2008 Issue 2 - Raytheon

This schematic shows the four roles that will interoperate in the July 2008 Project NINJA field demonstration.
command-and-control decision-makers with
the following capabilities:
An affordable path to enabling netted
weapons as service providers
The ability to put the right effect, sensor
data, or communications capability in the
hands of the warfighter command that
most needs that service
A flexible architecture that addresses
system effectiveness as well as policy
restrictions such as firing doctrine and
chain-of-custody weapon controls without
wholesale replacement of legacy systems
and networks
Combining these NEWS attributes with
Department of Defense GIG data registries
gives the warfighter the best battle information
for directing the system to achieve
the required effect. For example, an Army
sergeant with the right authorization
might request services from an Air Forcelaunched
effector. The sergeant could
select appropriate NEWS-equipped
weapons, launch them, control them,
retarget them, and command them to
perform roles such as surveillance, according
to their capabilities. The July 2008
military exercise will demonstrate these
technologies with Project NINJA.
The Demonstration
This summer’s exercise will demonstrate
how multiple users can simultaneously
benefit from NINJA’s sensor capabilities.
As shown in the Figure, requests for services
come from users of the Joint Air Operations
Center–Experimental (JAOC-X). These
requests, and the responses they generate,
can be directly exchanged between
NINJA and JAOC-X, or they can be posted
to the Intelligence, Surveillance and
Reconnaissance (ISR) network by the airborne
DCGS Integrated Backbone (DIB).
Data posted to the ISR network is available
to all authorized users. Multiple scenarios
are defined that allow users an increasing
level of ad-hoc NINJA retasking in near-real
time, to respond to the changing battlespace.
Users are able to make decisions
based upon responses to their service
requests, then retask NINJA to meet their
newly discovered needs.
The July 2008 exercise will demonstrate the
enhanced capabilities of RMS products when
they are made capable of operating within
the NCE. The process of preparing for the
exercise also provides a road map for products
that will be required to operate within
the NCE. Following Project NINJA’s example,
the NCE can be implemented for other
Feature
systems with minimal additions to product
development plans. Much of the core
NEWS capability is reusable without modification.
Only the interfaces must be tailored
to reflect specific services offered by the
product. Then using the Netted Weapons
Standard Interface Protocol, the newly
netted weapon is added to NetFx.
The technologies and demonstration
described here must be coordinated with
concepts of operation and tactics that
enable the use of netted weapons within
doctrinal constraints acceptable to the
warfighter. This means the flexibility of
net-centric systems must be balanced
with current doctrine, such as studies
conducted by the Navy and Air Force Joint
Command and Control for Net-Enabled
Weapons program.
Although other companies have promised
net-centric capability, so far they have only
tested data link approaches or demonstrated
a specific command-to-weapon link.
By contrast, Raytheon’s NINJA will actually
meet the full “net-ready compliant”
requirement, delivering the most capability
available to the warfighter.
Bryan Lail
jblail@raytheon.com
John Richter
john_c_richter@raytheon.com
RAYTHEON TECHNOLOGY TODAY 2008 ISSUE 2 11