Semper Mobilis! 

Getting on Top of the Muddy Hill with Windows CE

By Major James Cummiskey
It was good to be back in uniform! In September 1998 I graduated from the Naval Postgraduate School with an MS in Computer Science. My research and thesis focused on incorporating commercial palmtop-sized computers and Windows CE into the Marine Corps' existing command structure. Now it was time to do some real life "incorporating." I was assigned as the Win32 System Architect and a Technical Advisor to the Commanding Officer of the Marine Corps Tactical System Support Activity (MCTSSA) in Camp Pendleton, California (http://www.mctssa.usmc.mil/hq/tech-adv1/index.htm). The mission of MCTSSA is simple: build and integrate tactical command and control systems to keep Marines alive in battle. At MCTSSA, I have had a unique opportunity to continue my mobile computing evangelism throughout the Marine Corps. Of particular note was the experience I had last summer while assigned as the MCTSSA Officer-in-Charge of a strategically significant amphibious training exercise in Southern California.

KERNEL BLITZ Tests Windows CE battlefield solutions

The largest amphibious exercise in North America, KERNEL BLITZ 97 was conducted off the shores of Camp Pendleton by the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force (I MEF) in June 1997. The exercise provided a unique opportunity for my command to support the Marine operating forces in a real-world exercise while exploring Windows CE solutions to many of the challenges associated with landing 26,000 men on a beach against an opposing force.

During KERNEL BLITZ, one of my priorities was to provide Handheld PCs for the small unit leaders (including platoon commanders and scout/sniper platoon members) for use during the operation. Since CE 2.0 was not yet shipping, we used both the Casio A-11 and the Hewlett-Packard 320LX; both Windows CE 1.0-based H/PCs readily available at the time. These inexpensive devices were used for many things, but one of the most significant uses was for communicating operation orders during tactical huddles in the field.

What's an Operation Order?

Much like a football quarterback, Marine leaders are constantly calling their subordinate leaders up for a quick huddle to discuss the plan for the next operation. The timely distribution of these "operation orders" is paramount, as they help us synchronize our actions and support each other in battle. Unfortunately, our "state-of-the-art" reproduction capability in the field is still carbon paper. These tactical huddles often turn out to be a fatiguing exercise in note taking. The company commander does all the talking while his platoon leaders desperately try to write down every word coming out of his mouth. And, of course, these tactical huddles usually happen at night, so everyone is dog-tired from the day's operations. Naturally, Murphy's Law ensures that it's both raining and the wind is blowing fiercely whenever possible.

It should surprise no one that errors often creep in during this tedious order-issuing process. After all, stenography is not a Marine's most prized battlefield skill. However, if a Marine leader writes down the wrong information, people can pay with their lives. (E.G., "The F-18 aircraft will be dropping their bombs at 0900 in vicinity of Checkpoint 8--or is that at 0800 in the vicinity of Checkpoint 9?")

H/PCs in the hands of Marine leaders change this scenario. Operation orders can now be transmitted flawlessly in a few seconds via the H/PC's infrared communication capability (see screen 1). Instead of being an exercise in note taking, subordinates download exact copies of the orders. Each recipient can then put all of his attention on listening to his commander as he goes over the plan. This significantly increases comprehension and decreases the likelihood of misinterpretation. For Marines, this is one of our "killer applications" for the H/PC.

Screen 1: An H/PC screen shot of a typical battalion operation order that I wrote as an infantry battalion operations officer. It's written in HTML format with an overview on the first page and links to each section.

The Windows CE "Battle Book"

Marines today need to be able to quickly access an ever-increasing repository of critical battlefield data, fondly referred to as the "Battle Book." For example, we use our Battle Book to keep up to speed on such things as enemy weapon system ranges, checklists for conducting field operations, and formats for the seemingly endless collection of reports we use in combat and training.

Unfortunately, in most of the Marine Corps, the Battle Book is a collection of paper and laminated cardboard organized in a binder. The typical Marine infantry small-unit leader carries an extra four pounds of paper with him into combat, and only so much information fits on four pounds of paper. There had to be a better way!

During KERNEL BLITZ we experimented with using the H/PC as the Battle Book. We used 20 to 32 MB Flash RAM storage cards to store the Battle Book in HTML format. A unit leader could quickly search a couple dozen footlockers worth of information using Pocket Internet Explorer (see Screen 2).

Screen 2: The opening screen of the USMC Battle Book as it appears on the H/PC. Critical battlefield data is kept on the H/PC in HTML documents and quickly searched with the built-in Pocket Internet Explorer.

We chose to format our H/PC documents in HTML for a couple of reasons. First, it lets us view and edit our documents in the intuitive language of the World Wide Web. It's easy to organize a lot of information in an HTML document, and maneuver quickly through the document by clicking on links. Marines like to maneuver quickly! Second, Pocket Internet Explorer is already built into the H/PC. It's there in ROM and it's going to stay there, uncorrupted, and ready when you need it.

Developing "situational awareness" with the H/PC

As you probably are aware, there's more to being a Marine than reference documents, however efficiently they're transmitted and organized. We didn't stop with Operation Orders and Battle Books. We developed "Chesty Junior" with the help of Norman Hills, a talented software developer at the Casio Corporation.

Chesty Junior is a prototype "situational awareness" application for the H/PC. We named it after Lieutenant General Lewis "Chesty" Puller, one of the Marine Corps most revered combat generals and a great proponent of the importance of getting the straight scoop in battle. Marines define situational awareness as knowing where you are; where your buddies are; and where the bad guys are. Traditionally, this kind of information is displayed in the form of a map with markers on it. This information is vital, especially for the small unit leader. However, since the small unit leader is a guy who crawls around in the mud, it's never been really practical for him to carry this type of information with him. Not practical, that is, until the H/PC came on the scene.

The portability of the H/PC and the communications capabilities of Windows CE combine to provide an ideal mobile platform for tracking and displaying this type of information. Chesty Junior gives the Marine in the field the ability to display a high-quality1:50K scale map of the battlefield (1 inch on the display equals 50,000 inches), as well as the ability to plot both enemy and friendly units (see Screen 3). As position updates become available, users can easily move position markers around and quickly calculate range and bearing from any particular unit to another.

As wireless and Global Positioning System (GPS) capabilities are incorporated, it becomes possible to share this carefully developed situational awareness data with other Marines. Each small unit leader can receive position updates, calculate targeting data, and request tactical support from other units, all using the H/PC and Chesty Junior.

Due to power and weight considerations, Marines in small units cannot afford to lug sub-notebooks around for messaging and situational awareness. A lightweight, semi-rugged H/PC, with a high degree of interoperability with Win32 notebook and desktop systems, provides the perfect compromise between power and size. Chesty Junior and the inexpensive yet reliable H/PCs suggest a future direction for handheld situational awareness platforms.

(Note: Chesty Junior began years ago as a Lotus Spreadsheet I wrote for the HP 95LX. I rewrote it in the C programming language for the more-capable HP 200LX. This DOS program, named GridCalc, is available at http://dubhe.cc.nps.navy.mil/~jccummis/thesis/html/AppendixD.htm).

Chesty Junior's map display, which lets the Marine see the location of friends and foes, and quickly calculate distances between the two.

Screen 3: The prototype "Chesty Junior" application adds "situational awareness" capabilities to the H/PC.

But will it survive?

When a Marine looks at a new tool, the first question that pops out of his mouth is, "how long will it survive in battle?" Up to this point in the article, everything sounds nice. But if nothing happens when you press the "ON" button, what good is it?

Traditionally, the military pays big bucks to create "ruggedized" and "militarized" solutions. But did we really need to pay for military-specific handhelds when an inexpensive commercial H/PC, with a little help from an outside vendor, meets most of our needs?

To give the H/PC a fighting chance on the battlefield we worked with a New Zealand company called Kiwigreen (http://www.mobilepda.co.nz) to create a ruggedized case they call the "Nighthawk" (see Screen 4). Nighthawk is a padded, water-resistant camouflage leather case that makes the H/PC much more survivable in adverse conditions. Furthermore, Nighthawk has a rechargeable NiMH battery built in. This extends the life of an H/PC equipped with a PC-card modem up to 20 times its normal operational life. When there are no power sources handy to recharge the NiMH battery, you can run the H/PC off of Nighthawk's disposable lithium cells, which can provide a lightweight source of backup power for weeks. The case has a thermal blanket to keep the H/PC cool in the summer and warm in the winter. Nighthawk comes with a snap-in LED light to illuminate the keyboard at night (with a rheostat to adjust the light). A Velcro mounting system lets you strap the H/PC securely in the case and Nighthawk's extra padding make the H/PC extremely shock resistant. All this contributes to making the H/PC very survivable in combat.

Screen 4: We worked with Kiwigreen to develop Nighthawk, a padded, water-resistant camouflage leather case that makes the H/PC much more survivable in adverse conditions, and provides extra battery life.

Wireless Connectivity is Key

Although quite useful as stand-alone solutions, H/PCs truly shine, and contribute to the success of a military operation, when networked into a communications architecture. These "comm-pipes" not only enable the messaging and web-browsing applications mentioned earlier, they facilitate the passing around of the situational awareness and fire-support messages (depicted in the sidebar CE in Combat). Of course, any communication channel we select has to be wireless in nature. You don't go into battle with a cable hanging out of your rear end.

At MCTSSA, we are currently experimenting with a variety of communication solutions including 2.4GHz Wireless LANs by Proxim and Symbol, two-way paging networks offered by SkyTel, and Packet Radio networks such as Ardis and RAM Mobile. We are also looking closely at the wide variety of analog and digital cellular phone systems in conjunction with PC-card and software-based modems. The basic idea is to use commercial infrastructure when it is available, but also plan on bringing our own mobile infrastructure to the field to augment commercial networks that are sometimes unavailable in combat. We are also looking forward to the emergence of the numerous Low Earth Orbit Satellite (LEOS) constellations that are being built (such as Orbcomm, Iridium and Teledesic). The promise of bandwidth up to 64mbps downlink and 2mbps uplink from a LEOS SATCOMM transceiver is very exciting for both military and commercial telecommunication applications.

Future Work with the H/PC

Work continues at MCTSSA as we attempt to fully harness the power of the H/PC and Windows CE on the battlefield. One of the more critical problems confronting the military is our requirement to share data across the battlefield network to make sure everyone is "on the same sheet of music." After all, if I'm going to drop a bomb on Checkpoint 8, I'm pretty sure the guys in the vicinity will want to know when I'm going to do it and want my positioning data to be as accurate as possible!

One of the more critical problems confronting the military is that of data reconciliation. We are the true "mobile professional" and the command structure has to be able to send us necessary information and keep us all in sync. System engineers call this the "requirement to replicate and reconcile a database across widely distributed mobile clients." We are looking into adapting existing commercial technologies to the needs of the ever-mobile Marine.

Work is also underway to enhance Chesty Junior, integrating Global Positioning System (GPS) support, connectivity to a central database via wireless communications, and increasing the functionality of the application. Throughout all of these initiatives, I have continued to receive outstanding support from numerous H/PC and Windows CE software vendors. Most notably has been the great support from Hewlett-Packard, Casio and, of course, the Microsoft Corporation. We are also working closely with my alma mater, the Naval Postgraduate School, to further the potential of mobile computing for military applications.

Windows CE and the current family of Windows CE-based devices seem well suited to the mobile computing needs of the armed forces. The familiarity of the standard Windows interface and compatibility with desktop applications, the instant-on functionality, and the long battery life of low-cost RISC devices are all key ingredients in the success of the H/PC. Moreover, the ability to leverage the Marine Corps' investment in Win32 code already developed for the Win 9x and NT operating systems is a critical component of Windows CE. Finally, Windows CE offers us an opportunity to exploit the training investment of our engineers in both the Win32 Application Programming Interface (API) and the Visual Studio Integrated Development Environment (IDE). Microsoft's rich set of development tools for the CE-based H/PC distinguishes it from the pack of other mobile operating systems. Windows CE is the mobile operating system of choice for the U.S. Marine Corps.

Thus, mobile computing is essentially about freedom: the freedom to retain one's connectivity to rest of the world and the critical bits of personal data that are becoming increasingly important to our daily lives. The Marine Corps, in particular, has more of these critical bits of data to worry about than most. As Marines struggle to get on top of the muddy hills of tomorrow, a handheld personal computer is almost certain to be a critical part of their battle gear.

Semper Mobilis!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Jim has been integrating handheld technology into the battlefield for five years, beginning with his efforts to use the HP 95LX palmtop PC as commanding officer of a Marine infantry company in Kuwait (see the Sep/Oct 93 issue of The HP Palmtop Paper). The Marine Corps sent him to the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California where he graduated with an MS in Computer Science. His thesis discusses the incorporation of commercial palmtop-sized computers and Windows CE into the Marine Corps' existing command and control architecture. A web site detailing Jim's mobile computing research is available at http://vislab-www.nps.navy.mil/~jccummis/. This web site includes a link to his published thesis.

During his tenure at graduate school, Jim was invited by Microsoft to become one of the original Independent Software Vendor (ISV) developers for the emerging Pegasus program--later to be renamed Windows CE. Chapter 7 of his thesis (available at http://dubhe.cc.nps.navy.mil/~jccummis/thesis/html/Chapter7.htm) details his early exploration of Windows CE and evaluation of its suitability for use on the battlefield.

Jim has briefed government and civilian audiences about the Marine Corps' experimentation with mobile computers and Windows CE on the battlefield. He also participated as a panelist at the March 1998 Mobile Computing Insights conference and the April 1998 Windows CE Developer's Conference.