MULTI-DOMAIN ADVANTAGE: MQ-9B

The first quarter of the 21st century has unfortunately proved one constant from the previous one: The world is not getting any safer.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine confirms that unpredictable major-power behaviour is not a relic of the past. This reality imposes a fundamental awareness on nations’ citizens who cherish freedom and democratic principles that being prepared for threats is a perpetual responsibility. This is why the United States and its friends, allies and partners must remain poised to act, which fundamentally requires information dominance. Decision makers must be armed with clarity as to what potential adversaries’ forces are doing, in what strength and with what likely intentions. Intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance provides the foundation to provide the necessary awareness to potentially deter action or, if necessary, deliver actionable intelligence. If that has not changed, though, nearly everything else has.

The new world

What became truth in the late last century has only become more validated in this one, failure to dominate with intelligence across all domains places a nation at a great disadvantage. World events, crises and potential battlefields do not segment nicely into separate domains in the way they once did, sliced conveniently into one mission for a general in a green uniform, another for an admiral in a navy, a general in blue or another in khaki.

Today and tomorrow are about multi-domain operations, about ISR aircraft that might belong to a land power service helping to spot targets out at sea for shore-based anti-ship missiles, about enabling networks for friendly naval, ground and air units from different services, or different nations, in an area in which an adversary is trying to deny satellite connectivity, about providing early warning about enemies’ attempts at anti-access and area denial and much more.