Power to the Edge

1. Power to the Edge Agility Focus and Convergence Adapting C2 to the 21st Century presented to the Focus, Agility and Convergence Team Inaugural Meeting 5 March 2008 Dr. David S Alberts Director, Research OASD(NII)

2. C2 for the 21st Century What is the critical capability for the 21st Century? C2 in the 21st Century is not necessarily a linear extension of what we are doing now. To understand what C2 approaches and capabilities are needed and whether we are on the right track or need to change course we need to answer the following question:

3. 21st Century Mission Challenges • Missions cannot be adequately predicted. • Ignoring the complexity of situations ensures failure. • Adversaries exploit seams and weaknesses avoiding strengths. • A plan is nothing; planning is everything. • Civil-Military Coalitions and broader effects spaces are essential for success.

4. 21st Century Mission Challenges • Missions cannot be adequately predicted. • Ignoring the complexity of situations ensures failure. • Adversaries exploit seams and weaknesses avoiding strengths. • A plan is nothing; planning is everything. • Civil-Military Coalitions and broader effects spaces are essential for success. Uncertain-Unpredictable-Complex-Dynamic

5. 21st Century Mission Challenges • Missions cannot be adequately predicted. • Ignoring the complexity of situations ensures failure. • Adversaries exploit seams and weaknesses avoiding strengths. • A plan is nothing; planning is everything. • Civil-Military Coalitions and broader effects spaces are essential for success. The Response Uncertain-Unpredictable-Complex-Dynamic is Agility

6. Agility: Key Requirement of the 21st Century 21st Century Security Challenges characterized by huge amounts of uncertainty and risk. Situations are dynamic and unpredictable. Robust- effective across a range of conditions; Resilient – able to function / degrade gracefully / reconstitute when damaged Responsive - speed of recognition and action; Flexible - multiple ways to succeed, seamless shifting; Innovative – learning and solving Adaptive – alteration in C2 organization and process. Responsive Robust Innovative Adaptive Flexible Resilient

7. Agenda • Q. What is the critical capability for the 21st Century? • Q. What makes an enterprise more agile? A. Agility

8. Agenda • Q. What is the critical capability for the 21st Century? • Q. What makes an enterprise more agile? A. Agility

9. A robustly networked force Information Sharing improves Quality of information and Shared Situational Awareness Information Sharing and Collaboration enhances Collaboration and Self-synchronization enables Shared situational awareness These, in turn, dramatically increase mission effectiveness The Tenets

10. The Agility Value Chain Arobustly networked force Information Sharing Quality of Information Collaboration Shared Awareness Self-synchronization Robust Resilient Flexible Responsive Innovative Adaptive NCO contributes to agility in many ways

11. Agenda • What is the critical capability for the 21st Century? • How does Network Centric Operations contribute to agility? • How can we approach the implementation of NCO in a way that exploits its potential to contribute to agility?

12. Agenda • What is the critical capability for the 21st Century? • How does Network Centric Operations contribute to agility? • How can we approach the implementation of NCO in a way that exploits its potential to contribute to agility? • Set the Stage for Progress • Establish a Baseline • Develop and Harmonize Roadmaps

13. Approach to NCO Implementation (1 of 3) • Set the Stage for Progress • Recognize that there are different levels of NCO Maturity • Understand the relationships between C2 Maturity levels and Mission Capability levels • Understand the migration path and what it takes to move from one level to another • Understand the consequences of a coalition of participants with different C2 maturity levels • Be prepared to explore non-traditional approaches to C2

14. Choosing a C2 Approach to achieve requisite agility C2 Approach Space For a given situation, How do we allocate decision rights? disseminate information? interact with others? edge organization broad dissemination distribution of information tight control ? fully distributed patterns of interaction fully hierarchical allocation of decision rights classic C2 unitary peer-to-peer

15. The Case for Moving Beyond Traditional C2 • Traditional Approaches • Limit our ability to “connect the dots” and understand the situation • Constrain the way information is disseminated • Limit our ability to respond quickly and effectively • utilize a sequential decision process • constrain the allocation of responsibility • create seams • Are optimized for selected concepts and circumstances • stove-piped • As a result they lack agility • Language of C2 is “hardwired” • It is couched in terms of how we do it not what we are trying to accomplish

16. C2 Maturity Mission Capability Agile C2 Transformed Operations Integrated Operations Collaborative C2 Coordinated C2 Coordinated Operations De-conflicted C2 De-conflicted Operations Conflicted C2 Stand Alone Operations

17. Approach to NCO Implementation (2 of 3) • Establish a Baseline of Network Centric Operations Capability • Identify the C2 maturity level of each member or potential member of a coalition • For various sets of coalition partners determine the appropriate overall approach to coalition C2 • Exercise the capability

18. Approach to NCO Implementation (3 of 3) • Develop NCO Roadmaps • Determine the next NCO milestone and transition requirements • For individual organizations (e.g. Services, Agencies, DoD) • For Coalitions of Interest (e.g. Interagency, NATO, HA/DR) • Develop items on the critical path and those that require CD&E activities, investments and programs • Harmonize various roadmaps

19. Agenda • What is the critical capability for the 21st Century? • How does Network Centric Operations contribute to agility? • How can we approach the implementation of NCO in a way that exploits its potential to contribute to agility? • Way Forward: Critical Path Challenges

20. Critical Path Challenges:Challenges Within an Organization • ‘Command’ – Leadership in edge organizations • Understanding and establishing trust in a net-centric environment • Living in a “pull” environment • Shared Awareness • Control (self-synchronization) as an emergent property • Collaborative processes • Metrics • Interagency

21. Critical Path Challenges:Civil-Military/Coalition Challenges • Widespread Information Sharing • Semantic interoperability • Security • Cooperability • Encouraging Disruptive Innovation • Both collectively and individually • Vigorous Coalition Experimentation • Moving beyond technology demonstrations • Moving beyond military only • Sharing data and results • Establish prerequisites for Transformation across various Coalitions

22. Agenda • What is the critical capability for the 21st Century? • How does Network Centric Operations contribute to agility? • Are we approaching the implementation of NCO in a way that exploits its potential to contribute to agility? • Way Forward: Critical Path Challenges • Are we on the right track?

23. The “Right” Track • Focus on Agility • Need for Experimentation • Civil-Military / Coalition C2 C2 as we know it • Need to fully explore the C2 Approach space • Harness the next source of power: • Interactions • Collaboration • Interdependencies

24. Are we on the right track?