“The Joint All-Domain Command and Control framework is not just the bailiwick of communications personnel – it is warfighting business,” said Marine Corps Lt. Gen. Dennis A. Crall.
Crall is the Joint Staff’s Director of Command, Control, Communications, and Computers – commonly called the J-6. He is also the Chief Information Officer for the Joint Staff.
He emphasizes that the Joint All-Domain Command and Control framework– the JADC2 – belongs to warfighters. “This is warfighting business. It’s not J-6 business. It’s not CIO’s business. It belongs with the warfighter,” the general said during an interview about what is DoD’s strategic approach to fighting the wars of the future.
The framework is DoD’s effort to amalgamate sensors with shooters across all domains, commands, and services. It sounds like simply a communications effort that will take decades to happen. Crall insists it will not. “This is about fires and speedy engagement,” he said. “If you think of it in those terms, we need to set aside for a minute what we own and what we do and look at where the department needs to be. We can then look at where we need to be based on time.”
The services each have a system looking to tie sensors to shooters. The JADC2 will gather all sensor information and connect all warfighters. A threat could be sensed by an Air Force unmanned aerial vehicle, but the best weapon against it could be a Navy missile fired from offshore.
A call for fire from an infantry battalion could be answered by tube artillery, rocket artillery, naval gunfire, close-air support from any service, or something else.