Re: CSEIC News Briefs, W/E Sept. 5, 1997

["Marc A. Criley" <crileym@vfb23.mds.lmco.com>]

I just wanted to add a comment on the JWID effort referred to below.
While it was not explicitly mentioned in the CSEIC excerpt or the
original GCN article, one component of JWID was NWCS (NSFS Warfare
Control System -- NSFS = Naval Surface Fire Support).

The purpose of NWCS is Fire Coordination, handling incoming calls for
fire and redirecting them to various weapon systems to execute.  For
JWID, two of the three weapon systems were stubbed out, while the
third consisted of the Engagement Planning & Control (EPC) segment of
the Advanced Tomahawk Weapon Control System (ATWCS).  EPC generates
an over-the-water route for a Tomahawk missile, and manages and
monitors the missile during preparation and power-up, until ordering
the Launch Control system to initiate its launch.

The EPC software demonstrated at JWID was an alpha version of the
second generation of ATWCS EPC (locally referred to as the EPC
Rearchitecture), written in Ada 83, that besides exploiting the usual
features of Ada relies heavily on Ada tasking.  According to the
engineers who integrated NWCS and demonstrated it at JWID 97, EPC
performed flawlessly throughout the scenario.

Mainstream development of EPC has progressed significantly since
that alpha release in June, and we've had positive experience with
it within ATWCS.  Plans are underway to migrate to Ada 95 at an
opportune time, with the implementation currently utilizing various
techniques to facilitate that migration and exploit Ada 95 features.

Marc A. Criley
Chief Software Architect
Lockheed Martin M&DS
(610) 354-7861
marc.criley@lmco.com


-- The opinions expressed here are mine and not necessarily those   --
-- of Lockheed Martin or the ATWCS community.  It's just that I and --
-- my team did the EPC Rearchitecture and we're proud of it! :-)    --




CSEIC wrote:

<excerpts excised>
> 
> **********************************************************************
> DOD COMBINATION FITS ONE PLATFORM
> Topic:  DII, COE
> 
> The Defense Department recently demonstrated that it could combine
> command and control with combat support functions in a fused picture of
> the battlefield at last month's Joint Warrior Interoperability
> Demonstration (JWID).  "This demo is all about system integration," said
> USAF Lt. Col. Tomasita Lahue, commander of the Pentagon's Combat Support
> Operations Center, at the demo.
> 
> "At last year's Joint Warrior Interoperability Demonstrations, we were
> able to show some of the capabilities that we are showing today,
> except they were shown on separate platforms," she said.  "Today we're
> blending the operational command and control picture on one platform."
> 
> Last month's JWID showcased DISA initiatives including the Global Command
> and Control System, the Global Combat Support System, the Defense Message
> System, and the Defense Information Infrastructure Common Operating
> Environment.
> 
> SOURCE:  Slabodkin, Gregory, "DOD Combo fits one platform," Government
> Computer News, August 25, 1997, v16, n25, pp. 77-78.
>