ALL SEEING, ALL KNOWING

Extensive research is being undertaken by the U.S. Department of Defense to turn the desire for All Joint Domain Command and Control (JADC2) into reality.

- Andrew White

As the character of warfare shifts away from countering violent extremist organisations towards engaging with high capability peer adversaries, the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) is implementing a programme to update existing Command and Control (C2) structures.

As stipulated in the 2018 National Defense Strategy, the US DoD faces potential adversaries who have developed ‘sophisticated anti-access/ area denial (A2/AD) capabilities’, including electronic warfare systems, cyber weapons, long-range missiles and advanced air defences.

As described in a Congressional Research Service report on Joint AllDomain Command and Control (JADC2), published on 16 November 2020, adversaries continue to pursue A2/AD capabilities as a means of ‘countering traditional U.S. military advantages,’ including the projection of power and ability to win quickly and decisive.

According to the report, JADC2 comprises the DoD’s concept to ‘connect sensors from all of the military services into a single network’.

“DOD officials have argued that future conflicts may require decisions to be made within hours, minutes, or potentially seconds compared with the current multi-day process to analyse the operating environment and issue commands. They have also stated that the Department’s existing command and control architecture is insufficient to meet the demands of the NDS,” the CRS report suggested.

JADC2 concepts

In response, the DoD envisions JADC2 as providing a ‘cloud-like’ environment for joint forces to ‘share intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance data, transmitting across many communications networks, to enable faster decision making,’ the CRS report described.