Information Dominance: Skeptics of Services' JADC2 Plans Emerge.

• Date: 01 September 2022
• Author: Easley, Mikayla
• Published date: 01 September 2022
• Author: Easley, Mikayla

Considered the linchpin of future U.S. military operations, joint all-domain command and control, also known as JADC2, is the Pentagon's effort to achieve information dominance across the services.

The Defense Department has mapped out a plan for JADC2's implementation and begun delivering initial capabilities, but uncoordinated parallel efforts by the services, interoperability challenges and barriers preventing emerging technologies from contributing to its development are some of the many obstacles, according to industry and Pentagon officials.

JADC2 seeks to connect sensors and shooters from all domains--including air, land, sea, cyber and space--under one network. Data collected from the sensors in these domains will be processed and analyzed using artificial intelligence algorithms that are able to quickly identify targets and recommend best actions.

This type of command-and-control system has never been developed by the Pentagon. The singular network would allow tactical decisions to be made much quicker than the current multi-day process needed to issue some commands.

The need for a faster, integrated command-and-control system is underpinned by an emerging security environment much more complex than the United States has operated in for the last two decades, said Arsenio "Bong" Gumahad II, director of the command, control, communications, computers/intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (C4/ISR) division in the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment.

He pointed to China's military advancements and Russia's recent full-scale invasion of Ukraine as the main threats to U.S. national security.

"Our adversaries are not waiting for us. Across all domains, they are constantly seeking to out-compete and out-innovate the United States," Gumahad said in July during the JADC2: All Domain Warfare Symposium hosted by the National Defense Industrial Association.

Although the Pentagon's goal is to have tactical network data hosted on one cloud-like environment, the Departments of the Army, Navy and Air Force each fund and manage their own projects that will eventually contribute to JADC2.

With each service in charge of separate programs, one of the biggest challenges facing JADC2's implementation is interoperability between all three, said Doug Bush, assistant secretary of the Army for acquisition, logistics and technology.

"I think the challenge we'll see is mostly one of joint coordination and...