NAVAIR China Lake, Calif. -- Industry and Navy representatives gathered at China Lake on 28 and 29 April to demonstrate the enterprise Strike Warfare Architecture (eSWA), a netcentric approach to Strike Warfare planning and execution. eSWA employs commercial products and standards from e-commerce to accelerate time-critical-targeting and allow rapid integration of improved capabilities.

“Simply put, eSWA is applying today’s web technologies to the time-critical-strike process” said Commander Chris “Boris” Becker, eSWA Project Lead and Chief System Engineer for PMA 281, Naval Mission Planning, Targeting, and Tomahawk Command and Control.

Traditionally, the dozens of systems that interact during a strike operation have employed unique interfaces and data formats. When one system is changed, each system that interfaces with it must be modified; changes are expensive and engineering-intensive.

“eSWA takes existing functional capabilities and factors them into a strike warfare enterprise, finding new ways to perform the functions within an architecture that relies on commercial interface standards,” said Becker.

The eSWA demonstration was conducted in the Integrated Battlespace Arena (IBAR), the Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC) Panama City FL, and the Washington Planning Center at the Washington Navy Yard. During the two-day event, 25 Navy and contractor personnel executed an expeditionary strike scenario designed to show eSWA capabilities.

Industry partners included in the demonstration were BAE Systems, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, and Solipsys.

In a scenario that might have come straight out of Southwest Asia, the players carried out a high-stakes mission. A Marine Force Reconnaissance team in enemy territory identified a potential target. The threat was analyzed, the decision to strike was made, target coordinates were fixed, naval gun fire was selected to prosecute the strike, and post-strike damage was assessed by U-2 overflight.

In a realistic twist, signal intelligence was received indicating that the Marines’ extraction point had been compromised, so the Recon team and the air-cushioned landing craft (LCAC) en route to extract them were directed to a different rendezvous point.

Data exchange and coordination used commercial interface standards in an open-architecture enterprise created for the demonstration.

“Communication throughout the enterprise is more open, so we can function in parallel, drastically shortening the targeting timeline,” explained Ken Koch, an engineer in China Lake’s Weapons Engagement Office. “Fielding new capabilities is faster and cheaper with an open-architecture approach because resources can be focused on creating new value, not on integration issues.”

Among the many guests watching the demonstration unfold were several high-level visitors, including RDML (sel) Joseph F. Kilkenny (OPNAV Director of Aviation Plans and Requirements, N780), Ms. Lorraine Wilson (Direct Reporting Program Manager for Navy Distributed Common Ground Station (DCGS-N)), and CAPT Rick Smith (PMA 281). Their presence reflected the Navy’s intense interest in simplifying and shortening the “sensor to shooter” timeline.

RDML (sel) Kilkenny put the significance of the eSWA work in perspective when he commented, “Bringing this all together will be important to the Navy and a major effort. We can not afford to do it twice.”