ARRC JOURNAL
The physical staff footprint will also be minimised . The selection of buildings of opportunity will help achieve this , combined with a more austere level of Real Life Support than is generally found at a Corps-level Headquarters .
Easily identifiable electronic emissions ( eg military SATCOM and signature radio systems ) should be minimised as they will enable a sophisticated enemy to scan the Electromagnetic Spectrum and locate the Headquarters . Although no attempt will be made to camouflage the Headquarters build , it is intended that it should blend into its surroundings .
As much of the OSW will be carried out in Main Headquarters , the requirement for services for the Forward Staff should be reduced to the bare minimum to allow them to have enough situational awareness to make decisions .
To ensure that the Forward Headquarters is effective as soon after activation as possible , staff must have instant access to services on arrival in the new location . In addition , there should be no change to E-Mail addresses as a result of the change of location as this will be detrimental to the staff tempo .
Innovation to deliver the Forward Concept
MAIN MNE 1
LYNC JOCWATCH JCHAT
MNE 2
SHAREPOINT
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GETAC |
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FORWARD 1 |
LAPTOP |
FORWARD 2 |
STAFF CARRYING THICK CLIENT MACHINES ARRC Forward Change of Location procedure
INNOVATION ACTIVITY 1 . The requirement to deliver the services to the Forward Headquarters staff immediately on their arrival in the new location whilst minimising the amount of CIS equipment proved to be an interesting challenge both technically and procedurally . It was successfully achieved as follows :
Splitting the Magpie 1 node . A Magpie small node is equipped with a double server stack for resilience . The node was split and each Forward Headquarters was provided with one server stack . Although this approach reduced resilience , it enabled one node to support 2 separate points of presence . Consequently users could access the limited services they required from either location .
The portable E-Mail solution . The split node concept did not enable seamless access to E-Mails . The limitation on bandwidth would not allow Microsoft Exchange servers to update over the network in a timely manner . It was therefore decided that the Forward staff would have one Exchange server loaded onto a portable server laptop and they would each be used with “ thick client ” laptops on which their personal mailbox would be stored . Other services such as LYNC , JOCWATCH and JCHAT were hosted elsewhere and “ long line ” accessed by the Staff over the network .
In order for the above solutions to work effectively , the following Change of Location procedure was implemented :
Step 1 – The Activation party formally activate the new Forward Headquarters 2 .
Step 2 – Forward staff close down their “ thick client ” machines in the old Forward Headquarters .
Step 3 – Signal Staff close down the GETAC server laptop hosting the Exchange server in the old Forward Headquarters .
Step 4 – Both Forward Staff ( carrying “ thick client ” machines ) and Signal Staff ( carrying the GETAC laptop ) move to the new Forward location .
Step 5 – On arrival in the new Forward location the GETAC laptop is booted up and Forward staff activate their laptops taking around 20 minutes to download traffic generated whilst in transit .
INNOVATION ACTIVITY 2 . As a result of innovation carried out in support of an operation the extension of FALCON using the internet as a bearer was accredited . This presented the opportunity to replace SATCOM with commercial 4G at the Forward Headquarters location . This would significantly reduce the physical and electromagnetic footprint of the Headquarters in line with G3 direction . It would also reduce both costs and overreliance on satellite communications ( SATCOM ). Although there are risks when relying on locally provided 4G it should remain an option and it can be one of several bearers available to the Forward Headquarters to deploy in a way appropriate to local security conditions and the operational environment
Conclusions and Future Work
The further development of the Forward Headquarters will depend upon a better understanding of how the staff interact both within the build and with Main Headquarters . This is the subject of the Forward Headquarters Study currently being led by Operational Analysis Branch with the support of G6 . The innovation work carried out during ARRCADE FUSION 17 will now be extended to cover LIFI 3 and secure WIFI which will further reduce the Headquarters infrastructure requirement and therefore reduce the time taken to set up the build ; and further improve operational security . There is also work to be done on better understanding the signatures of equipment and the consequent threats to electromagnetic detection .
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Lt Col Martin Bever ( GBR-A ) is currently SO1 Capability Development in the G6 Branch at HQ Allied Rapid Reaction Corps .
1 UK Operational level System . 2 The Activation party consists of SO2 G3 Systems and a small team . During the change of location their role is to arrive in the new location and confirm access to “ long lined ” services . 3 Wireless optical networking technology which uses light bulbs for data transmission .
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