Virtual War Room Needed for Federal Crisis Response, Says Rep. Randy Forbes

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7/22/2010

The BP oil spill once again exposed the federal government's difficulties in coordinating disaster response, said Virginia Congressman J. Randy Forbes. The solution: Create a virtual war room for interagency collaboration during national emergencies.

Forbes is a long-time advocate of modeling and simulation technologies. His district is home to U.S. Joint Forces Command, one of the Defense Department's biggest users of simulation systems.

Virtual collaboration tools should have been used to better respond to disasters such as the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, Forbes said this week during a House Armed Services Committee hearing on the use of modeling and simulation to enhance military readiness.

The federal agencies responsible for disaster response often are disconnected and unable to coordinate their efforts rapidly, he said. “Whether it is Katrina or the Gulf oil spill, America needs a process to bring to bear creative solutions to critical problems quickly if not proactively,” said Forbes.
In the case of the oil spill, government officials lacked the tools and processes to evaluate the ideas that were proposed to plug the leaking well and sop up the slick, said Forbes. He expressed frustration about being approached by a constituent who handed him a proposal describing a device that could be used on barges to suck up contaminated seawater.

“I found out there were thousands of ideas like that across the country,” he said. “We just don’t have the mechanism in government to handle those kinds of ideas and those kinds of thoughts.”

Forbes is sponsoring legislation that would create "immersive" simulation tools to promote interagency collaboration during a federal emergency. The intent is to model proposed solutions in virtual environments, similarly to the way the Pentagon uses digital simulations to experiment with new weapons. “Imagine a crisis solution in hours or days rather than months,” said Forbes, who is founder and co-chair of the congressional modeling and simulation caucus. “I believe that modeling and simulation is the very industry that could serve as the platform upon which to build a national crisis response solution repository staffed by the best, the brightest and most creative of our government response agencies.”

The Defense Department would be asked to help guide this effort, he said. The military services have long relied on computer models and virtual trainers to do everything from teaching troops combat skills to predicting equipment costs and maintenance.

There is a burgeoning market for simulations and “it is becoming clear that in the not too distant future we will train with avatars, wholly immersed in a three-dimensional alternative world,” said Fred Lewis, president of the National Training and Simulation Association. Innovation and creativity is alive and well within the modeling and simulation industry, he added. “The capacity is there, the desire is there and the intellect is there to go forward to develop these things,” he said.

Military officials at the hearing said they expect increased use of simulation technology, but cautioned that budget cuts may slow down the projected growth. Ground force commanders are seeking improved simulations for combat training. The Army and Marine Corps want to bring the level of their training systems up to par with flight simulators. Pentagon officials plan to spend $285 million in the next five years on "immersive" ground simulation systems that will hone infantry units’ close quarter combat skills.

“We have adequate resources to pursue this, but I have to caveat that the technology is advancing rapidly and we have to stay with the technology advances,” said Army Maj. Gen. Stephen Layfield, commander of U.S. Joint Forces Command’s joint war fighting center and director of joint training.

Simulation supporters, however, fear that if defense budgets shrink, programs will be at risk. “As you begin to have budgets that are kind of constrained, the first priority is the flight line and the actual systems and the maintenance of those,” said Air Force Maj. Gen. Marke Gibson, director of operations in the office of the deputy chief of staff for operations, plans and requirements. Simulators and virtual training often are the first to get cut during budget drills. “We put priority toward maintaining the aircraft and the actual systems because in the end, that’s what we go to war with,” he added.

Forbes argued for the reverse. “As budgets get tighter and things get tougher, modeling and simulation is the one vehicle that helps us navigate through those tight budgets and also helps us become more efficient and make sure that we have the readiness that we need,” he said.

To be effective, simulators have to be updated constantly, officials said. “It is critical that we upgrade the simulators,” said Vice Adm. William Burke, deputy chief of naval operations for fleet readiness and logistics. The Navy typically invests in upgrading ship simulator software. “That allows us to continue to train on that simulation and avoid negative training … But it’s a challenge because they’re taking money away from something else to do the upgrading,” he said. As the military increases the use of simulation-based training, officials said they are still trying to strike the right balance of live and virtual exercises. In many cases, the sweet spot still remains elusive.
One problem that perennially plagues virtual training efforts is the lack of interoperability among simulators that were not designed to be connected into a network.
“We continue to be challenged on making sure that everyone can plug into the network,” said Gibson. The Air Force is running “virtual flag” exercises in which airmen flying in home base simulators are networked together into large-scale training operations. The services' simulators in many cases are outdated and cannot be integrated into larger networks. Newer aircraft simulators, such as the F-22 fighter, is a case in point. Gibson noted that officials experienced problems trying to connect the F-22 trainer into Air Force virtual networks. They are working to ensure that similar hitches do not occur with the forthcoming F-35 simulators, he said.

Posted at 2:23 PM by Grace Jean | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

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7/22/2010

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