Pacific Air Forces (PACAF) and 353d CTS

Technology Category

Cybersecurity & Privacy - Network Security

Applicable Industries

National Security & Defense

Use Cases

Cybersecurity

Services

System Integration
Training

The Challenge

The Pacific Air Forces (PACAF) and the 353d Combat Training Squadron (353d CTS) operate and manage the premiere joint combat training venue – RED FLAG-Alaska (RF-A). RF-A exercises are held at the Joint Pacific Alaska Range Complex (JPARC) at Eielson Air Force Base and Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson. JPARC is the largest instrumented air, ground, and electronic combat training range in the world. With multiple joint and coalition forces exercises per year, RF-A provides relevant and real-world air and ground combat scenarios with realistic threats and targets. As many as 90 aircraft and 2,000 personnel participate in the RF-A tactical exercises that cover 66,000 square miles of training airspace and 1.6 million acres of often-rugged land in the joint Air Force/Army-managed JPARC. The JPARC encompasses more than $200 million worth of equipment and instrumentation to support warfighter training exercises. In addition to size and cost, PACAF has the added responsibility to ensure that sensitive data is not accessed or leaked to unauthorized parties or systems – especially critical when training multinational coalition forces. To provide the most realistic training for the warfighter, which includes multiple nations and clearance levels, a cross domain solution was needed. To best support the required live, virtual, and constructive (LVC) aspects of the joint training, this cross domain solution had to be near-real time, support a flexible protocol, and be able to obtain an authority to connect (ATC) at the Secret and Below Interoperability (SABI) level.

About The Customer

Pacific Air Forces (PACAF) and the 353d Combat Training Squadron (353d CTS) operate and manage the premiere joint combat training venue – RED FLAG-Alaska (RF-A). RF-A exercises are held at the Joint Pacific Alaska Range Complex (JPARC) at Eielson Air Force Base and Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson. JPARC is the largest instrumented air, ground, and electronic combat training range in the world. With multiple joint and coalition forces exercises per year, RF-A provides relevant and real-world air and ground combat scenarios with realistic threats and targets. As many as 90 aircraft and 2,000 personnel participate in the RF-A tactical exercises that cover 66,000 square miles of training airspace and 1.6 million acres of often-rugged land in the joint Air Force/Army-managed JPARC. The JPARC encompasses more than $200 million worth of equipment and instrumentation to support warfighter training exercises.

The Solution

To mitigate the issues of securing sensitive data while allowing participants at different clearance levels to train together, PACAF adopted the Forcepoint SimShield cross domain solution. Forcepoint SimShield allows for secure, bi-directional interoperability among LVC assets that are dissimilarly classified. Forcepoint SimShield supports the standards-based, Test and Training Enabling Network Architecture (TENA) protocol utilized by JPARC and JDEWR. By deploying Forcepoint SimShield within the architecture, JPARC can utilize secure bi-directional integration and interaction of all equipment and sub-systems throughout the training environment. The Forcepoint SimShield deployment in the JPARC environment was certified and accredited in June 2009 and subsequently placed on the Unified Cross Domain Management Office (UCDMO) Baseline list. Forcepoint SimShield is currently the only TENA cross domain solution on the UCDMO Baseline list.

Operational Impact

JPARC exercise participants now have a battlespace that is fully integrated, regardless of individual system classifications, and is reflective of a real-world combat environment.
Classified information is granularly filtered to permit threat engagements and training while retaining classified capabilities for debrief.
PACAF was the first to envision that a cross domain solution could provide the ability to train diverse groups with dissimilarly classified systems from U.S. tanks and airplanes to multinational forces in real-world scenarios.