October 2000 Newsletter - Naval Postgraduate School

MISSILE DEFENSE RESEARCH, continued from page 2
methods to distribute TBMD data
and its applicability to all TBMD
missions, passive and active defense
and attack operations.
RESEARCH OVERVIEW
Access Denial
As part of a long-running study of
access denial sponsored by the Office
of Naval Research and the CNO
Executive Panel, Associate Professor
Robert Harney of the Department
of Physics has been examining
vulnerabilities of United States forces
that could be exploited by an
adversary to accomplish denial of
access of U. S. power projection
forces to areas of the world vital to
our national interests. Several “red
teams” composed of NPS students
and faculty were the instruments
Joint Tactical Ground Station (JTAGS), a joint Army/Navy system used to pro-
used for identifying many of the
vide theater units with TBMD info.
approaches an adversary might take
to access denial. Among the 36 vulnerabilities identified to sense, the U. S. is vulnerable to any large, prosperous, adver-
date, one involves strategic missile defense and another sary nation with an ICBM capability. As long as the adverinvolves
tactical ballistic missile defense. In the strategic
--continued on page 4
RADIANT GOLD: AN ALTERNATIVE CUEING ARCHITECTURE FOR NAVAL THEATER
BALLISTIC MISSILE PROGRAMS
LT Christopher J. Atkinson, USN
Master of Science in Space Systems Operations-
September 2000
Advisors: Alan Ross, Navy Tactical Exploitation of
National Capabilities (TENCAP) Chair Professor, and
Charles Racoosin, Naval Space Command Academic Chair
The Theater Ballistic Missile Defense (TBMD) problem is
complex and dynamic, requiring the use of space-based
sensor system information to enhance mission success. The
central purpose of this thesis is to examine the potential of
the cueing architecture that results from using a Navy
Tactical Exploitation of National Capabilities (TENCAP)
sponsored research and development program’s concept,
termed RADIANT GOLD. The program delivers JTAGS
processed data derived from national sensor systems to an
AEGIS ship. To this end, this project had three goals. First,
model and simulate the cueing architecture under varying
degrees of complexity and exploring a diverse set of data
dissemination methodologies. Secondly, to examine data
derived from a demonstration of the RADIANT GOLD
architecture in a recent Fleet Battle Experiment and compare
the performance of the architecture to simulation.
Lastly, to provide a subjective analysis of RADIANT GOLD
and other architectures.
The results from the research indicate that an Extremely
High Frequency (EHF) satellite communications network is
a suitable method to deliver time critical TBM data. Additionally,
the Global Broadcast Service network is an appropriate
alternative to EHF. Research also suggests that the
RADIANT GOLD architecture is suitable to support the
entire spectrum of TBMD operations.
NPS Research page 3
October 2000