Scott Lee, cross-cutting priority co-lead for JADC2 at Mitre, said the U.S. needs a new command and control infrastructure to speed up decision-making processes across all domains and keep ahead of near-peer competitors.
“We must shift from domain-centric to mission-centric effects, planning and execution. And that has to start with rethinking our C2 from the ground up,” Lee wrote in a guest piece published Thursday on Breaking Defense.
He offered several recommendations to establish a new C2 architecture and one is transitioning from single military service and domain-centric operations centers to all-domain operations centers that use conditions-based authorities and are mission-oriented.
Lee said the U.S. should also exploit shared, contextual situational understanding across all service, domain and mission partners through battle management teams and ADOCs, use automation and human-machine teaming, expose data using published interfaces and develop a communication network to provide commanders with multiple paths to the end point.
“To enable commanders to optimize resources such as F-35s, Army Long-Range Hypersonic Weapons, or cyberattack options, we must integrate technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, and real-time modeling and simulation,” Lee wrote.
“Moreover, for resilience in the face of attacks, the new C2 architecture must be designed for decentralized operation to enable widely distributed operations across a large battlespace,” he added.