Feasibility of Grid-based Distributed Real-Time Command and Control

Improvements in the speed and efficacy of enterprise strategic, operational and tactical decision and control (e.g., military command and control) require application of sophisticated automation. Such automation, particularly in support of collaboration among distributed autonomous entities, must provide for the dynamic engagement of individuals from allied enterprises into freely-associative communities of interest (COI) operating within an appropriate accountability structure and with an ability to quickly achieve a common awareness of relevant situations. Such federations must function under stringent security and timeliness constraints, providing reliable support for their interactive collaboration on 1) the analysis of current situations germane to their mutual interests and, based on a common policy framework, 2) the ability to develop potential courses of coordinated action, 3) identification and commitment of available assets sufficient ascertain the most feasible courses that lead to executable plans of action, and 4) the issuance of directives and continuous performance monitoring of their distributed execution by federation members. Taken together, these capabilities define the essential requirements of a grid-based real-time command and control system. This proposal defines a project to prototype such a system based on work presented in the predecessor AFRL Phase I project sponsored under Contract F30602-03-C-0154.