A graphic illustrating the intended coverage of the JADC2 concept. (Credit Graphic: US DoD)

By Gary Raynaldo     DIPLOMATIC  TIMES

WASHINGTON  –   PENTAGON –  The U.S. military is seeking the ability to function in all areas of sea, land, air, space and cyber, with a Joint All-Domain Command and Control enabling decision-making and operations securely and at rapid speed.  The JADC2 is the Department of Defense’s (DOD’s) warfighting concept to connect sensors from all of the military services—Air Force, Army, Marine Corps, Navy, and Space Force—into a single network. Marine Corps Lt. Gen. Dennis A. Crall, the Joint Staff’s director of command, control, communications and computers — commonly called the J-6 — and the chief information officer for the Joint Staff, spoke at a Pentagon press briefing Friday about the JADC2 strategy. The JADC2’s strategy provides the governance and framework necessary to enable rapid integration of artificial intelligence, machine learning, predictive analytics and other emerging technologies, Lt. Gen. Crall explained. On May 13, Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III signed a JADC2 strategy document that provides momentum to the continuation of the experimentation phase, Crall said.

(Credit:  Gary Raynaldo  ©Diplomatic Times)  Marine Corps Lt. Gen. Dennis A. Crall, the Joint Staff’s director of command, control, communications and computers — commonly called the J-6 — and the chief information officer for the Joint Staff, briefs reporters at the  Pentagon on the JADC2  June 4, 2021.

“So in the simplest terms what the JADC2 strategy does is it does bring order to our efforts in the command and control arena to sense, make sense, and act all at the speed of relevance. And that last piece is what makes this different. If you have time to act, maybe if you rewind the clock a bit, back to maybe Cold War thinking or maybe where we control the operational time and tempo – that time is an interesting factor, it gives you the opportunity to study, to learn, and to be a little more deliberate on your actions. But when you enter the age of things like hypersonics, or artificial intelligence enabled actions – that time differential, or that time availability shrinks or evaporates altogether. So what once may have been a war fighting advantage has now become a war fighting necessity.”

-Lt. Gen. Crall 

VIDEO DIPLOMATIC  TIMES  –  Marine Corps Lt. Gen. Dennis A. Crall, the Joint Staff’s director of command, control, communications and computers — commonly called the J-6 — and the chief information officer for the Joint Staff, spoke at a Pentagon press briefing about the JADC2 strategy June 4, 2021.

The JADC2’s strategy provides the governance and framework necessary to enable rapid integration of artificial intelligence, machine learning, predictive analytics and other emerging technologies, Crall said.  He explained that JADC2 is dependent on an enterprise cloud-based computing solution, software development that is sharable, network enhancements, a zero trust environment, data sharing in nimble ways, and solutions that work on the tactical edge in a deployed environment.  Integrating allies and partners will also be an important aspect of JADC2, he added.