AFA 2019: Multi Domain Operations are all about the “connective tissue,” as the Air Force rushes to test and field its building blocks, says Air Force acquisition czar Will Roper. Even after a full day of interviews and meetings, Roper’s enthusiasm for transforming the Air Force into a “software company” remains undimmed, as you can…
By Theresa HitchensModernizing military simulation with open systems architecture
Best-of-breed common models and architecture enable virtual training and testing with the same data in a cyber-resilient posture.
Lockheed Martin’s Kim Ponders, who’s done much to help me understand the concepts and some of the technology behind Multi-Domain Command and Control (MDC2), explains what the company is doing and answers one crucial question: Is Multi Domain just another Pentagon buzzword.
By Colin Clark
“But make no mistake…if in fact a war starts or extends into space, everyone loses,” Air Force Chief of Staff David Goldfein told the AFA 2019 conference. “I don’t see any winners.”
By Theresa Hitchens
In a massive simulated conflict, the human players adapted rapidly to futuristic technologies and tactics. But their command-and-control software couldn’t keep up.
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
“Kill webs,” not kill chains. Instead of exquisite platforms like the F-35 fighter, exquisite functional technology nodes (such as an advanced infrared sensor) that can be mixed and matched via AI-enhanced networks.
By Theresa Hitchens
“We’ve been kicking around this idea that there needs to be a milestone past D; a milestone E where the program is proving elderly and we’re having to do Herculean tasks to keep airplanes flying that should have been retired long ago,” says Air Force acquisition czar Will Roper.
By Theresa Hitchens
In conflicts of the future the Pentagon will need some radically new thinking.
By Paul McLeary
What’s new in naval radars and missiles: Defending the Pacific
Defending U.S. naval forces in the Pacific, Red Sea, and elsewhere require a range of systems from close-in weapons to anti-ballistic missiles.
Enabling multi-domain command and control (MDC2) is “how the Air Force becomes the quarterback, the play-caller of the joint warfighting force,” says Acting Air Force Secretary Matt Donovan.
By Theresa Hitchens
Future soldiers will need to download huge amounts of intelligence data — then disconnect and go dark, like a submarine diving underwater to hunt its prey.
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
It is a highly classified system based on sensors that monitor what is happening on the ground and provide warning in the event of a cavity discovery, but its full details may not be published.
By Arie Egozi
Trump’s war with Bezos and Amazon has overshadowed the reason the military wants cloud computing: to share vital data in a fast-paced global conflict.
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
The test was a big achievement for two much-criticized programs: the Joint Strike Fighter and the Army’s IBCS network — and for the services’ struggle to work better together in a future war.
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
‘Enterprise Data Strategies’ — that mimic a company’s technology roadmap and business strategy and treat data as a separate entity of operations in its own right — are all the rage in the corporate sector.
By Theresa HitchensPENTAGON: For the first time, the Air Force has run a wargame trying to decide how best to build the structure for Multi-Domain Command & Control. A central objective is figuring out how to manage data flows coming from all over the world from every domain: air, land, sea, space, and cyberspace. What could the…
By Colin Clark
