Suitability of Agent Technology for Military Command and Control in the Future Combat System Environment
Abstract
The U.S. Army is faced with the challenge of dramatically improving its war fighting capability through advanced technologies. The focus of this paper is to assess the novelty and maturity of agent technology for use in the Future Combat System (FCS). FCS will rely on networked command and control (C2) to transform from the historically centralized C2 function. Achieving a networked C2 capability will require breakthroughs in current software technology. We have developed a set of software requirements for FCS based on military requirements for this system. We have then evaluated these software requirements against current computer science technology. From this analysis we find that existing technologies will not likely be sufficient to meet the networked C2 requirements of FCS due to limitations in scalability, mobility, and security. However, agent technology provides a number of advantages in these areas, mainly through much stronger messaging and coordination models. These advantages have the potential for significant improvements in scalability, mobility, and security. We believe that agent technology has the capability to support most of the networked C2 requirements of FCS. However, we would recommend proof of principle experiments to verify the theoretical advantages of this technology in an FCS environment.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jun 01, 2003
- Accession Number
- ADA467592
Entities
People
- Andy Loebl
- Laurence Phillips
- Robert Pollock
- Thomas Potok
Organizations
- Oak Ridge National Laboratory