[iwar] [fc:Air-Force-Wires-Weapons-To-Web]

From: Fred Cohen (fc@all.net)
Date: 2001-09-12 15:39:02


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Subject: [iwar] [fc:Air-Force-Wires-Weapons-To-Web]
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Air Force Wires Weapons To Web

By George I. Seffers, Federal Computer Week, 9/12/2001
No URL available.

The Air Force is requiring that all command and control systems and
weapon systems be wired to the World Wide Web.

John Gilligan, an Air Force deputy chief information officer, said that
the Web-enablement policy offers several benefits, including universal
access to data, a
reduction in personnel and lower costs.

"The intent is really to establish a formal way that we will Web-enable,
we will use XML [Extensible Markup Language], and we will use [Internet
Protocol],"
Gilligan said. By using IP to connect the data links, he said the Air
Force will be able to use commercially available capabilities. 
Air Force Secretary James Roche and Gen. Michael Ryan, outgoing Air
Force chief of staff, signed the policy July 9. It places Air Force
commanders in charge of
information technology and national security systems development and
states that the Air Force CIO will review migration plans as part of the
budget process in
order to develop a consistent and cost-effective IT investment strategy.

"Now, this won't happen overnight, but it will establish a vision of
where we want to go," Gilligan said, "and it starts to allow us to
deliver on what I was describing as
our weapons platforms becoming nodes on the network."

According to the document, "Information technology systems and national
security systems must be interoperable within the Air Force, among the
joint services and
other communities of interest. Currently, the wide variety of standards
limit information support to our warfighters, decision support and
command and control
processes across the Air Force.

"To move ahead, we must integrate Web-enabling technologies and
standards to govern information interchange and promote greater
interoperability," the document
states.

The memo calls specifically for the use of four technologies: IP, XML,
URLs and Web browsers.

Currently, most weapon and command and control systems use a plethora of
protocols and are not always able to share data. That means the data has
to be
manually transferred from one system to another, and sometimes it cannot
even be accessed or found. XML is a "far superior data exchange
protocol," Gilligan said.

"The first benefit would be the ability to have universal access to
information. We have found that just by providing a link to systems, it
opens up information
universally," Gilligan said.

Lt. Gen. John Woodward, the other Air Force deputy CIO and the service's
director of communications and information, estimates that operational
power is the
biggest benefit from data exchange. The service is "going to have a
capability to put more information together from assorted sources and
have that much speedier
and better decision- making capabilities," he said.

Woodward acknowledged that weapon systems wired to the Web will be even
more vulnerable to information warfare attacks and said that information
will have to
be assured and additional vulnerabilities will simply have "to be dealt
with."

He and Gilligan said that universal access will offer the service
benefits, such as eliminating the need for Air Force personnel to
manually translate data from one
system to another, allowing greater use of commercial technologies,
saving money and making combat operations smoother and quicker. Woodward
did not know
how much it would cost to Web-enable all weapon platforms and command
and control systems. 
Although industry members applaud the Air Force's move, Pete Hayes,
industry vice president for Microsoft Corp.'s government division,
cautioned that "it takes a
lot of work to Web-enable something.

"There's a lot of talk about Web- enabling systems and bringing all this
rich data to the end user," he said, adding that the service has to
"take a very deep
architectural look at the solution you're trying to build, make sure you
build it correctly and securely and that you have a great foundation to
build it on." 
Rules for the Web

The Air Force mandate to Web-enable all information technology and
national security systems does allow for some exemptions. Certain
systems "will continue to
use special protocols, message formats and presentation methods to
satisfy unique military requirements or to support legacy technologies.
These special systems
should use translation mechanisms (e.g., gateways) to enable information
exchange across the standards-based IT infrastructure," the policy
states.

The feasibility of legacy systems migration is often dependent on
diverse political, programmatic and economic considerations.
"Consequently, valid business-case
substantiated analyses in support of exemption waivers against any
Web-enabling standards dictates in this policy memo will be considered."

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