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Power to the Edge

AgilityFocus and ConvergenceAdapting C2 to the 21st Century

presented to the

Focus, Agility and Convergence Team

Inaugural Meeting5 March 2008

Dr. David S AlbertsDirector, Research OASD(NII)

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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:

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21st Century Mission Challenges

1. Missions cannot be adequately predicted.

2. Ignoring the complexity of situations ensures failure.

3. Adversaries exploit seams and weaknesses avoiding strengths.

4. A plan is nothing; planning is everything.

5. Civil-Military Coalitions and broader effects spaces are essential for success.

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21st Century Mission Challenges

1. Missions cannot be adequately predicted.

2. Ignoring the complexity of situations ensures failure.

3. Adversaries exploit seams and weaknesses avoiding strengths.

4. A plan is nothing; planning is everything.

5. Civil-Military Coalitions and broader effects spaces are essential for success.

Uncertain-Unpredictable-Complex-Dynamic

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21st Century Mission Challenges

1. Missions cannot be adequately predicted.

2. Ignoring the complexity of situations ensures failure.

3. Adversaries exploit seams and weaknesses avoiding strengths.

4. A plan is nothing; planning is everything.

5. Civil-Military Coalitions and broader effects spaces are essential for success.

is Agility

The Response

Uncertain-Unpredictable-Complex-Dynamic

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Agility: Key Requirement of the 21st Century

21st Century Security Challenges characterized by huge amounts ofuncertainty 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 solvingAdaptive – alteration in C2 organization and process.

FlexibleAdaptive

Responsive

Robust Innovative

Resilient

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Agenda

• Q. What is the critical capability for the 21st Century?

• Q. What makes an enterprise more agile?

A. Agility

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Agenda

• Q. What is the critical capability for the 21st Century?

• Q. What makes an enterprise more agile?

A. Agility

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The Tenets

Information Sharing and

Collaboration

Quality of information and

Shared Situational Awarenessenhances

A robustly networked force Information Sharingimproves

Shared situational awareness enablesCollaboration

andSelf-synchronization

These, in turn, dramatically increase mission effectiveness

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The Agility Value Chain

A robustly 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

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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?

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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

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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

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C2 Approach Space

peer-to-peerunitary

fully hierarchical

fully distributed

allocation of decision rights

patt

erns

of i

nter

actio

n

distri

butio

n of

infor

mation

broad dissemination

tight control

classic C2

edge organization

For a given situation,How do we allocate decision rights? disseminate information? interact with others?

Choosing a C2 Approach to achieve requisite agility

?

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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

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peer-to-peerunitary

tightly constrained

unconstrained

allocation of decision rights

patte

rns o

f int

erac

tion

distrib

ution

of

inform

ation

broad dissemination

tight control

classic C2

edge organization

C2 Maturity Mission Capability

ConflictedC2

De-conflictedC2

CoordinatedC2

CollaborativeC2

AgileC2

Stand AloneOperations

De-conflictedOperations

CoordinatedOperations

IntegratedOperations

TransformedOperations

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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?

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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

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Are we on the right track?