MILITARY NEWS: COMPLEX AUTOMATION IN THE CONTRIL OF TROOPS AND COMMUNICATIONS PROBLEM, BY COLONEL V. SINYAK, DOCENT, CANDIDATE OF MILIATRY SCIENCES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80T00246A029400480001-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: T
• Document Page Count: 8
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 12, 2012
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: February 14, 1962
• Content Type: MEMO

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SIGNAL TROOPS
Complex Automation in the Control of Troops
and Communications Problems
by
Colonel V. Sinyak
Docent, Candidate of Military Sciences
There is no need to show that control of troops.in modern
conditions will be carried out successfully if the commanding
officer and the staff have a wide complex of the latest technical
means of automation. That is to say, a complex, and not its
separate uncoordinated components.
By complex automation we mean automated control at all head-
quarters levels, in all types of arms, where interlinked electronic
computers (vychislitelnaya mashina), computers (schetno-reshayushcIIe,ye
ustroystvo), television, radar, enciphering equipment, electronic
switchboards, duplicators, phototelegraphy, infrare Pgy,jpment,video-
communication equipment, sound recording equipment, etc., are used
on a wide scale. The complex utilization of all these means permits
the most complete maintenance of contact between commanding officers
and headquarters on the one hand and the field of battle on the other.
Automation will bring the commanding'' officers nearer to events
affecting the subordinate troops and will give them a chance to
influence them in good time on behalf. of the common plan and the
concept of the battle and the operation.
We shall try to illustrate the component parts of the whQle com-
plex of the means of automation and the control of the troops, show
their place and significance in this complex, and summarize the
operational-technical requirements which they fit.
First of all, as regards the component parts of this complex.
In our view there are two of them: the technical means for
obtaining primary information and the means of communication.
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The first part may consist of electronic computers (EVM), located
in headquarters; the information transmitters (datchik) of those head-
quarters which are not equipped with electronic computers; equipment
for observation and reconnaissance. Let us pause to examine the 16
characteristics of the above-mentioned equipment.
The electronic computers may be used on the one hand for col-
lecting and processing information (for the headquarters which it serves)
and on the other as a collector of information for a higher headquarters
or the headquarters of a neighboring /one or two words missing? of some
headquarters of electronic computers Zone or two words missing . How-
ever, the information collected by these headquarters must /'one or two
words missing? EVM of the higher or neighboring headquarters by means of
/'one or two words missing7 apparatus or of specially developed rapid-
acting Lone or two words missing7-transmitters, magnetic tapes, and others.
In the technical equipment /one or two words missing7 which must be
linked with the EVM, can be included /-one or two words missinj and
radar stations, infrared equipment, cone or two words missing7, mete-
orological stations, and the personnel for topographical tying in.
Their linkage with the electronic computers is a rather difficult task.
Here /one or two words missing7 technical difficulties, as automatic
photo Erie or two words missing7 of radar and infrared stations /one or
two words missing7 their fne or two words missing7 to the EVM; auto-
matic deciphering /ne or two words missing7 memory of the machine";
working out a number fne or two words missing7 it; collation and
transmittal of information /ive or six words missing? printing or
another EVM; link the equipment /Tive or six words missing7 of com-
munications, the creation of the necessary channels ofcommnunications"'
LE ree or four words missing7.
The technical means of reconnaissance which ?our or five words
missinj component part in the complex of automated /three or four
words missing the following: radar stations; equipment /one or two
words missing radar reconnaissance, the transmitters (datchik) for
agent intelligence apparatus for aerial radiation, meteorological,
and sound-ranging reconnaissance, seismo-intelligence, infrared
equipment, etc. There are also some unsolved technical tasks here,
similar to those for observation equipment.
None of the difficulties enumerated has been completely over-
come at present, and therefore considerable efforts by scientific-
research organizations and military rationalizers will be required
to overcome them.
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The second part of the automated system complex is communica-
tions equipment, without which the first part has no practical value.
This includes: the channel-matching (kanaloobrazuyushchaya) equip-
ment (radiorelay lines, radio links, lines of communication, as well
as multiplex (uplotneniye) equipment); switch devices
(kommutiruyushcheye ustroystvo); terminals; enciphering and linking
equipment.
Before formulating any operational-tactical and technical re-
.quirements for the channel-matching equipment, one should carry out
a careful evaluation and distribution of the whole flow of infor-
mation going on in all arms of troops and control elements, bearing
in mind the sharp changes in the form, content, volume, and frequency
of transmission, the quantity of headquarters documents, lists of
urgent and non-urgent reports, etc.
It would seem that there will be no "autonomous" communications
channels for the various arms of troops and services in a complex
automated communications system. There will be no necessity for this
any longer.
One cannot, for instance, agree with the situation existing at
present: each and every arm of troops and service has "its own"
channels and "its own" communications systems. All the information
will have to be "sifted through a single sieve". By this means
duplication of lines of communications will be eliminated. But,
at the same time, interexchange within the headquarters and between
the EVM of the various arms of troops and services will be increased,
while in some elements they are to exist separately.
Switch devices will be of great importance in an automated
communications system. Parallel with the existing automatic and
manual telephone and telegraph switchboards, the need will arise
for electronic noncontact high-speed switchboards. They will be
required for automating communications channels at the main and
auxiliary exchanges. A great need for noncontact high-speed
switchboards will arise for the practically instantaneous connection
of channels carrying information from various installations. Such
switchboards should. connect the channels carrying information with
the EVM; the usual channel with the terminal equipment; the
communications channel with the free EVM input, etc.
The high speed of electronic switchboards will probably have
to be calibrated to the high speed of the.electronic computer itself.
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This requirement will be of special importance for the switch-
boards which have to connect communications channels carrying infor-
mation with the free inputs of the electronic computers. Taking
into consideration the high speed of exchange of information between
the machines, amounting to thousands of bauds, and the high speed
of reading the information from the discriminators (registr) situated
between the input and the buffer "memory", the high speed and
reliability of such switchboards should be exceptionally high.
Probably the types of electronic switchbo&rds will be determined by
the control element using the EVM.
The terminal equipment will be of great importance in a complex
automated communication system. According to the methods of reception
of information it may be divided into video, documentary, and audio.
The following may be related to video equipment: electronic
computers, television, videotelephony; to documentary - electronic
computers, phototelegraphy, and telegraphy equipment, tape recording;
to audio telephony equipment.
One should stop to consider the universal applications of
electronic computers. They are able to take in the information and
reproduce it clearly either for visual reception or in documentary
form, they may store, update, fix,. and carry out various calculations
on the information taken in during the course of the:development of
the battle and the operation. Such universal application of
electronic computers to an automated control system will allow the
majority of the information to be stored (zamknut) in an electronic
computer acting as terminal equipment of a given point. In this
connection, the volume of traffic on such types of communications
as the ordinary telegraphy, radioteleprinter, and radiotelegraphy
may be greatly reduced. The need for telephone conversations will
also decrease considerably.
The use in an automated control system of electronic computers,
television,and videotelephony, which will provide visual reception
of information, will greatly widen the scope of controlling the
troops.
Information may be most fully and comprehensively documented
with the help of electronic computers operated in conjunction with
external documentary equipment. The simplest form of the latter is
the ordinary telegraph set. But its low capacity (1600 words per
hour) is already incompatible with the enormous capabilities of
electronic computers in issuing information. The task is to create
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high-capacity printer equipment.. In our country, such equipment
capable of printing at a speed of some 2 million symbols per hour,
has already been developed. It is true that it is still somewhat
bulky. But if the speed were slightly reduced and the design_
.
improved-, it would be possible to get an acceptable teleprinter
device which could be successfully used in field conditions.
At present, in stationary conditions, a.number of recorder
attachments are widely used in conjunction with electronic computers
which draw graphs and record spots;;(tochka) on paper-at.appropriate
coordinates according to calculation data. Such attachments can be
used for producing charts of the regrouping of troops, engineer
support, the limits of radioactive cloud spread, the radiation level
of terrain, etc.
In addition to electronic computers, information may be
documented by means of phototelegraphy and telegraphy, as well as
by magnetic tape. For instance, one can record on a magnetic tape
not only from the voice but also from telegraphy and even from
television. Such recordings can be reproduced over and over again
by means of tape recorders. They can be transmitted by any means
of, communication and either be sound read or rerecorded on tape-
recorders located at a great distance from the point of transmission
of the information. Information recorded on magnetic tape may be
reproduced by telegraphy equipment, a television receiver, etc.
Thus, the terminal equipment is the technical equipment which
is located in the immediate vicinity of the place where the general
or officer is working. With its help they control the troops and
receive information from all levels.
The development. of terminal equipment at the present time has
a tendency to increase the weight of the equipment giving visual
reproduction of information. In our view, the terminal equipment
should not be developedcne-sidely but as a complex, one type of
equipment supplementing the other. The final aim of.its develop-
ment is to provide the commanding officer with the possibility of
visualizing the battle ground as clearly as possible and at the
same time enabling him to listen to all the information required
by him at a given moment. The development of new types of
terminal equipment and technical equipment for observation and
reconnaissance should 'In the main be subordinated to this aim.
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The electronic computer will require special equipment for
linking with the ordinary, conventional communications channels
(radiorelay, wire, and radio). All the information obtained by
means of the various technical means should be fed without human
interference into the electronic computers through special linking
devices, where it is processed by it, partly fixed in its memory,
and partly, in summarized form, transmitted to the people who need
it.
The creation of linking devices which could ensure the feeding
of information into the electronic computer in a binary arithmetical
system (dvoichnaya sistema schisleniya) is an urgent task for
scientific-research organizations.
Having examined the complex of the technical equipment forming
an automated system of control of the troops and the prospects of
the development of this equipment, it is possible to try to formulate
the basic operational-tactical requirements for this system and its
components.
First of all, this system, in our opinion, must be the same for
all.arms of troops and services, and its components should be inter-
linked and disposed on a principle excluding the duplication of infor-
mation and ensuring the control of combat means. The technical equip-
ment for obtaining and transmitting information should be standardized
and provide for the information to be transmitted to all types of
terminal equipment. The whole complex of equipment of an automated
system should be interlinked by one:.$ighly reliable and flexible com-
munications system. This means that the switching equipment should
ensure the automatic connection of any source of information with
any echelon of control and should provide for wide maneuvering of
communications channels. The communications system, in this instance,
should be highly developed and should cover the whole area of combat
operations. The fact that any component part of the communications
equipment, or communications exchange is out of action should not
interfere with the control of the troops.
This, system will require the creation of new, more advanced
technical equipment for observation and reconnaissance, communications
equipment, and terminal equipment. It is essential to envisage a
gradual and systematic changeover to these from the existing equip-
ment, adapting the latter to new requirements, bearing in mind that
they are precursors of the future automated system. In our view, it
is essential even now to centralize the direction of all new develop-
ments being carried out by all arms of the ground troops and to carry
them out as a single complex.
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The creation of an automated complex system of control of the
troops will probably lead to the birth of a qualitatively new arm
of special troops, to a new organizational structure. Up to now,
the control of the troops was ensured in the main by the signal
troops. But even now their role is changing radically, as the
quantity of equipment destined for ensuring the control of the
troops develops. Because the electronic computer, as well as all
the other equipment (for observation, reconnaissance, transmission,
etc.) will operate in an automated systems i.e., in a complex with
a single communication system, and will become its integral part,
one should also think in advance of who would operate and service
it and who would be responsible for its creation, application,
and operation.
We are of the opinion that those best qualified to deal with
this equipment are the signal troops. Fpr this reason, it would
seem to be advisable to widen their functions and tasks considerably
and to include organizationally the technical means of the automated
system of control of the troops in the composition of this arm of
troops.
From the Editor: The Editor invites officers and generals to
discuss in this journal the questions
raised in the above article.
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