In the rapidly evolving landscape of modern warfare, traditional military maneuver concepts are increasingly inadequate in addressing the complexities of future conflicts.  Joint All-Domain Operations (JADO) has emerged as a maneuver concept equipped to address these complexities.  It represents a departure from older frameworks like Multi-Domain Operations and Joint Operations, which fail to fully integrate the potential of all domains.  Rather, JADO focuses on achieving “convergence of effects” by synchronizing kinetic and non-kinetic capabilities across multiple domains to create operational synergies that overwhelm the adversary.[i]  Despite numerous technological and organizational barriers, JADO is poised to become a decisive factor in future conflict by employing a holistic systems-based approach, leveraging an objective-centric methodology, and combining operational complexity, speed, precision, and volume to generate outsized effects.  These characteristics allow JADO to be a dominant maneuver concept, creating asymmetric effects by exploiting system interdependencies.  First, JADO creates operational advantages through a holistic systems approach that enables commanders to identify and exploit critical vulnerabilities across all domains.  Second, through an objective-centric methodology, JADO does not constrain maneuver to traditional domain-centric schemes.  Third, JADO aspires to leverage complexity, speed, precision, and volume to achieve objectives in a way that no previous military concept has managed.  In environments where adversaries are becoming more capable and operational resources are increasingly constrained, JADO may represent the only maneuver concept capable of generating operational advantage in future conflict. 

A Systems-Based Approach to Maneuver

JADO creates distinct advantages toward achieving strategic objectives by employing a systems approach that spans the continuum of competition, encompassing both friendly and adversarial forces.  This systems-based approach is essential because it identifies interdependencies across domains, giving military planners a deeper understanding of how actions in one domain can have cascading effects across others.  For example, an air operation might be enhanced or disrupted by actions in the cyber domain, such as the disabling of communication systems.  The JADO concept analyzes how systems are structured and how adjustments to those systems can change outputs.  This analysis must occur for friendly and adversarial systems across the continuum of competition to effectively identify critical vulnerabilities.  The systems method helps identify efficient objectives, where accurate engagement generates outsized effects.  The process demands continuous evaluation to help identify and mitigate flaws in system models because systems are not static, and system models have limitations.[ii]  This approach could be critical in a delicate potential scenario like disabling North Korean nuclear capabilities without provoking a full-scale war or humanitarian crisis.  In all, the systems-based JADO approach helps determine the best objectives, which could be the decisive factor in future conflict.

Objective-Centric Maneuver

A core strength of JADO is its objective-centric and domain-agnostic nature which avoids previous siloed maneuver approaches that result in inefficient employment of the Joint Force.   Unlike traditional military strategies that emphasize domain-specific operations (e.g., air or naval dominance), JADO focuses on achieving objectives using the most efficient and effective approach from the available resources, regardless of domain.  This method necessitates a “whole of government” analysis to identify the optimal means and ways to achieve objectives, compelling a high degree of collaboration and information sharing across agencies, components, and departments.  This objective-centric approach identifies more effective means to achieve the goal and dictates which forces should be supported and which should provide support.   This often uncovers surprising avenues of attack, exploiting vulnerabilities adversaries may not be aware of through ways and means they did not anticipate.  Ultimately, JADO drives efficiency and effectiveness, which will be imperative in future conflicts that may be heavily resource-constrained.

Leveraging Complexity, Speed, Precision, and Volume

The advantages JADO creates are enabled by leveraging operational complexity, speed, precision, and volume which allow forces to maximize their effectiveness.  Complexity enables the employment of a full spectrum of options across all domains, presenting adversaries with multiple, simultaneous dilemmas.⁴  JADO stresses adversarial decision-making capacity and resiliency by forcing them to defend against multiple complex threats.   Speed is essential for exploiting known vulnerabilities before the adversary can adapt.  Speed drives effectiveness and opens the range of targets a force can hold at risk.  Precision enables operations to achieve objectives with minimal resources.  Rather than relying on overwhelming force, JADO allows for the precise targeting of critical interdependencies that, once disrupted, cause disproportionate effects on enemy operations.  A leading thinker on the JADO concept, Dr. Jeffrey Reilly, often cites “complexity, speed, and precision³” as main tenets of JADO; however, volume is also necessary to prevent linear utilization of resources.  Volume focuses on maximizing the operational capacity of a pool of constrained resources to achieve objectives.  To be most effective, JADO must employ resources across multiple lines of effort simultaneously.   Rather than through linear maneuver, volume is achieved by employing JADO as a matrixed maneuver concept in which domains are synchronized against multiple objectives simultaneously.  JADO creates the greatest advantages when complexity, speed, precision, and volume are optimized together.  Sacrificing one for another diminishes overall effectiveness.  In future conflicts, where adversaries like China, Russia, or Iran may present simultaneous challenges in terms of both technological capability and sheer mass, these four elements will be essential for establishing operational superiority. 

JADO in Future Conflict

JADO’s importance in future conflicts is underscored by the increasing complexity of operational environments.   Adversaries are rapidly increasing their capacity and capabilities, often through multi-domain innovations.  In such an environment, traditional single-domain kinetic approaches will no longer suffice.  There will be too many targets across multiple domains, many of them formidably defended or dispersed.  For example, a potential conflict with China presents daunting challenges because of China’s technological parity, mass, and vast geographic region in which a conflict would occur.  JADO’s systems-based, domain-agnostic approach is critical for navigating this complexity and creating opportunities to disproportionately disable adversarial forces.

The concept is also vital from a defensive perspective because friendly forces entail the same exploitable interdependencies.  The United States and its allies face growing risks from multi-domain threats, including cyberattacks, space-based weaponry, and long-range precision strikes.  Homeland defense, which was once essentially guaranteed, is increasingly being held at risk from adversarial effects across multiple domains.  Employing JADO maneuver concepts from a defensive posture may disable an adversary before they strike or create dilemmas that complicate effective targeting.  As the capability gap between the U.S. and its adversaries narrows, JADO will play a pivotal role in gaining and maintaining strategic and operational advantages.

Challenges to JADO Implementation

Despite its clear conceptual advantages, JADO faces significant challenges in execution, particularly related to technology and organizational structure.  Technological constraints are a major limiting factor in the joint forces’ ability to leverage JADO.   Many systems are not interoperable with one another, especially across domains, and the varying classification levels of these systems further restrict information flow.  Many legacy systems are not resilient against cyber or electromagnetic spectrum attacks, making them vulnerable to disruption.  Moreover, the vast amount of data required to fully exploit JADO concepts necessitates new technological tools like artificial intelligence and all-domain command and control architecture, which are still being developed.  Some of these technological limitations are insurmountable due to the realities of budget constraints and physics.  Not all weapons systems have sufficient size, weight, and power (SWaP) availability to incorporate sub-systems that make them interoperable with other services or domains.  Even systems with sufficient SWaP may not be modified because the updates may not be cost-effective.  There may be novel solutions to overcome some of these challenges, such as increasing the variety of fleet configurations, but those solutions drive added burdens such as larger sustainment tails or increased training.

Organizational constraints also hinder JADO’s full implementation because the Defense Department grew and organized out of singular domains.  The joint force is still largely organized along domain-centric lines, which affects tactics development, command and control, and resource prioritization.  Over-classification further restricts information sharing between services and across agencies, which is a critical requirement for JADO’s success.   The geographic combatant commands also create organizational hurdles, each with unique challenges that stress the joint forces’ ability to create and field a cohesive force design.  Without addressing these constraints, JADO implementation may not reach the scale required to compete in future conflict scenarios.  The joint force must evolve, both technologically and organizationally, to ensure that it can implement JADO effectively.

Conclusion

Joint All-Domain Operations represent a paradigm shift in military strategy, emphasizing a systems-based, objective-centric approach that operates across all domains.   Although challenging to implement, JADO offers more efficient and effective applications of force than traditional domain-centric maneuver concepts.  These advantages demand updates to technologies and organizational structures to present the most consequential military options across the continuum of competition.  In a future where adversaries are increasingly capable and where objectives are more difficult to achieve, JADO may be the only maneuver concept that allows the U.S. military to gain and maintain an operational edge.

---

Disclaimer: The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Department of the Air Force or the U.S. Government.