Talk:Multi-Domain Operations

Content moved from United States Army Futures Command
This is text moved from United States Army Futures Command. Perhaps it will be of use in expanding this Multi-Domain Operations article. PRRfan (talk) 18:04, 2 October 2023 (UTC)

Multi-Domain Operations (MDO); Joint warfighting concept (JADC2)

 * Multi-Domain Operations (MDO):]]   Joint planning and operations are also part of the impending DoD emphasis on multi-domain operations.      Multi-domain battalions,   first stood up in 2019,   comprise a single unit  for air, land, space,    —and cyber  domains.  A hypersonic-based battery similar to a THAAD battery is under consideration for this type of battalion,  possibly denoted a strategic fires battalion   (however I2CEWS support would likely be needed), depending on the theater. In 2019, as part of a series of globally integrated exercises, these capabilities were analyzed.   Using massive simulation the need for a §new kind of command and control (now denoted JADC2) to integrate this firepower was explored.
 * The ability to punch-through any standoff defense of a near-peer competitor is the goal which Futures Command is seeking.  For example, the combination of F-35-based targeting coordinates, Long range precision fires, and Low-earth-orbit satellite capability overmatches the competition, according to Lt. Gen. Wesley.  Critical decisions to meet this goal will be decided by data from the results of the Army's ongoing tests of the prototypes under development.
 * For example, in Long Range Precision Fires (LRPF), the director of the LRPF CFT envisions one application as an anti-access/area denial (A2AD) probe; this spares resources from the other services; by firing a munition with a thousand-mile range at an adversary, LRPF would force an adversary to respond, which exposes the locations of its countermeasures, and might even expose the location of an adversary force's headquarters. In that situation an adversary's headquarters would not survive for long, and the adversary's forces would be subject to defeat in detail. But LRPF is only one part of the strategy of overmatch by a Combatant commander.
 * In August–September 2020. at Yuma Proving Ground, the US Army engaged in a five-week exercise to rapidly merge capabilities in multiple-domains. The exercise prototyped a ground tactical Network, pushing it to its limits of robustness (as of 2020, 36 miles on the ground, and demonstrated 1500-mile capability above the ground, with kill chains measured in seconds) in the effort to penetrate anti-access/area denial (A2AD) with long-range fires. Longer-range fires are under development, ranging from hundreds of miles to over 1000 miles, with yearly iterations of Project Convergence being planned.
 * MDO (multi-domain operations) and JADC2 (joint all-domain command and control) thus entails:
 * Penetrate phase: satellites detect enemy shooters
 * Dis-integrate phase: airborne assets remove enemy long range fires
 * Kinetic effect phase: Army shooters, using targeting data from aircraft and other sensors, fire on enemy targets.
 * 40th Army Chief of Staff Gen. James C. McConville discussed the combination of MDO and JADC2 with 22nd Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown. In October 2020 the Chiefs agreed that Futures Command, and the Air Force's A5 office will lead a two-year collaboration 'at the most "basic levels" by defining mutual standards for data sharing and service interfacing' in the development of Combined Joint All-Domain Command and Control (CJADC2).
 * The ability of the joint services to send data from machine to machine was exercised in front of several of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in April 2021; this is a prerequisite capability for Convergence of MDO and JADC2.
 * In July 2022 the 7th ASA(ALT) Doug Bush called for the formation of a large office on the scale of the Joint Counter-small UAS office, but for JADC2. This would coordinate, and eventually reconcile requirements for JADC2 for Army's Project Convergence, the Navy's Project Overmatch and the Air Force's Advanced Battle Management System.  See CDAO
 * In July 2022 Army Test and Evaluation Command called for more digital twinning and modeling and simulation, as end-to-end tests become more comprehensive, expensive, and larger-scale; as the scale of an exercise increases, a Synthetic Training Environment (STE) can be used to cut costs.

Additional content moved from United States Army Futures Command
This is more text moved from United States Army Futures Command. Perhaps it will also be of use in expanding this Multi-Domain Operations article. PRRfan (talk) 18:05, 2 October 2023 (UTC)

Long Range Precision Fires
The AFC's Long Range Precision Fires (LRPF) CFT aims to "deliver cutting-edge surface-to-surface (SSM) fires systems that will significantly increase range and effects over currently fielded US and adversary systems."

In 2018, its five major programs were:


 * The Extended Range Cannon Artillery (ERCA) program which develops a system capable of firing accurately at targets beyond 70 km as opposed to the M109A7's 30 km current range
 * The Precision Strike Mission (PrSM) which is a precision-strike guided SSM fired from the M270A1 MLRS and M142 HIMARS doubling the present rate-of-fire with two missiles per launch pod
 * The Strategic Long-Range Cannon (SLRC) program, which would have developed a system that could have fired a hypersonic projectile up to 1,000 miles against air defense, artillery, missile systems, and command and control targets was terminated 23 May 2022.
 * The Common-Hypersonic Glide Body (C-HGB) is a collaborative program between the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Missile Defense Agency (MDA) which is planned to become the base of the Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon (LRHW) program
 * A ground-launchable UGM-109 Tomahawk Land Attack Missile, as well as the SM-6 (RIM-174 Standard ERAM) to fill the gap in the Army's mid-range missile capabilities has been delivered to RCCTO.

The kill chains will take less than 1 minute, from detection of the target, to execution of the fires command; these operations will have the capability to precisely strike "command centers, air defenses, missile batteries, and logistics centers" nearly simultaneously.


 * The speed of battle damage assessment will depend on the travel time of the munition. This capability depends on the ability of a specialized CFT, Assured precision navigation and timing (APNT) to provide detail.
 * Long Range Precision Fires (LRPF): Howitzer artillery ranges have doubled, in excess of 60 km, with accuracy within 1 meter of the aimpoint, currently with sufficient accuracy to intercept cruise missiles, as of September 2020, reaching the 43 mile range as of December 2020.
 * Precision Strike Missiles (PrSMs) can reach in excess of 150 miles, with current 2020 tests
 * Mid-range capability (MRC) fires can reach in excess of 500 to 1000 miles, using mature Navy missiles
 * Long-Range Hypersonic Weapons (LRHWs) are to have a range greater than 1725 miles.

The current M109A6 "Paladin" howitzer range is doubled in the M109A7 variant. An operational test of components of the Long range cannon was scheduled for 2020. The LRC is complementary to Extended range cannon artillery (ERCA), the M1299 Extended Range Cannon Artillery howitzer. Baseline ERCA is to enter service in 2023. Investigations for ERCA in 2025: rocket-boosted artillery shells: Tests of the Multiple launch rocket system (MLRS) XM30 rocket shell have demonstrated a near-doubling of the range of the munition, using the Tail controlled guided multiple launch rocket system, or TC-G. The TRADOC capability manager (TCM) Field Artillery Brigade - DIVARTY has been named a command position.


 * An autoloader for ERCA's 95-pound shells is under development at Picatinny Arsenal, to support a sustained firing rate of 10 rounds a minute A robotic vehicle for carrying the shells is a separate effort at Futures Command's Army Applications Lab.
 * The Precision Strike Missile (PrSM) is intended to replace the Army Tactical Missile System (MGM-140 ATACMS) in 2023. PrSM flight testing is delayed beyond 2 August 2019, the anticipated date for the expiration of the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty, which set 499 kilometer limits on intermediate-range missiles. (David Sanger and Edward Wong projected that the earliest test of a longer range missile could be a ground-launched version of a Tomahawk cruise missile, followed by a test of a mobile ground launched IRBM with a range of 1800–2500 miles before year-end 2019. ) The 2020 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) was approved on 9 December 2019, which allowed the Pentagon to continue testing such missiles in FY2020. The Lockheed PrSM prototype had its first launch on 10 December 2019 at White Sands Missile Range, in a 150-mile test, and an overhead detonation; the Raytheon PrSM prototype was delayed from its planned November launch, and Raytheon has now withdrawn from the PrSM risk reduction phase. The PrSM's range and accuracy, the interfaces to HIMARS launcher, and test software, met expectations. PrSM passed Milestone B on 1 October 2021. Baseline PrSM is to enter service in 2023; an upgraded version of PrSM, with multi-mode seekers will then be sought. The Army needs PrSM Increment 2 for INDOPACOM.
 * For targets beyond the PrSM's range, the Army's RCCTO will seek a mid-range missile prototype by 2023, with a reach from 1000 to 2000 miles.  Loren Thompson points out that a spectrum of medium-range to long-range weapons will be available to the service by 2023; RCCTO's prototype Mid-Range Capability (MRC) battery will field mature Navy missiles, likely for the Indo-Pacific theater in FY2023. DARPA is developing OpFires, an intermediate-range hypersonic weapon which is shorter-range than the Army's LRHW. DARPA is seeking a role in the armory for OpFires' throttle-able rocket motor, post-2023.  DARPA announced in July 2022 it successfully tested its OpFires hypersonic weapon at White Sands Missile Range (WSMR) for the first time. The OpFires launch was from a Marine Corps logistics truck. OpFires will "rapidly and precisely engage critical, time-sensitive targets while penetrating modern enemy air defenses", potentially to be launched from a High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) launcher.  These weapons will likely require planning for new Army (or Joint) formations.
 * The Long range hypersonic weapons (LRHWs) will use precision targeting data against anti-access area denial (A2AD) radars and other critical infrastructure of near-peer competitors by 2023. LRHW does depend on stable funding.
 * Advanced Field Artillery Tactical Data System (AFATDS) 7.0 is the vehicle for a Multi-domain task force's artillery battery very similar to a THAAD battery: beginning in 2020, these batteries will train for a hypersonic glide vehicle which is common to the Joint forces. The Long range hypersonic weapon (LRHW) glide vehicle is to be launched from transporter erector launchers. Tests of the Common hypersonic glide body (C-HGB) to be used by the Army and Navy were meeting expectations in 2020.
 * In August 2020 the director of Assured precision navigation and timing (APNT) CFT announced tests which integrate the entire fires kill chain, from initial detection to final destruction. William B. Nelson announced the flow of satellite data from the European theater (Germany), and AI processing of AFATDS targeting data to the fires units.
 * In September 2020 an AI kill chain was formulated in seconds; a hypervelocity (speeds up to Mach 5) munition, launched from a descendant of the Paladin, intercepted a cruise missile surrogate.
 * Three flight tests of LRHW were scheduled in 2021; that plan was changed to one test in late 2021, followed by a multi-missile test in 2022.

The LRHW has been named 'Dark Eagle' The first LRHW battery will start to receive its first operational rounds in early FY2023; all eight rounds for this battery will have been delivered by FY2023. By then, the PEO Missiles and Space will have picked up the LRHW program, for batteries two and three in FY'25 and FY'27, respectively. Battery one will first train, and then participate in the LRHW flight test launches in FY'22 and FY'23. In February 2023 5th Battalion, 3rd Field Artillery Regiment (5-3 LRFB) —1st MDTF's long-range fires battalion— deployed the LRHW to Cape Canaveral, a distance of 3100 miles.

Mobile, Expeditionary Network
In Fiscal Year 2019, the network CFT will leverage Network Integration Evaluation 18.2 for experiments with brigade level scalability. By 2022, 4 separate network Capability Sets were in-process, simultaneously ('21, '23, '25, and '27).

Integrated Tactical Network (ITN) "is not a new or separate network but rather a concept"—PEO C3T. Avoid overspecifying the requirements for Integrated Tactical Network      Information Systems Initial Capabilities Document. Instead, meet operational needs, such as interoperability with other networks,   and release ITN capabilities incrementally.


 * Up through 2028, every two years the Army will insert new capability sets for ITN (Capability sets '21, '23, '25, etc.).  and take feedback from Soldier-led experiment & evaluation.   However, the Army's commitment to a 'campaign of learning' showed more paths:
 * Firestorm was made possible by a mesh network—improvising an MEO, and then a GEO satellite link between JBLM to YPG. There are plans to have a Project Convergence 2021.  The Army fielded a data fabric at Project Convergence 2020; this will eventually be part of JADC2.
 * Five Rapid Innovation Fund (RIF) awards were granted to five vendors via the Network CFT and PEO C3T's request for white papers. That request, for a roll-on/roll-off kit that integrates all functions of mission command on the Army Network, was posted at the National Spectrum Consortium and FedBizOpps, and yielded awards within eight months.  Two more awards are forthcoming.
 * The Rapid Capabilities Office (RCO)'s Emerging Technologies Office structured a competition to find superior AI/Machine Learning algorithms for electronic warfare, from a field of 150 contestants, over a three-month period.
 * The Multi-Domain Operations Task Force (MDO TF) is standing up an experimental Electronic Warfare Platoon to prototype an estimated 1000 EW soldiers needed for the 31 BCTs of the active Army.
 * Capability Set '21 fields ITN to selected infantry brigades to prepare for IVAS Integrated vision goggles. Expeditionary signal brigades get enhanced satellite communications.
 * 1/82nd Airborne, 173rd Airborne, 3/25th ID, and 3/82nd Airborne infantry brigades will all have fielded the Integrated Tactical Network Capability Set '21 by year-end 2021. 2nd Cavalry Regiment is getting Capability Set '21 on Strykers, which will test the CS'23 network design on Strykers early.
 * Integrated Tactical Network (ITN) Capability Set '23 is prototyping JADC2 communications and the data fabric, to LEO (Low earth orbit) and to MEO (Medium earth orbit) satellites, as continued in Project Convergence 2021 in Yuma Proving Ground. Capability Set '23 has passed its Critical design review (CDR).
 * Integrated Tactical Network (ITN) Capability Set '25 will implement JADC2, according to the acting head of the Network CFT (9 June 2021).
 * By 2023 the brigade-centric capability sets CS'21 and CS'23 already support mobile headquarters operation (Infantry and Stryker BCTs). The Armored BCTs are heavily affected by the need to support Large scale combat operations;     these Heavy brigades are to operate as part of a Division-level, and Corps-level plan.
 * Command post footprint is to be reduced even at the division level, to keep headquarters survivable, and the next network updates (the former CS'25) are for the echelons above brigade;  this new upgrade strategy will make the network more agile.
 * The former Integrated Tactical Network (ITN) Capability Sets for the '25 and '27 waypoints are to be implemented with rapid updates that are independent of previous tests. The Army network will rely upon a single standardized foundation.


 * G-6 John Morrison is seeking to unify the battlefield networks of ITN, and IEN (Enterprise Network), as of September 2021.
 * An Army leader dashboard from PEO Enterprise Information Systems is underway. The dashboard is renamed Vantage. The  dashboard has streamlined and connected data updates for deployments. Cloud-service-provider agnostic abstraction layers are in use, which allows merging the staff work in G-3/5/7 for cyber/EW (electronic warfare), mission command, and space. The "seamless, real-time flow of data" across multiple domains (land, sea, air, space, and cyberspace) is an objective for G-6, as well as the sensor-to-shooter work at Futures command.
 * Fort Irwin, Fort Cavazos, Joint Base San Antonio, and Joint Base Lewis McChord have 5G experiments on wireless connectivity between forward operating bases and tactical operations centers, as well as nonaircraft Augmented reality support of maintenance and training.
 * The Multi-domain task forces (MDTFs) will be used to expose any capability gaps in the Unified network plan.

Air, Missile Defense
Air, Missile Defense (AMD):     In 2022 plans for FY2023 cruise missile defense were underway.

High Energy Laser Tactical Vehicle Demonstrator
A contract for the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command/Army Forces Strategic Command's High Energy Laser Tactical Vehicle Demonstrator (HEL TVD) laser system, a 100 kilowatt laser demonstrator for use on the Family of Medium Tactical Vehicles, was awarded 15 May 2019 to Dynetics-Lockheed. A 300 kilowatt laser demonstrator (HEL-IFPC) effort supersedes the HEL TVD (after the critical design review). System test at White Sands Missile Range in 2023.


 * Maneuver short-range air defense (MSHORAD) with laser cannon prototypes in 2020,  In July 2021 RCCTO conducted a combat shootoff on just how to control pointing these high-energy lasers.  Raytheon is providing the high energy laser (Directed Energy Maneuver-Short Range Air Defense system —DE M-SHORAD) for the Strykers in 2022.
 * RCCTO has awarded a contract to build a 300 kW high-energy laser (HEL) for the Army in FY2022, capable of defending against airborne threats, by acquiring, tracking, and maintaining the HEL's aimpoint on the threat until it goes down.

Soldier lethality

 * 1) Soldier Lethality:
 * 2) * Next Generation Squad Weapon Program: Expect 100,000 to be fielded to the Close Combat Force: Infantry, Armor, Cavalry, Special Forces, and Combat engineers. Tests at Fort Benning in 2019. —Chief of Staff Milley
 * 3) * Nine thousand systems, with two drones apiece are being purchased over a three-year period for the 9-man infantry squads heading to Afghanistan.
 * 4) * Integrated Visual Augmentation System (IVAS) —an augmented reality display— allows soldiers to use multiple sensors to fight. IVAS was put on hold in March 2022, with Congress budgeting $349 million in favor of drones instead. An initial IVAS buy was approved in September 2022 after a six month hold. An improved IVAS is being sought after finding that some soldiers are being physically affected from wearing the goggles.
 * 5) * Enhanced night vision goggles (ENVG)-B, will be fielded to an Armor brigade combat team (ABCT) going to South Korea in October 2019
 * 6) ** A CCDC program which instrumented a battalion with sleep monitors, Redibands, and smartwatches to detect exertion, detected soldiers with elevated heart rates, indicating the beginnings of a streptococcus infection. This condition was detected by the medics, and would have impacted the battalion, detected before deploying to Afghanistan.
 * 7) * Synthetic training environment (STE)—a CFT devoted to an augmented reality system to aid planning, using mapping techniques, even at squad level   will begin fielding by 2021.   In October 2019 the Synthetic Training Environment (STE) prototype is being used by Special Operations for planning actual missions.  Development for the Synthetic Training Environment (STE) is to be accelerated to meet MDO and JADC2 training demands.
 * 8) On the battlefield of the future, where no headquarters is safe for long, the commander's task is:
 * 9) * "Avoid being detected and targeted".
 * 10) * "Work through and survive attacks".
 * 11) * "Rapidly recover from losses".
 * 12) * Thus the commander has to be continuously aware of the current status (that is: alive or not) of the deputy commander (and the staff) so that the mission can be completed.