Abstract

Military success requires executing high-tempo, coherent, decisive actions faster than an opponent can react—that is, decision dominance through command agility. Command agility means having the flexibility to grasp fleeting opportunities and being innovative, creative, and unpredictable in a manner that (even if low-tempo) increases confusion in the opponent’s mind. This process is command-led, with human decision making primary and technology playing a secondary role. Shared understanding and information superiority are key enablers in this process and are fundamental to network-centric warfare (www. dodccrp. org). In addressing interoperability requirements, we must also address data security, control over semitrusted software from other coalition partners, and the resulting system’s robustness—for example, its ability to withstand denial-of-service attacks. However, good decisions depend on good data, which can become a problem as mission complexity increases. Military coalitions—large-scale, multifaceted, multinational, virtual organizations—often must be rapidly created and changed as circumstances shift. In addition to integrating single-service and joint capabilities into a coherent force, coalition operations must rapidly configure foreign or legacy systems into a cohesive whole. Yet current coalition operations often suffer from data overload, information starvation, laborintensive information collection and coordination, and stand-alone stovepipe command systems that use incompatible data formats. This leads to a horrendous technical integration task and offers commanders only scattered snapshots of the battlespace.
In …

Date

January 1, 1970

Authors

David N Allsopp, Patrick Beautement, Michael Kirton, Jeffrey M Bradshaw, Niranjan Suri, Edmund H Durfee, Craig A Knoblock, Austin Tate, Craig W Thompson

Journal

Comm. ACM

Volume

44

Issue

4

Pages

35-41