Staying Ahead of the Threat
Written by Joan Michel
The Chemical Biological Distributed Early Warning Strategy (CBDEWS), a new system- of-systems detection strategy for fixed sites, directly addresses two of the warfighter’s highest priorities—standoff detection and integrated early warning. The CBDEWS supports the National Military Strategy to Combat Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) by addressing the Joint Integrating Concept for Combating WMD and the Military Strategic Objective, “Defend, respond and recover from WMD use.”
The CBDEWS’ acquisition strategy represents a departure from more traditional acquisition practices. Commercially available technology will be evaluated before the requirements for follow-on programs of record are written. The resulting requirements then will be based on real-world technology advancements that industry can achieve in a specific period of time. Secondly, instead of one joint project manager (JPM), four colonel-level project managers, who collectively are responsible for dozens of programs of record, will be collaborating so that CBDEWS is maximally integrated. Colonel Kyle Burke, who serves as the joint program manager for Nuclear Biological Chemical (NBC) Contamination Avoidance, spearheads the CBDEWS. Burke intends to have at least an initial solution in the hands of warfighters by fiscal year 2011.
“CBDEWS is a truly integrated effort across four joint project management shops—Contamination Avoidance, Biological Defense, Guardian and Information Systems. As a system-of-systems program, it leverages the significant coordination between the JPMs involved,” said Burke. “The requirements writing process is different. We will have representatives from the entire spectrum of chemical and biological defense work together to come up with an integrated approach to the program and to the requirements.” This will provide a dual-purpose capability that will support the warfighter both abroad and during homeland defense and homeland security missions at installations scattered throughout the United States. Future increments of CBDEWS will not only enhance initially fielded capabilities, but will be adapted to provide capabilities across the range of military operations.
“The intent is to deliver the right mix of capability to the warfighter quickly,” Burke said. “We are looking for a family of solutions for the short term, and to mature the concepts and technology over the long term.”
With CBDEWS, the military plans to provide better and earlier warning of chemical and biological events using a tiered, multisensor detection system. This will enhance detection, reduce false alarms and increase range using multiple event and sensor inputs to augment today’s fielded capability.
The system will also add the capability to track vapor and aerosol clouds in real time. The intent is that in the short term, CBDEWS will result in a distributed sensor system that provides an accurate detection based on data fused from each of its component sensors.
The CBDEWS is a system-of-systems strategy that will eventually lead to two programs of record—Next Generation Chemical Standoff Detector (NGCSD) and Chemical- Biological Active Standoff System (C-BASS). The NGCSD program will launch first, in late FY10, and will be built upon the analyses and requirements that come from tests conducted under CBDEWS. C-BASS is planned to start in FY12.
The CBDEWS program’s first goal is to integrate existing chemical and biological point and standoff detection technologies with intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance technologies into a single system. The initial system will be capable of detecting any chemical or biological hazard at a fixed site, such as a military installation or base of operation.
Data generated by this system of technologies will be brought together and analyzed through an information fusion program, which will then send its synthesized data to an existing battlefield situational awareness tool already in use, such as Joint Warning and Reporting Network (JWARN) that is integrated with the “common operating picture” contained in command and control systems.
“The threat is changing, and we need to go after that threat with different instruments,” said Burke. In addition to traditional chemical agents and biological materiel threats, Burke wants the future increments of this detection system to sense a wide variety of toxic industrial materiels and emerging biological threat agents, as well as nontraditional chemical agents. There are many detection technology solutions in use by the military and under development in industry, but no one solution works well in all possible threat scenarios. For this reason, CBDEWS intends to field a capability that can address the entire chemical and biological threat spectrum by fusing multiple technologies based on infrared, optics, acoustics, lasers, chemistry and more that will interoperate as a system of systems.
From the JPEO, the focus of the Next Generation Standoff Chemical Detection (NGSCD) development will be integrating point and standoff chemical sensors with a fusion network that allows those sensors to be cued or tipped by other fielded sensors such as radar or acoustic. By cueing a standoff sensor on where to look or where to stare, the probability of detection and identification increases substantially along with an increase in standoff range. This concept was proven in the field demonstrations conducted in 2008.
The first technology is chemical standoff detection. Within that area, there are passive and active sensors. Passive infrared detection technology systems work by using infrared light to excite molecules and then compare their excitation pattern against a library of known chemical signatures. When detection is made, the technology alerts the warfighter with audible and visual alarms.
The Joint Service Lightweight Standoff Chemical Agent Detector (JSLSCAD), a passive infrared detection system, detects nerve and blister agents by identifying their specific infrared signatures. Absorption data is collected and compared to its background spectra, and a detection is made. This sensor is currently mounted on the Stryker NBC Reconnaissance Vehicle and is capable of on-the-move, real-time detection. Signal processing software and hardware discriminate between chemical warfare agents and non-hazardous materiels.
Light detecting and ranging (LiDAR) technology is an active sensor that is especially good at mapping a chemical aerosol cloud and classifying whether it is chemical, biological or just part of the natural environment. It is not a good technology for tracking vapor clouds; however, it is effective at measuring a plume’s distance, speed and chemical composition. With LiDAR, a laser shoots a pulse of light toward a hazard. A receiver collects the return signal reflected from the target. The light that is scattered back is analyzed to determine its properties. The optical properties of the target, strength of the return and elapsed time can provide a great deal of information about the hazard.
Point detection systems require the chemical or biological agent to travel over the sensor to make a detection. One technology used is ion mobility spectrometry (IMS), which offers the ability to detect trace amounts of toxic materiels. The technology is what the M22 Automatic Chemical Agent Alarm (ACADA) and the M4 Joint Chemical Agent Detector use to detect and identify blister and nerve agents. Both the M22 and new M4 are man-portable, operate independently after system startup, provide an audible and visual alarm and provide a communication interface to support battlefield automation systems.
As each detection technology does its job, information gathered is pulled together or fused into a single data stream that is analyzed and sent to the battlefield commander. For instance, information from a detector using LiDAR technology that shows that a vapor and aerosol cloud is moving southeast can be compared to an infrared detector that shows a vapor signature to be similar to nerve agent. A point detector mounted on a UAV could then confirm the detection and send a high-fidelity analysis to the field commander, who can respond to the threat.
“I am really excited about this program,” said Dr. David Cullin, senior vice president for technology transition at ICx Technologies. “This is a very good direction that the government is going because an integrated system, as opposed to a single technology, is the answer.”
ICx Technologies is currently the prime contractor for the Joint NBC Reconnaissance System Increment II (JNBCRS 2) program, which is managed by the JPEO-CBD and will provide warfighters with a man-portable allhazard detection and identification system.
An unmanned aerial or ground platform could play an important role in a program like this, said Navy Vice Admiral Joseph Dyer (Ret.), and now president of the Government & Industrial Robots Division of iRobot Corp., based in Bedford, Mass.
“Robots do the work that is dirty, dull and dangerous,” said Dyer. “Robots can go anywhere and virtually represent you.” Dyer said that for the CBDEWS program, a valuable capability will be the robot’s ability to “map” a potentially contaminated area, correlate the sensor activity in relation to that map, and then communicate that information via Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP). “You’ll be able to pinpoint where there are hotspots and activity with no risk to humans.”
Dyer said that 2,300 tactical mobile robots have been delivered to military and civil defense forces. Primarily these robots have performed bomb disposal missions, as well as reconnaissance and search missions. Burke added: “I agree that unmanned systems have significant potential in the CBRN defense mission. In fact, today JPM NBC CA is fielding an iRobot PacBot with chemical and radiation sensors in Germany as part of our dismounted Joint NBC Reconnaissance System (JNBCRS).”
“We are adding more capability and smarts to our robotic systems,” said Dyer. “They grow smarter every year they are in service.”
A series of technology demonstrations was held last summer to determine the state of the various fusion and sensor technologies and give warfighters an initial look at how a system like CBDEWS would operate. Multiple government agencies participated in this demonstration in addition to JPEOCBD including Project Manager Unmanned Aerial Systems, Defense Threat Reduction Agency, Air Force Research Laboratory and Dugway Proving Ground in Utah.
Results from these demonstrations show that the concept for CBDEWS is sound in a fixed-site environment. Multiple sensors were able to detect different threats, and by integrating the data, warfighters were able to quickly identify the hazard. The demonstration included 128 releases of chemical and biological simulants that challenged the sensors to detect, identify and track as the vapor or aerosol clouds moved across the desert for several kilometers.
The next event for CBDEWS is an operational demonstration that will take place in July 2009 at Dugway Proving Ground. This operational demonstration will involve warfighers and provide them with an opportunity to use a pilot version of the CBDEWS system of systems during live simulant releases. The warfighters will be able to provide direct feedback on the capability, influence requirements development and refine concepts of employment. JPM NBC CA expects to award contracts to two to four integration and fusion vendors to support the demonstration. Other vendors will be invited to participate at their own expense. Based on results of this demonstration, two to four contracts for preliminary designs will be awarded in first quarter FY10.
“Our acquisition route closely follows the new evolutionary acquisition guidance for incremental development, so in that I’d like to think we are using the ‘normal acquisition route,’” said Ed Conley, JPEOCBD team leader for CBDEWS. “However, the traditional waterfall acquisition process would likely have taken five to eight years to field a capability that may become obsolete or irrelevant before fielding.” JPEO-CBD plans to field an initial operational capability no later than FY11.
Conley considers his team to be the acquisition reforms presented in DoDI 5000.02 signed in December, due in large part to the JPEO CBD insight into those changes. The JPEO has been a driving force for the CBD community to make the process better, faster and cheaper while maintaining high standards for warfighter chem-bio systems,” Conley said, and a competitive acquisition prototype and demonstration helps reduce program risks and helps his organization make better acquisition decisions.
In February, JPEO CBD held an advanced planning briefing to industry (APBI) to outline the development and acquisition cycle of the CBDEWS program. Over 80 companies were represented at the meeting at Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland. “We had a very good turnout for a single program’s APBI,” said Conley. “I think the diversity in the program is one reason it was so well attended. We are looking for multiple vendors to support the program for multiple technologies.”
“We all benefit from the capability of CBDEWS. It just makes sense that we collaborate and bring the best technology from each sector forward,” said Burke. ♦