Pentagon Looking For Advanced Command, Control Solution

By David Vergun

The Joint All-Domain Command and Control’s strategy goal is to link networks and sensors to warfighters with shared data in all domains — cyber, land, sea, air and space — across all of the military services and combatant commands in a secure manner and at great speed.

Marine Corps Lt. Gen. Dennis A. Crall, the Joint Staff’s director of command, control, communications and computers — commonly called the J-6 — and the chief information officer for the Joint Staff, spoke at a Pentagon press briefing Friday about the JADC2 strategy.

On May 13, Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III signed a JADC2 strategy document that provides momentum to the continuation of the experimentation phase, Crall said.

The JADC2’s strategy provides the governance and framework necessary to enable rapid integration of artificial intelligence, machine learning, predictive analytics and other emerging technologies, he said. 

Each of the services is involved in JADC2 experimentation, he said, and the best solutions will be implemented as long as there is no vendor lock or proprietary limitation. “We want this to be open source.”

Crall said that JADC2 is dependent on an enterprise cloud-based computing solution, software development that is sharable, network enhancements, a zero trust environment, data sharing in nimble ways, and solutions that work on the tactical edge in a deployed environment. 

What works in the National Capital Region most likely won’t work in an austere environment, he said, adding that warfighters will be robustly testing the system in those environments.

Integrating allies and partners will also be an important aspect of JADC2, he said.