JADC2 High-Speed Attack: Pentagon Breaks Through With Joint,  Multi-Domain Networking

By Kris Osborn, President, Center for Military Modernization

(Washington D.C.) 

Can fighter jets, drones, Navy-ships and ground-based weapons systems all receive, see and collaborate upon fast-incoming threat information and sensor-derived targeting all in real-time such as seconds or even milliseconds? The answer is yes. This reality, a long sought-after Pentagon ambition, is now breaking through to operational status.

Joint All Domain Command and Control Implementation Plan (JADC2)

Earlier this year Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks signed a breakthrough Joint All Domain Command and Control Implementation Plan, a text which specifies a series of steps necessary to bring joint, multi-domain warfare attack and connectivity to paradigm-changing levels of high-speed functionality.

The respective military service elements or contributions to this joint effort are just as vital as the joint operational picture they help bring to fruition.

“This isn’t a single service, it’s not just one program office, it’s the entire DOD. So the — the vastness of this. We also have DOD efforts underway, as — as I’m sure most of you know — Project Overmatch, Project Convergence, ABMS (Advanced Battle Management System),” Lieutenant General Dennis Crall, Director, Command, Control, Communications And Computers/Cyber; Chief Information Officer, Joint Staff, told reporters earlier this year in a JADC2 briefing, according to a Pentagon transcript.

The Pentagon’s Implementation Plan specifically calls for each of these respective service efforts to integrate and complement one another.

“Department development and implementation processes must be unified to deliver more effective cross-domain capability options,” the plan states.