Defense Department, Services Monitor Arctic Melting

By Lisa Daniel

American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, June 27, 2011 – With the number of geopolitical hotspots in the world today, the Arctic is not an area that comes quickly to mind for possible defense operations. But it is a place of great national security and strategic importance that the Defense Department and services are monitoring closely.

In a report sent to Congress earlier this month, DOD officials say the Arctic is a place they and the services are paying attention to because of rapid climate change there that likely will open the area to greater human inhabitation and possible threats to U.S. interests.

The polar icecap and harsh Arctic environment have long enhanced U.S. security by acting as a northern barrier to the United States, the report says. The melting of the icecap already is causing increased human activity, such as with oil and gas exploration and tourism, that could affect U.S. interests there and raise issues about maritime travel, it says.

Navy Adm. Gary Roughead, chief of naval operations, explained the level of U.S. interests in the Arctic during a June 16 Arctic seminar here. The region is “extraordinarily important for our Navy, for our military, and for our nation,” he said.

“There is a phenomenal event taking place on the planet today,” Roughead said, referring to the opening up of the Arctic Ocean from melting polar ice caps. “We haven’t had an ocean open on this planet since the end of the Ice Age. So, if this is not a significant change that requires new, and I would submit, brave thinking on the topic, I don’t know what other sort of physical event could produce that.”

Roughead established a task force to consider climate change’s impact on the Navy and how it should respond. Some things to consider is how melting ice and warming oceans will cause fish to travel north, opening up a fishing industry in the Arctic, as well as create more maritime traffic, in general. Within 25 years, he said, the Arctic could become a profitable sea route from Asia to Europe.

Besides the occasional battle at sea, the admiral said, “navies exist to grease the intercourse of commerce globally.”

The Army also is taking steps to reassess its Arctic capabilities and plan for changing conditions in the region, the report says. The renewed military interest follows years of drawdown in the Arctic that followed the end of the Cold War with Russia.

According to the report, the Arctic is warming at twice the rate of the rest of planet, resulting in increased human activity in the area, and presenting the opportunity for multilateral cooperation in shaping the future there.

The report stops short of advising a renewed military buildup in the Arctic, citing the lack of scientific consensus on long-term environmental changes there, the expectation that growth will be gradual and uneven, and the long lead time needed to develop capabilities there -- all of which occur at a time of strict budget constraints.

Despite the warming, the Arctic still is an inhospitable climate, making defense capabilities difficult, the report says. Also, it notes, communications and the performance global positioning systems are limited in the area by magnetic and solar phenomena and poor satellite geometry and ionospheric effects, respectively.

The report notes there is low risk of military hostilities in the Arctic. The United States is part of the eight-member Arctic Council, along with Russia, Canada, Iceland, Finland, Denmark, Norway and Sweden. All are publically committed to working within a common framework of international laws and diplomacies, and have demonstrated that commitment for 50 years, it says.

Still, DOD officials say the report and the department’s careful monitoring of the Arctic is important so the United States can be on the leading edge of protecting its interests there. Because the changes are slow-onset, one DOD official told American Forces Press Service, “We have the ability to shape how that happens and ensure it happens in a cooperative fashion. It gives us the ability to move forward in a measured and strategic way.”

As the department assesses the situation, officials are mindful of the national interests of its partner nations in the Arctic, namely Russia, which has some 4,350 miles of Arctic coastline, and garners 12 percent of its gross domestic product from the region, the report says.

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CBP Displays Maritime Predator Aircraft at Paris Air Show

Washington — U.S. Customs and Border Protection will be displaying the world’s only fully operational maritime variant MQ-9 Predator B Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS), the Guardian, next week at the world’s largest aviation trade show in Paris.

The Department of Defense U.S. European Command (EUCOM) and the U.S. Embassy in Paris requested that the Guardian attend the air show. EUCOM is providing strategic airlift of the Guardian from Cape Canaveral, Fla., to Le Bourget, France, onboard a U.S. Air Force C-17.

On June 19, the air show will open to Congressional delegations. The trade show will be open to military and trade officials June 20. The show is open to the general public June 24 where more than 140 aircraft will be on display and 2,000 international exhibitors and 88 countries will be represented.

The Paris Air Show presents a special opportunity to demonstrate the capabilities of the UAS to support homeland security missions and reinforce industry and government awareness of the significant role CBP aviation plays in securing our nation.

The Guardian began operational testing and evaluation in Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in February 2010 and began conducting missions in April.

CBP procured the remotely-piloted aircraft to enhance the agency’s long-range maritime surveillance, detection and targeting capabilities in the source and transit zones of the Eastern Pacific, Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico, as well as support anti-terror efforts along maritime smuggling routes.

Currently, CBP has five Predator B aircraft and two Guardian aircraft operating from strategic locations around the United States. Two additional Predator B aircraft are scheduled for delivery by December and third Guardian is scheduled for delivery in early 2012.

Since the inception of the CBP UAS program, the Office of Air and Marine has flown more than 10,000 hours, responding to requests for support from CBP ground agents and in support of CBP partners in disaster relief and emergency response, including various state governments and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

This past spring, the agency was honored with a the Aviation Week and Space Technology Laureate Award, for innovation and pioneering work in successfully adopting a marine search radar to an unmanned aircraft.

For more information please visit the UAS Program website.

For b-roll footage, please visit the following DVIDS website.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection is the unified border agency within the Department of Homeland Security charged with the management, control and protection of our nation's borders at and between the official ports of entry. CBP is charged with keeping terrorists and terrorist weapons out of the country while enforcing hundreds of U.S. laws.

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Navy Medicine Study Seeks New Participants

From U.S. Navy Bureau of Medicine and Surgery Public Affairs

SAN DIEGO (NNS) -- Navy Medicine's Millennium Cohort Study (MCS) research team announced June 14, it expects to expand its number of study participants by 50,000 this year and is currently seeking new volunteers to participate.

The MCS is designed to combine survey data with vaccination, personnel, deployment, and military health system information, to evaluate the impact of military service, including deployment, on various health measures. The study is the largest prospective military health study in the U.S. and captures data from personnel across all branches of the military.

"The Millennium Cohort Study is poised to provide critical information toward understanding the long-term health of future generations of military members, thus contributing to force health protection; a DoD priority," said Dr. Nancy F. Crum-Cianflone, the study's principal investigator. "In addition to the enrollment of service members in this cycle, we hope to enroll about 10,000 military spouses as part of the Millennium Cohort Family Study."

MCS is being conducted by the Naval Health Research Center (NHRC), and the team hopes to add 50,000 U.S. service members to reach a total goal of more than 200,000 participants this year. Enrollment cycles, which occur every three years, have been timed to assess the occupational exposures and health outcomes that may be related to deployment. The study is in its tenth year and is scheduled to continue until 2022.

MCS is designed to get a better sense of how military families are coping with military life after nearly a decade of war. The anticipated 10,000 spouses who enroll will be contacted every three years to complete a follow-up survey, even if their sponsor is no longer in the service. Findings from this study will help to understand the emerging and changing needs of military families, as well as the cumulative effect of multiple deployments.

In response to concerns about the health effects of deployments following the 1991 Gulf War, Congress and the Institute of Medicine recommended DoD conduct prospective epidemiological research to evaluate the impact of military exposures, including deployment, on long-term health outcomes.

MSC, with more than 150,000 participants at present, meets this critical need. Although the original designers of the study could not foresee the post-2001 military conflicts, the project is positioned to address health outcomes related to these operations.

More than forty percent of MCS participants have deployed in support of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and their input will enable investigators to prospectively evaluate detailed data from before, during, and long after these deployments. Current areas of analyses include post traumatic stress disorder, depression, alcohol misuse, respiratory illnesses, and traumatic brain injury.

For more information on the Millennium Cohort Study visit millenniumcohort.org.

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First Mobile MRI Systems to be Sent to Afghanistan Theater

From Navy Medicine Public Affairs

FORT DETRICK, Md. (NNS) -- Naval Medical Logistics Command (NMLC) announced the award of a contract for two mobile Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) systems to Philips Healthcare June 7, to aid in the diagnosis and treatment of traumatic brain injury of wounded warriors in Afghanistan.

The Navy has been working closely with the Army and Air Force to field an unprecedented MRI capability for deployed forces as part of the overall comprehensive approach to diagnosing and treating concussive injuries.

The procurement of the MRI systems has been a joint initiative between NMLC's technical and operational partners including: Bureau of Medicine and Surgery, U.S. Army Medical Material Agency, Chief of Mobility Command, the Veterans Administration, and the Army's Rapid Equipping Force.

While there is no clinical requirement for MRI systems in battlefield trauma care, they will be informative and may lead to cutting-edge discoveries in the diagnosis, treatment and enhanced follow-up care for wounded personnel with Traumatic Brain Injuries (TBI).

"The acquisition of an MRI system for use in a combat theater is something new and provides some interesting challenges but it's amazing to see those challenges being overcome so quickly," said James B. Poindexter, commanding officer of NMLC. "This is a complex and unprecedented acquisition issue and our team is working hard to field this equipment as soon as possible while ensuring it will do the job we intend it to do, taking care of our men and women in uniform close to the battlefield."

According to Poindexter, the MRI systems destined for Afghanistan are unlike anything commercially available. The units need to be self-contained, requiring that they be designed from the ground up to account for the many unique and challenging working environments that will be encountered in combat theater such as vast temperature differences, fine blowing sand and power issues. They must also meet size and weight requirements to be capable of being airlifted into theater.

"We are taking prudent measures to ensure successful deployment of this important equipment by late summer," said Poindexter. "We continue to aggressively address every element involved including engineering, logistical and technical issues."

The contract to build the MRI systems was awarded to Philips after a competitive, best value acquisition process.

"We are honored to help improve access to care by bringing advanced medical technologies to Afghanistan as part of our longstanding efforts to support soldiers and veterans," said Joe Robinson, senior vice president, Government and Enterprise Solutions, Philips Healthcare.

NMLC is the center of logistics expertise for Navy Medicine, designing, executing and administering individualized state-of-the-art solutions to meet customer's medical material and healthcare needs. Headquartered at Fort Detrick, Md., NMLC supports the U.S. Navy with acquisition and logistics systems training, healthcare services strategies, operational forces support, medical equipment and logistics solutions, acquisition management, deployable platforms and eye wear fabrication. NMLC has responsibility as technical manager of the Navy's Direct Healthcare Services Contracting Program and has formal agreements with the U.S. Marine Corps and U.S. Coast Guard to provide medical logistics and materiel management information and medical mobilization planning assistance.

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Mild Traumatic Brain Injury Pocket Guide Mobile Application Now Available

From Department of Defense Public Affairs

WASHINGTON (NNS) -- The Department of Defense announced June 7 that it has released a new mobile application for health care professionals, the Mild Traumatic Brain Injury Pocket Guide.

This application, developed by the National Center for Telehealth and Technology (T2), gives providers a comprehensive, quick reference that includes clinical practice guidelines for assessing and treating service members and veterans who have sustained a mild traumatic brain injury, commonly referred to as a concussion.

"This new tool is about providing clinicians with quick and convenient access to clinical guidelines for concussion care. It not only allows the clinician to provide evidenced-based care but maximizes time spent with the patient," said Katherine Helmick, deputy director for traumatic brain injury.

The mobile application is free and available for download on Android smart phones at https://market.android.com/details?id=org.t2health.mtbi. Hard copies of the pocket guide can be ordered by contacting the Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center at info@dvbic.org or 1-800-870-9244.

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Pentagon, Homeland Security Collaborate on Cybersecurity

By Lisa Daniel

American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, May 23, 2011 – In line with an agreement between the department secretaries last fall and a recently released White House proposal, the Defense Department is sharing cybersecurity information, capabilities and expertise with the Homeland Security Department, a Pentagon official said today.

Robert J. Butler, deputy assistant secretary of defense for cyber policy, was among four senior officials who testified before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs today about the Obama administration’s legislative proposal to protect the nation’s computer networks.

Under the plan, Homeland Security would lead the effort to protect Americans, the nation’s critical infrastructure and the federal government’s computer networks. The Defense Department would retain protections over its “dot-mil” domain, but would work in close collaboration with DHS and the departments of Justice and Commerce to better safeguard cyberspace.

“Just as our reliance on critical infrastructure has grown, so have the threats,” Butler told the committee, adding that the military is “critically dependent” on the civilian power generation grid, telecommunications, transportation and other sectors run on computer networks.

Cyber attacks have become so pervasive as to create “a real possibility of a large-scale attack on any of our nation’s critical infrastructure,” Butler said.

“The status quo [in cybersecurity] is no longer acceptable -- not when there is so much at stake,” he said. “We can, and we will, do better.”

Committee members and government witnesses described cybersecurity as a Wild West of uncoordinated efforts struggling to stay ahead of rapidly growing and increasingly sophisticated threats to the nation’s security and economy. The administration’s proposal -- requested by Congress members faced with dozens of pieces of cybersecurity legislative proposals -- would give legal authority to the appropriate agencies to better coordinate cybersecurity.

Some 2 billion people worldwide use the Internet, and an estimated $1 trillion is lost annually to cyber crimes, committee members said. Congress and U.S. executive departments, they added, are the target of about 1.8 billion cyber attacks per month.

Protecting computer networks requires a “whole of government” approach, Butler said, and the Defense and Homeland Security departments already are doing that. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano laid the foundation for the collaboration in October with their agreement to share operational planning and technical development, he said.

Since then, Butler said, the collaboration has grown into joint coordination at U.S. Cyber Command and the National Security Agency at Fort Meade, Md., and the sharing of information, capabilities, and employees.

Philip Reitinger, undersecretary of homeland defense for national protection and programs, said Homeland Security, Defense Department and National Security Agency officials meet regularly and have weekly teleconferences to coordinate cybersecurity.

“We each bring unique things to the table,” he said. “DOD has unparalleled technical expertise and cyber expertise. In DHS, we’ve built up our own expertise, working broadly across agencies.”

Homeland Security will stay “operationally synched” with the Defense Department, and both departments and NSA will deploy cyber experts to work at each others’ sites, Reitinger said.

To ensure a steady supply of cyber experts in the future, Butler said, the Defense Department supports various high school and college competitions such as the CyberPatriot, which the Air Force Association began as an annual competition in 2009, as well as coaching and mentoring programs in cybersecurity.

“This is not only about today, it’s also about tomorrow,” he said. “Secretary Gates has made this a big priority.”

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Peering Through the Sniper’s Scope

By Carla Voorhees

This blog was shared by the Weapons Systems Technology Information Analysis Center (WSTIAC).

“One shot, one kill” is a phrase that has gained significant notoriety in pop culture when referring to a sniper’s lethality and impact. Without question, today’s U.S. military snipers are elite force multipliers. Often referred to as the “tip of the spear,” snipers provide real-time reconnaissance to the combatant commanders and have the ability to take direct action, if called upon.

To ensure they remain elite force multipliers, all snipers receive specialized training in marksmanship, camouflage, evasion, and target range estimation. Upon successful completion of their training, they receive a distinct high-precision rifle. A sniper’s rifle is much more than a weapon; it’s often the only lifeline they have back to a safer environment. But who is in charge with making sure a sniper’s tools and weapons continue to evolve and improve over time?

The Product Manager Individual Weapons (PM-IW), a component of Program Executive Office (PEO) Soldier, is responsible for the research and development of current and future rifles, carbines, pistols, shotguns, grenade launchers, small arms ammunition, and related target acquisition/fire control products. Within PM-IW, a special unit works to address all of the unique needs of the sniper team.

In support of this special sniper-focused unit, the WSTIAC is providing subject matter expertise helping to find new ways to make snipers more effective. WSTIAC has compiled an integrated team of subject matter experts and former U.S. snipers to conduct extensive analysis and to collect direct user feedback on the weapons systems most used by U.S. snipers. By leveraging this approach, WSTIAC has helped PM-IW field new weapons systems, some of which are able to extend the lethality of our snipers from 800 to 1,200 meters with the new XM2010 Sniper Rifle. Specifically, WSTIAC developed a New Equipment Training package for the XM2010 system, which presents the user with the proper information on how to operate, maintain, and use the rifle and its optical components. Fielding of the new system began in March, and preliminary user response collected by WSTIAC indicates both increased usability and performance.

This close working relationship with PM-IW and WSTIAC is another clear example of how the IACs work closely with government program managers to enhance the warfighter’s ability.

WSTIAC is one of ten IACs established by DOD and managed by DTIC. WSTIAC is a Center of Excellence responsible for acquiring, archiving, analyzing, synthesizing, and disseminating scientific and technical information related to conventional weapons, their development, production, fielding and maintenance.

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Mobile Applications for Mental Health

Posted by Dr. Julia E. Hoffman, National Center for Telehealth & Technology

As has happened in every era, service members are returning from deployments with combat wounds that affect their mental and physical health. The impact of these problems goes far beyond the service members themselves. Deployment-related mental, behavioral and physical health problems can lead to challenges in military families and communities that last for months or even years. The good news is that there are a variety of treatments that work for post-deployment challenges, and these effective treatments are offered across the Departments of Defense (DoD) and Veterans Affairs (VA) treatment facilities.

However, many service members and families who need treatment will never seek care for a number of reasons like logistical problems getting to treatment because of location, transportation options, work schedules, etc. Others fear the negative perception of seeking help for psychological health concerns as a sign of weakness, and some don’t even realize that treatment would be helpful because they’re trained that reintegration stress is normal.

At National Center for Telehealth & Technology (T2) we’ve been working on solutions to the problem of getting care to service members where and when they need it most. Our focus is on using technology in innovative ways to address concerns such as post-traumatic stress, depression, or traumatic brain injuries. One way we’ve found is through the use of mobile phone applications for mental health, like PTSD Coach and T2 Mood Tracker. Most people who carry smart phones have them within reach and turned on at all times, so the goal of developing these apps is to provide education, skills training, self-assessment and support to service members immediately via their mobile phone.

Mobile Apps Available:

■PTSD Coach: T2 collaborated with the VA’s National Center for PTSD to create PTSD Coach. This mobile app provides users with information on post-traumatic stress disorder, a self-assessment, support resources and tools to help manage stress symptoms. Tools based on evidence-based treatment range from relaxation skills and positive self-talk to anger management and other common self-help strategies. You can customize tools based on your preferences and can integrate your own contacts, photos and music. Download the app for free from iTunes App Store. A version for Android users is expected to be available later this Spring. For more on this mobile app, click here.

■T2 Mood Tracker: This self-assessment app monitors various aspects of your mood over time. Users select what areas they would like to track, and then use simple graphical scales to indicate how they feel. You can also add your own scales to monitor problems that are completely individualized, and enter notes about what’s going on in your environment to help explain mood changes. Download the app for free from iTunes App Store or from Android. For more on this mobile app, click here.

If you’re not sure if treatment is necessary, use these apps to anonymously check your well-being, and then seek routine care if necessary. Even if you’re already in treatment, these apps provide ways to measure stress and offer coping strategies between sessions—when real life happens.

More mobile apps are coming out for service members, veterans, families and providers—stay tuned for Breathe2Relax!

For additional information and resources, visit the DCoE Mental Health Awareness Month page. Learn more about T2 at t2health.org.

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HIV Vaccine Awareness Day 2011: The Military’s role in Combating HIV

By Carla Voorhees

Col. Nelson L. Michael, M.D., Ph.D is the Director, Division of Retrovirology, at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR) and Director of the U.S. Military HIV Research Program (MHRP), an international HIV vaccine research program that successfully integrates HIV/AIDS prevention, care and treatment.

Col. Nelson L. Michael, M.D., Ph.D, Director of the U.S. Military HIV Research Program

Today, May 18, marks HIV Vaccine Awareness Day. It has now been 30 years since the first cases of AIDS were reported and more than 33 million people are living with the disease worldwide. With an average age of around 28 years old, many of our service members do not know a world without AIDS.

The U.S. Military HIV Research Program (MHRP) at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research has been working to combat HIV for more than 25 years. We aim to develop a globally-effective HIV vaccine which, in combination with other proven prevention strategies, would enable us not only to protect our troops from HIV, but could also help curb the global pandemic.

MHRP supports HIV prevention and treatment in civilian and military communities. Shown here, President Kikwete of Tanzania attends the 2010 International Military HIV/AIDS Conference, where he offered “a very special thanks to the U.S. Military HIV Research Program at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research for the good leadership in HIV research and treatment efforts globally. “The U.S. Military has an impressive history of infectious disease research and vaccine development. These research efforts, which include influenza, malaria, hepatitis and dengue, are critical to protecting our troops who are deployed globally. At the same time, these efforts translate into improved global health while helping to sustain progress and stability in many parts of the world.

On HIV Vaccine Awareness Day, MHRP sites promote the need for an effective HIV vaccine. Here, some Kenyan children show their support.

Although both parents are HIV positive, the children remain HIV free. MHRP provides services through PEPFAR in each of the communities in which they conduct research. This family is supported by the Walter Reed Project-Kenya through PEPFAR.

When I travel to East Africa, where our program conducts clinical studies and provides care and treatment through the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), the human impact of HIV is almost overwhelming. HIV strikes most people in the prime of their lives, and can undo decades of social and economic development. The PEPFAR program has saved millions of lives and has had a direct, positive impact on communities. I have met orphans supported by our program, teenagers who learn how to avoid becoming infected, and adults who are alive today because of this initiative. As transformative as the PEPFAR program has been, a preventive vaccine is needed to help us win the long-term battle against HIV.

In 2009, the U.S. Army Surgeon General announced the results of RV144, the first study which showed that an HIV vaccine regimen was safe and 31% effective in lowering the rate of infection in humans. While there is still much work to be done before a vaccine can be deployed, this was a pivotal moment that showed that an HIV vaccine is possible.

Developing a vaccine won’t happen overnight, but we are confidant that recent advances such as RV144 have provided significant scientific momentum needed to help us achieve this goal, perhaps so that the next generation of Service members might know a world without AIDS.

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Lynn: Cyberspace Strategy to Build Coalition of Nations

By Cheryl Pellerin

American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, May 16, 2011 – White House officials released an international cyberstrategy here today that will help to build a “coalition of nations [with a] mutual interest in securing cyberspace,” Deputy Defense Secretary William J. Lynn III said.

The event to launch the U.S. International Strategy for Cyberspace also included remarks by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., Commerce Secretary Gary Locke and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano.

“The strategy the president is releasing today provides a framework for how we can expand this cooperation and establishes how network security relates to other critical areas of partnership,” Lynn said.

Hosting the event were John O. Brennan, assistant to the president for counterterrorism and homeland security, and Howard A. Schmidt, special assistant to the president and cybersecurity coordinator.

Senior foreign diplomats and representatives from industry, civil society and academia also attended.

Clinton said the strategy’s seven key policy priorities are economic engagement, cybersecurity, law enforcement, military cooperation, multiple-stakeholder Internet governance, development and Internet freedom.

“We are seeing cyberspace transform before our very eyes,” she said. “Now we must shape this transformation.”

White House officials released a statement that called the strategy a “first-of-its-kind policy document [that] offers our comprehensive vision for the future of international cooperation in cyberspace.” The report also outlines the administration’s agenda, the statement said, “for partnering with other nations and peoples to ensure the prosperity, security and openness that we seek in our increasingly networked world.”

Lynn said no one nation can devise or enforce a sustainable solution.

“It is hard to overstate the importance of cyberspace to the Department of Defense or the need to engage our allies and partners to keep it secure,” he said. “Department of Defense networks are probed millions of times a day, and more than 100 foreign intelligence agencies have tried to penetrate our networks or those of our industrial partners.”

Cyber threats are growing more serious and more prevalent, Lynn added, and meeting them requires the cooperation of nations, the private sector and individuals.

“Our military continues to ensure that we can operate with secure and reliable networks, he said, “and maintain the capability to defend vital national assets.”

The Defense Department’s forthcoming Strategy for Operating in Cyberspace, Lynn said, will detail the military’s role in keeping DOD networks secure.

“Just as our air defenses are linked with those of our allies to provide warning of attack, so too must we share information to prevent and, if necessary, respond to cyber intrusions,” he added.

Over the past year, DOD officials have worked with counterparts in Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom and the NATO alliance to strengthen cyber partnerships, Lynn said.

“While our efforts are increasingly linked with many international partners,” he added, “far greater levels of cooperation with more nations are needed if we are to stay ahead of the cyber threat.”

The strategy that President Barack Obama released today, Lynn said, “provides a framework for how we can expand this cooperation and establishes how network security relates to other crucial areas of partnership.”

Lynn said he is delighted to carry defense cooperation forward in the cyber realm.

“I look forward to working closely in this effort with the departments of State, Justice, Commerce and Homeland Security under the leadership of President Obama,” he said.

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Countdown to Endeavour: Launch Attempt Number Two

By Carla Voorhees

Kathy Winters is an Air Force Civilian Meteorologist at the 45th Weather Squadron at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. She is the Space Shuttle Launch Weather Officer providing weather support to the Space Shuttle Program at Kennedy Space Center as the Launch Team prepares for the 29 April 2011 launch of Endeavour. You can find out more about the 45th Space Wing at their Facebook page.

We are getting ready for launch again. The NASA team replaced and re-tested the Load Control Assembly-2 in the aft section of the vehicle, and we are back in the 3-day countdown. Today we issued the launch forecast, Ice Team Forecast, Solid Rocket Booster Recovery forecast, and I briefed weather to the Launch Director and at the Countdown Status press conference. Like I mentioned before, this is like a “do-over.” We have the same forecasts to accomplish during the days prior to launch. Since this is now a morning launch (8:56 AM Eastern Daylight Savings Time), the schedule shifts a bit, and we actually started issuing launch forecasts on Thursday, L-4 days before launch rather than L-3 days. We will basically be working a night shift for launch, but our Launch Weather Team has required crew rest rules to ensure everyone is sharp for their launch shift.

We are, again, expecting weather to impact the pre-launch operations. Sunday, a front will move into Florida, and we are concerned about thunderstorms in the area for the Rotating Service Structure (RSS) retract operations. This happened during our last launch attempt, and the team had to wait 5 hours to rotate the RSS. Since the Shuttle team knew the weather was going to be a problem, they did some ‘get-ahead’ work and were still able to begin tanking on time. Hopefully the weather won’t delay them 5 hours again! Still, I am sending regular exposure forecasts to the team so they can plan operations around the weather. Luckily, by launch morning, the weather improves. We are forecasting a 30% chance of local weather prohibiting launch due to a possible crosswind violation at the Shuttle landing facility for the Return to Launch Site (RTLS) abort landing weather and potential for a low-cloud ceiling. Overall, the weather is favorable. Hopefully we will launch as scheduled Monday because the weather looks worse for Tuesday morning as another front moves into Florida.

In addition to launch preparations, we also preparing for hurricane season which begins 1 June! We are preparing a simulation for the Kennedy Space Center Senior Staff as well as well as several briefings to KSC emergency managers and the Shuttle team. The last Shuttle launch vehicle, STS-135 Atlantis, will be on the launch pad during hurricane season, and the Shuttle team is well prepared with detailed timelines of the schedule required to prepare and roll back the Shuttle if a hurricane threatens the area. This is not a quick process! Just preparing for the roll takes almost 2 days, and the roll itself takes 6 hours.  When we have a storm threatening the area, we work closely with the National Hurricane Center to provide as much information to the Shuttle team as possible so they can determine the best course of action.

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Fighting Bombs in Cyberspace Gives Army an ‘EDGE’

By Cheryl Pellerin

American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, May 12, 2011 – Afghan people and places are being replicated in cyberspace, giving warfighters a way to train for one of the most complex, deadly situations they will face on the ground.

The fight against improvised explosive devices or homemade bombs -- weapons of choice for terrorists everywhere -- has lots of moving parts. That’s why the Joint IED Defeat Organization here is funding a research project prototype that combines technology from virtual worlds, Army simulations and computer gaming.

“We’re down here today working on a product called EDGE -- Enhanced Dynamic Geosocial Environment,” Matt Kaufman, chief of technology and integration at the Army’s Training and Doctrine Command, told American Forces Press Service. The command sponsors the JIEDDO-funded prototype, which has been in development for about six months.

Kaufman and other experts at the Army Simulation and Training Technology Center in Orlando, Fla., talked about the effort to integrate “massively multiplayer” online gaming technology like that used in the wildly popular World of Warcraft game, with a virtual world environment and an accurate Army simulation called OneSAF, short for One Semi Automated Forces.

“Our goal,” Kaufman said, “is to be able to recreate the devices, people and activities [that make up the counter-IED effort] in the operational environment as accurately as possible to forces in training.”

When the EDGE prototype is complete, warfighters headed for the war zone will be able to enter, as digital replicas of themselves called “avatars,” a near-exact virtual Afghan village. There, they will be able to practice the work they will do on the ground to search out and destroy roadside bombs, and to track down and disrupt the bomb-making networks whose members fund and supply explosive materials to those they can convince to build and plant the bombs.

Training isn’t the only benefit. In a virtual Afghanistan, if something goes wrong, no one dies.

“That’s where we’re hoping to take EDGE,” said Doug Maxwell, science and technology manager for virtual world and strategic applications at the training and technology center.

EDGE will combine the digital technologies, he added, “so we can leverage the best of both to deliver very quickly to a large audience what we know is going on in the theaters.”

In a counterinsurgency or in irregular warfare, the complexity of the operational environment isn’t just the kinetic piece, said Ben Jordan, director of the operational environment lab models and simulations directorate in TRADOC’s Intelligence Support Activity.

“There is also the noncombatant battle space, the whole notion of how to communicate with elders and clergy and community leaders, build rapport, spot bad guys in a crowd and discern attitudes and how they change,” Jordan said. “These are the kinds of things you can get at.”

Second- and third-order effects a warfighter can’t get in a five-day linear exercise that starts on a Tuesday and ends on a Friday come into play over time, Jordan noted, citing a benefit of the technology.

The combination of technologies that produce EDGE could create a system that’s more sophisticated than any one technology alone.

“What we’re trying to do that’s different from everyone else is combine the capabilities of modern gaming technologies with the accuracy and approved models of the Army through OneSAF,” Kaufman said. “As you look at any of the other games today, what’s missing is the accuracy of the valid physics or models that make them good enough to begin to make behavior changes based on [the gaming scenarios].”

For example, Kaufman said, “when you shoot a bullet, it flies accurately, not just in a straight line.” Most games shortcut the physics, he said, because it takes a lot of computing power to make a virtual world act like the real world, and games focus more on the entertainment and artwork.

“In a training environment where you’ve got to make sure the outcomes are precise, if you don’t understand where the shortcuts have been taken, you can make false assumptions because of what you see in front of you, not because of what really happens,” Kaufman said.

Gaming technology becomes much more persuasive to a user when it is laid on top of a virtual world environment, STTC lead engineer Tami Griffith said.

“Let’s say you and I are standing together in a virtual environment and we decide to build a car,” she said. “I can in seconds throw together the framework of a car. You could say, ‘That’s nice, but I don’t like the lights.’ So you could in real time move the lights and change the wheels or their size, things like that. Within 15 minutes after we’ve designed the car, we could hop in and drive away. How many other environments allow that? That’s pretty powerful.”

“We want to make EDGE as capable and as vividly stimulating as the current game technologies,” Kaufman said, “but bring in the realism necessary to support Army training. That, to date, has never been done.”

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Army Warfighters Go Digital to Hone Skills

By Cheryl Pellerin

American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, May 10, 2011 – With more than 1 million service members on active duty in the United States, the military services, and especially the Army, are running short of a critical commodity -- training grounds.

The problem, intensified by the winding down of two wars, is ratcheting up the interest of Army senior leaders in virtual solutions to real-world constraints.

“We have a lot of soldiers coming home to stations here in the United States, and … we don’t have enough terrain in many of those places to train those soldiers out on live ranges,” Army Col. Anthony D. Krogh told American Forces Press Service.

Krogh is director of the National Simulation Center, part of the Combined Arms Center at Fort Leavenworth, Kan.

“We just physically can’t do it,” he said. “Fort Lewis is a good example.”

Seven 5,000-person brigades are on the ground at Fort Lewis, now part of Joint Base Lewis-McChord in the state of Washington , he said. “But here’s the thing -- there’s only enough maneuver space and range for one brigade there at a time,” he added.

That means “our perishable skills as soldiers start to atrophy rather rapidly,” the colonel said. “The only way we can make up for that is to use a synthetic, or virtual, world.”

Krogh says Army command and control systems themselves produce a kind of synthetic environment that has been in use for a long time. Force XXI Battle Command Brigade and Below, called FBCB2, for example, is a computer-based communication platform for commanders.

Blue Force Tracking is a GPS-enabled system that gives military commanders and forces location information about friendly and hostile forces. Other command-and-control visualization tools let commanders see a three-dimensional battle space and locate units or particular soldiers there, the colonel said.

“It doesn’t look like an avatar,” Krogh said, referring to digital representations of users that populate virtual worlds, “but it is a synthetic environment that’s created because we learn or understand quicker through visualization than anything else.”

The Army also uses simulators of all kinds to train soldiers at different levels, he said, from squad and fire-team leaders and individual soldiers to division and core commanders.

Emerging-technology Army initiatives include a Training and Doctrine Command effort called the Training Brain. This combines capabilities, systems, networks and data into a system that uses modeling, simulation and gaming to replicate real-world events for use in training.

Within about four days the Training Brain system can turn a firefight or a mission into a simulation game, the command’s website says.

“In terms of virtual worlds, our primary focus is on Virtual Battlespace 2, the VBS2 game,” Krogh said. “Gaming initially got a bad rap, because a lot of us had teenagers who were playing Xbox and Nintendo instead of doing their homework. Fortunately, we as leaders grew into this and recognized the value.”

VBS2 has been particularly successful, he said. “Arguably, it’s one of the most successful simulations we’ve ever brought to the force,” he added. “In terms of cost versus usage, it’s a huge success.”

Prague-based Bohemia Interactive Studio developed the gaming and training platform in cooperation with the Marine Corps, the Australian Defense Force and other military customers. It includes a virtual battlefield on which users can operate land, sea and air vehicles. Lots of people can play the game at once in virtual complex urban areas that include buildings that players can destroy, and realistic working weapons.

An after-action-review module, called AAR, records every player action, bullet path, explosion and vehicle movement for a detailed examination of the training mission.

“The most important thing in any of these synthetic environments is to have focused training and the ability to conduct an AAR critique [to understand] what you did right and what you need to work on,” Krogh said.

VBS2 and other initiatives have helped Army senior leadership understand the value of virtual training. Now, Krogh said, the Army is looking to expand the use of virtual worlds, noting that virtual reality will allow an entire brigade to train at one time next year at Fort Bliss, Texas.

“Only one battalion will physically maneuver on real dirt,” he explained. “The rest of the brigade will either be in virtual flight or tank simulators or in their command posts through what we call constructive simulation. So [it will feature] a lot of digital dirt, and a little bit of real dirt.”

Further into the future, Krogh said, the Army is exploring the utility of “massively multiplayer” online gaming technology, like that used in World of Warcraft.

“These have been in the commercial world forever, but we’re looking to leverage that for training our soldiers around the clock, around the world, where they can always jump onto that synthetic environment and train,” he said.

The Army is bringing a new system online that tracks physical training scores, weapons qualification levels and scores for other service skills for individuals in the real world and links them to that person’s avatar in the Army’s virtual environment, he added.

“Picture this,” Krogh said. “If I don’t do well on a PT test, my avatar will not run as fast or move as quick or sustain in combat as long as another soldier who has a better PT score in the real world.”

The same thing will happen for others skills, he said.

“If I am out of tolerance for my weapons training or I have only shot marksman as opposed to sharpshooter or expert, then my PH/PK -- probability of hit/probability of kill -- in the simulation goes way down, because I’m not as highly skilled in the real world.”

Training in the virtual world would mirror training in the real world, the colonel said.

Practice with firearms online “would help you prepare so that when you went to the real range, you’d have had that continuous experience of engaging the targets and putting the weapon into service,” he said.

Soldiers couldn’t do physical training online, but in seeing where they stand in relation to their peers, Krogh said, “a soldier would realize, ‘I’ve got to lose some weight and do better on the PT test, because when I go online my squad is always leaving me behind.’”

Despite progress the Army is just getting started, Krogh said.

“I would say within the next two years we’ll be able to put many of these capabilities in place,” he said.

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ONR Recruits DoD Community for Online Wargame

By Office of Naval Research Public Affairs

ARLINGTON (NNS) -- The Office of Naval Research (ONR) announced May 9 that it intends to launch a new Internet wargame May 16, recruiting a community of more than 1,000 players to collaborate on solving real-world problems facing the Navy.

Scheduled to run for three weeks, the Massive Multiplayer Online Wargame Leveraging the Internet (MMOWGLI) exercise will recruit online players from across the government to suggest ways of combating piracy off the coast of Somalia.

"MMOWGLI is an online game designed to find and collectively grow breakthrough ideas to some of the Navy's most complex problems--those 21st-century threats that demand new forms of collaboration and truly outlying ideas," said Dr. Larry Schuette, ONR's director of innovation, whose office is managing the project.

The piracy scenario was chosen as a means to demonstrate the platform, but MMOWGLI itself can be applied to any scenario, officials said.

ONR intends to produce varying results from a diverse group of players drawn from the ranks of academia, defense, and government and nongovernment organizations. The plan is for MMOWGLI to identify solutions to difficult challenges by tapping into the intellectual capital of a broader community.

"We hope MMOWGLI will help us to understand what happens when your insights are combined with the observations and actions of another player," Schuette added. "Will that fusion result in a game-changing idea or solution, or will the MMOWGLI platform teach us something about our traditional thought processes?"

MMOWGLI will also be a template for aiding future users faced with their own complex problems, said Garth Jensen, director of innovation Naval Surface Warfare Center Carderock division, who is leading the project.

"At this stage, however, MMOWGLI is a simply a pilot/demonstration project," Jensen said. "Therefore, we are exploring whether doing something like MMOWGLI within Navy is feasible, and if so, what we might learn from the experience."

Palo Alto, Calif.-based Institute for the Future and the Naval Postgraduate School are partnering with ONR on the MMOWGLI project.

About the Office of Naval Research

The Department of the Navy's Office of Naval Research (ONR) provides the science and technology necessary to maintain the Navy and Marine Corps' technological advantage. Through its affiliates, ONR is a leader in science and technology with engagement in 50 states, 70 countries, 1,035 institutions of higher learning and 914 industry partners. ONR employs approximately 1,400 people, comprising uniformed, civilian and contract personnel, with additional employees at the Naval Research Lab in Washington, D.C.

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