Shared Operational Picture Exchange Services (SOPES) Focus Area

OBJECTIVE

FOSTER THE CREATION OF SPECIFICATIONS OR EXTENSIONS TO EXISTING SPECIFICATIONS FOR THE PROVISION OF INFORMATION TO SUPPORT A SHARED OPERATIONAL PICTURE RELEVANT TO THE USER IN TERMS OF CONTEXT AND CONTENT.

The concept of the Shared Operational Picture, is one where operational information is shared with superiors, subordinates, peers, and support personnel in a way that allows each to see common information in a way that enhances their ability to accomplish their mission(s) while supporting any necessary dialog. MacGregor makes the statement that “Jointness is a condition that exists when services develop mechanisms – operational and tactical structures, processes, and expertise – for bridging service differences and extracting strategic value from inter-service cooperation.” The problem, he correctly observes, is to create structures on the operational level that assist the commander in responding quickly to events in his area of responsibility. “The question,” he says, “is how to do it"

(MacGregor, Douglas A., “Command and Control for Joint Strategic Action”, Digital War: A View From the Front Lines , Robert L. Bateman III, ed., Presidio Press, Novato, CA, 1999, ISBN: 0-89141-685-4)

SOPES Problem Space

During Crisis Response management Operations (CRO) , whether those operations occur during peacetime, crisis, or war, CRO crisis management operation members have a need to support decision-makers at all levels - from strategic to the target engagement level - with tactical ground picture information. Existing ground surveillance and reconnaissance systems currently provide part of the “picture”, or situational awareness to decision-makers and commanders. This picture, however, is incomplete, and remains a “patchwork”, with various elements of relevant information not integrated. Operational inefficiencies in “Operation Allied Force” (OAF) in Kosovo highlighted the consequences of current C4I systems shortfalls in fulfilling these requirements. It is therefore of utmost importance that in future coalition operations all available information, that may be relevant to the production of a decision-quality tactical ground picture, irrespective of source and type, must be made available to all eligible participants with actionable information consistent with the military requirement and level of command.

It is not the vision of the C4I DTF that SOPES would be used to provide information exchange at all levels of the command structure: information exchange should take place at the Component level and then be disseminated throughout the component, as required, utilizing existing Component C2I Systems. The advantages of SOPES is that it will facilitate the information exchange through standardization and will expedite the availability and improve the quality of information available to decision makers.

A particular challenge to the implementation of a SOPES solution will be the requirement to meet the many security requirements and to ensure that information is only available to those that the owner of the information has identified as an authorized user. The C4I DTF is working with the Security SIG and others within OMG to ensure that the appropriate level of security can be developed to support the realization and implementation of SOPES.

Statement of need

There needs to be a mechanism that will provide the capability to transmit, receive, display, and store:

• Land, maritime, air, and space data from both manual inputs and automatic data feeds;

• Planning data, including Battle Plans, OPLANS, CONPLANS, Ingress Routes and all available target data – Joint Prioritized Integrated Target List/JPITL, ATO, ACO, etc.

• Intelligence data, including orders of battle, commercial air traffic routes, capability assessments, and imagery products. Location of major headquarters, collection management information, PSYOP products and Special Instructions/Information, and Nuclear, Biological and Chemical (NBC) data;

• Current, planned, and projected location and status of hostile forces, including data on Units, Space Forces, Reserve and Guard Forces, C4ISR Forces, Special Operations Forces, Search and Rescue operations, Position Location Information (PLI), functional boundaries, battle space weapon engagement zones, and the status of friendly communications and information networks

• Political, diplomatic and social information, including information from all sources, and special interest tracks, humanitarian assistance forces, activities surrounding mishaps, freedom of navigation operations, Global Reach missions, and high interest peacekeeping operations;

• Geospatial information in standard raster and vector product formats;

• Environmental factors such as the effects of weather on terrain, climate data and severe weather, trafficability and soil conditions, coasts and landing beaches, river crossing sites, urban land usage, urban transportation, urban utilities, Lines of Communication, suitable weapons employment locations hide points, reload points.

SOPES work Items

progress to date

Shared Operational Picture Exchange Services (SOPES) RFI
November 16, 2001
Formats: ASCII , RTF , PostScript , PDF , Word
This document is available to the general public.

Advanced Systems Management Group SOPES RFI Response
Formats: PDF

Promia SOPES RFI Response
Formats: PDF

Supreme HQ Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE) SOPES RFI response
Formats: ASCII , RTF , PostScript , PDF , Word

SOPES Trusted Information Exchange Mechanism
June 6, 2003
Formats: RTF , PostScript , PDF , Word
This document is available to the general public.

Trusted Information Exchange Services RFI response
Formats: RTF , PostScript , PDF , Word

Fujitsu response to the Trusted Information Exchange RFI (part 1)
Formats: ASCII , RTF , PostScript , PDF , Word

Fujitsu response to the Trusted Information Exchange RFI (part 2)
Formats: ASCII , RTF , PostScript , PDF , Word

Shared Operational Picture Exchange Services (SOPES) Information Exchange Data Model
June 6, 2003
Formats: RTF , PostScript , PDF , Word
This document is available to the general public.

Shared Operational Picture Exchange Services (SOPES) Policy Management Services
June 6, 2003
Formats: RTF , PostScript , PDF , Word
This document is available to the general public.

Active RFIs & RFPs

NOTE: RFIs and RFPs both have due dates for responses. In the case of RFPs these dates are binding. In the case of RFIs, the C4I DTF has declared that the due date is the most desired date, but RFI responses will be accepted at any time prior to the RFIs topic being included in an RFP. After that event, no further responses to that RFI will be accepted.

Shared Operational Picture Exchange Services (SOPES) Information Exchange Mechanism (IEM) RFP
Formats: ASCII, RTF, PostScript, PDF, Word
This document is available to the general public.

Shared Operational Picture Exchange Services (SOPES) Information Exchange Data Model (IEDM) RFP
Formats: ASCII, RTF, PostScript, PDF, Word
This document is available to the general public.

Work in Progress

None

Planned work

Shared Operational Picture Exchange Services (SOPES) Policy Management Services RFP
RFP release expected in November 2004

Sources of Additional Germane Information

None