The Air Force must help develop new battle management networks and operating concepts as the Pentagon seeks to stay ahead of advanced adversaries, Deputy Secretary of Defense Bob Work said Sept. 21.
The ability to coordinate the operations of autonomous systems and other cutting-edge platforms and capabilities will be critical for warfighting and executing the new “third offset” strategy in the coming years, he said.
“We need ideas on how to connect sensing and effect grids through a command-and-control grid that is multi-domain, multi-functional,” he said at an Air Force Association air, space and cyber conference in National Harbor, Maryland.
“We need Air Force thinkers to expand the idea of the [combined air operations center] and think in terms of building a joint learning C3I [command, control, communications and intelligence] network that can mesh operations across domains, across functions, with allies and sometimes across regions,” Work added.