CHESS – Commander HandhEld Support System

CHESS - Commander HandhEld Support System

Support commanders and senior staff officers on the move or with limited connectivity to:

  • Gain access to situational awareness and planning information
  • Receive real-time notification on their handheld device
  • Collaborate with their staff and provide online guidance and directives
  • Receive briefings
  • Make decisions and approve documents

What is the CHESS?

To remain effective, commanders must maintain situational awareness regardless of where they are. In addition, their absence from their main headquarters must not have a negative impact on both the tempo of operations and the timeliness of the planning cycle. CHESS enables the concept of “Commander on the move” by allowing a real-time exchange of information with key DND systems through a wireless handheld device.

In a military context where commanders have to move regularly out of their offices, and other static or mobile Command and Control facilities, the need for them to remain connected is of critical importance. Therefore, mobile technologies are vital in allowing commanders to maintain access and to interact with command support tools and processes necessary for them to exercise their authority under a wide range of operating conditions.

The Joint Command Decision Support for the 21st Century Technology Demonstrator (JCDS21 TD) integrated the wireless handheld technology to support commanders while away from their HQ. The intent is to showcase how exchanges of information can occur between a wireless handheld device and Situational Awareness tools (COMMAND VIEW, Incident Management System), a planning system (Collaborative Operations Planning System) as well as decision support tools developed by JCDS21 TD. Using commercial hardware handling unclassified as well as classified information (ref. Canadian Cryptographic Modernization Project), such a demonstration will open new ways of executing the command function.

CHESS Functions

Basic System Functions:

  • Support a user identification mechanism to support continuity of the chain of command and maintain its integrity;
  • Provide commanders with access to different communications mechanisms and networks to establish and maintain contact between their staff, subordinate commanders and key joint, coalition and public sector partners with devices such as cellular phones, email, Voice over IP (VoIP), Web;
  • Provide commanders with the capability to transmit and receive information in an environment with limited bandwidth and unstable connectivity;
  • Provide commanders with a notification, alarm and inter-application through different context-adapted mechanisms to draw their attention to important or time sensitive information;
  • Receive, store, view and send electronic documents;

Command Support Functionalities Demonstrated:

  • Accessing plans and consultation in the planning status;
  • Receiving notifications events related to the current plan;
  • Collaborating with staff to activate plan steps;
  • Contributing to the planning by issuing directives or while inserting information or concerns about strategic aspects;
  • Having the ability to approve documents;
  • Receiving briefings remotely.

CHESS Interoperability

  • CHESS is designed in compliance with CSNI baseline;
  • While the demonstration has focused on interoperability with Command View, IMS, COPlanS and other CDS21 applications, CHESS can be adapted to access information from any database and systems running on CSNI and DWAN.

The Way Ahead

CHESS is a first prototype aimed at presenting the information relevant to a commander on a wireless handheld device. Additional work will have to be invested in the identification of the most relevant information to be presented based on user preference and role as well as user interface efficiency.

For more information

Project Leader
Telephone: 418-844-4000, ext. 4793
Fax: 418-844-4511
Email: partnering-valcartier@drdc-rddc.gc.ca