Command and Control Directorate (C2D), Communications Electronics Command/Life Cycle Management Command (CE/LCMC)
QED Systems, LLC supports the Command and Control Directorate (C2D) within the Communications Electronics Command/Life Cycle Management Command (CE/LCMC) organization located at Ft. Monmouth, NJ. The Company performs strategic planning activities for technology programs related to Battle Command and Control Advanced Technology Objectives (ATOs). The work is focused on the developing innovative new concepts that are designed to support Army War Fighters in the areas of automated tactical decision support and control of unmanned systems. QED Systems, LLC assists the organization in developing technical objectives, defining performance requirements and in achieving each of the functional capabilities identified in the respective Command and Control-focused ATOs.
The graphic below illustrates one of the strategic planning approaches used within the Full Spectrum Decision Support System, a new ATO initiative within which QED Systems plays a key role. This program straddles the domains of both Operations (OPS) and Intelligence (INTEL) to provide common architectures, frameworks, ontologies and technologies to achieve economies of scale and scope within Battle Command systems.
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Common Interoperable Technologies |
QED Systems personnel are responsible for identifying both organizational and operational strategies to develop new technologies, and to introduce existing technologies into the Army’s tactical Command and Control tool suite. These strategies address all aspects of technical, fiscal and scheduling objectives. To carry out the objectives, QED Systems, LLC applies its C4ISR expertise within the domains of strategic planning, systems engineering, software engineering, and integration and test.
In delivering these technology-oriented strategic planning services, QED Systems LLC personnel works with other government and contractor organizations including the Intelligence and Information Warfare Directorate (I2WD) and the Night Vision and Electronic Sensors Directorate (NVESD) to strategically plan the coordinated application of government and contractor resources and technologies to fulfill ATO technical objectives.
Intelligence and Information Warfare Directorate (I2WD), Communications-Electronics Research, Development and Engineering Center (CERDEC)
Program Manager (PM) Distributed Common Ground System – Army (DCGS-A) System Development
QED Systems LLC supports the Intelligence and Information Warfare Directorate (I2WD) within the Communications-Electronics Research, Development and Engineering Center located at Fort Monmouth, New Jersey. Services provided to this organization focus on all phases of development from concept to fielding an accredited system in support of the Program Manager (PM) Distributed Common Ground System – Army (DCGS-A). As shown in the chart below, the development effort:
- Leverages JIOC-I capabilities
- Integrates Joint capabilities
- Provides two-way Battle Command messaging
- Increases work flow through the development of an integrated Multi-Functional Work Station (MFWS)
This system can be fielded to theater addressing critical Warfighter needs in a short development cycle.
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DCGS-A V3 Conceptual Capabilities |
During the requirements analysis phase of development QED’s work involved: requirements decomposition, requirements allocation to sub-system components, requirements prioritization based upon available funding, identification of potential candidate technologies meeting established requirements, establishing metrics to evaluate sub-component development, establishing system level Measures of Performance (MOP), establishing system level Measures of Effectiveness (MOE) and developing a draft Test Evaluation Master Plan leading to a Preliminary Design Review (PDR). These activities began with a concept and required extensive requirements analysis.
The I2WD customer and QED Systems, LLC Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) worked with the TCM, PdM DCGS-A v3, numerous sub-contractors and other supporting Government organizations to develop a requirements-driven baseline for the DCGS-A v3 system. The effort led to a successful Preliminary Design Review and the DCGS-A v3 system which is currently being fielded into theater to provide an enhanced intelligence system.
PM DCGS-A System Description and Interfaces (SV-1)
QED Systems LLC also supports I2WD in all phases of system design to field an accredited system in support of the Program Manager (PM) Distributed Common Ground System – Army (DCGS-A). QED Systems, LLC Subject Matter Experts support the system design and engineering activities associated with developing successful Preliminary Design Reviews and Critical Design Reviews. The image at left in the graphics below depicts the system description from a hardware component view illustrating software components associated with each of the hardware components. The image at right illustrates the system interfaces (SV-1) for the system developed.
During the system design and engineering phase of development QED Systems, LLC personnel reviewed requirements allocation to sub-system components, reviewed technical proposals from sub-contractors, performed trade-off analysis, developed an integrated master schedule (IMS), performed requirements traceability from system design to CDD, performed best of breed evaluations, integrated v3.1 components, established exit and entrance criteria, and developed preliminary and critical design review packages. These activities required the following tasks:
- Generation of system views
- Capabilities trade-off analysis
- Traceability of system requirements
- Integration of system components
The I2WD customer and QED Systems LLC Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) worked with the TCM, PdM DCGS-A v3, numerous sub-contractors and other supporting Government organizations to develop the DCGS-A v3.1 system depicted below.
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DCGS-A v3.1 Work Suite |
Test Technology Directorate, Aberdeen Test Center (ATC), Developmental Test Command (DTC)
QED Systems LLC recently supported the Aberdeen Proving Grounds, Aberdeen Test Center, Test Technology Directorate, Network Centric Division in conducting Future Force Warrior (FFW) Advanced Concept Technology Demonstration (ACTD) testing at Aberdeen Proving Ground (APG), Maryland. This testing focused on the network performance of the FFW System of Systems. The evaluation of the FFW networked system required the instrumentation of the FFW and related platforms during Technical Field Tests at Fort Dix (Summer 2007) and Operational Field Tests at Fort Benning (Fall 2007).
The work involved support in the development and planning for the application of the (Micro) Advanced Digital Modular Acquisition System or “µADMAS” as well as the data processing and analysis necessary to assess the military worth of the networked FFW System. The µADMAS system, which is deployed on the FFW Dismounted Soldier as shown in The following figure, was designed for compatibility with an existing Government Test Range instrumentation system known as the “Data Collection & Analysis Tool” or “DCAT”. DCAT is used for the collection of vehicle-based network traffic. This µADMAS-DCAT compatibility was achieved through the development of processes and software that allowed the combination of data collected via µADMAS with data collected via DCAT into a single homogeneous database product.
QED Systems, LLC’s instrumentation engineering team and Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) worked with ATC and other supporting Government organizations to form a seamless instrumentation data collection/reduction/analysis suite comprised of both DCAT and uADMAS. Data collected from both of these systems was combined then processed as a whole resulting in a single comprehensive database to support the analytical objectives of the FFW dismounted soldier ACTD.The following graphics illustrate the process from data collection through the creation of data products used to support the analysis phase of the program. This process resulted in the combination of disparate sets of data collection equipment (uADMAS & DCAT) into single homogeneous data products.
FCS PM (BCT) NSI, Office of the Chief Engineer, Network Analysis & Integration Lab (NAIL)
The FCS PM (BCT) NSI, Office of the Chief Engineer, Network Analysis & Integration Lab (NAIL) has engaged QED to support the planning and execution of an ambitious analysis & experimentation plan in the summer of 2008 that will heavily engage PM C4ISR OTM as the venue for the NAIL activities. This activity is referred to as the Horizontal Integration Task or H.I.T. The H.I.T. Plan includes installation of SOSCOE 2.0 on as many as twenty (20) vehicle (OTM provided) and integration of these vehicles into an AETF-representative force structure. The 20 vehicles will be networked together via a live wireless network to include SRW, WNW, HNW, and NCW waveforms. An additional 80 “virtual” vehicles will be configured in the Sim-Center… actual instantiations of SOSCOE 2.0 but absent the vehicle and radios. These hosts will be integrated/connected with the fielded systems via a “back-haul” extension of the Simulation LAN to the vehicles (e.g.; a Wimax link). That will result in ~100 instantiations of SOSCOE counting both “Live” and “Lab-based Virtual” types. Finally - an M&S Wrap-around based largely upon the FCS Simulation Environment (FSE) will provide stimulation for the rest of a full Brigade-worth of platforms - bringing the vehicle/entity count up to about 1200 or so.
On the Live and Virtual platforms - SOSCOE will be configured to run discovery services and at least the 5 primary data dissemination techniques (RMI, Pub/Sub, P-2-P, P-2-MP, WebServices). A “thin-app” called the Tactical Network Stimulator or “TNS” will be integrated with SOSCOE 2.0 to precisely stimulate SOSCOE in ways that are rigidly controllable. The TNS is not intended to be a Battle Command surrogate - it is only intended to be a SOSCOE stimulator that has the ability to test/stress SOSCOE to the “break-point.”
QED Systems, LLC is the lead integrator and developer on the H.I.T. effort. This project is illustrative of the System Engineering capabilities of QED Systems, LLC – pulling from a diverse background with mission success the focused goal.
