Air Force Research Lab Details Joint, AI-Enabled, Networked Attack With JADC2

By Kris Osborn, President, Center for Military Modernization

(Washington D.C.) What if a satellite detected some kind of enemy movement behind a small mountain on a remote island somewhere in the Pacific and was able to quickly transmit threat data to an Air Force drone within range to “zero-in” on the target. Meanwhile, in near simultaneous fashion, the drone sends threat coordinates, imagery and even real-time video of the enemy movement to Navy amphibious assault ships and destroyers in position to take action. Targeting specifics and intelligence can then also be sent to airborne ship-launched 5th-gen stealth aircraft such as Marine Corps F-35Bs able to both conduct additional surveillance or fire weapons at the enemy positions.
Concurrently, the amphib instantly launched an amphibious assault transporting Marines, weapons and armored vehicles toward the island. As surface ships approach the island and Marines and armored vehicles move ashore, air and surface platforms continuously send advancing ground forces real-time targeting detail and intelligence of critical operational relevance to the Corps’ attack.

What if, instead of needing to travel through various ground centers, command and control stations and an extensive decision-making process, all of this data sharing was secure, able to transition between otherwise disparate transport layer formats and taking place in a matter of seconds? Attacking fighter jets and advancing Corps ground forces, fortified by the multi-domain data-sharing network, would be able to operate with real-time knowledge of changing enemy movements, weapons positioning and tactical maneuvers in order to optimize timing, method and location of attack.

Video Above: Air Force Research Lab Breaks Through With Networked Attacks

JADC2

This kind of real-time scenario, in which attacking forces operate within or faster than an enemy’s decision cycle, increases prospects for a rapid, successful first strike attack, decreasing risk to friendly forces and ensuring near immediate destruction of enemy forces before they can launch offensive operations …. Is increasingly becoming realistic. It is the premise of the JADC2 program, a multi-service effort to connect “air-ground-sea-space-cyber” domains to one another seamlessly across a dispersed, multi-domain operational area.

Tactically speaking, this means 5th-Generation fighter jets will, among other things, control small groups of drones from the cockpit while in flight, breaking manned-unmanned teaming operations through into a new high-speed operational sphere. As an example, while manned-unmanned teaming is of course blazing a new trail at lightning speed across all the services, the Air Force is now reaching previously unprecedented levels of data sharing between 5th-generation stealth fighter jets and nearby drones and unmanned systems.

The service has demonstrated data-exchange between an F-35 and its Valkyrie drone and is now engineering a new group of Combat Collaborate Aircraft, unmanned systems intended to operate alongside and in coordination with 5th and 6th-generation stealth fighter jets. One can only imagine the fast-emerging sphere of new tactical possibilities this introduces, as forward operating groups of drones could blanket an area with ISR, test or attack enemy air defenses or even launch weapons when directed by a human.