U.S. Navy sailors were given a first look at a new automated data analytic system during a demonstration at Trident Warrior.
Developed by the U.S. Navy’s Program Executive Office for Command, Control, Communications, Computers and Intelligence (PEO C4I), the Naval Integrated Tactical-Cloud Reference for Operational Superiority, or NITROS for short, is designed to provide quicker, more comprehensive tactical analysis in support of the Navy’s increasing emphasis on information warfare.
During the demonstration at Trident Warrior, engineers aboard aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70) achieved all of their goals with the system, including showcasing increased data sharing among disparate C4I systems. That activity included multiple tasks such as ingesting meteorological and oceanographic (METOC) data into intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance processes; ingesting command and control processes; and performing predictive analysis, alerting and sharing processed data.
“NITROS brings the power of automation to analysts’ workflows, allowing them to dedicate their time to the ‘why’ instead of the ‘how,'” Dr. Bob Parker , PEO C4I technical director, explained. “They can dive directly into the work of analysis on a greater volume of data than ever before. NITROS represents an enterprise-wide shift toward collaborative integrated delivery of information warfare.”
NITROS is one of the largest experiments to occur in a Trident Warrior event, despite being a demonstration and not an official program of record.
According to the U.S. Navy, NITROS represents an incremental step in exploiting the expected wealth of both organic and non-organic data available to Navy tactical platforms to provide operational advantages. The demonstration examined the difficulties of analyzing information across multiple programs, fusing data from different sources, in a communications-challenged environment.
The navy said that, when implemented, the capabilities would reach the fleet via other programs, not as a standalone system. Trident Warrior gave such programs an opportunity to perform risk reduction on high-risk capabilities. The effort supports an fiscal years 2019 and 2020 fielding of tactical analytic capabilities afloat and ashore, enabling greater situational awareness and more insightful operational planning.