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STATEMENT BY 
 JOHN P. STENBIT
ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF DEFENSE
FOR NETWORKS AND INFORMATION INTEGRATION
AND
DOD CHIEF INFORMATION OFFICER

 BEFORE THE
COMMITTEE ON ARMED SERVICES
UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
TERRORISM, UNCONVENTIONAL THREATS AND CAPABILITIES SUBCOMMITTEE

FEBRUARY 11, 2004

 

Mr. Chairman and Members of the Subcommittee:

Thank you for your support of our programs.  I am glad to continue the many fruitful discussions we had last year about our goals, programs and progress.  I am particularly pleased to appear before the subcommittee today to discuss the Department's Global Information Grid architecture, the enterprise architecture for the Department and its communications and information technology investments.  In addition to articulating the vision and the basic principles underlying it, I will set the stage for the Service initiatives that will be discussed later in this hearing. 

Transformation

This transformation is a key element of the Department's Defense Strategy that has been established by the Secretary to meet the challenges of the dangerous and uncertain security environment of the 21^st Century. This transformation is intended to make dramatic changes in how the military fights and how the Department does business.

The military effectiveness of a network-centric capable force is significantly enhanced because of major improvements in situational awareness, interoperability, combat operations cycle time, agility, collaboration and the ability to self-coordinate. Furthermore and equally important, lives will be saved.

A recent report on Operation Iraqi Freedom highlights the importance of up-to-date, accessible information.  In General Franks' words, "the power of information has been key throughout this operation, and it is truly having the effect of saving lives".

Today, I will provide a brief description of our vision, describe our GIG architecture and tell you how we are using this architecture to drive the three primary Departmental processes - 1) requirements, 2) budget, and 3) acquisition - to deliver an environment that supports our 21^st Century mission.

The Vision

The Department's information vision is to empower users through easy access to information anytime and anyplace, with attendant security.  To do this, we must provide a comprehensive information capability that is global, robust, survivable, interoperable, secure, reliable, and user driven.  This is the enabling foundation for the Department's Defense Strategy.

The ultimate achievement of this vision is critically dependent on the development, deployment and integration of an effective Global Information Grid.

The Global Information Grid Architecture

The Global Information Grid or GIG is the organizing construct for achieving net-centric operations and warfare in the Department of Defense (DoD).  We define the GIG as "a globally interconnected, end-to-end set of information capabilities, associated processes and personnel for collecting, processing, storing, disseminating, and managing information on demand to the warfighters, policy makers, and support personnel."  The GIG is a vision, an entity and an architecture. 

As a vision, the GIG establishes the conceptual framework for a "to be" information environment for the DoD. This environment will provide information and communication services vital to the effective conduct of DoD activities, be they warfighting or business in nature.  It also will be the foundation for allowing the DoD to achieve its net-centric operations and warfare goals. 

As an entity, the GIG comprises many systems that interoperate to provide the right information to the right places when needed. Thus the GIG will be like a private World Wide Web (WWW): many systems distributed worldwide that interoperate to allow vast amounts of information to be readily pulled by anyone or anything; anywhere, anytime; if appropriately authorized.  In the same manner that the WWW is transforming industries and societies on a global scale, the GIG will support the transformation of our warfighting and business practices. 

The GIG is also a well-established and documented architecture that is the "Department's Enterprise Architecture" that defines the enterprise level information environment 'blueprint'. The GIG Architecture comprises three perspectives or "views"  -- operational, systems and technical.  As such, the architecture represents the structure of GIG components, their relationships, and the principles and guidelines governing their design, operation and evolution over time.  The responsibility for GIG development and maintenance belongs to the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Networks and Information Integration (ASD (NII)) in the Office of the Secretary of Defense.

The GIG Architecture is used to determine interoperability and capability requirements, advance the use of commercial standards, accommodate accessibility and usability requirements, and implement security requirements across the Department.  The currently approved version, GIG Architecture v2.0, represents a Joint Force and Coalition Force net-centric perspective on information support to warfighting and related operations illustrated through a set of use cases that represent the post 9-11 world in which we live; to include supporting Homeland Defense, Special Operations and Continuity of Operations.  This year, the GIG Architecture and its development process were very favorably reviewed by the Government Accounting Office as part of its 2003 review of Executive Branch Enterprise Architectures, and it is being worked to align with the Federal Enterprise Architecture.

Each of the Service's major transformation initiatives; the Army's Future Combat Systems (FCS), Air Force's C2 Constellation and the Department of the Navy's ForceNet initiative are currently developing architectures that are required by the Department to be in conformance with the GIG Architecture.  In addition, critical core enabling programs such as the Air Force's Transformational Communications System, and DISA's Net-Centric Enterprise Services programs must also conform to the GIG Architecture.

As a result of the work done on the GIG Architecture, the Department defined and is making progress on five programs/efforts key to the enterprise information environment:  GIG-Bandwidth Expansion (GIG-BE); Transformation Satellite (TSAT); Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS); Network Centric Enterprise Services (NCES); and Information Assurance (IA).  The first three programs provide an integrated communications layer within the GIG that increases connectivity and eliminates bandwidth as a constraint while the latter two efforts provide the basic infrastructure and protection services required to effectively operate the GIG.

As a result of this work and in concert with the core DoD enterprise-wide programs, the Services are planning and implementing a number of complementary programs required to realize the superior combat effectiveness of a net-centric environment.  These programs will, in effect, provide interoperable subnets of the GIG and will, when completed, become integral parts of the GIG.  You will be hearing more about these programs later.

We must extend these transformations to our allies, initially using legacy systems, but including them in our transformation as quickly as we can.

The primary means for verifying conformance is via the Department's Joint Technical Architecture (JTA) and the GIG Architecture's Net Centric Operations and Warfare Reference Model (NCOW RM).

The JTA is a minimal set of primarily commercial Information-Technology standards.  These standards are used as the building codes for all systems being procured in DoD.  Use of this building code facilitates interoperability between these systems and their integration into the GIG.

The NCOW RM defines in detail, the specific operational attributes, systems interfaces and technical standards profile.  All Service transformational efforts and programs must demonstrate conformance with the NCOW RM and JTA in order to meet oversight requirements of the Defense Acquisition Board and the Joint Requirements Oversight Board. 

The Business Enterprise Architecture (BEA) for the business domains was developed as an extension of the GIG Architecture under the direction of the DoD Comptroller, in conformance with the overall GIG Architecture.  Version 2 of the GIG architecture and its BEA extension are both "to-be" architectures, that is, they describe the DoD Enterprise of the future, and when taken together, represent a framework of requirements for transforming warfighting capabilities and business processes. 

In DoD, the effective integration of architectures is enabled through the use of supporting elements such as the DoD Architecture Framework, Net-Centric Operations and Warfare Reference Model, DoD Architecture Repository System, DoD Data Strategy, Joint Technical Architecture.  Several policies have been established recently requiring adherence with these GIG-Architecture supporting elements.  The common approaches required by these elements will enhance our ability to integrate architectures and avoid unnecessary duplication of effort.  We are incorporating these support elements across all Component architectural development efforts to ensure that the resulting products are supportive of and extensions to the GIG Architecture.  Considerable progress has been made and the Department is now institutionalizing this progress through new policies and redefined processes.  For example, from a policy standpoint the recently approved version of the DoD Architecture Framework is mandatory across the entire Department, and together with its companion data model, represents the integrating standard for all architecture data.  From a process standpoint, the Flag and Senior Executive Service GIG Architecture Integration Panel or GAIP, led by ASD(NII), provides the primary cross component governance and integration of architectures in the DoD and among the intelligence community agencies.   

The GIG Architecture Drives Departmental Processes  

As previously stated, architecture is playing an increasing role in three of the Department's primary business processes: requirements, budget and acquisition.  In fact, the requirements and acquisition processes have recently been reengineered to make better use of architectures for decisional purposes. 

The new requirements process, Joint Capabilities Integration and Development System (JCIDS), uses the GIG Architecture description of information technology as the authoritative view of interoperability and information assurance for use in defining Joint capabilities.  The recently approved mandatory Net-Ready Key Performance Parameter (NR-KPP) increases the Department's emphasis on information assurance and data interoperability through NCOW RM in formulating specific NR-KPPs for new programs. 

In the recently revised DoD Acquisition Process, the GIG Architecture is recognized as the underpinning for all mission and capabilities architectures developed by the Services and DoD Agencies. The Department also requires the development of GIG-conformant C4I Support Plans that detail information interoperability and content needs and dependencies of individual programs. 

With the soon-to-be approved IT portfolio management policy, the GIG Architecture will now be used to support the Department's budget process, directly guiding the resourcing of IT investments. The GIG Architecture, along with other criteria; such as the relevance of an IT proposal to the Department's core mission, priorities, and strategic planning goals; support to functional area goals and objectives; return on investment for business initiatives; and the soundness of plans for managing, mitigating or diversifying risks will be used to define critical interrelationships among portfolios and to determine which IT investments within and across portfolios should be supported.  An intent of all architectures is to eliminate stovepiped development and redundant services and systems, thus attaining best use of taxpayer dollars.

We are particularly grateful for your support of our Horizontal Fusion portfolio and programs.  These precursors to real net-centric capabilities have allowed us to test the results available when we use net-centric concepts, and the results have been so successful that we are now including in the Strategic Guidance of the Department that we will accelerate our move towards net-centric capability.

Finally, the Department is implementing a systems engineering function to ensure that programs technically comply with the GIG Architecture and its supporting elements noted above. This systems engineering activity is being complemented with a GIG end-to-end evaluation (testbed) facility.  This facility will be used to ensure that systems being developed by DoD components meet GIG Architectural requirements and its associated building codes listed in the JTA. 

Summary

As in all transformations, there are debates over the speed of changes and points of emphasis, but the integration of the present approaches is encouraging and producing exceptional results.
I have briefly described how a unifying set of documents is the basis for the JCS requirements process, the OSD acquisition process, and the department's budgeting process.

In the testimony that follows, you will hear how Service visions and architectures are being developed in consonance with, and as extensions to, the GIG Architecture. The Department's vision, architecture and supporting elements and policies are providing the unifying thread for each Service.  Building from a common architectural foundation, the systems that the Services are acquiring will become part of the GIG as they are developed and delivered. 

This IT work is greatly increasing our nation's ability to conduct effective, responsive operations.  Our capabilities are being strongly enhanced because of major improvements in situational awareness, Joint Force interoperability, reductions in operational cycle times, ability to dynamically and continuously plan operations, ability to perform effects-based operations and ability to rapidly adapt to battlefield conditions.  And, perhaps most importantly, as we've learned again in Iraq, better access to information means fewer casualties. 

I would like the thank the Chairman and members of the Committee for their past support, and I am sure my successor looks forward to working with you and other members of Congress in the coming year as we strive to meet the challenges of achieving net-centric operations.  Thank you for this opportunity to share our progress with you.