[LINK] US Military, "We want to share data, and fight the way we want in actual warfare scenario.”

[Stephen Loosley]

New joint data standards could come in early 2025

The anticipated document would help ensure compatibility between 
training and simulation systems across services.

By Lauren C. Williams Senior Editor December 5, 2024 
https://www.defenseone.com/defense-systems/2024/12/new-joint-data-standards-could-come-early-2025/401450/

Re:Training & Simulation, Pentagon I/ITSEC

* Bell said developing cross-domain solutions that work effectively will 
require “continued investment,” but is critical for the U.S. military to 
continue to train with allies and partners.

* “We want to be able to share data with them so that we can train as we 
can fight, and we can fight the way we want to in an actual warfare 
scenario,” Bell said.


ORLANDO, Fla.—The Pentagon’s top body in charge of developing military 
requirements is expected to release new data standards next year that 
will make it easier for combatant commands and services to conduct 
large, exercises in virtual environments.

The joint requirements oversight council, or JROC, is currently working 
on a capstone initial capabilities document, which will outline data 
standards for simulation and modeling systems the military uses.

The document is expected in March, said Adm. Christopher Grady, vice 
chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, during the Interservice/Industry 
Training, Simulation and Education Conference.

Standards for data architecture and data sharing are necessary so the 
joint force can take advantage of modeling and simulation technologies.

“There's so much data out there that you all are working with…How do we 
manage data so that we can bring it into these very sophisticated 
modeling and simulation engines that are going to help us with that 
dominant decision-making?” he said.

“But from a joint perspective, we need to have standards right. So that 
as we build out, for instance, the Joint Live, Virtual and Constructive 
framework, I want the services and the  [combatant commands]  to be able 
to plug into that seamlessly.

So standardization will be really, really important.”

Still, there’s work remaining, and the Pentagon plans to ask Congress 
for funding to “build out those robust standards so that everybody can 
see where they fit in,” Grady said.

“I think, from a big arc perspective, that will be really helpful,” he said.

Adopting joint standards would make it so various simulation systems 
used by each of the services can talk to each other, which would make it 
easier to hold large, joint training exercises, said John Bell, chief 
technology officer HII Mission Technologies, which supports the Joint 
Live, Virtual, Constructive training environment the combatant commands 
use.

“If I'm a Navy guy and I'm running a Navy exercise with Navy simulation 
systems and we want to do a joint exercise with the Air Force, how do we 
make sure all of our training systems can talk to each other in a 
meaningful way, so that we train together in a meaningful way?” Bell said.

“So we have to set those standards at a joint level.”

And when it comes to data sharing across classification levels, the 
military needs to have  machine-based solutions to keep operators from 
having to toggle between computers to share information with mission 
partners, Grady said.

“I want everything to be fully informed. And that's very, very challenging.

So the more that we can get away from swivel-chairing data, the more 
that we can have cross-domain solutions from the highest classification 
level all the way down, the better will be,” he said, describing how 
operators will spin in their chair to share information between systems 
of different classification levels.

That’s a task better suited for computers, but developing cross-domain 
solutions that are effective is very difficult, Bell said.

“We want to have computers be able to do that. And we have these 
cross-domain solutions in place, but they're very difficult to develop,” 
he said.


Bell said developing cross-domain solutions that work effectively will 
require “continued investment,” but is critical for the U.S. military to 
continue to train with allies and partners.


“We want to be able to share data with them so that we can train as we 
can fight and we can fight the way we want to in an actual warfare 
scenario,” Bell said.


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