The Department of Defense (DoD) has delivered its long-sought initial iteration of the Combined Joint All-Domain Command and Control (CJADC2) capability – the department’s AI-powered meta-network of connected sensors to coordinate all the armed forces – said Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks.
CJADC2 is the department’s approach to developing both material and non-material solutions to deliver information and decision advantage to commanders. DoD aims to apply the CJADC2 approach across all warfighting domains to give warfighters the edge in deterring and, as necessary, defeating adversaries anywhere around the globe.
“CJADC2 isn’t a platform, or a single system. It’s a fusion of concepts, technologies, policies, tools, and talent that’s advancing how we command and control forces with key allies and partners,” Hicks said during her keynote address at Advantage DOD 2024: Defense Data and AI Symposium on Feb 21.
The initial version of CJADC2 represents a minimum viable capability combining software applications, data integration, and cross-domain operational concepts designed to provide decision advantage to warfighters.
Over the last year the Pentagon’s Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office (CDAO) and its partners have used a series of Global Information Dominance Experiments to set a blisteringly fast-paced effort to get the initial iteration across the finish line.
Last summer, Hicks challenged CDAO and its mission partners to deliver a minimum viable capability for CJADC2 by the end of 2023 – and she said they succeeded in that effort.
“The minimum viable capability for CJADC2 is real and ready now. It’s low latency, and extremely reliable,” Hicks said. She added that for security reasons she could not divulge further details on how the current capability is being used.
“But what I can tell you it was no easy task, especially in six months,” she said. “But with a lot of hard work across many teams, pairing operators across multiple commands with engineers from DoD and industry, they delivered on time and on target.”
The Pentagon intends to build on this success, Hicks said, to deliver the capability at scale. But to do so, she said the department’s needs “predictable and timely appropriations from Congress.”
The unresolved FY 2024 budget situation in Congress could delay further advances on CJADC2, Hicks explained.
“We can’t do it without resources,” Hicks said. “One of our combatant commanders recently reached out to me noting that the advances that they’re relying on from CDAO are dead in the water without our fiscal year 2024 appropriations.”
“We need Congress to come together and pass appropriations for 2024 ASAP,” she said. “It is long overdue, and the delay is devastating.”
