New joint data standards could come in early 2025

ORLANDO, Fla.—The Pentagon’s top body in charge of developing military requirements is expected to release new data standards next year that will make it easier for combatant commands and services to conduct large scale exercises in virtual environments. 

The joint requirements oversight council, or JROC, is currently working on a capstone initial capabilities document, which will outline data standards for simulation and modeling systems the military uses. The document is expected in March, said Adm. Christopher Grady, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, during the Interservice/Industry Training, Simulation and Education Conference. 

Standards for data architecture and data sharing are necessary so the joint force can take advantage of modeling and simulation technologies.

“There's so much data out there that you all are working with…How do we manage data so that we can bring it into these very sophisticated modeling and simulation engines that are going to help us with that dominant decision-making?” he said. “But from a joint perspective, I think we need to have standards right. So that as we build out, for instance, the Joint Live, Virtual and Constructive framework, I want the services and the [combatant commands] to be able to plug into that seamlessly. So standardization will be really, really important.” 

Still, there’s work remaining, and the Pentagon plans to ask Congress for funding to “build out those robust standards so that everybody can see where they fit in,” Grady said.

“I think, from a big arc perspective, that will be really helpful,” he said.

Adopting joint standards would make it so various simulation systems used by each of the services can talk to each other, which would make it easier to hold large, joint training exercises, said John Bell, chief technology officer HII Mission Technologies, which supports the Joint Live, Virtual, Constructive training environment the combatant commands use. 

“If I'm a Navy guy and I'm running a Navy exercise with Navy simulation systems and we want to do a joint exercise with the Air Force, how do we make sure all of our training systems can talk to each other in a meaningful way, so that we can train together in a meaningful way?” Bell said. “So we have to set those standards at a joint level.” 

And when it comes to data sharing across classification levels, the military needs to have  machine-based solutions to keep operators from having to toggle between computers to share information with mission partners, Grady said. 

“I want everything to be fully informed. And that's very, very challenging. So the more that we can get away from swivel-chairing data, the more that we can have cross-domain solutions from the highest classification level all the way down, the better will be,” he said, describing how operators will spin in their chair to share information between systems of different classification levels.

That’s a task better suited for computers, but developing cross-domain solutions that are effective is very difficult, Bell said.

“We want to have computers be able to do that. And we have these cross-domain solutions in place, but they're very difficult to develop,” he said. 

Bell said developing cross-domain solutions that work effectively will require “continued investment,” but is critical for the U.S. military to continue to train with allies and partners. 

“We want to be able to share data with them so that we can train as we can fight and we can fight the way we want to in an actual warfare scenario,” Bell said.