IMMEDIATE RELEASE

The initiative, led by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA), will use secure, commercially available technologies and applications to improve communications connectivity and interoperability among operational commanders and deployed forces in the U.S. European Command theater of operations. The initiative will improve the communications infrastructure and provide enhanced services to maximize the command, control and information advantage currently enjoyed by Operation Joint Endeavor forces.

This effort will use commercial satellite technology to directly broadcast information to operations centers and deployed forces. In addition, we will put in place a high bandwidth, secure tactical internet using commercial satellite transponders. Our commanders will have access to more information, more quickly, and they will be connected to each other so that they can collaboratively plan with secure video teleconferencing and shared electronic maps, said Kaminski.

Kaminski highlighted the initiatives management philosophy as well, saying, The use of commercial technology and business practices will reduce our costs while improving performance, supportability and maintainability of the equipment. This effort is on a compressed schedule, which would not be possible without taking advantage of commercial technology and innovative contracting methods. It is a superb example of how the Department is changing its way of doing business.

One key to the initiative is technology and an infrastructure that will give operational commanders in different geographic locations and from different Services access to a common operational picture. This will enable them to collaboratively assess, in real-time, the military situation, make decisions on future operations, and transmit those decisions to the proper forces.

The Bosnian augmentation effort is an early, partial application of technologies previously planned to improve the Departments capabilities in command, control, communications, computing, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance. The augmentation will accelerate the development and operational deployment of future planned improvements by permitting an early appraisal of the technology by the warfighting community, he said.

The envisioned infrastructure will allow battlefield commanders to participate in necessary collaborative operational planning during operations like Joint Endeavor with the right equipment and encryption. Because the augmentation equipment is all commercially available, governments can choose to purchase their own equipment to maintain this level of interoperability in this and other theaters.