Advanced Battle Management System (ABMS)

Abstract

ABMS is the primary program element funding architecture, digital infrastructure and software development for the Department of the Air Force's (DAF) primary contribution towards meeting the Joint All-Domain Command and Control (JADC2) warfighting concept. JADC2 requires individual military activities not simply be deconflicted, but integrated (i.e., activities in one domain must enhance the effectiveness of those in other domains and compensate for vulnerabilities). ABMS PE programs will therefore connect sensors, battle management C2 systems (BMC2), and weapons across both the U.S. Space Force (USSF) and U.S. Air Force (USAF) through the delivery of aligned infrastructure and secure data to enable global battle management for JADC2. The DAF formally refers to its integrated JADC2 deliverable as the "DAF BATTLE NETWORK." On 24 Nov 2020, the DAF Rapid Capabilities Office (DAF RCO) became the ABMS Integrating Program Executive Office (PEO) in a deliberate transition to start acquiring enduring ABMS capability through focused acquisition efforts and investments in a robust DAF digital infrastructure. In September 2022, the Secretary of the Air Force (SecAF) directed the standup of the DAF Integrating Program Executive Office for Command, Control, Communication and Battle Management (DAF PEO C3BM). The construct emerged out of the Operational Imperatives (OI) analysis that identified a significant need for C3BM integration and a greater level of system-of-systems engineering and technical discipline across the enterprise to ensure the effectiveness of ABMS in supporting DAF operations. Notably, DAF PEO C3BM combines the previous efforts of the DAF Rapid Capabilities Office (RCO) ABMS program and the DAF Chief Architect Office (CAO). By bringing the ABMS and CAO portfolio of programs and authorities under a single PEO and then conferring unto that PEO the responsibility to integrate broader DAF battle management and C2 capabilities, one organization now has the architectural authorities to direct technical integration activities across the DAF while also having the acquisition authorities of a PEO to execute organic materiel solutions to field a survivable, distributable command and control capability into the integrated DAF BATTLE NETWORK. The C3BM construct will enable the DAF to provide a resilient decision advantage that will enable the joint force win against the pacing challenge. The DAF PEO C3BM identified an initial set of 50 programs across the DAF that collectively comprise the core elements of the DAF BATTLE NETWORK. The DAF PEO C3BM will work in partnership with the PEOs of these core programs to ensure the technical and programmatic integration necessary to achieve the required operational decision advantage needed by the USAF, USSF, joint, and coalition forces to win against the pacing challenge. The DAF PEO C3BM will employ a range of integration and reporting activities with the PEOs for Command, Control, Communication, Intelligence and Networks; Digital; DAF Rapid Capabilities Office; Space Force PEO for Battle Management, Command, Control, and Communication; Space Development Agency; Space Rapid Capabilities Office; the National Reconnaissance Office; the Missile Defense Agency; and other PEOs across the DoD as needed to ensure the DAF BATTLE NETWORK delivers an integrated capability to build situational awareness, make operational decisions, and execute force direction at the scale and speed necessary to win against the pacing challenge. These activities may include technical and programmatic collaboration, reporting, and integration; leveraging the ABMS PE funding to accelerate critical capabilities or activities in another PEO to provide the needed DAF BATTLE NETWORK operational outcomes; accepting funding, manning, networks, or facilities from another PEO to design, build, or deliver DAF BATTLE NETWORK capabilities; or executing organic programs with the DAF PEO C3BM to meet DAF BATTLE NETWORK cost, schedule, or performance requirements. The DAF PEO C3BM will exercise technical architecture authorities across the DAF to ensure the Command and Control mission area is integrated technically and programmatically to meet DAF C2 mission requirements and provide the needed resilient decision advantage to the joint and coalition forces the USAF and USSF will fight alongside of. For clarity in nomenclature, the end-to-end, system-of-systems needed to deliver resilient decision advantage is the DAF BATTLE NETWORK. The core of the DAF BATTLE NETWORK encompasses 50 programs across multiple PEOs collectively called the DAF C3BM Enterprise. The DAF PEO C3BM integrates across the DAF C3BM Enterprise core programs to ensure the DAF BATTLE NETWORK operates as needed to provide resilient decision advantage to the joint and coalition force. The ABMS portfolio of programs are the specific programs the DAF PEO C3BM maintains organic control over from a cost, schedule, and performance standpoint, and initially encompasses the programs formerly executed by the DAF RCO. The ABMS PE content described in this document funds the ABMS portfolio of programs and the architecture and systems engineering work required to execute technical direction across the rest of the DAF. Relative to the broader DAF BATTLE NETWORK capability, ABMS is therefore not just a weapon system platform or sensor. It is the aggregate of materiel and non-materiel solutions to integrate the essential data network that connects and empowers current and future weapon system platforms and sensors to fight and win in the modern era as defined by the National Defense Strategy and Joint All-Domain Operations Department of Defense directives. Legacy and future sensors from a variety of air and space-based programs and sources will produce data that needs to be made available to operators or systems that need it. Multi-level secure processing occurs on global distributed clouds, tactical edge nodes, infrastructure, platforms, and end user devices where operators interface with the data and applications at the required classification level. For information to flow, the network must be enabled by a combination of government and commercial connectivity pathways to move data to and through a suite of cloud and local edge-based applications that make sense of the environment and apply advanced algorithms aided by artificial intelligence and machine learning. Strategic, operational, and tactical operators use these applications to manage and direct the desired effects using machine-to-machine connections. Since the DAF BATTLE NETWORK is comprised of a DAF wide collection of acquisition efforts being executed by many different PEOs, the broader collection of "core” programs key to delivering the DAF BATTLE NETWORK must be well aligned. Investments in the ABMS portfolio of programs aligns USAF investment with USSF investment (e.g., Space Command and Control (C2) Program Element PE (1208248SF) and the MeshOne-T PE (1206760SF)) to eliminate duplication of effort while optimizing capability delivery to create the DAF BATTLE NETWORK deliverable. Under the purview of the DAF PEO C3BM, ABMS will pursue multiple symbiotic investment strategies within PE 0604003F that will seek to optimally leverage "best of breed” capability from across the DAF to facilitate accelerated delivery of the DAF BATTLE NETWORK. The first thrust area is entitled: "Architecture and Systems Engineering (ASE)" and continues work previously conducted under PE 0604006F: Dept of the Air Force Tech Architecture. The ASE team combines DAF Chief Architect authorities with the Systems Engineering authorities needed for the design and fielding of the DAF BATTLE NETWORK. The ASE leads technical architectures for the entire DAF Air and Space portfolio to enable accelerated agile delivery of integrated warfighter capabilities in support of national security objectives. The second thrust area continues, and significantly scales, work from Fiscal Year 2023 and is entitled: "C3BM Software and Applications." The "Cloud-Based Command and Control (CBC2) program falls in the "C3BM Software and Applications” thrust area. The fourth thrust area continues work started in Fiscal Year 2023 and is entitled: "Airborne Edge Node (AEN) C3BM Aerial Networking." The Airborne Edge Node program falls under thrust area #4. In the Fiscal Year 2023 R-Doc for ABMS, CBC2 and AEN were collectively captured under a thrust area entitled "Capability Release." In Fiscal Year 2024, these programs have been broken out to the aforementioned thrusts to provide greater insight and understanding to the work ABMS is pursuing in Fiscal Year 2024 and beyond. The purpose of the four C3BM thrust areas is to ensure a focused delivery of ABMS investments to enable the broader DAF BATTLE NETWORK. To do this, all ABMS investments will vector towards delivery of the following ABMS elements: 1. Secure Processing: The hardware and software for processing and storage through multi-level security environments globally and at the edge enabling a full range of military operations. 2. Connectivity: Maturation and integration of open software-defined radios and networks, government-owned waveform libraries, and wideband multi-function RF systems. This element also includes the integration and standards required to leverage advances in commercial technology such as Open Communications Standards (OCS), 5G networks, and connections through multi-orbit satellite communications. 3. Data Management: Cloud-based data libraries, data feeds, data wrappers, software-defined data management, and content routing to improve data discoverability and information sharing across the joint force for legacy and future platforms and programs. 4. Applications: Cloud-based applications to provide User Interface/User Experience (UI/UX) capabilities that will position warfighters "on the loop” to provide robust and dynamic battle management, command, and control (BMC2) functionality, improved timing, and enhanced decision advantage. 5. Sensor Integration: ABMS will develop (as needed), codify, and mature government-owned standards, solidify interface specifications, and will provide open and reusable capabilities to ensure interoperability with the ABMS digital infrastructure* for existing and future military systems. 6. Effects Integration: ABMS will develop (as needed), codify, and mature government-owned standards and interface specifications to ensure the successful integration of DAF and Joint effects capabilities into the ABMS digital infrastructure* for existing and future military systems. To ensure effective delivery of capability across the four C3BM Thrust Areas in accordance with the aforementioned 6 ABMS elements, an ABMS Battle Lab will provide a critical digital experimentation environment to explore and vet new command and control technologies, as well as to develop C2 tactics, techniques, and procedures. The ABMS Battle Lab will allow warfighters direct interaction with software development teams and prototypes in development, speeding up the feedback loop and product maturity. Thrust Area 1: "Architecture and Systems Engineering (ASE)" encapsulates the following categories of activity in Fiscal Year 2024: 1) Digital Engineering, 2) Mission Domain Architectures, Mission Integration Team (MITs), and Enterprise Integration as it relates to the identification, capture, maturation, and codification of derived requirements, standards, interface specifications, and/or new technologies that enable delivery of an integrated DAF BATTLE NETWORK that will directly contribute to the joint fight in the face of a pacing challenge, and 3) an Operational Response Team (ORT) facilitating quick reaction prototyping and experimentation in response to warfighter-led efforts and new relevant technologies. Thrust Area 1 supports all 6 ABMS elements to ensure effective delivery of ABMS Thrust Areas 2, 3, and 4, as well as any activities considered to be C3BM core programs. Thrust Area 2: "C3BM Digital Infrastructure" encapsulates the following categories of activity in Fiscal Year 2024: 1) ABMS Digital Infrastructure (DI), 2) the ABMS Consortium, and 3) the ABMS Battle Lab. ABMS DI covers the ongoing work of Distributed Battle Management Node (DBMN), Software Defined Wide Area Network (SD-WAN), and several other digital infrastructure activities to include Deployable Digital Infrastructure (Deployable DI), Tactical and Enterprise Cross Domain Solutions (CDS), and ABMS-specific support for DAF enterprise solutions. Thrust Area 2 satisfies the ABMS Elements of secure processing, connectivity, and data management. Thrust Area 3: "C3BM Software and Applications" encapsulates the following categories of activity in Fiscal Year 2024: 1) Cloud-Based Command and Control (CBC2) and (2) Distributed Battle Management Applications. For Cloud-Based C2, efforts include LOE #1 for a SW Integrator, LOE #2 for Agile Software Development at scale, and LOE #3 for data transport, storage, and access, as well as platform investment. For Distributed Battle Management Applications, ABMS Thrust Area 3 will continue development and extension of CBC2 functionality, initially developed for NORAD & USNORTHCOM Battle Control Centers, to other DAF BATTLE NETWORK entities (e.g. the Tactical Operations Center Family of Systems, or TOC FoS) in line with Air Combat Command's (ACC) Common Battle Management Command and Control (BMC2) Interface (CBI) concept. Inherent to the C3BM Software and Applications Thrust Area is the requirement to align and/or integrate with multiple DAF software factories, artificial intelligence and machine learning centers of excellence, and DAF Data as a Service solutions to facilitate efficient deployment of critically needed software capabilities through development, staging, and production in support of joint operations. Thrust Area 3 contributes to ABMS element 4 (i.e. Applications) and leverages ABMS DI delivered capability (ABMS elements #1, #2, and #3) to achieve ABMS elements #4, #5, and #6. Thrust Area 4: "C3BM Aerial Networking" covers the ongoing work associated with the Airborne Edge Node (AEN), including Capability Release #1 (CR #1) and the effort to extend AEN capabilities to tactically relevant aircraft. AEN will connect select Tac Air assets and C2 functions to the ABMS cloud at the tactical edge, enhancing Situational Awareness and decision making at multiple echelons. CR #1 is the first prototype effort for AEN and will inform future design and fielding decisions for other platforms and C2 functions to connect to the ABMS DI. This work includes a Communications Subsystem, platform integration, and onboard tactical edge node capabilities for secure compute, and storage to host mission applications that increase aircrew situational awareness. The Airborne Edge Node work will include continued development and maturation of multi-function processors, multi-function arrays, edge node hardware and software to host mission applications, and platform integration options to ease implementation and scaling. To ensure delivery of ABMS projects in each ABMS Thrust Area, and to ensure alignment of the broader DAF from a battle management perspective, ABMS funding provides for program management support, operational concept development and demonstration, hardware development and integration, software development and integration, and other government costs. This program element may include necessary emergent or unanticipated civilian and National Guard/Reserve Duty pay expenses required to manage, execute, and deliver for emergent or unanticipated weapon system capability. The use of such program funds would be in addition to the civilian pay expenses budgeted in program element 0605831F and 0604858F. This effort is in Budget Activity 4, Advanced Component Development and Prototypes (ACD&P), because efforts are necessary to evaluate integrated technologies, representative modes or prototype systems in a high fidelity and realistic operating environment. This effort is in Budget Activity 4, Advanced Component Development and Prototypes (ACD&P), because efforts are necessary to evaluate integrated technologies, representative modes or prototype systems in a high fidelity and realistic operating environment.

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Document Type: Project
Publication Date: Oct 01, 2024
Source ID: 640141_0604003F_4_3600_PB_2024

Advanced Battle Management System (ABMS)

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