to continue with mission objectives despite the degradation or even severed comms.
Consider an operation where a squad is forward deployed performing a reconnaissance mission with soldier-carrying Full Motion Video (FMV) cameras and a small unmanned aerial system (sUAS) providing infrared video overhead. The team has a man-packable comms kit with general purpose compute, IP Mesh Radios, and SATCOM for data backhaul. The video feeds from all the sensors flow back to a forward command post, where video object detection AI/ML models detect and identify objects. The detections and video clips are pushed back out to adjacent units, via the Tactical Assault Kit (TAK) as the COP, with each soldier carrying an ATAK device. This is an ideal scenario, where equipment is fully functional, and data flows unimpeded.
Next, consider the same scenario, but communications between the forward teams and the command post are jammed. The forward teams lose connectivity to the command post’s TAK Server and no longer have the benefit of the AI/ML system detecting objects.
Lastly, consider a third scenario where software mobility works in tandem with data mobility. The system detects the loss of communications and dynamically spins up a TAK Server and a lightweight version of the object detection model on the forward team’s comms kit. The network reconfigures so the sUAS sends its video feed directly to an adjacent fireteam over the mesh network. The soldiers’ ATAK devices are automatically reconfigured to get the video and alerts from their local device over 5G. When communications are restored, the locally spun-up TAK Server and AI/ML workflows spin back down to save precious battery power on the tactical comms kit. The system automatically reverts to the previous state, relying on services from the remote command post. In this scenario, where data flows – and where applications and services run dynamically – change based on the state of the network. Both data mobility and software mobility work together to provide the fire team with the best possible C2 and situational awareness in the face of a communications denial and/or disruption.
The Challenge(s)
This last scenario should be the objective, but, in practice, it is extremely complex to implement. The DoD community has traditionally deployed siloed systems whereby specific hardware runs specific software. These systems are acquired, accredited, and deployed in this manner and, even worse, infrequently updated. When they are updated in the field, it often requires highly qualified field service representatives to fly to forward locations to perform manual updates. The transition to “cloud-native” software architectures built on complex technologies like microservices and Kubernetes are increasing the complexity of the software systems, making them even more unwieldy for warfighters to update in the field.
The method that software is currently deployed requires understanding what software needs to run a priori, during acquisition. Making changes in the field is a manual, time-consuming, and expensive process that often interrupts operations. It is still challenging to rapidly field and update relatively static systems, let alone systems that need to dynamically distribute and run software as this mission changes. These fundamental problems must be overcome to bring software mobility within reach.
To learn how Sigma Defense’s Olympus can help the DoD overcome these challenges, click HERE.
The author, Michael MacFadden, is the Chief Technology Officer at Sigma Defense Systems.
