JEDI's Data Interoperability Capabilities Continue Impacting Global Defense Systems

Troika Solutions participated in NATO’s Coalition Warfare Interoperability Exercise (CWIX) Final Coordination Conference (FCC) last week at the Joint Forces Training Center (JFTC) in Bydgoszcz, Poland.    

Troika collaborated with our partners at Nexus Life Cycle Management to examine data interoperability of the United States force deployment systems with NATO systems via our Joint Enterprise Data Interoperability (JEDI) capability.  JEDI will allow US and NATO systems to interact as it supports logistics reporting of planning, sustainment, execution of transportation, visualization of movement, and more.  For CWIX, JEDI’s targeted NATO systems are the Logistics Functional Services (LOGFAS) and the NATO Asset Locating Expert System (NALES).

The Troika/Nexus JEDI engine exchanges pertinent data, regardless of processes and technologies, between systems providing disparate, stove-piped, legacy, ERP, and other data sources to provide the interoperability of equipment data among information systems.  JEDI translates data formats and metadata that identifies the context and meaning of the data so that it can be discovered and re-used outside of its information system.

Currently, a digitized manner to exchange data between US force deployment systems and their NATO counterparts such as LOGFAS and NALES does not exist. This means that the data must be exchanged through an almost entirely manual means that can take days or even weeks.  It can also require extensive travel requirements. Most importantly, it leaves the data exchange vulnerable to the hazards and mistakes inherent in manual entries of large quantities of data.

Incorporating the JEDI engine into the force deployment provides true data interoperability between US and NATO systems, eliminates the swivel chair dilemma, provides more timely and accurate accountability of movement and sustainment, and ensures accurate and timely reporting data for senior US and NATO commanders and supporting NATO agencies.

JEDI is a project sponsored by the US Joint Chiefs Staff Directorate for Logistics (J4).  The purpose of the project is to develop process and technical solutions that enable and improve data interoperability among US European Command (USEUCOM) components and agencies as well as between USEUCOM and NATO mission partners.  The JEDI team has a particular focus on product life cycle support (PLCS) data that is governed by International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and NATO Standardization Agreement (STANAG) standards.

Since 2011, CWIX has enhanced the technical interoperability of Communication and Information Systems (CIS) between NATO and Partner Nations. CWIX gathers stakeholders from NATO and participating nations, providing a federated multi-functional environment with four purposes:

• To explore emerging interoperability standards and solutions through collaborative innovation activities

•  To experiment with new interoperability solutions and assess suitability for near term implementation

• To examine technical interoperability among fielded and soon to be fielded capabilities and generate scorecards

• To exercise interoperability capabilities using a relevant scenario

More than 400 specialists representing 26 allied and partner nations as well as various NATO agencies gathered in Bydgoszcz for the CWIXFCC.  Participation was divided among 16 different focus areas to include Federated Mission Network, GEOMETROC,Operations Command, Logistics, Cyber, Land, Sea, and Air.  The JEDI team is participating in the Logistics Functional Area.

To learn more about JEDI, CWIX, or Troika’s ongoing work with NATO, please contact Bill Black (bblack@troikasol.com),Matt Edwards (medwards@troikasol.com)or Jerry McGovern (jmcgovern@troikasol.com).