Weather Service

Abstract

This budget activity funds the operational development necessary to acquire and modernize Air Force Weather Service (AFWS) capabilities in support of the 2018 National Defense Strategy's (NDS) three lines of effort. To improve readiness for a more lethal force, AFWS provides timely, accurate, resilient, and relevant environmental information to enable global battlespace situational awareness for the Air Force (AF), Army, Special Operations Forces (SOF), Space Force (USSF), combatant commands, the Intelligence Community (IC), and other government agencies. AFWS provides climate impacts and assessments, as well as space and terrestrial weather sensing, forecasting, and weather analytic capabilities, at home station and deployed, in order to deliver critical environmental information in support of decision makers to gain the asymmetric advantage during the full spectrum of air and space combat operations. AFWS decreases the risk to mission and risk to force by increasing the lethality, effectiveness, and survivability of Department of Defense (DoD) weapon systems. To strengthen alliances and partnerships, AFWS development efforts integrate DoD, government agency, commercial, and international partner environmental data and software with AFWS information systems for processing, storing, exploiting, and disseminating all-domain weather information for analysis, forecasting, mission integration, and greater interoperability. To ensure greater performance and affordability for the Department of the AF, AFWS sensors and information systems are being modernized through improvements to architecture and system efficiency, cybersecurity, joint all-domain command and control (JADC2) and sensing grid integration, migration to cloud computing, artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) initiatives, and expanding agile software development, rapid delivery, and integration practices. The AF Weather Enterprise digital transformation and cloud migration effort modernizes key capabilities providing the military advantage to accurately predict environmental impacts optimizing mission planning, targeting, weaponeering, mission execution, battle damage assessment, and space systems operations. AFWS aligns activities under four capability areas: Weather Data Collection, Weather Data Analysis and Dissemination, Weather Forecasting, and Product Tailoring/Warfighter Applications (PTWA). This alignment ensures an integrated and systems-oriented approach to program management decisions. Of these four capability areas, three (Weather Data Analysis and Dissemination, Weather Forecasting, and PTWA) are addressed by APPN 3600, BA 07, PE 0305111F, Project 672738 - Weather Service. Effective FY 2021, a portion of the APPN 3600 funding and activities from Weather Data Analysis and Dissemination and Weather Forecasting were migrated to the PTWA capability area to better address development of applications, software, command and control (C2) system integration, and web interfaces that directly impact the warfighter within the Weather Application Rapid Production (WARPspeed) program of record. For FY 2021, WDA Increment 5 and WARPspeed programs of record were approved as Software Acquisition Pathway Programs and are now OSD-nominated APPN 3600 BA 08 FY23 pilot programs. 1. Weather Data Collection provides automated atmospheric and ground-based space environmental sensing capabilities at fixed and deployed locations worldwide. The data gathered by multiple sensor systems is exploited for environmental battlespace awareness, characterization, safety of flight, resource protection, and satellite anomaly assessments and impacts. 2. Weather Data Analysis and Dissemination provides a cybersecure cloud computing-based platform supporting large-scale environmental data ingest, processing, and product generation, Continuous Integration/Continuous Delivery (CI/CD) and AI/ML environments for AFWS software development and deployment, and machine-to-machine dissemination of specific, mission-tailored weather data on-demand to support warfighter operations, weapon system interoperability, rapidly integrating into C2 nodes, and shortening the Combatant Commander kill chain. The Weather Data Analysis and Dissemination capability area includes activities for Weather Data Analysis Increment 5 (WDA Inc 5). 3. Weather Forecasting provides global and regional advanced scientific numerical weather and climate prediction capabilities for automated, high-resolution forecast products supporting mission planning and execution with an emphasis on clouds, theater scale weather, aerosol/chemical constituents, hydrology, machine learning, and space environmental characterization. Weather Forecasting includes activities for Numerical Weather Modeling (NWM) and Space Weather Analysis and Forecast System (SWAFS). In FY 2023, the SWAFS portion of the APPN 3600 funding and activities from AF PE 0305111F, Weather Service, were transferred to the USSF PE 1203940SF, Space Situational Awareness Operations. 4. Product Tailoring Warfighter Applications (PTWA) provides software applications that provide and enhance environmental information to support rapid warfighter decision-making. PTWA includes the program, Weather Applications Rapid Production (WARPspeed), which is a suite of software applications developed and delivered across multiple security classification levels. WARPspeed encompasses weather workflow tools and decision aids used to tailor terrestrial and space environmental information, which include both Forecaster-in-the-Loop (FITL) and automated machine-to-machine processes enhanced by AI/ML. WARPspeed leverages the WDA Inc 5 cloud computing, data processing, and CI/CD and AI/ML platforms to rapidly develop, deliver, and sustain software capabilities, whether deployed into the AF Weather Virtual Private Cloud (AFW-VPC) or to warfighter processing nodes at the edge. The PTWA program Joint Environmental Toolkit (JET) subsumed several software and web development efforts previously aligned under the Weather Data Analysis and Dissemination capability area in FY 2021 and was renamed to WARPspeed. PTWA and WARPspeed also includes the machine learning Global Synthetic Weather Radar (GSWR) capabilities, which were previously aligned under Weather Forecasting. Activities include research and analysis to support current program planning. Management Service costs include Federally Funded Research and Development Centers (FFRDC) and Advisory and Assistance Service (A&AS). The total cost of the ExMet Rapid Fielding Middle Tier of Acquisition effort is 34.8M, including RDT&E and procurement of prototype units. ExMet Rapid Fielding program is fully funded across the Future Years Defense Program. This requirement supports performance of a full financial audit as required by title 10 U.S.C. Chapter 9A, SEC 240-D. This program element may include necessary emergent or unanticipated civilian pay expenses required to manage, execute, and deliver 0305111F Weather Service for emergent or unanticipated weapon system capability. This program is in Budget Activity 7, Operational System Development because this budget activity includes development efforts to upgrade systems that have been fielded or have received approval for full rate production and anticipate production funding in the current or subsequent fiscal year. This program is in Budget Activity 7, Operational System Development because this budget activity includes development efforts to upgrade systems that have been fielded or have received approval for full rate production and anticipate production funding in the current or subsequent fiscal year.

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Document Type: Project
Publication Date: Oct 01, 2023
Source ID: 672738_0305111F_7_3600_PB_2023

Weather Service

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