Back to 2025 Home PageChapter 4
Layered Access
In its broadest sense, WICS will be employed as a three-tiered command, control, and communications system. Each fundamental tier is configured to the user level. At the top tier, the "strategic" level, the users will be the senior authorities based out of Washington, D.C. At the middle, the "operational" level, the users are the theater and battlefield commanders. At the lowest, the "tactical" level, the users are the smaller, division/ship/aircraft wing-sized units and their components. This in no way means the system is restricted to operating at specific levels of command. The strategic, operational, and tactical labels are used merely to describe, in the broadest sense, the type of information available. WICS will be, to the greatest extent possible, an open system, accessible to all legitimate users. Even if current titles and organizational structures such as "national command authorities," "theater commander in chief," and "joint force component commander" no longer exist in 2025, the fundamental strategic, operational, and tactical levels of command will continue to exist.
For purposes of system control, WICS can be divided into three components: the LEO Harvesters, the battlenet, and the communications system. The satellites that make up the constellation of LEO Harvesters will, for the most part, operate autonomously of traditional, ground-based satellite command and control. This is not to say that satellite controllers will have no role in WICS operation. Rather, tasks such as station keeping, momentum dumps, and other routine tasks will be self-initiated. The LEO Harvesters will transmit periodic "state of health" reports, but will continuously monitor their own health and will be able to compensate automatically for common anomalies. WICS will alert ground controllers when unusual events occur; for instance, when a satellite is nearing the end of its life and needs to be replaced. If GEO processors are used to process the data, they will be controlled in a similar manner. The battlenet will be managed by a team of information management specialists. These individuals will not have direct control over what information is sent to whom. Their purpose will simply be to monitor and maintain the battlenet's operational status and make changes as necessary. The third component of WICS, the communications system, will be controlled by its commercial owners, or if a military-adapted version is procured, in a manner similar to its commercial counterpart.
At the tactical level, all personnel will carry a standard-issue personal interface computer (PIC). This device will link every soldier, sailor, airman, and marine, and give them access to a wealth of information via the battlenet. Through the PIC, all personnel will have access to basic information such as position, digitized maps, locations of nearby friendly and enemy forces, and the like. The PIC will also be a personal communications device, enabling individual troops to remain in contact with each other, their superiors, and their subordinates. In an emergency, the device could be used as a beacon to facilitate search and rescue operations. The PIC could be voice activated, use a miniature alphanumeric keyboard, or both. The idea is "to put one in every soldier's pocket, in every pilot's flight vest." 1
In addition to the standard-issue PIC, commanders at the tactical level will be equipped with a larger and more capable version. These units can be carried by individuals or mounted inside command vehicles. This device would have all the capabilities of a standard PIC, but would allow commanders access to a greater variety of information, such as battle plans and logistics information. Commanders could request supplies, transmit unit status, report on the progress of operations, and so forth. By incorporating AI-based learning algorithms and common-sense reasoning and logic, WICS could automatically filter information gleaned from the battlenet and tailor it to suit the commander's needs. For example, by knowing its precise location, the device would screen out troop movements that are not within a certain radius of its position. This avoids the commander's having to wade through irrelevant information to get to what they really need. Of course, the commander would be able to query the battlenet for information not automatically provided.
In the air, WICS would be an integral part of the aircraft's communication and navigation system. A transceiver mounted in the aircraft's electronics will automatically and almost continuously transmit the aircraft's coordinates to its controlling air operations center. WICS would also be wired into the aircraft's health-monitoring systems. Data such as fuel stores, weapons stores, on-board cargo, and so forth, would be transmitted as well. Unmanned Aerospace Vehicles (UAV), both combatant and noncombatant versions, would be continuously and automatically fed navigation information, targeting data, and anything else they need to complete their mission. Simultaneously, WICS would monitor the status of aircraft systems, automatically alerting ground facilities of the presence and nature of any trouble so a fix could be prepared in advance and implemented as soon as the aircraft lands. In the case of manned aircraft, WICS will prevent information overload by selectively filtering and reducing data to give the pilot exactly what he or she needs in terms of targeting data, nearby threat updates, weather conditions, and so forth. The pilot would have the capability to query WICS for any supplemental information. Vocal requests for information will be enabled through AI-driven natural-language processing. Just as important as a pilot's being able to query WICS vocally, WICS will be able to respond vocally, allowing the pilot's eyes and hands to remain focused on flying. Nicholas Negroponte predicts that, through speech storage and synthesis, machines with humanlike conversational capabilities will be in use. 2 As an example of a new capability enabled through WICS, New World Vistas noted future cargo aircraft should have "point-of-use delivery capability through precision airdrop as a routine process." 3 WICS will, through continuous and automatic position updates to both the airlifter and the intended target, enable this capability for both stationary and mobile drop targets.
At the operational level, in addition to having all the capabilities of tactical units, WICS will be able to conduct battle damage assessment, receive and process raw imagery from satellites and other collection sources, transmit and receive battle plan updates, and conduct near-real-time battle simulations (refer to table 5 for a listing of information requirements at each level). Commanders would be linked to WICS through the battlenet, but also through direct satellite-to-ground laser downlinks. This provides a degree of redundancy, and allows the commander to directly task WICS to look for particular information that may be of unusually high value. WICS would operate in a "war room" setup at the theater/battlefield commander's headquarters. Large cinema-like viewscreens would display the overall strategic view (i.e., the "God's eye view") in a virtual environment, providing all of the information necessary to give the commander, at a glance, an overall situational awareness. This includes, but is not limited to, enemy positions and strengths, the locations and status of friendly forces, and natural and man-made landmarks. Battlestaff personnel would be seated at consoles, each responsible for and continuously monitoring a particular functional area of responsibility (logistics, intelligence, etc.). Each staff officer would receive continuous updates, as well as have on-demand access to all information affecting the area of responsibility. By assigning one or more staff officers to a particular area of responsibility, information overload can be avoided. In addition to overall situational awareness, WICS would continuously conduct battlefield modeling and simulation exercises. One of the 2025 concept papers spoke of a system that would not only consider current battlespace information, but would also have access to past historical information about the key political and military leaders involved and their decision-making histories and tendencies. In addition, the system would include information from key, successful political and military leaders. The system would be able to fuse this information and provide the commander or decision maker with possible outcome scenarios based on various actions the commander might take . . . and suggest alternate courses of action with their potential outcomes. 4
WICS would perform this mission, acting as a knowledgeable advisor to the commander. Furthermore, information would not only be tailored to meet the commander's needs but automatically presented in a format to his or her liking. In Being Digital, Negroponte introduces the concept of a "digital butler," a computer that possesses a body of knowledge about something and about the computer user in relation to that something (tastes, inclinations, etc.). 5 New World Vistas discusses a concept called "dynamic planning and execution control," in which planning and operations tempos are increased and plans can be easily changed while maintaining consistency throughout the battlespace. 6 WICS would easily facilitate this. Overall, WICS would provide the theater commander with "dominant battlespace awareness," 7 greatly reducing the decisionmaking and implementation timeline and increasing by leaps and bounds the efficiency in the way forces are employed.
At the strategic level, WICS will be employed in a nearly identical manner to the operational level. The major difference would be that WICS will be a global system. WICS will be used to monitor events and control forces on a global scale. Global military and political events and strategies will be incorporated into the near-real-time planning, modeling and simulation, and execution processes. WICS will afford national authorities near-real-time situational awareness and control.
The flexibility of WICS to different situations can be illustrated by applying the system to the alternate futures envisioned in the 2025 study. Four of the alternate futures described are "Gulliver's Travails," "Zaibatsu," "Digital Cacophony," and "King Khan." 8 In all four futures, but particularly in the "Gulliver's Travails" and "Digital Cacophony," knowledge of global events and near-real-time command and control of forces is critical. In all four futures described, WICS provides global command and control, and situational awareness greatly enhances national security and capabilities.