Rick Kozak / Staff Maj. Gen. Dennis Moran is vice director, U.S. Command, Control, Communications & Computer Systems Directorate (J-6), Joint Staff.

The use and management of radio frequency spectrum in the battlefield remains a “huge problem” in places such as Iraq and Afghanistan, Maj. Gen. Dennis Moran said today, but the future gives him reason to be very optimistic.

Moran, vice director, U.S. Command, Control, Communications & Computer Systems Directorate (J-6), Joint Staff, was answering a question from the audience at the C4ISR Journal Integration Conference , New Tools for War in Real Time, Arlington, VA., where he spoke about the military being on the path to an interoperable Global Information Grid.”

Moran said that particularly in the case of Iraq, the spectrum issues arise from other equipment being used to jam improvised explosive devices, or IEDs. In that situation, Naval radiomen are being used to help sort out the situation, thanks to their expertise with such systems, he said. “We’re probably in the Stone Age right now,” but it will improve, he said.

In his main address, Moran noted the shift in warfare from “traditional” battlefields of past decades to new environments involving “irregular” or “catastrophic” challenges such as WMDs or even natural disaster response. A third area, called “disruptive,” has received less attention.

Moran defined “disruptive” as being “a phase zero, a preparation for combat, where you have the opportunity to shape the environment (alone or with others) so that you do not have to bring combat power into an environment in order to defeat the enemy.”

“We are shifting our weight out of the traditional environment into the irregular, catastrophic and disruptive,” Moran said, noting this “represents a mindset change which is going on in the Department.”

This new milieu “is the environment that the department must deliver a C4ISR capability. We are less confident on how to deliver those capabilities in the irregular and the catastrophic” realms, he conceded.

Part of delivering these capabilities, he explained, is developing the Global Information Grid to encompass a wide range of systems and various layers, including transport, services and applications. Making the various systems able to talk to each other is crucial, he said.

“The key thing the Department has to do -- and this is the role of CIO of the department -- is to rationalize those efforts to ensure you have interoperability across those service-oriented architectures. Mr. [John D.] Grimes is spending a lot of effort on that, and as part of the 2007 budget, we have to make studies and then changes to make sure we have architectures that are interoperable. I am very confident that we will do that,” Moran said.

Moran also stressed the importance of the Net-Ready Key Performance Parameter, which he said “represents a check list, a requirement, a standard within our capabilities definition process, a checklist a new program has to pass through. [The] Net-Ready KPP is based on an architectural analysis and premise a program must demonstrate through the checklist that it in fact is meeting the standards, will operate on the ubiquitous transport, will interoperate, and meet the standards.”

Among projects benefiting from this parameter is the Joint Strike Fighter, which Moran said was reviewed using the Net-Ready KPP, with the result that either minor adjustments in the JSF or the supporting applications – both of which can be accomplished – will be made.

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