Title: Interfacing collaboration and command tools for crises management military command and control systems

Authors: Tapio Saarelainen, Jorma Jormakka

Addresses: National Defence University, P.O. Box 7, Helsinki 00861, Finland. ' National Defence University, P.O. Box 7, Helsinki 00861, Finland

Abstract: Available collaboration tools concentrate on uncontrolled information distribution. They represent situational awareness (SA) tools for the cooperating entities, not the required solution for traceable and sophisticated command and control tools (C2-tools) applicable for the crises management environment (CME) and military environment (ME). Current collaboration tools lack support for C2-tools for coordinating operations of theatre parties or executing joint operations. Technically, collaboration tools lack interfaces to C2-tools and do not support resource scheduling. This paper proposes interfaces that crises management collaboration tools should support as part of the military C4I2SR system to avoid collateral damage, and carry out joint operations. The military C4I2SR system scheduler needs some information on the actions of other theatre parties. In joint operations tasks given to different entities should be traceable. Based on reliable collected data, a trustworthy database of each entity|s characteristics can be formulated and utilised as base knowledge on the collaborating entity. Data accrued remain in the information repository and are used for entity identification purposes. C2-tools in CME and ME should be systems of systems based on trusted entities, which will execute the commanded tasks reliably and on time. Reporting tools are out of the scope of this paper.

Keywords: collaboration; C2-tools; military command and control; crisis management; emergency management; interfaces; collateral damage; joint operations; entity identification; trustworthy databases; trusted entities; trust.

DOI: 10.1504/IJESDF.2010.038287

International Journal of Electronic Security and Digital Forensics, 2010 Vol.3 No.3, pp.249 - 264

Published online: 27 Jan 2011 *

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