It’s 15 years since Vice Adm. Dick Macke, then the J-6 (director of command, control, communications and computer systems) for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, commissioned a team to prepare a long-range plan to institutionalize joint and coalition interoperability of command, control, communications, computers and intelligence systems.

The study, “C4I for the Warfighter,” came on the heels of Desert Storm and the hundreds of lessons learned that had to be implemented between stovepipe systems and networks to achieve interoperability at primary levels.

“Current and future technology opportunities will allow a tighter blending of commercial capabilities into warfighting missions.”

The study’s central tenets framed a vision, concept and phased strategic plan to achieve interoperability goals. These beliefs continue to shape IT investments and implementation at the Defense Department today.

The plan began with a platform-centric phase of quick fixes to interconnect existing systems. It then envisioned a network-centric mid-phase, featuring a system-of-systems enterprise grid that would connect “sensors to shooters.”

The third knowledge-centric phase called for establishing a global grid or “infosphere” to let warfighters at every level and function plug in during any situation to obtain the right information in any format.

It is worth noting that the Joint Chiefs expected “C4I for the Warfighter” to support the goals of and contribute to the development of Joint Vision 2010 and, later, Joint Vision 2020. One can look at the plan and judge where DOD finds itself today. Progress has been real and continuous. The establishment of the Global Information Grid and the embedding of network capabilities into nearly every C2 node, sensor array and weapons system is testimony to this.

But much work remains.

What will this new network look like? How will we manage it? How will we secure it? And, how will we defend it? How will we take advantage of it? These are today’s critical questions.

Bright Horizons
Current and future technology opportunities will allow a tighter blending of commercial capabilities into warfighting missions in dazzling combinations limited only by the imagination of users themselves.

Dramatic improvements in providing persistent, accurate, real-time situational awareness and the ability to sense, decide and act at the speed of thought are on the horizon. This includes not only C2 and weapons systems, but also areas such as human resources management and supply-side logistics, which are equally important to warfighting.

As is often the case with forward-looking strategies, the future possibilities—tools, for instance, that combine IP Version 6, micro and nano technologies, and wireless broadband capabilities—are more exciting than the authors of “C4I for the Warfighter” could have envisioned.

Retired Army Maj. Gen. Dave Bryan is vice president of defense transformation for Northrop Grumman Information Technology of McLean, Va.

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