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TransitionBriefs
Enterprise Cooperating Agents for Specific Tasks (eCAST)
Advanced Technology Laboratories • Electronic Systems Business Area
Vol. 2 No. 2

Enterprise
Cooperating
Agents for
Specific Tasks
(eCAST)
TransitionBriefs
Tactical information and intelligence
sources are expanding rapidly.
Information flows to command
centers from multiple, widely dispersed
sources. The challenge is
to collect and assemble information
in a single location so that
commanders and warfighters can
apply the cumulative intelligence
data to planning and tactical situations.
Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology
Laboratories (ATL) developed and
transitioned its Enterprise Cooperating
Agents for Specific Tasks (eCAST) capability
into a U.S. Navy ballistic missile
submarine during a Limited Objective
Experiment (LOE) called operation Silent
Hammer.
As part of the experiment, the U.S.
Navy evaluated how a guided-missile submarine
could serve as a command-andcontrol
center for future strike missions
and special operations.
ATL's eCAST, which gathered supplementary
intelligence data in support of
the targeting process, was installed within
the submarine’s Battle Management
Center (BMC). The BMC provided the
capability to analyze and process target
information—a function usually performed
within carrier or shore-based intelligence
centers. Lockheed Martin
Maritime Systems and Sensors managed
the LOE.
eCAST is an agent-based system that
collects intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance,
and targeting information from
disparate sources and places it in a concise
and consolidated Web page—the
Intelligence Collection Folder. Intelligence
analysts use these folders to develop
refined tactical planning and targeting
information.
Based on ATL’s intelligent-agent
technology, eCAST facilitates and expedites
the targeting decision-making
process. It improves the analyst's situational
awareness in dynamic environments
and the overall efficiency and effectiveness
of intelligence management for strike
warfare. eCAST allows the warfighter to
focus on battle management—not data
management applications.
Other Transition Successes
• Pioneer. ATL transitioned eCAST into
Pioneer, an integrated portfolio of existing
computer systems that demonstrates
horizontal integration. Lockheed Martin
Information Systems and Global
Services manages the initiative and
Lockheed Martin’s Center for Innovation
hosts it.
• Total Integrated Warfare (TIW).
eCAST’s Web service and integration
capabilities transitioned into the TIW
independent research and development
prototypes managed by Lockheed
Martin Information Systems and Global
Services.
• Enterprise Strike Warfare
Architecture (eSWA) program.
Sponsored by the U.S. Navy’s Cruise
Missile Command and Control Enterprise
Working Group, ATL’s eCAST
and information agents helped prototype
the horizontal integration of existing
stovepipe target/planning systems into
an enterprise architecture. eCAST also
prepositioned data from disparate data
sources and rendered its capability
through the Web.
Contact:
Hugh Pearce
Advanced Technology Laboratories
856.792.9810
hpearce@atl.lmco.com