The Navy's ForceNet concept, signed by Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) Admiral Vern Clark and Marine Corps Commandant (CMC) General Michael Hagee in late February, isolates 15 areas that the ForceNet architecture will address in supporting the three warfighting "pillars" of the "Sea Power 21" transformational strategy.
Most of the ForceNet priorities the CNO and CMC approved focus on tactical procedures and processes for sharing data across joint and coalition forces and battle groups. Only two-training and supporting systems-address the requirement for new approaches to managing the personnel who will operate and manage weapons, command-and-control, and information-transfer systems within ForceNet.
The ForceNet architecture will encompass networks and systems already in service and the fielding of new systems. It also will serve as the Navy component of the Department of Defense Global Information Grid (GIG), intended to integrate the information-management protocols of all the services.
The Naval Network Warfare Command is the lead acquisition command for ForceNet; the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command is the ForceNet engineer. The Office of Naval Research's (ONR) Information, Electronics, and Surveillance department is leading the development of numerous emerging information-management and network security technologies that will support ForceNet.
ONR's Human Systems department also is pursuing a mix of technologies focused on the need for rapid, accurate, and team-oriented decision making within the dynamic ForceNet vision. Mike Letsky, program officer for collaboration and knowledge management programs within ONR's Human Systems group, points out that while ForceNet has stressed information-systems hardware and software, the human aspects remain critical.
Letsky says that ForceNet calls for interoperability of sensors and hardware to integrate sensor data. He adds that "the interoperability of people is equally important." Over the past year, he says, his group has identified a range of humansystems technology initiatives already under way that contribute to ForceNet. Those efforts address problems such as supporting decision making for small coalition teams, including multicultural teams that employ different types of organizational structures. Such teams could be assembled to respond to tactical and nontactical missions to include humanitarian assistance and disaster relief.
Letsky says that the ONR Human Systems team is working on several thrust areas that will support ForceNet capabilities. One key effort is development of human-computer interfaces that will improve operator effectiveness in extracting information from displays. A second thrust is enhancement of decision-support technologies, elements of which were implemented in a "knowledge web" tool suite employed in prototype form on board the carrier USS Carl Vinson (CVN-70) during her deployment to the Arabian Sea with Task Force 50 during Operation Enduring Freedom in late 2001.
A third area, designated collaboration and knowledge management, explores the cognitive processes used by individuals to solve team problems. Team decision making, Letsky says, consists of four elements. The first is individual knowledge building, or how people visualize information and convert data to knowledge. A second element, referred to as knowledge interoperability, looks at ways knowledge can be presented so that people of other cultures and disciples can understand it. Third, team-shared understanding investigates how team members are led to share a common "situational awareness" of problems. The fourth element, which he calls developing team consensus, studies methods for providing support tools that help teams agree on a course of action.
The human-factors initiative has funded several research efforts, including a nearly complete project at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and several at companies through small business incentive research awards.
The MIT work, referred to as the electronic card wall (E-Wall), creates digital representations of "knowledge objects" of four or five components. These are shown on computers in team members' workspaces. Some number of workspaces are tied together in a team format so that team members can see other's workspaces as a means of developing a team understanding of problems in order to solve them.
The MIT E-Wall, he says, is probably the most mature effort. Four companies-Evidence-Based Research (EBR), Aptima Corp, Pacific Science & Engineering, and Klein Associates-are working under small business innovation research contracts to support the effort. EBR has delivered a collaboration advisory software tool that critiques the performance of team members and recommends ways to improve their effectiveness. For ForceNet applications, it probably would support intelligence analysis. The other three companies are at earlier stages in their development of similar collaboration-support tools.