CONCEPT-LED CO-EVOLUTION OF CYBERSPACE COMPONENTS

2.1 CONCEPT-LED CO-EVOLUTION OF CYBERSPACE COMPONENTS

“Cyber riding” on the FORCEnet backplane grounds cyberspace in a warfare-capability-focused requirements process. It should be designed in an integrated, Naval focused but Joint, and disciplined manner to assure increased combat power and visibility within the battles pace. The conceptually founded and innovative design architecture will be integrated through spiral development and experimentation.

The thrust of Cyberspace is to facilitate the full implementation of Network Centric Warfare (NCW) by providing the Fleet and participating Joint forces with a robust EMS capability. However, such a capability would not be useful without an integrated family of operational concepts for how each of the Naval Warfare capabilities under the Sea Power 21 mission areas (see Figure 2.2) will be carried out in a network centric manner. These tactical concepts, which are in various stages of development, constitute the essential “front end” for developing war fighting capabilities, including Cyberspace capability. The concepts will be developed through a systems engineering approach that will involve close collaboration between war fighters and technologists and will be refined through experimentation. A structured process to develop network-centric concepts for each of the Naval Warfare capabilities is a key element of the Cyberspace implementation strategy. As Figure 2.2 illustrates, the warfare capabilities are subsets of the basic Sea Power 21 Naval operational concepts.



Figure 2.3 This concept provides top cover & catalyst for a complex implementation process⁴⁹

2.2 ELEMENTS OFTHE STRATEGY

(1) Network-centric Concept Development. The starting points for developing the DOTMLPF elements are operational concepts for how each of the Naval Warfare missions and capabilities will be conducted in a network-centric manner. These mission/capability-specific operational concepts will guide the co-evolution of the supporting DOTMLPF elements.

(2) Information Backplane evolution. The Cyberspace “information backplane” (i.e., networks) consists of the Naval elements of the Global Information Grid (GIG) backplane, plus those Joint/other Service elements of the GIG backplane that support or are supported by Naval operations. The backplane includes global and theater components, as well as tactical components that are not capability-specific. The information backplane provides the following capabilities:

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  communications and networking,
  
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  enterprise computing services, and
  
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  network operations (including network management, information dissemination management, and information assurance functions).
  

(3) System Integration. This is the strategy for integrating weapon systems, sensors, C2 systems (including decision aids), platforms, and support systems has near-term and long-term components. The near-term strategy integrates selected programs of record through software/hardware modifications and gateways. The long-term strategy will guide the development of new weapons and sensors, through standards and architectural guidance, to ensure they are “born integrated.”

In order to ensure proper integration and support of the Cyberspace backplane and of system technical enhancements, Cyberspace will leverage traditional acquisition and support processes. However, Cyberspace will serve as a “forcing function” to require these processes to become more agile and responsive to emerging technologies and operational concepts⁵⁰.

(4) Warrior Development. The Warrior component of Cyberspace is a major element of the Sea Warrior initiative. It consists of both education and training. Education in Information Age fundamentals and Network Centric Operations will occur in parallel with concept development, while training will generally be tailored to support specific mission/capability concepts.

Through the Sea Trial process (explained more fully in section 8), experimentation will be used, in conjunction with traditional development processes, to facilitate concept development and the co-evolution of doctrine, TTPs, systems integration, and Warrior skills.

Figure 2.4 illustrates the overall strategy, showing how the elements of the strategy support each other and are in turn supported by the basic DoD planning and capability development processes.