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Improving the dissemination of information gleaned By Roman Schweizer, Defense News Media Group
As the Air Force’s new deputy chief of staff for warfighting integration, Kenne has been charged by Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. John Jumper with “tightening” the kill chain, the intricate order of events that describes how the services conduct attack missions. Providing timely and accurate information to commanders along that chain is a small but important first step, and requires changes in both technology and thinking, Kenne said Nov. 20 during the Defense News Media Group’s ISR Integration Conference: “Shrinking the Sensor-to-Shooter Cycle.” While the speed of information is important, a commander must trust its accuracy in order to make effective use of it, she explained. “You control the information so the commander can control and command forces,” she said. Improving the way the Air Force controls and disseminates information gleaned from sensors will demand changes in operations, she said. One approach is to use “knowledge managers” to interpret and evaluate data, which is then provided to commanders as information they can act upon. Information should not have to travel along traditional lines of command and must be shared freely, she said. Broadening access to information and improving data management methods will quicken the pace at which it is shared within the chain — tightening the seams between sensor and shooter. To be of value, however, information must also be “trusted,” she said. Ensuring accuracy is just as critical as timeliness and likely will also require improvements in processes and technology. Gaining that accuracy will require further development of architectures, standards and data management, which are often characterized as “inglorious stuff,” she said. Kenne’s office, created by Jumper in April, is charged with looking across the service’s programs and initiatives to consider how such improvements in processes and technology can be made and to make recommendations on how to implement them. While her office does not control program funding, Kenne sees this as an asset, not an impediment. Her role is to provide impartial advice to funding sponsors at major commands and at the Pentagon. “If you’ve got programs, your focus will not be on [integration],” she said. “You have to have no bias on a system.” Jumper advocated this same orientation in an earlier speech, saying there is often a misplaced emphasis on programs that detracts from the development of overarching concepts of operations. Too often the service is “platform-centric,” he said. “It’s not any one program,” Jumper said, “it’s the combination of things that gets the effect you’re looking for.” Kenne and her office plan to provide “up-front assessments” to warfare-area funding sponsors early in the development of long-term budget plans. Kenne believes her office “brought some awareness” of the integration issue in the development of the service’s fiscal year 2004 program objective memorandum, the six-year budget plan the service submitted this fall. But that long-term plan was largely complete by the time her new post was established. She expects to have a bigger impact on the upcoming review of the next budget plan, the fiscal year 2004 POM amendment, but her real focus, she said, will be on influencing the fiscal year 2006 POM. She anticipates that the response to her office’s evaluations and suggestions will be positive, citing Jumper’s commitment to the subject, demonstrated by the creation of the warfighting integration office. “I’ll tell you, I think the chief of staff is going to listen to me,” she said. Back |
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coverage Capt. (S) Daniel Clark Duquette Brig. Gen. (S) Frank A. Panter, Jr. |
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