Will the military transportation be managed by the ACS?

In recent years, the military communications service has been paying great attention to automating the processes of planning and managing military transportation by rail, sea, river, and air. A successful solution to this problem is the creation of a multi-level automated military communications management system (ASU VOSO).

An important element of the management activities of the VOSO service is the planning of military transportation on the routes, the distribution of plans and statements to the executors, and the monitoring of their implementation. One of the priority ways to improve the planning of military transportation is the use of modern information technologies based on high-performance computing tools and data transmission systems.

In turn, the efficiency of military transportation planning based on the use of computers can only be achieved if all stages of planning are automated, including the transmission and receipt of requests from supply departments and services, their analysis, processing, and solving planning tasks based on optimization, selection of rational transportation routes, and loading of vehicles.

Therefore, the creation of the VOSO Automated System is a priority area in the development of the military communications service. It is too early to talk about the practical use of the developed systems and subsystems, as the work on the creation of the VOSO Automated System is being carried out under extremely limited funding and is at the stage of implementing a technical project, as well as developing the first-stage tasks, of which there are more than 35. The first-stage tasks include the planning of military transportation in the central and district levels, as well as the accounting of the technical characteristics of railway, sea, river, and air transport.

Currently, the Central Control and Coordination Center of the Russian Ministry of Defense is effectively solving a number of military transport tasks that ensure planning and accounting.

page 18

progress of the implementation of centralized supply of military transportation by rail and water transport, as well as obtaining information about the network of railways - on the calculation of the required number of rolling stock for the transportation of troops (taking into account the staffing), on the delivery of material and technical resources to the Arctic and the Far North, and a number of other tasks. The planning documents obtained as a result of this work are used directly in the CUP of the Military Communications Department of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, and the relevant extracts from the plans are sent to the Ministry of Railways and the military communications departments of the railways.

The military transport tasks that are currently being operated are mainly developed using general software that is based on the MS DOS operating system. This is due to the fact that the main fleet of personal computers used by the Central Control and Coordination Center of the Military Transport Department of the Russian Ministry of Defense is the IBM PC. These computers, which are based on 486SX processors, do not support modern 32-bit applications. To work with such software, it is necessary to use computers with PENTIUM processors. Currently, it takes two to three years for a complete generation of personal computers to be replaced. The Military Communications Service is unable to provide for the replacement of the computer equipment fleet even after a generation in the highest level of management, not to mention the line and district (fleet) management bodies. All of this makes it almost impossible to switch to modern systems of general software. In addition, the problem of transmitting information through communication channels that have linear encryption equipment certified by the Federal Agency for Government Communications and Information has not been solved. All of this makes it impossible to build not only the VOSO ACS. but even the local ACS of the Center.

But it is not only the technical means that are a weak link in the construction of the VOSO ACS. Many problems arise in the information support used. The system of maintaining and servicing national and sectoral classifiers and dictionaries has been destroyed or transferred to a purely commercial basis, which leads to diversity and ambiguity in the functioning of ACS of different agencies and manufacturers.

The main feature of the functioning of the organizational structures of military communications is their stable information link with the transport bodies of various departments, the command bodies of the Armed Forces, and, in terms of technical support, with the Federal Service of the Russian Railway Troops. Taking this feature into account requires additional efforts from the developers of the VOSO ACS to achieve information compatibility with the existing and developing ACS of the transport departments. This is one of the main difficulties in creating the VOSO ACS at all levels of management.

The work on creating the VOSO Automated System is being carried out in the context of Russia's severe economic crisis, while the organizational structures of the Armed Forces are being changed and their numbers are being reduced. Solving such a complex scientific and technical task requires a comprehensive approach that includes a systematic description of the subject area, a detailed analysis of information flows, the creation of an information database, and the organization of an information protection system.

As already noted, the process of creating the VOSO ACS should take into account the prospects for the development of automated systems of transport agencies. The Ministry of Railways has adopted the Concept and Program for the informatization of railway transport until 2005, and similar informatization programs have been developed in other transport agencies.

The process of developing and implementing information technology tools in the practice of military communications bodies is currently entering a qualitatively new phase - the stage of comprehensive informatization of military communications management processes. The need to improve informatization at this stage of development and implementation of the VOSO automated system is caused by a number of political and economic changes.

The dissolution of the former USSR into independent states led not only to the emergence of new military communications agencies in these states with their own legal documents, but also to the establishment of new border stations with customs barriers, as well as the division of the fleet of railcars, containers, ships, and aircraft between the former Soviet republics. The dissolution of the USSR resulted in the disruption of established military-economic ties and a significant change in the conditions and volumes of military transportation between the CIS countries.

Currently, the following features must be taken into account when planning and managing military transportation:

- increasing the role of financial and economic work;

- changes in the organizational structures of transport management bodies;

- rapid development and improvement of transport-related automated control systems based on new information technologies;

- operation of a branded transport service system on railways, in sea and river basins, on the basis of market conditions for interaction with customers.

The development and implementation of the VOSO automated system requires advance training and retraining of military communications officers in the field of computer technology.

In this area, the priorities are to improve the quality and level of professional training of personnel in military communications management using information and communication systems and tools, as well as to develop practical skills in using computers and automated control systems in the daily work of military communications bodies.

These are the main issues that need to be addressed in the near future when creating an automated military message management system.

page 19

Permanent link to this publication: