Democratising battlefield digitalisation

Providing data equity to all users on the battlespace is important, and should not be limited by the age of your radios.

Delivering battlefield digitalisation requires computing power and radios. However, the roll-out of new radio systems to an entire military – and corresponding formations such as conscript units, territorials, and reservists – can mean that some units have to wait a long time to receive new radio equipment.

Working with the equipment you have is the only way forward. However, a digital deficit between units can make co-ordinated operations slower, while decreasing situational awareness – a major problem in fast-moving mobile operations.

So how do you ensure that these units can receive critical battlefield data, and operate alongside their modernised counterparts?

Making the best use of minimal bandwidth

Deployments with a number of users has shown that SitaWare’s communication backbone, SitaWare Tactical Communications, can deliver data to battlefield users operating over connections with low, single digit kbit/s bandwidth and less. This allows many legacy radios the ability to send and receive data, such as friendly force tracking or reports, providing situational awareness even in some of the most constricted communications environments.

This work has been also supported through the updating of computing equipment such as communications servers and data routers on user systems – an exercise that can be undertaken for less cost and complexity, and at greater speed, than the wholesale replacement of a radio system. For some users, the development of the bridge between old and new radios with vastly different throughput capabilities is a core requirement for modern combined arms and coalition operations.

As a result, more users across the battlespace are able to take advantage of the benefits of a battle management system, despite the age and capability of their radio systems. Supporting a wide variety of new and legacy systems means that the wide adoption of a combat-proven battle management system can take place faster than most other systems. This means that the digital deficit between more advanced combat units and those such as territorials and conscripts can be reduced, faster.

Prioritise your data

Operating over restricted or minimal bandwidth means that a system has to optimise its data flows. Incoming and outgoing messages have to be triaged and prioritised, particularly if a unit has intermittent connectivity to the wider network. Synchronising across a network can be made more difficult in denied, disrupted, intermittent, and limited (DDIL) environments, and redundancy expectations need to be managed accordingly.

The SitaWare Tactical Communication system provides the ability to throttle data flows and process data under DDIL conditions. When a node is taken offline and then returned online, the system prioritises data that can be delivered swiftly over a smaller bandwidth to ensure that the most critical information is provided to the user. This prevents them from drowning in historic data that may be less important, such as tracks for units well beyond the area of interest, or large attachments. This means that intelligence that will be immediately actionable, such as the location of friendly and enemy forces, new orders and tasking, and more is distributed.

Delivering this data to all users around the battlefield – regardless of their radio’s age and capabilities – means that force-wide digitalisation can be achieved more readily, with greater resilience and efficiency.

Focus delivery, explore options

In conjunction with data prioritisation and delivery, the ability to switch across communication systems can assist in delivering the most critical data with the lowest risk.

As part of any PACE (Primary, Alternate, Contingency, and Emergency communications) plan, establishing the various fallbacks is a fundamental part of network and risk management. However, maximising the variety of channels when operating under optimal conditions can provide maximum efficiency for operations.

SitaWare Tactical Communication is a critical part of delivering dynamic switching, enabling better network health, and a key part of supporting situational awareness for all users – regardless of the age and capabilities of their radios.

Furthermore, delivering unclassified data across civilian networks, such as 3G and 4G, can free up more discrete networks for encrypted and classified information. Working with non-military organisations, such as civil response agencies and non-governmental organisations, non-classified data can be shared over unsecured networks to facilitate better civil-military co-ordination and responsiveness. In this way, data democratisation moves to cover two potentially disparate groups, operating towards a single goal.