Austin Bay Blog

My friend and military affairs reporter Ed Offley sent me a copy of an article he wrote for the Panama City (FLorida) News Herald. Ed read this week’s column that discussed the best use of military assets in responding to domestic natural disasters.

The “system of systems” is named DJC2 –Deployable Joint Command and Control (system).

Here’s Ed’s article, reprinted with his permission. I’ve highlighted (in bold) a couple of important points:

NAVAL SUPPORT ACTIVITY PANAMA CITY (FL): The U.S. Pacific Command will have to wait for DJC2. Under development at Naval Support Activity-Panama City since early 2004, the first Deployable Joint Command and Control (DJC2) facility was originally scheduled for delivery to the Pacific this month for operational testing in anticipation of fulltime operational capability certification in March 2006.

Then Hurricane Katrina struck the U.S. Gulf Coast. Confronted by the need to coordinate among dozens of U.S. military commands, federal agencies, state and local governments and private relief agencies over an area of devastation the size of England, the threestar admiral commanding the maritime component of the Katrina relief force last week asked for DJC2.

Within 24 hours of the call, a 30-man team from the Naval Surface Warfare Center moved the multimillion-dollar communications facility from the base to Naval Air Station New Orleans, where it was up and running Sept. 11. It is currently being used to manage the massive relief and recovery effort that spans from the Mississippi River delta to South Alabama. “There are so many devastated areas: Alabama, Mississippi, all of southern Louisiana that are still lacking electricity and a lot of people are dying (and) in pain,” said Navy Capt. Patric Roesch, DJC2 program manager. “They’re hungry, thirsty and in need of help.”

DJC2 was designed to give the major regional military commanders a robust, rapidly deployable “system of systems” to enable different military commands and services to function as a seamless joint task force team during major military crises, officials say. Fully fielded, DJC2 includes an independent power supply, shelters and a wide array of voice and digital communications gear ranging from top secret secure Internet and tactical satellite communications to radio transmitters capable of interfacing with civilian communications networks.

In wartime, DJC2 could be used by a military commander to manage battlefield operations such as theater ballistic missile defense, joint artillery strikes, tactical intelligence and combat operations. But just as the Pentagon deployed special operations helicopters to pluck stranded residents from rooftops, on-site commanders quickly adapted the system to link the military, civilian government and private relief organizations into a coherent team effort, Roesch said. “Nobody else had the ability to bring everybody together,” Roesch explained. Roesch said the real heroes of the operation are the staffers and civilian contractor support personnel from the Naval Surface Warfare Center who volunteered to staff the DJC2 facility for as long as the relief effort continues.

With ground transportation routes now open between Florida and Louisiana, he has been able to reduce the team to a cadre of 16 people who will serve two-week shifts before being replaced. While Roesch said the “real world” deployment to Louisiana will help confirm the system’s effectiveness, the required operational testing plan will continue as his office prepares DJC2 for military operations overseas. In August, the Base Realignment and Closure Commission voted to move the DJC2 management office, including 24 jobs, from Naval Support Activity-Panama City to Fort Meade in Maryland. Not all of the 24 positions are filled, and the majority of about 150 workers affiliated with the program will remain in Bay County. Roesch said at the time that a moving date had not been set. “Based on my knowledge, it’s going to take at least a couple of years to get the office space available and establish the transition plan,” he said.