Integrated decision-making with distributed operations continues to shape the future
By Ali Raz and Steph Copey|December 2024
The Information and Command and Control Systems Technical Committee fosters a system-of-systems perspective on the conception, implementation and sustainment of information and command and control systems in support of national security, aviation and space missions in public and private sectors.
This year saw the fruition of ambitious command-and-control technology development programs that started years ago. Information, machine learning and ubiquitous data have played critical roles in decentralizing the command-and-control architectures traditionally operated under a centralized command paradigm since their inception.
In February, the Combined Joint-All-Domain-Command-Control program completed its first major milestones toward initial operational capability. CJADC2 aims to connect C4ISRNET systems — those related to command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance — across the domains of all U.S. military and potentially coalition services to facilitate integrated information and decision-making advantages. In this way, CJADC2 manifests a major shift in traditional command-and-control systems as information, harnessed through artificial intelligence and machine learning, helps connect geographically distributed systems for strategic and tactical decision advantages. In March, Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks witnessed an operational demonstration of CJADC2 during a multinational event at the Army’s National Training Center at Fort Irwin in California. This illustrated the technology’s transformational impact in current and future battlespaces.
Outside the test and evaluation environment, ongoing conflicts in the Middle East gave the public a rare glimpse of integrated command-and-control system technologies at work. In April, a vast volume of airspace across the Middle East was restricted from routine use when Iran launched a series of drone attacks on Israel. These attacks were countered by an assortment of defenses from the United States, Israel and Jordan that functioned together in a well-coordinated manner. The success of this joint defensive mission can be attributed to information-sharing via distributed integrated command-and-control system technologies.
The theme of integrated decision-making amid distributed operations through data, AI and machine learning was evident in other command-and-control modernization pursuits this year. In April, Kevin Murray, chief technology officer for the U.S. Marine Corps, introduced Project Dynamis, the Marine Corps’ contribution to the CJADC2 program that revolves around software modernization. In May, the Air Force Research Laboratory released the broad agency announcement, “Coordinating Austere Nodes through Virtualization and Analysis of Streams.” With this CANVAS program, the laboratory aims to leverage intent-based networking concepts to autonomously connect distributed systems that can continuously orchestrate and execute command-and-control solutions in contested environments with high attrition.
Additionally, Collins Aerospace in July demonstrated its Next Generation Battle Management on The Move, an agile, distributed command-and-control concept it is developing for the U.S. Army. In this mobile operations center, AI and machine learning technologies assist operators with battle management by quickly sorting and integrating data from various sources in the battlespace while enhancing the survivability and reliability of the command-and-control operation. In September, the U.S. Army Science Board released a request for information regarding data-centric command-and-control, seeking state-of-the-art solutions on metrics to evaluate the future distributed command-and-control operations. The RFI also requested the submission of strategic approaches for holistic data-centric understanding across domains.
This year demonstrated strong demand for enabling integrated command-and-control technologies in the aerospace and defense communities. Such technologies are the glue that bring together distributed complex systems for achieving demanding missions. With many projects in the works, the years to come are poised to bring more developments in information and command-and-control systems.
