Quantum Leap tests network warfare
The Defense Department will conduct an experiment today to test network-centric warfare operations
The Defense Department will conduct an experiment today to test network-centric warfare operations.
The test, called Quantum Leap, seeks to make intelligence quickly available to warfighters. The 12-hour trial is crucial to DOD's transformation to a lighter force that can be rapidly deployed and to the vision of DOD's chief information officer, John Stenbit.
The $80 million experiment is the first of five planned through 2007 that will cost almost $1 billion, a top department information technology official said. "We want to give DOD leadership a glimpse of what net-centric warfare can do short of a real military engagement."
Quantum Leap was scheduled to run from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. at several sites, including the Defense Information Systems Agency in Washington, the Navy's Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command facility in Charleston, S.C., and the Army's top soldier training center at Fort Benning, Ga. The experiment will test 12 horizontal fusion concepts and technologies planned for 2004, including:
* Power to the Edge computing: Posting data quickly so warfighters can access it.
* Global Information Grid publishing: Posting information to defense networks that people trust.
* Interoperability improvements: Integrating intelligence systems so they easily exchange information.
* Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance data sharing: Combining intelligence to give U.S. forces clear battlefield pictures.
"Information typically has been retained in agencies' channels until the product becomes intelligence," said John Osterholz, director of architecture and interoperability for the defense CIO office. "We don't want to hoard data until it is done. We want to provide it as soon as possible."
Osterholz and Marian Cherry, the department's horizontal fusion program manager, will lead Quantum Leap.
| Collateral Information Space | Putting intelligence in a distributed net area that is readily reached | Defense Intelligence Agency |
| Horizontal Fusion Enterprise Services | Accessing the Collateral Information Space with core software tools | Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) |
| Content Staging | Converting information dissemination management to a smart-pull capability | DISA |
| Basic Language Translation Services | Changing foreign language documents to English then posting them to the Internet | Army Intelligence |
| Non-Obvious Relationships Analysis | Modifying the commercial NORA software prevalent in the gaming industry for DOD use, such as screening security personnel | Counterintelligence Field Activity |
| Basic Image Services | Accumulating imagery and making it easily available | National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA) |
| Cooperative Engagement Capability Data Tagging and Posting | Collecting Navy radar images, assigning a name to them for easy understanding and then posting them to the network | Navy CEC Program Office |
| U-AIM | Amassing, tagging and updating intelligence | Pennsylvania State University |
| P-3 Fusion | Making Navy spy plane systems capable for ground operations | Navy Research Laboratory |
| Distributed Common Ground Station Integration | Adapting the land system so warfighters can use it to quickly send and receive intelligence | Army Intelligence and Security Command |
| Global Net-Centric Surveillance and Targeting | Creating smart software agents that uncover hard-to-find enemy targets and systems when off, such as a surface-to-air missile sites hidden in trees | NSA, NIMA and Army Intelligence |
| Warrior's Edge | Sending and receiving intelligence from small robots that follow and aid ground forces | Army |
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