The joint operations center for the Joint Force Headquarters
- National Capital Region networks area military with the national homeland
defense structure. Shown here prior to the ribbon-cutting ceremony Aug. 2, it
is now in use and will be manned as needed for exercises, operations and
contingencies. Photo by Tom Mani
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On Aug. 2, the headquarters took the wraps off major command-and-control
systems, a fully networked Joint Operations Center and an integrated Mobile
Command Center, and put them to use.
"This represents the center of the flagship," Army Maj. Gen. Galen B. Jackman,
commanding general of JFHQ-NCR, told staff members gathered in the new Joint
Operations Center for the afternoon ribbon-cutting.
Jackman, who commands U.S. Army Military District of Washington as well,
praised the teamwork of the organization's operations and planning cells and
the Naval Air Warfare Center in developing the new operational capability. That
capability is manifested in both a JOC and a Mobile Command Center, parked just
outside the Fort McNair building that houses the JOC. Finishing touches were
still being put on the JOC even as it was coming on line in the global war
against terror.
The tools are due for a workout now in Determined Promise 04, a U.S. Northern
Command readiness exercise that is serving as the validation exercise for JFHQ-
NCR, formed last October and due to achieve "full operational capability" this
October.
"This is our piece of transformation," Army Col. James R. Bartran said, "taking
an Army administrative headquarters focused on ceremonies and base support and
transforming it into a joint and interagency operational command.
"It's all starting to come alive now in this exercise," Bartran said. "The
people, the equipment, the tools. There's a lot of energy here, and it's the
first chance to stand up and do what we are expected to do, to execute our new
mission."
The JOC has more than 50 work stations with both secure and nonsecure network
access from each station, secure and nonsecure phones on each desk, secure and
nonsecure video teleconferencing, an around-the-clock radio/watchdesk
operation, networked links with law enforcement and civilian agencies as well
as integration with the NORTHCOM secure communications systems.
Add to this Geospatial Information System capability, "red phone" hookup, and
satellite communications to and from the Mobile Command Center and a smaller
communications vehicle obtained since Sept. 11, 2001, that the command
nicknames "Dagger."
The 41-foot-long MCC is built on a commercially available truck chassis, a 10-
wheel Freightliner, but the inside, including the overall dimensions, is
entirely to specifications drawn up with the task in mind, integrating fully
with JOC.
Now, the Force Protection team, the rest of MDW and the Joint Forces
Headquarters are better able to communicate with each other and with the other
agencies, federal and local, that they need to work with in Determined Promise
or any real-world scenario in the capital that calls for a military response.
In a sense, the new Operations Center and Mobile Command Center were born in
the embers of the attack on the Pentagon.
Army Col. Egon Hawrylak, a former MDW operations officer who has taken the post
of civilian deputy operations officer, said the Army command's Pentagon Sept.
11 recovery effort pointed out the need for a better operations center and for
a mobile command capability.
Hawrylak credited Maj. Gen. James T. Jackson "for making the tough early
decisions." The then-MDW commanding general needed both to be onsite at the
Pentagon and to take daily update briefings at the MDW Emergency Operations
Center. "We had no vehicle then that was capable of anything more than a
nonsecure telephone connection," Hawrylak said. "The EOC was basically an
unclassified environment.
"(Jackson) made the commitment to secure a modern mobile command center and to
fund it from the MDW budget," Hawrylak said. Army funds also were earmarked for
a major building renovation that would include an up-to-date operations center.
The Sept. 11 attacks also pointed to linking the military services for joint
defense of the homeland nationally, as with U.S. Northern Command and the North
American Aerospace Defense Command, and at the military and political nerve
center, with a Joint Force Headquarters - National Capital Region.
NORTHCOM ultimately funded the National Capital Region's JOC, and achieved the
capability far sooner than would otherwise hav e been the case. But for both
the JOC and the MCC, the operations planners were already thinking jointly.
The NavAir Warfare Center's Special Communications Requirements Division at St.
Inigoes, Md., was well equipped to handle the job and had handled similar tasks
for the Defense Department and other agencies. They were well chosen to get MDW
out of the "Conestoga wagon" from which it was operating.
NavAir personnel from Patuxent River, Md., also helped to determine
requirements and find the best ways to meet those requirements.
Jackman, prior to cutting the ribbon in the JOC, asked his staff, both MDW and
JFHQ-NCR, for two things. "First I want you to leverage these tools to the
maximum," he said, using them to obtain the clearest situational awareness and
then to facilitate acting in the best and most coherent way.
"Take care of and improve on these tools," Jackman further counseled,
suggesting that the step forward, while large, was still just a milestone on a
longer journey.
(Tom Mani is chief of command information for the U.S. Army Military District
of Washington and the Joint Force Headquarters - National Capital Region).
http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Aug2004/n08052004_2004080502.html
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