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 Joint
Systems Baseline Assessment 2006 prepares for operational
stage
Joint
Systems Integration Command is preparing for the operational
assessment of the Joint Systems Baseline Assessment 2006
designed to integrate a large array of intelligence collection
assets with the command
and control capabilities tested during an event earlier this
summer.
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By Robert Pursell
USJFCOM Public Affairs
(SUFFOLK,
Va. - Aug. 28, 2006) -- U.S. Joint Forces Command's
(USJFCOM) Joint Systems Integration
Command (JSIC) is
preparing
for the second phase of the Joint
Systems Baseline Assessment 2006 (JSBA-06) to be held Sept. 5-28 at JSIC's labs and
other sites linked in to the effort from around the world.
The purpose of JSBA-06 is to identify and address warfighter
interoperability issues relating to capabilities already
in the field or projected to be in the field in the next
year. Successful resolution of these issues will allow
warfighters to more effectively use and share information.
JSBA-06
kicked off in July with the two-week technical assessment,
where warfighters, program managers, and engineers
worked on evaluating more than 30 joint task force (JTF)
command and control (C2) systems of record in a controlled
environment.
The second phase of JSBA-06 is the operational assessment.
JSBA joins with National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency's
Exercise Empire Challenge in China Lake, Calif. and USJFCOM's
Exercise Extended Awareness to integrate a large array
of collection assets and C2 capabilities. These three concurrent
events also gain operational fidelity via linkage to U.S.
European Command's (EUCOM) Exercise Austere Challenge.
Air Force Lt. Col. Jill Singleton, deputy director of
interoperability demonstrations for JSIC and JSBA-06 project
lead, explained what is in store for the operational assessment
based on the technical one.
"We identified several areas where we had data exchange
issues. We fixed a couple of those in the technical assessment
and the others are being worked by program managers and
engineers prior to further testing in the ops assessment," said
Singleton.
"We also discovered several complex issues that we
will look into in more detail in the ops assessment," she
added. "We're not quite sure yet of the scope of the
problem. We want to figure out if it's just procedural,
just technical, or a little bit of both. Our goal is to
identify a workable long-term solution or way ahead."
JSBA-06 includes program managers, engineers and participants
from COCOMs, Joint Staff, the United Kingdom, Canada and
Australia. The combined events include sites around the
globe and assets from the allied players conducting live
collection at Naval Air Warfare Center, China Lake, Calif.
"The ops assessment includes collection assets, forces
on the ground, live-fly (or non-simulated flying assets),
and brings in more of our allied players. We also have
eleven sites that are active worldwide, where in the tech
assessment we had four," said Singleton.
"The
robust communication network allows us to tie in allied
imagery experts, who will be participating from
their home countries as their assets fly over China Lake.
This allows us to more fully leverage our allied capabilities
and improve the timeliness of intelligence information.
Our goal is to further network-enabled JTF operations by
finding and fixing collection management and targeting
issues in a coalition environment."
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