Command & Control Futures
Command and control (C2) is at the heart of any approach to effective military operations. The topic is both challenging and serious – every military in the world seeks to develop and implement a successful doctrine and training program so that its officers will excel at C2. However, history has shown that different military establishments can and do need different approaches to C2 that take advantage of their cultures. Moreover, individual commanders have very different approaches to C2 that, if properly implemented and supported, can be successful. In addition, the best approach to C2 is heavily influenced by the nature of the conflict (counter-insurgency is not the same as major combat between modern forces), the technologies available to support command and control systems, the level of training and experience of the forces, and the counter-C2 capabilities of the adversary.
EBR began working on better understanding C2 in the early 1990s when it undertook research on a variety of successful C2 systems from the 20th century, including the German and Soviet World War II approaches, US and UK approaches as they evolved during the Cold War, the Israeli approach as it evolved over time, and the Chinese approach. Comparative analyses of these very different, but highly effective approaches lent insight into the factors that determine the success of alternative C2 systems and their implementation.
At the same time, EBR was developing formal quantitative and qualitative systems of metrics by which the C2 in combat operations, field exercises, command post exercises, war games, laboratory experiments, and models of C2 might be evaluated. These systems of metrics have been evolving for more than 20 years and remain among the most effective tools for data collection and analysis available in the community.
As the Industrial Age morphed into the Information Age and popular authors began to write about third, fourth and fifth generation warfare, network centric warfare, shock and awe, network centric operations, and “war amongst the people”, EBR’s technical teams began to examine how military forces and the civil-military endeavors they would join in order to carry out missions such as disaster relief, nation building, interdiction of illicit commerce, and counter-insurgency could be successfully commanded and controlled. This has been a major topic of EBR’s future command and control effort for more than 15 years.
The answers, or the key insights for future command and control, emerge as capabilities that any successful Information Age C2 approach and system must incorporate. These include:
- The capability to share information broadly and quickly;
- The capacity to use Sensemaking to convert data and information into useful, actionable intelligence and knowledge;
- The ability to collaborate widely in order to vet information, develop shared situational awareness, shared situational understandings and plans based on them;
- The ability to integrate planning with execution into a continuous process of learning and adaptation;
- The capability to develop agile forces that are robust, responsive, resilient, flexible, innovative, and adaptive; and
- The capacity for monitoring the complex Information Age operational space (adversary, environment, and own resources and activities) and to learn lessons from them.
These new capabilities imply new metrics that allow analysts to evaluate both the effectiveness and the efficiency of operations across the mission space.