{"id":28815,"date":"2017-09-25T18:21:47","date_gmt":"2017-09-25T18:21:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/c4isrnet\/uncategorized\/2017\/09\/25\/industry-pitches-in-to-help-air-force-with-multi-domain-command-and-control\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T18:20:22","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T18:20:22","slug":"industry-pitches-in-to-help-air-force-with-multi-domain-command-and-control","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/c4isrnet\/c2-comms\/2017\/09\/25\/industry-pitches-in-to-help-air-force-with-multi-domain-command-and-control\/","title":{"rendered":"How industry\u2019s helping the US Air Force with multi-domain command and control"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Each U.S. military service recognizes that operations must be seamlessly coordinated across all domains of warfare for future conflict. Within that broad sphere, the Air Force, under the direction of Chief of Staff Gen. David Goldfein, has made multi-domain command and control a top priority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Broadly speaking, this will involve the seamless integration of air, space and cyber capabilities, providing commanders cross-domain options to make more rapid decisions in complex battle spaces. The Air Force is in the throes of a highly anticipated study on the issue lead by the multi-domain C2 enterprise capability collaboration team, or ECCT, which should be finalized by November<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Message received: Industry is prepared to back the Air Force as it takes different approaches toward multi-domain C2 and figures out what this might look like and how to employ it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Regarding the latter, Lockheed Martin in April <\/a>held a war game <\/a>on multi-domain C2 as a means to help inform the Air Force and the ECCT team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[The Air Force is getting help to define multi-domain command and control<\/a>]<\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The war game looked at operational planning in air, space and cyber in support of the ECCT. Lockheed will continue this work during another war game this fall. This upcoming war game will build on the efforts of its predecessor, adding additional layers such as hundreds of targets with actual Air Force operators coming together and planning against a much larger scenario, said Steve Froelich, director of operational command and control for Lockheed Martin C4ISR, during an interview with C4ISRNET at the Air Force Association\u2019s annual symposium.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the conference, Lockheed briefed reporters on some of the systems \u2015 both those currently used by the Air Force and others in which the company is investing \u2015 as well as systems of systems that could be produced to fit a multi-domain C2 construct.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat we\u2019re looking at doing is enabling the vision of linking assets that are space-based, in the air, in the sea and on the ground to create combined effects,\u201d according to Jack O\u2019Banion, vice president of strategy and customer requirements for Lockheed Martin Skunk Works. \u201c[The] challenge is: How do you create a dynamic network that allows you to link things together to create effects inside the bubble and from outside the bubble to create collaborative engagements and multiple dilemmas for an adversary?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Renee Pasman, mission systems road maps director for the Skunk Works division, noted that what Lockheed was demonstrating is merely a concept from a multi-domain C2 perspective, not a specific solution. The adoption of things like open-systems architectures makes these solutions possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe key is really as the speed of information and the speed of war increases, making sure that we can get the right information to the right person to allow them to make that decision quickly,\u201d said Pasman, adding that being able to share that information across the entire network is critical.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOne key thing from a Lockheed Martin perspective is we\u2019re trying to approach the technologies \u2026 there\u2019s key enabling technologies that come up again and again and again; open-system architecture, automation, that ability to do machine to machine. And part of what we\u2019re trying to do is make sure all of those technologies are mature no matter where the Air Force chooses to apply them so the technology doesn\u2019t limit how the Air Force uses their systems. It\u2019s really how they want to use it to be most effective for the war fighter.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other contractors have applied diverse approaches to the problem set of more multi-domain capabilities for the Air Force and the military writ large.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tom Gould, head of business development for Harris Corporation, when asked how he sees the company fitting into multi-domain concepts, said the company is developing a modem and a waveform that is truly multi-domain, highly jam resistant and very hard to detect. This will allow forces in the ground, in the air and in space to seamlessly talk to one another without being detected and without being jammed, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Raytheon\u2019s vice president of mission support and modernization, Todd Probert, said during an interview with C4ISRNET that the firm wants to serve in a \u201dfacilitator role to work at the foundational layer; foundational layer being building those constructs, be it the open architecture.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Probert explained that Raytheon\u2019s work within the \u201cfoundational layer\u201d involves enabling services to play and talk together, much like applications on a cellphone. Though apps are developed by different organizations, he said, they are brought into a single store. Using the example of a mapping layer, Probert noted how several apps can render a map even though they may not even know the map app provider in and of itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Raytheon is also building applications to help commanders better understand the non-kinetic effects of battle such as cyberspace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been fighting wars literally since the rocks and spears age in a kinetic sense. If you\u2019re a commander out there, you understand the impact of a bullet missile \u2026 it\u2019s very tried and true \u2026 the concept of operations, to deploy over years, and they\u2019ve migrated in a progresses in very serial sense as technology has come along,\u201d he said. \u201cIn the space of an operations environment, we\u2019ve built modeling and simulation capabilities to merge kinetic \u2015 again, bullets and missiles \u2015 and non-kinetic, things like cyber and electronic warfare and other things into that same space using frames of reference that our military understands \u2015 mostly kinetic \u2015 to project how they might employ these non-kinetic-like things.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What Lockheed\u2019s demonstrations and war games focus on is integration, and making systems within an air operations center talk. Today, the tools in each individual operations center, while very good at what they do, are stovepiped, Froelich said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOne of the ways in which we can move faster is to see if we can take all of these stovepiped systems and get them to start to talk to each other,\u201d he said. \u201cYou want it to be integrated and you want it to be collaborative and you want it to start to have real-time intelligence layered on top of it as well so you now have some machine-to-machine conversations that will take care of the routine planning, tactical decision-making, all of the routine things so it makes real-time recommendations to the operator.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some of the capabilities displayed during the demonstration included:<\/p>\n\n\n\n