Command begins new capability development on three projects
USJFCOM recently began work on three high-demand capabilities as part of its participation in the Department of Defense's Joint Concept Technology Demonstration program.
By MC2 (AW) Nikki Carter
USJFCOM Public Affairs
(NORFOLK, Va. - Dec. 17, 2008) -- U.S. Joint Forces Command (USJFCOM) recently began work on three new capabilities requested by combatant commanders.
This follows notification that one of its sponsored Joint Capability Technology Demonstrations (JCTD), the Future Immersive Training Environment (FITE), was selected as a combatant commander urgent start, and two other demonstrations, the Joint Medical Distant Support and Evacuation (JMDSE) and Common Ground, both selected for fiscal year 2009 immediate starts.
Jim Clark, USJFCOM JCTD program manager, explained how JCTDs work and what they do.
"JCTDs integrate, demonstrate and deliver new capabilities for urgent combatant commander needs within one to three years and become enduring warfighter resources," Clark said.
Overseen by the deputy under secretary of defense for advanced systems and concepts, JCTD programs provide new and transformational operational capabilities designed to benefit the joint warfighter.
Defense Department officials validate requirements for capabilities and combatant command personnel serve as program managers to transition capabilities to the warfighter once they complete an evaluation process. This ensures projects will work with existing systems under different circumstances.
FITE is one of only two combatant commander "urgent requirements" throughout the Department of Defense for fiscal year 2008. Urgent requirements are projects combatant command senior leadership identifies as capabilities needing development outside of the normal JCTD proposal cycle, but must still go through the same channels as all other JCTD projects.
According to the USJFCOM Irregular Warfare Center's Jay Reist, FITE will provide military trainers and trainees with an immersive training simulation environment that creates and reinforces complex tactical and human dimension decision making skills.
"We need a giant leap forward in our simulated training environment for small units in ground combat to enable advances on the ground similar to the manner in which we have gained air, space and maritime dominance," Reist said. "We want to enable that strategic corporal to be a thinker in every environment that he is put into and the team that he leads."
Reist said the first demonstration will take place in August 2009.
USJFCOM's JMDSE, one of two immediate start projects, will focus on precise, rapid delivery of critical medical supplies and increasing survivability of wounded warfighters on land or at sea.
JCTD's are designated "immediate starts" if they are funded, have a transition program in place, and the technical readiness to become a program of record.
Immediate starts are JCTDs that have funding, a transition program and the technical readiness to proceed into programs of record. The JMDSE, sponsored by the USJFCOM command surgeon office, will attempt to mitigate problems associated with evacuating wounded troops.
Navy Lt. Cmdr. Greg Cook, USJFCOM's command surgeon medical concept development lead, said the JCTD answers a need for combat casualty support capability to enhance battlefield medical communications and casualty care, provide precision logistical delivery and, act as a force multiplier for casualty evacuation forces.
Cook said JMDSE will improve medical care of wounded service members from a point of injury in a firefight to a secure area where conventional casualty evacuation can occur without putting other mission enablers at undue risk from direct fire.
The final demonstration for JMDSE is scheduled for fiscal year 2011, and the program will transition to combatant commands some time before the end of 2012
Another program, "Common Ground", integrates geospatial information and analysis capabilities with command and control (C2) information across joint and multinational environments to better support C2 functions such as operational planning.
"What we are doing is taking some of the tools and information that are typically used by terrain analysts, tailoring them to support C2 functions, and putting them into the hands of the warfighter," said Leslie Winters, whose division is responsible for Common Ground operational management within USJFCOM's Joint Capability Directorate.
According to Winters, Common Ground provides a set of operator-friendly geospatial analysis capabilities so that the warfighter can more readily analyze a problem and develop viable solutions.
"Just as importantly," she continued, "Common Ground is also providing the underlying data standards that are needed for greater interoperability."
The initial Common Ground integration testing will be in November 2009, followed by an operational user assessment in December 2009. A demonstration and military utility assessment then will occur in January 2010 with technology transition beginning the following year.
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