The U.S. Military doesn’t have an information downside. However it does have a “data-in-the-right-place-in-a-usable-format” downside. And that issues for decision-making in future conflict.
Take into consideration all of the locations now we have tactical warfighting data. In some instances, it’s in a stove-piped, warfighting-system-specific program. In different instances, it’s in a inexperienced pocket book in a platoon sergeant’s cargo pocket or written on a chunk of cardboard. We’ve got the info, however it’s not within the palms or on the display of the commander who wants it. Too usually, now we have to extract the info from the place that it’s in, translate it, manipulate it in one other system, use it, after which retranslate it — simply to entry the info required for the mission.
This complexity is just not what any firm would design, and it’s not what our younger troopers anticipate from their digital expertise. And with at present’s expertise, it’s not essential. The Military wanted a “clear sheet” strategy. In order that’s what we got down to do.
The Military’s new framework for operational information, often known as Subsequent Era Command and Management, began from that “clear sheet” design and progressed shortly via experimentation. Now on the verge of fielding on the division scale — and aligned with the Military Transformation Initiative — this new framework will assist get commanders the info they should make extra selections sooner and higher than the enemy. As a member of the Military Futures Command workforce engaged on Subsequent Era Command and Management for the final yr, I’d like to clarify how it will work, notably because it scales from experimentation into the pressure.
Proving the Idea
“I’ve been a buyer of the community for many of my profession. Nothing is extra irritating to me in doing this and going out as a brigade commander, as a division commander, or as a corps commander and seeing individuals struggling extra with time to get the community to work than really preventing the enemy.”
-Gen. Randy George, Chief of Workers of the Military
Most Military commanders have skilled some model of what Gen. George describes. Our present command and management methods have been designed for particular features they carry out effectively, however they aren’t effectively built-in or intuitive to make use of. And with AI and machine studying offering new alternatives to synthesize big quantities of warfighting information at speeds now we have not seen earlier than, the Military was able to take some threat for large change. Gen. George directed the creation of Subsequent Era Command and Management as an experimentation effort underneath Futures Command. It was first demonstrated in March 2024 at Mission Convergence Capstone 4, which is the Military’s annual modernization experiment the place models use rising applied sciences in practical situations and supply the Military with insights and suggestions. For Subsequent Era Command and Management, that occasion initially targeted on the design of the person interface and the varieties of information to ship, which then set the stage to additional develop the infrastructure behind it.
Over the subsequent 12 months, the Military labored with business to enhance the system’s functionality as a way to full a bigger experiment at Capstone 5, the subsequent iteration of Mission Convergence, in March 2025. This was important as a result of the brand new structure was fielded to a mixed arms battalion of Abrams tanks and Bradley infantry preventing autos. They used the methods in practical operational situations on the Nationwide Coaching Middle. Together with their greater headquarters at three echelons, the battalion was ready to make use of the system to hurry up determination cycles and prevail towards one other Military unit appearing as a practical opposing pressure.
We recognized some challenges and areas to enhance with business and our Military acquisition companions. However briefly, the system labored. Troopers and commanders have been targeted on the info wanted for his or her missions and have been tailoring their views and apps to execute selections — they weren’t consumed with making the community work. They have been sooner, extra profitable, and extra deadly.
Operational Design
A part of what makes Subsequent Era Command and Management completely different from Military methods of the previous is the “expertise stack” strategy — an idea borrowed from the business sector. The total expertise stack is the whole lot from information ingestion, information motion, information group, and data-enabled purposes to cloud-based information storage throughout all of our completely different warfighting areas. The previous construction was segmented by operate — a complete system for fires, a complete system for logistics, and so on. These separate parts have been clunky to combine. As an alternative of constructing new stovepiped methods with advanced interdependencies to be reverse suitable with previous structure, the Subsequent Era Command and Management began with a clear sheet, bringing the entire features collectively.
The framework has 4 layers: The transport layer strikes information throughout the battlefield, giving commanders versatile, threat-informed communication choices. The combination layer makes use of AI and machine studying to triage and set up huge dataflows, enabling well timed, related, and predictive insights for commanders. The info layer creates a shared, accessible information atmosphere throughout warfighting methods, enabling synchronized selections and lowering redundant information processing. Lastly, the applying layer delivers tailor-made, intuitive software program apps for all echelons, changing {hardware} stovepipes and permitting speedy updates and innovation akin to the business tech ecosystem.
Transport Layer
When maneuver models discuss communications, that is usually what involves thoughts. That is the layer that strikes the info, the 1s and 0s, across the battlefield so models can keep related over distance and terrain.
Though the info motion downside is just not fully solved, it is vitally solvable. With the emergence of proliferated low Earth orbit satellite tv for pc communications as a viable army functionality, models will quickly be capable to transfer 10 to fifteen instances the amount of information they did simply two years in the past. Radio expertise has additionally improved to the purpose the place radios are usually not only for voice — they’re information transmission gadgets that occur to have voice as a characteristic. The Subsequent Era Command and Management prototype effort will discover using proliferated low earth orbit satellites, personal 5G networks, and current and new radios. The purpose is to provide commanders various transport choices to permit them to make threat-informed, risk-based selections about which device they’ll use to maneuver their information at which level within the battle.
The subsequent dialog and experimentation focus shall be about how a lot computing energy and storage shall be wanted to course of information “on the edge.” As an alternative of a prebuilt system or command submit car, the Subsequent Era Command and Management prototype parts shall be modular “constructing blocks” that allow commanders at echelon to take aside the command submit and put it in a car, transfer it right into a constructing, or disperse it in a tree line based mostly on their mission and menace environments.
Integration Layer
The combination layer is the “secret sauce” of Subsequent Era Command and Management. The Military has labored towards data-centric options over the previous few years, however in lots of instances, these options serve to show disparate datasets on one visualization or frequent working image device. It seems to be built-in on the floor, however the complexity continues to be there behind the scenes.
The subsequent step integrated in Subsequent Era Command and Management’s integration layer is to make use of machine studying and synthetic intelligence to triage, set up, confirm, and kind the large quantity of information {that a} division generates internally in addition to the info the division consumes from exterior sources. This layer is essential to triaging and curating the info to verify it turns into helpful to the commander in time to be related. The organized information may also be accessed by different AI instruments to offer real-time operational fashions and predictions of potential outcomes as selections are made.
Knowledge Layer
“Trendy warfare requires our individuals to have the ability to discuss to one another over the horizon, synced with our [systems] and our sensors. And that information layer, as soon as it’s lively and stay — and you are able to do it in close to actual time — there’s all types of issues like generative synthetic intelligence which you could begin to layer in to assist with decision-making for fires and air and missile protection.”
–Secretary of the Military Dan Driscoll
As soon as the data is ingested into the coherent information layer, it turns into out there for any warfighter to make use of. The problem at present is that, incessantly, the info exists inside a warfighting system stovepipe, solely ready for use inside that program. The Subsequent Era Command and Management information layer locations the info in a location that can be utilized by any of the warfighting methods.
For instance, a purple “X” positioned by the intelligence warfighting system utility to depict an enemy location on the bottom is similar location the fires warfighting methods utility would see because it targets the enemy formation. The logistics warfighting system utility will see the fires interplay, enabling predictive logistics selections based mostly on the reducing spherical depend because the enemy formation is focused. This synchronized information layer will allow the warfighting features to lower their give attention to ingesting, transporting, and organizing information — and as a substitute permit them to give attention to how they’ll work together with the info to raised allow their commanders to make selections.
Software Layer
As soon as sorted, the info may be accessed by all warfighting features — now represented in software program purposes as a substitute of particular person system containers with their very own {hardware}. The knowledge and apps are mirrored in a typical working image on a number of type elements, from command submit methods to fight autos to handheld gadgets, reaching from corps to platoon.
Even with this technical sophistication on the again finish, for the potential to be helpful within the discipline, the front-end person interface needs to be as intuitive as troopers are used to of their day by day lives. Commanders will be capable to tailor their purposes and views by what is efficacious to them as a way to increase decision-making and enhance lethality. As soon as warfighting features cease specializing in information ingestion, they will flip extra power to constructing purposes that go well with person wants.
Some purposes shall be Military-wide, and a few shall be unit-level grassroots efforts, however all can have a spot within the utility layer and shall be out there for anybody to make use of. As a result of the apps are usually not tied to stove-piped methods, they are often up to date and even discarded as new, higher choices come on-line, simply as they might within the business market. This lack of a long-term vendor lock-in will foster competitors and continuous enchancment of our warfighting instruments — one thing that has been missing in previous command and management methods.
Quicker and Higher Choices
Expertise won’t ever substitute a commander’s judgment. However we will completely use it to assist them get the info they really want on the instances when and within the locations and codecs the place they will use it to make extra selections sooner and higher. After seeing what the commanders and troopers have been capable of do at Mission Convergence, it’s clear that we’re headed in the fitting route. Now, because the Military begins to scale the hassle and ship prototypes to operational models, we will use their suggestions to proceed to enhance. Taking it to a full division will enhance the amount of information and the variety of autos and plane we will join. It should additionally carry enabling models into the structure to cross several types of data. We all know it gained’t be good. However commanders are desperate to become involved and get their palms on it. They acknowledge the Military is lastly designing a command-and-control system for them.
Maj. Gen. Patrick Ellis lately accomplished his project because the director for the Command and Management Cross-Useful Crew at Military Futures Command. He beforehand served because the deputy chief of workers for operations at U.S. Military Europe and Africa. He’s en path to his subsequent project on the 4th Infantry Division — the prototype division for Subsequent Era Command and Management.
Picture: U.S. Military picture by Sgt. Lianne M. Hirano
