SPOTLIGHT ON INDUSTRY

ORINCON Corporation

By GORDON I. PETERSON, Senior Editor

Sea Power: Earlier this year, the Navy praised the performance of ORINCON's "WeCAN," a web-centric antisubmarine net that offers operational commanders an impressive ability to manage tactical information. What is the significance of this system's capabilities?

Magee: WeCAN [Web-Centric ASW Net] directly addresses fleet requirements for network-centric operations. WeCAN is indeed significant as one of the first products deployed for our Web-enabled Navy. Right information, right time, and right place requirements of the Navy, Marine Corps, and coalition forces are addressed by WeCAN's near-real-time and tailorable collaboration features.

WeCAN system architects started with upfront awareness of "real-world" limiters like variable bandwidth and intermittent connectivity to prototype and field reliable federations of master and local servers. WeCAN and its knowledge management [KM] derivatives--like the Global Gaming Net, recently used in Global War Game 2001--can be deployed via most Internet Protocol [IP] pathways for domain-specific information distribution and decision support. Three salient WeCAN KM features are its archived, time-tagged chat rooms; its open-systems compatibility as a Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command [SPAWAR] preferred product; and its flexible framework for current and future tactical-decision aids and operational-decision aids.

Your company has an established track record for innovation, including a demonstrated ability for the rapid insertion of technology. What type of corporate atmosphere and management philosophy fosters such achievements?

You are right on the mark about corporate atmosphere, management philosophy, and culture as driving forces for the passion of innovation. ORINCON was founded 28 years ago by empowered researchers and engineers who intended to leverage intellectual property, or "brain ware," on projects of national significance. Then and now, bright staff members have responded to challenging problems by pushing bits instead of atoms. They stay close to end users in the fleet and Fleet Marine Force and to our clients in the systems commands and warfare centers. As a result, ORINCON can architect and insert affordable, value-added solutions that are hardware-independent. It is hard to specify exact ingredients, but our innovation recipe does let our staff "find a way or make one."

In light of the armed forces' continued reliance on legacy systems, what are some of the challenges associated with backfitting "rapid technology insertion" to existing platforms?

A prime challenge for IT [information technology] providers like ORINCON is to invest enough time and talent in the discovery phase of a project to tune eventual solutions for those legacy systems. We have proudly developed a reputation for "customerization." By that term I mean an appropriate leverage of IT for existing systems that are tailored for our end users.

Backfitting? The Navy's Advanced Processor Build/Acoustic Rapid COTS Insertion [APBARCI] process exemplifies how refreshing "middleware," the knowledge of fleet requirements for acoustic advantage, and technology can backfit existing platforms--attack submarines and surface surveillance ships--with "best of breed" solutions. To credit both the Navy and industry, a cultural shift to the "new way of doing business" was made. Without that sea change, an affordable and vital backfit process like APB/ARCI might not have occurred.

What are some of the more promising advanced IT solutions suitable for future applications in the defense sector?

I offer three promising solutions. The first recognizes that many defense advancements involve the deployment of commercial-off-the-shelf [COTS] products and processes. As you know, the armed services have assumed a "follower" role with industry for many software and hardware systems. The Navy/Marine Corps Intranet is one of the largest examples of COTS leverage. But as you also know, mission-critical and life-saving products in the defense sector are not "off the shelf." ORINCON and other IT providers fill that application niche. Secondly, web-enablement is certainly a "killer application" in the defense sector. Internet processes dramatically change the way our militaries plan, conduct, and evaluate their missions. Lastly, automation and data fusion are key systems enablers for military planners and for future tactical systems like the multimission MH-60 aircraft, JCC-X [joint command ship], and CVN 77 [nuclear-powered aircraft carrier].

ORINCON scientists have applied the same principles that enable dolphins to track their prey to the development of a sonar able to locate and identify naval mines in ports and near shore. How is this project progressing?

As Admiral Forrest Sherman said, "If you can't go where you want to go--when you need to go--then you don't have command of the sea." ORINCON researchers are emulating dolphin minehunting techniques with biomimetics and sophisticated pattern recognition to address the sea control problem posed by shallow-water mines.

We just entered our next research-and-development phase, under Office of Naval Research sponsorship, for buried mine detection and classification. ORINCON is embedding hybrid signal and image classifiers on innovative undersea vehicles to lower the probability of false alarms, while increasing the probability of the detection and correct classification of stealthy mines.