"Modernization of Battlefield C2 Series" 

By Kris Osborn, Warrior

The F-35 will launch the next-generation “Stormbreaker” bomb ….the stealthy B-2 will attack surface ships with the Long-Range Anti-Ship Missile, U.S. Navy Columbia-class submarines will navigate with computer automation and U.S. Army Lower Tier Air and Missile Defense Sensor will simultaneously track two maneuvering cruise missile targets … due in large measure to technological enhancements made possible through a developmental strategy referred to as “open architecture.” 

This often-used term can perhaps best be understood as a modern technological “baseline” upon which generations of weapons and platforms can best be engineered, maintained and modernized. 

The advantages of open architecture are tactical, technological, strategic and operational, because any given system, platform or technology can be specifically engineered to enable “upgrades” and “changes” in performance parameters without needing to “reconstruct” or “rebuild” the platform or greatly change the hardware. In the realm of open architecture, this is referred to as “Decoupling Dependency,” meaning that the hardware can be specifically “decoupled” or separated from the software to enable capability upgrades that don’t require hardware changes or re-engineering.

IP Protocol Rules & Standards

The technical elements of open architecture can be described in terms of Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), sets of defined “rules and protocols” which allow software systems to exchange data. The idea is to allow “bi-directional” communication between IP addresses and software applications using interoperable standards governing how data “packets” are formatted and routed. In effect, this means otherwise disparate or disconnected networking technologies, platforms and weapons systems can more seamlessly “exchange” information without encountering the technical barriers typically associated with proprietary systems. This can at times leverage what’s called Open Data Formats which ensure data is stored in universally “readable” formats and not limited by proprietary encodings. 

The goal, quite simply, is expedite interoperability between otherwise incompatible platforms and refine an ability to massively improve, upgrade and advance existing systems into quickly-changing, new operational environments.  In practical application, for instance, a U.S. Navy weapons developers tasked with integrating new undersea unmanned systems with submarines and “host” surface ships will need to leverage “interfaces” and “common standards” to ensure the drone can receive and send data to its host platform. 

Many U.S. Air Force planes, for example, have been upgraded to the point where they become almost entirely new platforms through the integration of new computers, sensors, weapons, electronics and transport layer communications technologies.  Decades old airframes on aircraft such as the classic Boeing B-52 and C-17 Globemaster can remain viable and receive some structural reinforcement, a dynamic which enables the platform to keep flying years beyond their anticipated service life. Therefore, as part of this, aircraft such as these can receive new computers, digital cockpit technology and the ability to launch new weapons. In February 2026, for example, a DOW partner technology firm called Curtiss-Wright was selected by Boeing to integrate new mission computers into the U.S. Air Force C-17 Globemaster III as part of a technology refresh program. The computers were specifically designed with open architecture in mind to ensure “technology insertion,” meaning the ability to continue to add new software, electronics and weapons to the aircraft as they emerge. This not only extends the service life of the aircraft years beyond what may have been anticipated, but it also brings new, previously unavailable capabilities. 

Curtiss-Wright’s open architecture computing structures are also used in the U.S. Navy’s Ford-class aircraft carriers and Columbia-class submarines. These applications are of critical tactical and operational relevance, given that the Navy’s Ford-class operates with a paradigm-changing amount of on-board computer automation. This has enabled the Navy to operate a carrier with more than 900-fewer crew members by ensuring certain critical mechanical tasks are operated by computers. This increases mission efficiency and helps save billions in operational costs. An open architecture computing approach allows otherwise separated systems, values, gauges and measurement technologies to exchange data in real time.  Computer automation supported by Curtiss-Wright is also vital to the U.S. Navy’s emerging Columbia-class ballistic missile submarines, as it contributes to a “fly-by-wire” navigational system.  This computerized navigational technology, also used in the service’s Virginia-class Block III attack submarines, allows the undersea platform to operate at maintained “speeds” and a desired “depth” without needing manned hydraulic mechanized systems to the same extent.  By engineering the mission computing with “open architecture” Curtiss-Wright and U.S. Navy weapons developers and maintainers can continue to enhance and upgrade the functionality of the “fly-by-wire” system. 

Open Architecture & B-21

Since the earliest days of the B-21 Raider, a now airborne paradigm-changing stealth bomber surging the Air Force into a new era, the Air Force heavily prioritized “open architecture” for the platform.  When the Air Force’s former Military Deputy for Acquisition, Lt. Gen. Arnold Bunch, talked about early conceptual and subcomponent work on Northrop Grumman’s B-21 more than 10 years ago, he heavily emphasized “open architecture,” as he knew the platform would need to adapt, evolve and integrate new systems over time. (Bunch, now retired, also served as the Commander of Air Force Materiel Command)  The expected emergence of new threat dynamics, networking technologies, AI-generated computing applications and weapons systems expected to arrive in coming years was anticipated by Bunch and other senior service developers, so engineers took special care to architect the aircraft with an adaptable technological infrastructure; this means that common IP protocol standards, interfaces and specific combinations of 1s and Os were put in place to ensure the plane could “accommodate” new weapons and technologies in coming years. This was, and still is, extremely critical because the service plans to ensure its paradigm-changing B-21 stealth bomber remains dominant for decades into the future.  

The concept of open architecture for the B-21 aligns closely with its intended operational value as the aircraft is designed to operate as a high-altitude bomber, host-platform controlling unmanned system and flying “command and control” hub or aerial sensor node capable of receiving, analyzing and transmitting time-sensitive combat data across multiple domains amid combat operations.  Some of the most significant technological advances built into the B-21, senior Pentagon and Air Force weapons developers say, reside in the realm of sensing and computing, so the aircraft will function as a large communications, targeting and intelligence “hub” as well as a high-altitude bomber. 

New Methods of Attack

Perhaps the B-21 will need new levels of EW-enabled “jamming” systems to interfere with ground-based air defenses? Perhaps it will integrate new generations of high-speed, AI-enabled computing able to expedite information transmission and analysis? Perhaps it will need to accommodate new weapons systems to address new threats or adapt to changing Concepts of Operation? For example, this is already happening with upgraded stealth bombers such as the B-2, a three-decades-old platform recently configured to destroy enemy surface ships from the with a semi-autonomous Long Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRASM).  An open-architecture modernization approach enabled the classic high-altitude bomber to incorporate new anti-surface-ship concepts of operate and fire an air-to-surface precision-guided weapon against enemy ships. The B-2 was of course originally envisioned as a stealthy high-altitude precision bomber engineered to use broadband stealth technology to fly undetected and attack over enemy territory by evading both lower-frequency surveillance radar and higher-frequency engagement radar simultaneously. The idea was to engineer a platform able to destroy advanced Russian and Chinese-built air defenses and strike high-value targets without an enemy even “knowing” it was “there” at all.  While the B-2, and certainly the emerging B-21, will operate in this capacity for years into the future, the arrival of advanced multi-domain networking technologies, advanced computing and new guidance and precision-targeting technologies now enable the stealth bomber to support U.S. Navy anti-ship warfare in joint operations. 

F-35 & F-22

There is precedent with this technological and developmental approach with the Lockheed F-35 as well, given that new software “drops” increasingly enable the aircraft to fire new “weapons.”  F-35 engineers and weapons developers are now working to integrate the next-generation “Stormbreaker” air dropped weapon into the aircraft with a software drop called “block 4.”  This weapon, which introduces the ability to use a “tri-mode seeker" (infrared, semi-active laser & millimeter wave) to track and destroy moving targets from the air up to ranges of 40 nautical miles, will only launch from the F-35 due to open architecture and specially configured software upgrades. Open architecture also supports upgrades and adjustments to existing weapons systems, such as the Air Force’s 3.2b fleet-wide F-22 software upgrade.  This upgrade relied upon open architecture to improve the range, guidance and precision of the AIM-9X and AIM-120D air-to-air weapons. 

MOSA & Networking

Perhaps the most significant “effect” of well-cultivated open architecture is evidenced by the Pentagon’s progress with its Joint All Domain Command and Control (JADC2), a collective effort across the services to enable seamless, yet secure interoperability and data transmission. Each of the services has made great progress with their respective multi-domain networking technology intended to expedite rapid, streamlined information flow between platforms and across domains. The Navy has made progress with Project Overmatch, the Air Force has used AI to breakthrough networking technologies with its Advanced Battle Management Systems program, and the Army is surging on its Next-Generation Command and Control (NGC2) effort. The success of JADC2 relies upon what the Pentagon describes as Modular Open Systems Architecture (MOSA), a technical strategy designed to enable modernization and interoperability through the use of common IP Protocol standards and interfaces or gateways engineered to transmit data between otherwise incompatible transport layer technologies. This means, for example, that a forward operating mini-drone can gather time-sensitive data, perform the analytics at the tactical edge and transmit processed, relevant and streamlined data to a larger platform or weapons system in a matter of seconds. This massively shortens sensor-to-shooter time from minutes down to seconds and improves lethality in paradigm-changing ways. 

Each of the U.S. military services’ respective data sharing, sensing and command and control networks are engineered with common standards to truly enable multi-service, joint, multi-domain warfare. This concept has long been on the radar with the Pentagon and pursued for decades through various joint networking technologies – to include the now-cancelled software programmable radio program called Joint Tactical Radio Systems (JTRS). Many key lessons were learned with this effort, which used high bandwidth waveforms to transmit IP packets of voice, video and data across domains in real time using radios themselves as routers or “nodes” in a multi-domain data-sharing formation. Progress with this kind of wireless connectivity across domains has now been leveraged in current AI-enabled wireless data transmission technologies. 

“We have many lessons learned from that time frame of JTRS to promote JADC2. Joint networking is not so much of a new requirement, but the speed of the decision making is much faster and more critical today than it ever has been before. Threats around the world are advancing their capabilities. We are keeping pace coming out of a FOB (Forward Operating Base) approach in Iraq and Afghanistan by integrating lessons learned and rolling them into how we advance technologies and integrate new capabilities such as AI. AI supports the OODA Loop and reduces the cognitive burden,” Jeff Nelson, Business Development Director, Network Modernization, Curtiss-Wright, told Warrior in an interview. 

Part of the large-scale advances with Army NGC2, Nelson explains, relates to a growing amount of data processing that is itself happening at the tactical edge. Nelson referred to this in terms of the well-known Processing Exploitation and Dissemination (PED) process, something which not longer happens at one centralized command location but is instead dispersed and networking across a wide operational theater.  This increases efficiency, streamlines data transmission and massively accelerates the sensor-to-shooter time curve. 

“As technology evolves we are able to process that data to very lower levels,” Nelson said.