Air Force officials aim to improve battle information flow

Air Force officials are working to create a common infrastructure that would give warfighters real-time access to secure, reliable information and enable them to put "a cursor over a target" and let "the computers go to work," the branch's chief information officer said on Wednesday.

"Today, that's not exactly what we have in the Air Force," John Gilligan said during an E-Gov conference. "It's very difficult, at times, to get a seamless connectivity to our airborne platforms."

The service is improving its ability to integrate its systems so that information can flow seamlessly among commanders, warfighters, and manned and unmanned ground, airborne and space assets, according to Gilligan.

"We're making some progress, but all too frequently, what we have are multiple formats, we have redundant information, we have many official sources," Gilligan said. "One of the things that makes it very difficult to implement this 'cursor on the target' [concept] is that the computers don't quite know which source should be relied upon."

Gilligan recalled that after President Bush ordered the first military strike against Iraq last month, it took almost two hours for U.S. and coalition forces to launch the attack. He said it was "amazing" that the troops had managed to plan their flight routes, identify target characteristics and "aim points," and do other complex tasks within that two-hour time frame.

But he said Air Force officials are developing an automated system of "knowledge management" tools that eventually will enable warfighters to accomplish such tasks "literally in seconds."

"The computers ought to go out and look in the historical databases [and] the intelligence reports that we have related to this potential target," Gilligan said. "What were the previous identifications? Are there any potential collateral damage issues that need to be worried about? What are the strike platforms that might be available, already flying in the air? What are the [recommended] weapons? What are the rules of engagement?"

In order to implement those sophisticated capabilities, the first Air Force must improve its information management, according to Gilligan.

"Collaboration is something that happens all too frequently in an ad-hoc fashion, but we're getting a lot better," he said. He added that portal technologies, document repositories, "groupware" and other common components of a Web-based infrastructure have emerged as "core tools" in the Air Force's efforts to better manage its information.

"We're looking for common formats and tools, standardized capabilities," Gilligan said. "We want to be able to have users log on once to the enterprise and be able to get access to any information or any services that are available without having to [use] separate user IDs and passwords."

Gilligan said the Air Force also must develop an "information stewardship" system to ensure that individuals do their part to deliver the right information to the right person at the right time. "This is a non-technical challenge for us, but it is probably one of our most difficult," he said. "Increasingly, [information] is being made available, but there's no sense of accountability."