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1.5 What's New in this Version
This Airborne Reconnaissance Information Technical Architecture (ARITA) document, in conjunction with the DoD Joint Technical Architecture (JTA) document, provides the technical foundation for migrating airborne reconnaissance systems towards the objective architecture identified in the Integrated Airborne Reconnaissance Strategy and in the various program plan documents of the Defense Airborne Reconnaissance Office (DARO). That objective architecture (depicted in Figure 1-1) is a high-level vision of the migration plans and major thrusts to achieve the capabilities, connectivities, and interoperability required of airborne reconnaissance systems. In concert with space-based systems, this objective architecture will support the warfighter with responsive and sustained intelligence data from anywhere, day or night, regardless of weather. The objective architecture is best described as a responsive, full spectrum information architecture centered on satisfying the commander's reconnaissance information requirements across the operational continuum.
Migrating from today's stove-piped systems to the objective architecture by 2010 is highly dependent upon achieving the concepts promulgated by C4I For The Warrior, other DoD technical architectures, and Service/Agency operational architectures. These architectures, including the ARITA, result in system architectures and migration plans which include performance capabilities, development and modification schedules, and projected costs. The system architectures and migration plans are in turn impacted by Service/Agency program priorities, OSD and JCS guidance/decisions, and Congressional budget decisions and program direction resulting in overall DARO investment strategies. These strategies ensure that airborne reconnaissance systems will become interoperable, integrated with the warfighter and intelligence community systems, and capable of "delivering the right data, to the right user, at the right time."
This section describes the purpose, background, and scope of the ARITA document; describes the relationship between three levels of architectures and two reference models; gives the criteria for selecting standards, and summarizes what's in this document.
Figure 1-1 Migration to the Objective Architecture
The ARITA supports four mutually supporting objectives that provide the
framework for meeting warfighter requirements. First and foremost, the ARITA
provides the foundation for seamless flow of information and interoperability
among all airborne reconnaissance systems and associated ground/surface
systems that produce, use, or exchange information electronically. Second,
it establishes the minimum set of standards and technical guidelines for
development and acquisition of new, improved, and demonstration
systems to achieve interoperability, with reductions in costs and fielding
times that would be unachievable without a technical architecture. Third,
it ensures interoperability with warfighter C4I systems and enables development
of new or alternative connectivities and operational plans for specific
mission scenarios for airborne reconnaissance systems. And fourth, it provides
the framework for attaining interoperability with space-based and other
intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) systems.
Specific goals for the ARITA are:
The ARITA applies to all airborne reconnaissance and associated ground/surface systems. Senior Officers/Officials, Service Acquisition Executives (SAE), Program Executive Officers (PEO), System Program Office (SPO) Directors, Program/Product Managers (PMs), Advanced Technology Demonstration (ATD) Managers, and Advanced Concept and Technology Demonstration (ACTD) Managers are responsible for incorporating ARITA standards into their respective programs. Developers will use the ARITA to ensure that products meet interoperability, performance, and sustainment criteria. Operations and Intelligence organizations will use the ARITA in developing requirements, operational plans and functional descriptions. Technology demonstrators will use the ARITA to ensure that the fielding of "good ideas" and "new technologies" are not unduly delayed by the cost and time required for wholesale reengineering to meet interoperability requirements and integrate with other airborne reconnaissance and warfighter systems.
The evolution of national military strategy in response to post cold war era events combined with the economic reality of a shrinking budget has resulted in a new vision for the Department of Defense (DoD). This vision is most commonly known as C4I For The Warrior concept as documented in Joint Pub 6-0. Under this concept, there is increased reliance on information systems to provide the decisive edge in combat and to improve the military worth of DoD systems.
The Services have developed corresponding visions in the following documents:
The Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff is developing the "Joint Vision 2010" which envisions seamless integration of all ISR systems to achieve precision engagement, dominant maneuver, focused logistics, and full dimensional protection. To attain that vision, airborne reconnaissance systems must achieve and maintain interoperability across a continuum of six dimensions at once:
To achieve interoperability, it is imperative that standards are uniform across all DoD information systems. The DoD has accelerated implementation of standards within DoD information systems through new and revised policy initiatives. These initiatives include the DoD Joint Technical Architecture for achieving DoD-wide inter-system interoperability and increased integration of commercial technology in DoD systems. For the warfighters, these initiatives will provide seamless, transparent operation of airborne reconnaissance systems and other DoD systems, enabling them to work together to provide higher quality support at lower cost.
Figure 1-2: The Dimensions of Interoperability
Guiding and controlling the acquisition of interoperable C4I systems requires the use of architectures, reference models, and standards. The use of these tools to understand and analyze complex systems is well understood and used throughout the DoD. The CINCs, Services, and Agencies use architectural constructs to support a variety of objectives, such as visualizing and defining operational and technical concepts, identifying requirements, guiding systems development and implementation, and improving interoperability. This section introduces the reference models used to define the technical architecture for airborne reconnaissance, explains the relationship of the ARITA with other standards documents, and cites the criteria for selecting standards.
The proliferation of "architectures" within the DoD C4I and information systems communities prompted the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) to task a Defense Science Board study in 1994, which resulted in the Joint Chiefs of Staff approving formal architectural definitions. These definitions have been adopted for the ARITA and are described below. Figure 1-3 shows the relationship among the three defined architectures and how the ARITA fits into the overall scheme.
1.3.1.1 Operational Architecture
An Operational Architecture is "a description (often graphical) of the operational elements, assigned tasks, and information flows required to support the warfighter. It defines the type of information, the frequency of exchange, and what tasks are supported by these information exchanges." (C4ISR)
"The systems architecture defines the physical connection, location and identification of the key nodes, circuits, networks, warfighting platforms, etc., associated with information exchange and specifies systems performance parameters. The systems architecture is constructed to satisfy operational architecture requirements per the standards defined in the technical architecture." (C4ISR)
1.3.1.3 Technical Architecture
A Technical Architecture is a "minimal set of rules governing the arrangement, interaction, and interdependence of the parts or elements whose purpose is to ensure that a conforment system satisfies a specific set of requirements. It identifies system services, interfaces, standards, and their relationships. It provides the framework, upon which engineering specifications can be derived, guiding the implementation of systems." (C4ISR)
Figure 1-3: Architecture Defined
"Architectures" address multiple aspects crossing the boundaries of operational, technical, and system level architectures (as defined above). The ARITA focuses on the technical architecture level, and it specifically identifies only those standards that have a direct bearing on airborne reconnaissance systems.
In order to achieve the desired focus, the ARITA uses two reference models: a functional reference model (FRM) and a technical reference model (TRM). These complementary frameworks (or perspectives) are used to present and discuss the technology and information standards selected for airborne reconnaissance systems.
The FRM, described in Section 3, depicts the generic, functional makeup of airborne reconnaissance systems and shows how the various functions are interrelated. It is particularly well suited for showing which specific technology standards apply to each functional area.
The TRM, described in Section 4, reflects the Technical Architecture Framework for Information Management (TAFIM) Volume 2, Version 3 which focuses on information technology (IT) standards that apply to specific parts of the FRM (e.g., the operator-oriented processing functions). It is well suited for showing which IT standards have been selected for airborne reconnaissance systems and depicting how the standards relate to each other.
The ultimate objective for any technical architecture is to influence the design and implementation of actual systems to improve their interoperability and enable incremental migration through technology insertion. No developer can completely predict future requirements for interoperability among multiple, complex systems given the rapid advancement of technology and changing/unpredictable military operations. The standards-based framework defined by a technical architecture facilitates construction of new system-to-system interfaces when needed (or envisioned) with lower costs, faster implementation, and lower technical risk than would otherwise be incurred. Equally important, the standards-based framework also enables insertion of advanced technology into legacy systems with lower costs, faster implementation, and lower technical risk than would otherwise be incurred. By enabling this flexibility - changing interconnections and inserting advanced technology when needed - a technical architecture serves to facilitate "incremental migration" whereby actual systems can provide increasing military worth while adapting to keep pace with evolving warfighter operational requirements.
The basis for the ARITA is depicted in Figure 1-4. It focuses on the specific needs of an airborne reconnaissance architecture, but it also ties-in to the various DoD, CINC, Service, and Agency architectures to ensure the best possible ISR support for the warfighters.
Figure 1-4: Basis for the ARITA
As depicted in Figure 1-5, the ARITA is a DoD-level standards document. It complements the Defense Information Infrastructure Common Operating Environment (DII COE) and DoD Joint Technical Architecture (JTA) which define overall standards for DoD C4I systems. That is, the ARITA adds standards required for an airborne reconnaissance "domain." The DII COE, JTA, and ARITA all follow the DoD Technical Architecture Framework for Information Management (TAFIM) and other guidance provided by the Open Systems Joint Task Force (OS-JTF).
Discipline-specific standards handbooks provide detailed, implementation level, standards guidance for specific interrelated systems. In essence, these handbooks combine the DoD level technical architecture standards with: (1) program-specific acquisition guidance such as master migration plans and common development responsibilities; and (2) other DoD-level standards and guidelines developed specifically for SIGINT, IMINT, and MASINT communities. There are currently two standards handbooks governing airborne reconnaissance systems: the Joint Airborne SIGINT Architecture (JASA) Standards Handbook and the Common Imagery Ground/Surface System (CIGSS) Acquisition Standards Handbook. These standards handbooks were written by the developers and provide the most specific guidance for implementing interrelated systems (e.g., the joint SIGINT and common imagery umbrella programs shown in the diagram).
Figure 1-5: Relationships of ARITA and Other Standards Documents
1.3.5 Criteria for Selecting Standards
The selection criteria used in developing the ARITA generally focused on identifying standards and guidelines determined to be critical for interoperability, implementable, and used commercially or widely used throughout the DoD (in cases where commercial standards are not available). As with the DoD's recent initiative to define the Joint Technical Architecture (see Section 2.1.4), the standards selected for the ARITA should meet all of the following criteria:
Standards that are commercially supported in the marketplace with validated implementations available in multiple vendors mainstream commercial products take precedence. Publicly held standards are generally preferred. International, national, and industry standards are preferred over military or other government standards.
The ARITA includes document and selected technology standards. Document standards include commercial, international, national, federal, military, NATO, and other government standards. Selected technology standards identify critical elements of the ARITA deemed essential to achieve the goals described in Section 1.1. Together, the selected standards provide descriptions of the engineering and design criteria and specific technical requirements that must be satisfied by airborne reconnaissance systems.
The ARITA consists of five sections. This section is the introduction and overview. The next four sections are:
Section 2 Associated Technical Architectures - Identifies the principal sources from which standards were selected and tailored for the ARITA.
Section 3 Airborne Reconnaissance Functional Reference Model and Selected Technology Standards - Describes the FRM and identifies technology selected for specific functional areas in the ARITA.
Section 4 Airborne Reconnaissance Technical Reference Model and Information Technology Standards - Describes the TRM and identifies information technology (IT) standards selected for specific IT areas in the ARITA.
Section 5 Follow-On ARITA Activities - Identifies the key follow-on activities required for further development of the ARITA.
This is the first release of the ARITA document. This section will summarize the changes made in subsequent revisions.
This document is under configuration control of the ARITA Working Group, which meets periodically (currently monthly) to review proposed changes to the ARITA. Please send all comments to the ARITA secretariat, C/O MITRE Corporation, Mail Stop Z030, 1820 Dolley Madison Blvd., McLean, VA 22102-3481.
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