OTH | JADC2

OTH, Emerging Security Environment, Multi-Domain Operations

What’s Old is New Again: Leveraging Lessons from the Battle of Britain

May 3, 2021May 2, 2021 Over The Horizon 0 Comments acquisition, air force, Battle of Britain, C2, cross-domain, history, JADC2, JADO, mdo, multi-domain, national security, RAF, strategy, technology

Abstract: In today’s rapidly evolving security environment, the traditional development and acquisitions system is falling short of meeting warfighter needs. Even as technology becomes increasingly disruptive, the U.S. Department of Defense should look to the lessons of the past to provide a foundational construct for on-boarding novel technologies and innovative concepts. The reemergence of dual use technologies is far from new; however, harnessing development efforts from the private sector and tech industry could slingshot multi-domain capabilities forward into the 21st century and address many of the shortfalls inherent to the DoD’s current bureaucracy.

Symbolism, Serendipity, and Strategic Wisdom: The Origin Story of a New Set of Wings

February 1, 2021January 31, 2021 Over The Horizon 0 Comments 13O, air force, airmindedness, command and control, culture, fiction, Great Power Competition, innovation, JADC2, JADO, joint, joint all-domain, MDC2, metis, multi-domain, multi-domain warfare officer, MWO, SAASS, storytelling, strategic thinking, Warfare

Estimated Time to Read: 8 minutes By Jason “Toga” Trew In 2016, US Air Force Chief of Staff, General Goldfein

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AF DCGS Next Generation: Transformation for Great Power Competition

December 1, 2020March 24, 2021 Over The Horizon 2 Comments ABMS, AET, AI, AI/ML, air force, all domain, analysis, C2, c4isr, command and control, Convergence, culture, decision making, exploitation, GPC, Great Power Competition, information warfare, intelligence, ISR, IW, JADC2, JADO, joint, Machine learning, ML, national security, organizational change, planning, risk, strategy, TAGs: DCGS, technology, usaf, wars of cognition

Abstract: The AF DCGS is in the midst of the most significant transformation it has seen since its inception in the mid-1990s. Primarily driven by the need to find a way to more efficiently process the glut of data now available to the intelligence community, the AF DCGS transformation to the problem-centric model of analysis is already paying major dividends in the Enterprise’s ability to provide enhanced intelligence to its customers. This article discusses the transformation and describes in detail how the AF DCGS is now oriented to prepare the air component for great power competition.

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DCGS Next Generation: Accelerating Change to Deliver Decision Advantage

September 26, 2020January 18, 2021 Over The Horizon 1 Comment ABMS, AI, air force, all domain, artificial intelligence, C2, c4isr, CAOC, command and control, culture, DCGS, decision making, intelligence, ISR, JADC2, JADO, joint, national security, planning, risk, strategy, technology, usaf

By Kelly Borukhovich and Tyler Morton Approximate reading time: 11 minutes Abstract: The DCGS Next Generation (DCGS Next Gen) delivers

Featured MDO Foundations Multi Domain Operations

War is a Learning Competition: How a Culture of Debrief Can Improve Multi-Domain Operations

June 22, 2020August 27, 2020 Over The Horizon 0 Comments 13O, 13O Schoolhouse, Assumptions, Debrief, Debrief Culture, Debrief Loop, Debrief ROE, DLOs, Effective Feedback, Fighter Debrief, JAD4ISR, JADC2, JADS, JADS – Joint All-Domain Strategists, lessons learned, mdo, MDO Community, MDOS, Multi-Domain Operational Strategist (MDOS), multi-domain operations, Multi-Domain Warfare Officer schoolhouse (13O), Red Team, risk, Wargaming

The Multi-Domain Operations (MDO) community continues to evolve and progress. MDO is, and will be the fundamental enabler for Joint All-Domain Command and Control (JADC2) and the way our nation fights future wars. As the maturing community integrates new concepts and processes, Multi-Domain Operators must identify and engrain the valuable lessons along the way. Creating a set of standards to capture feedback and drive improvement is vital for development in any organization. The debrief culture of the US Air Force fighter community, among others, is well known for its direct, highly effective feedback and learning methods. This type of focused feedback is important to the fighter community because the debrief is where the majority of learning takes place. The MDO community would benefit greatly by utilizing this debrief culture as a model from which to develop its own unique culture of consistent, iterative improvement. Because a standard day, or sortie-equivalent, is not yet fully fleshed out for Multi-Domain Operators, the purpose of this paper is to convey the necessity for debriefing lessons learned, and provide best practices in their current form. The ultimate objective is to create a foundation for the MDO community to adapt these practices as the details and nuance of its daily execution become more specific and clear.

Featured Multi Domain Operations

Defense Of The Homeland In A New Age, Part III

June 19, 2020June 28, 2020 Over The Horizon 1 Comment ABMS, AGM-183, AGR-20A, air force, airpower, army, ballistic missile, china, COVID-19, cyber, Cyber-Attack, cyber-defense, deterrence, dod, domain, drug trafficking, EMP, EMS, GPS, Homeland Defense, human domain, human trafficking, Hypersonics, ICBM, Illegal immigration, innovation, Iran, JADC2, joint, MDC2, mdo, navy, NDS, North Korea, planning, PNT, risk, Russia, space, strategy, technology, Threat, USA, usaf, USN

Editor’s note: The following article is the third of a three-part series discussing necessary advancements which will best enable the Department of Defense to continue to lead during current and future periods of competition. Part I focused on the history of the current threats, Part II outlined areas of defense and civilian research which must be pursued, and Part III delves into the path forward for cohesive, joint application of technology and research.

Featured Multi Domain Operations

Defense Of The Homeland In A New Age, Part II

June 17, 2020June 28, 2020 Over The Horizon 1 Comment ABMS, air force, airpower, army, ballistic missile, china, COVID-19, cyber, Cyber-Attack, cyber-defense, deterrence, dod, domain, drug trafficking, EMP, EMS, GPS, Homeland Defense, human domain, human trafficking, Hypersonics, ICBM, Illegal immigration, innovation, Iran, JADC2, joint, MDC2, mdo, navy, NDS, North Korea, planning, PNT, risk, Russia, space, strategy, technology, Threat, USA, usaf, USN

Editor’s note: The following article is the second of a three-part series discussing necessary advancements which will best enable the Department of Defense to continue to lead during current and future periods of competition. Part I focused on the history of the current threats, Part II outlines areas of defense and civilian research which must be pursued, and Part III delves into the path forward for cohesive, joint application of technology and research.

Featured Multi Domain Operations

Defense Of The Homeland In A New Age, Part I

June 15, 2020June 28, 2020 Over The Horizon 3 Comments ABMS, air force, airpower, army, ballistic missile, china, COVID-19, cyber, Cyber-Attack, cyber-defense, deterrence, dod, domain, drug trafficking, EMP, EMS, GPS, Homeland Defense, human domain, human trafficking, Hypersonics, ICBM, Illegal immigration, innovation, Iran, JADC2, joint, MDC2, mdo, navy, NDS, North Korea, planning, PNT, risk, Russia, space, strategy, technology, Threat, USA, usaf, USN

Editor’s note: The following article is the first of a three-part series discussing necessary advancements which will best enable the Department of Defense to continue to lead during current and future periods of competition. Part I briefly reviews threats America has faced thru history and those which it currently faces across all domains. Part II outlines areas of defense and civilian research which must be pursued, and Part III delves into the path forward for cohesive, joint application of technology and research.

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Dust

June 12, 2020June 28, 2020 Over The Horizon 1 Comment AI, Future, JADC2, JADO, joint, NETWORKS, robotics, SCIFI, Warfare

Science Fiction has always been a vehicle to the future. In the modern era of conversations about complexity, AI, human machine interfaces, and other exotic ideas, the genre can provide a way to stitch things together. We can take all of these disparate developments, operating concepts, and fuzzy ideas and combine them the same way our ancestors made sense of the word: with a story. At the strategic level, the two nations in conflict here have taken a markedly different approach to developing today’s technological trends. The enemy nation of Donovia has invested heavily in autonomous systems and artificial intelligence (AI), taking a bet that they can teach and grow better algorithms. Christopherson’s side, however, has taken a more balanced approach to integrating AI and autonomy by preserving man-on-the-loop for action and keeping their strategic level AI providing intelligence fusion. Different strategies will influence the future of technology development, but more importantly strategy will dictate how we use those technologies.

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Building Bridges Instead of Breaking Glass: What Past Scientific Revolutions Suggest About Creating Collaborative Transformation

June 10, 2020June 21, 2020 Over The Horizon 0 Comments ABMS, JADC2, multidomain, national security

By: Peter Hickman Approximate Reading Time: 15 minutes The Air Force’s Advanced Battle Management System is a transformative effort that

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Human-led Machine Learning & Advanced Threats: Case Method Inquiry and Visual Analytics Applied to COVID-19

March 26, 2020June 1, 2020 Over The Horizon 1 Comment A2AD, acquisition, AI, airpower, analysis, Analytics, artificial intelligence, autonomy, C2, c4isr, CAOC, china, combat cloud, command and control, COVID, culture, cyber, decision making, Design, DFE, doctrine, Dynamic Force Employment, human domain, Information Operations, information warfare, innovation, intelligence, ISR, JADC2, MDC2, mdo, MDOS, multi-domain operations, national security, Nodal, Nodal Analysis, node, Pandemic, planning, Policy, risk, Russia, space, strategy, technology

In a pervasive and complex information environment, analytics are vital to understanding advanced threats. As we rely more on machine-learnt results, asking the right questions and visualizing deep analysis are key to grasping and solving problems. These skills are also vital 21st century leadership tools that can forge a common focus among otherwise stove-piped specialists.

The COVID-19 pandemic presents an urgent threat that requires both scientific understanding and decisive leadership. The cause of the disease is SARS CoV-2, a mutating virus that thrives in conditions difficult to control at scale. To counter this threat, this article demonstrates in detail the potential of human-led case method and machine-provided visual analytics.

Featured Multi Domain Operations

Joint All Domain Effects Convergence: Evolving C2 Teams

March 10, 2020June 1, 2020 Over The Horizon 2 Comments 2030, ABMS, ACE, AI, Battle management, BM, BMC2, C2, Convergence, JADC2, JDEC, JECC, JECT, mdo, MDTF, multi-domain C2, multi-domain operations

By: Ernest Nisperos Approximate Reading Time: 25 Minutes Abstract This paper aims to generate a tangible construct to complement the

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Artificial Intelligence in the Operational Information Environment: The Need for Proactive Doctrine

February 26, 2020June 1, 2020 Over The Horizon 2 Comments A2AD, ACE, acquisition, ACS, Agile Combat Employment, Agile Combat Support, AI, air force, airpower, army, artificial intelligence, autonomy, C2, c4isr, CAOC, china, combat cloud, command and control, culture, cyber, decision making, Design, DFE, doctrine, Dynamic Force Employment, human domain, Information Operations, information warfare, innovation, intelligence, ISR, JADC2, joint, Leadership, MDC2, mdo, MDOS, mission command, Multi Domain, multi-domain operations, national security, OODA Loop, planning, Policy, risk, Russia, space, strategy, technology, usaf

Joint operations doctrine omits the agency of artificial intelligence (AI) in the operational information environment, which is a problem. This commentary discusses why, and recommends effective changes. Key points are as follows. AI is becoming an autonomous cause of unanticipated effects. Humans are not the most effectively intelligent actors in all environments, yet our doctrine draws lessons from the past rather than anticipating emergent futures. Machines currently excel in experience-based learning and can discover relationships in data that we cannot discern. Humans can intuit, deceive, somewhat control, and manufacture and destroy machines. In time, AI will be able to perform those cognitive, informational and physical functions as well. As out-thought becomes out-fought, we need proactive doctrine now.

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