The Power of Information Age Concepts and Technologies An Environment for Comparing Command and Control Architectures

As the Services move to transform joint and coalition operations, a new capability being contemplated for the transformed forces is synchronizing manned-combat-vehicle and unmanned-combat-vehicle target engagements. However, we are just beginning to work out the details for implementing such a symphony of coordinated human and machine decisions and actions. One challenge in realizing an implementation is the selection of command and control architectural components and their relationships that will provide the precision and flexibility needed for joint and coalition warfare. We describe an experiment in building an environment for comparing command and control architectures. The experiment involves extending the One Semi-Automated Forces (OneSAF) simulation environment to support analysis of alternative architectures for integration of control of autonomous combat vehicles with control of manned combat vehicles. The autonomous combat vehicle being simulated is the Loitering Attack Missile (LAM) which is being considered as a supporting indirect fire weapon for the Future Combat System (FCS).