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How All Domain is JADO?
Ewen Sime • March 16, 2021
JADO. The Need for Speed?
Joint All Domain Command and Control (JADC2): The art and science of decision-making to rapidly translate decisions into action, leveraging capabilities across all domains and with mission partners to achieve operational and information advantage in both competition and conflict (Based on JADC2 Cross-Functional Charter/Terms of Reference)."
Source: USAF Role in Joint All-Domain Operations, AF Doctrine Note 1-20, 5 March 2020.
In 2007-2010 I was lucky enough to spend a great deal of my professional time at Nellis AFB with the USAF. This was a heady time for ISR as it was the period that solutions were found to the problems of presented to a legacy ISR system in a COIN environment. As I saw it, 2001 heralded a change to the mission space and the nature of the adversary; it took the ISR community 7 years to put in place a contemporary CONOP that dealt with low contrast, fleeting targets. In 2014 the mission space changed again and now some 7 years later we once again grapple with amending our procedures to meet the new environment. In 2008 we saw the release of the ISR Theatre CONOP and the birth of cross domain integration, in 2021 we learn more about Joint All Domain Operations and Command and Control (JADO and JADC2).
Joint All-Domain Command and Control (JADC2) is the US Department of Defense’s (DOD’s) concept to connect sensors from all of the military services—Air Force, Army, Marine Corps, Navy, and Space Force—into a single network. Traditionally, each of the military services developed its own tactical network that was incompatible with those of other services (i.e., Army networks were unable to interface with Navy or Air Force networks). DOD officials have argued that future conflicts may require decisions to be made within hours, minutes, or potentially seconds compared with the current multi-day process to analyse the operating environment and issue commands.
This philosophy is not new. The desire for Joint Accelerated Targeting and kill chain warfare was driven by the same obsession for speed. “We need to be inside the enemy’s OODA loop” was the mantra of the time; and it seems that not much has changed in the intervening 20 years. What has changed is the solution. The common JADC2 analogy is that of an Uber type app that will determine resource allocation (in the analogy, which car will pick up which client). The ‘app’ will use the respective requestors’ position and based on distance from the optimum asset, travel time, and requirements (among other variables), then seamlessly provide directions for the allocated asset to follow, rapidly delivering the requirements to their requestor. This paring of requestor and asset is not new: Tactics, Techniques and Procedures TTPs) and training exists that endeavor to empower the human and refine workflows. What JDAO proposes is that these workflows are enhanced with AI and algorithmic assistance to the human to speed the process and reduce ambiguity. The result should be a fluid, rapid, yet structured approach to dynamic battle management.
But is this fixation on speed relevant in an age where conflict is insidious? Some commentators have expressed doubts. They argue that this near obsession to solve questions posed in the 1990s will result in a system that is focused on the wrong war. Bryan Clark and Dan Pitt suggest that the DoD cannot depend on the PLA to present US forces with targets to engage or to escalate a confrontation to provide a rationale for long-range fires. To compete with China, the DoD needs to focus on spoiling Chinese military and paramilitary success at lower levels on the escalation ladder.
The DOD argues that a more connected force will be able to counter an adversary more effectively. If the DOD ensures that JADO is true to its name, then their argument will prevail. All Domain needs to mean All Domain, not just a renaming of the comfort blankets of Air, Land, Maritime, and Space, (with the ‘new kid’) Cyber. The contemporary adversary seeks to gain advantage, mainly through social manipulation, in the cognitive domain. I guess we will have to hold our breath to see how the JADO concept will embrace the current and next generation aspects of conflict.
On the surface, JADO does seem to value speed above all else and this could be at the detriment to the whole concept. However, JADO contains some ideals that have been desired for a long time: a common operating picture and the connection of every sensor to every shooter, these are laudable. More importantly, JADO emphasises the importance of decision making and the need for relevant intelligence to be synchronised to each decision. The concept visualises a cloud-like environment for the joint force to share intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance data, transmitting across many communications networks, to enable faster decision making. JADC2 intends to enable commanders to make better decisions by collecting data from numerous sensors, processing the data using artificial intelligence algorithms to identify targets, then recommending the optimal weapon—both kinetic and non-kinetic (e.g., cyber or electronic weapons)—to engage the target.
Decision Making is critical to the Western approach to conflict. We have all seen in the media that apparently poor decisions can result in public disorder, social discontent and an erosion of the democratic legitimacy of governments. This reliance on public support for political decisions to use force is both a strength and weakness. This weakness has been identified by the adversary and is being exploited. JADO offers the centralisation of decision making and the acknowledgement that intelligence needs to be fully integrated and synchronised to all activity.
Summary
JADO and JADC2 articulates the desire for change, the question is, will change come, or will JADO rewrite previous concepts with the addition of AI assisted algorithms? Will JADO be All Domain: will it seek to embrace and solve the wicked problems posed by the cognitive domain or will it find solace in ensuring dominance in the physical (Air, Land, Maritime and Space) and Cyber. This is a critical question as much of the below threshold activity is targeted into the cognitive domain.
What is heartening about JADO is the acknowledgement that the mission space has changed and that change is required in order to remain relevant. The change indicated by JADO goes far deeper than first appearances: how do we broach the ethics, legality and morality of AI enhanced decision making? How do we synchronise all activity? Through problem-centric operations? What does All Domain mean? Does JADO empower a decision led operational tempo?
We are seeing the evolution of operations… exciting times.
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