International C2 Journal: Issues
Vol 4, No 1
Guest Editor’s Introductory Remarks
The current operational environment for C2 is highly dynamic, characterized by a constantly evolving mix of allies, threats, objectives, and risks. Forces must be able to adapt to changing conditions and requirements to remain effective in such fluid environments [McEver et al.]. Two crucial factors impacting this adaptability are the degree of interoperability and agility present in the C2 approach used. Interoperability relates to the ability of multiple entities to interact with one another in a constructive manner. It applies to interactions in the physical, information, cognitive, and social domains of C2. The agility of a C2 approach characterizes its ability to succeed in the face of change and uncertainty. Effective physical, information, cognitive, and social interoperability are key enablers for agility. Both are elements of the overall maturity of C2. The NATO C2 Reference Model [http://www.dodccrp.org/html4/research_nato.html] formalizes C2 maturity in terms of interoperability and agility. The practical realization of highly interoperable and agile approaches to C2 is an area of active research and development, and it represents a key step in the evolution of C2 to meet the operational challenges of the 21st century.
The papers in this special issue examine C2 agility and interoperability from multiple perspectives. These papers examine various interoperability and agility enablers, as well as lessons learned through experimentation to improve them.
Technical interoperability is a key enabler for realizing the vision for net-enabled command and control. The vision put forth for net-enabled capabilities implies an information infrastructure that permits prioritized, authorized access to requisite information sources from strategic down to tactical levels of C2. Standards-based web services are often identified as an important enabling technology. This presents a challenge at the tactical level, where communication resources are typically scarce. Johnsen et al. examine the utility and limitations of web service discovery solutions at the tactical level. Their findings indicate promise for semantic web services technology, which extend current web service descriptions with rich semantics to facilitate run-time discovery of services, which can be crucial in ad hoc dynamic environments at the tactical edge. They identify a need for standardization across NATO and its partners to realize adequate compatibility and interoperability among partner nations.
While information technologies (IT) are recognized as a key enabler for the evolution of C2, it remains a challenge to quantify in analytical terms how one supports the other and the related impacts on agility. Davidson and Pogel explore the use of modeling and simulation (M&S) to characterize this connection. While M&S has been used to assess the impact on IT variations in overall force effectiveness, they have not been used to the same extent to understand impacts on C2 internal processes. They propose an approach to modeling such assessments, to enable measurement of IT effectiveness through the extent to which IT supports a commander’s accurate evaluation of goal attainment. Specifically, they propose three categories of goals that can guide the development of testable requirements for software models of commanders. They incorporate specific cognitively rooted measures of agility into this model to motivate requirements for representation of agility in virtual commander models.
Powers, Stech, and Burns probe deeply into one facet of social domain interoperability, namely how individuals and organizations work together to process complex information in dynamic, uncertain situations; this is often called sensemaking. The effectiveness of team sensemaking can be characterized in terms of the reliability of organizations, expressed in terms of their ability to produce repeatable collective outcomes of a certain minimum quality. Powers, Stech, and Burns propose a model of team sensemaking framed as an example of high-reliability organizations (HROs). Their paper specifies measurable behaviors that build upon theoretical principles, to identify what cognitive and social processes are crucial to effective sensemaking and social domain interoperability.
While there has been a considerable amount of research invested into the development of technical interoperability enablers (common networking standards, data exchange models, etc.), there has been comparatively less attention on what the concept of interoperability means when applied to entire agencies and organizations tackling multi-dimensional crises. Recent events have demonstrated that such challenges cannot be resolved exclusively by military intervention, and that no single agency can manage them alone. Andrew Williams proposes a multi-dimensional model of inter-agency interoperability for collective endeavors, drawing upon research in C2, organizational science, and public administration.
Finally, Kalloniatis and MacLeod examine what agility means from the perspective of operational planning in military headquarters. The need for formalizing organizational structures and processes can be at odds with the need for agility in that environment. They propose that adaptation to contingencies is possible through management of the degrees of formalization, centralization of decision-making, and distribution of skill specialization in such a way to promote innovation. Their central thesis is that the extent of process-centricity in military planning can be adjusted in accordance with the nature of the contingency, and the structure of planning teams can be modified accordingly. They propose this construct as an extension to the NATO C2 reference model.