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Industry Capabilities Help Drive Overmatch

The Navy’s next big information architecture will draw from commercial advances.

Rear Adm. Douglas Small, USN, commander, Naval Information Warfare Systems Command, describes aspects of Project Overmatch at WEST 2022. Photo by Michael Carpenter

Project Overmatch, the U.S. Navy’s major networking project that will be its piece of the Defense Department’s Joint All-Domain Command and Control (JADC2) system, will draw heavily from commercial technologies and capabilities, according to a leading Navy officer. Rear Adm. Douglas Small, USN, commander, Naval Information Warfare Systems Command, allowed that unclassified aspects of Overmatch will have a decidedly commercial flavor.

Speaking in the INFOWAR Theater on Day 2 at WEST 2022, the conference and exposition hosted by AFCEA International and the U.S. Naval Institute in San Diego February 16-18, Adm. Small emphasized that the commercial nature of Overmatch is not unique in this digital world.

Project Overmatch is not just about connecting weapons and sensors together. Overmatch is about decision advantage.—Rear Adm. Douglas Small, USN, commander, Naval Information Warfare Systems Command #WEST2022
— Bob Ackerman (@rkackerman) February 17, 2022

“Your life is driven by digital platforms,” he pointed out. When people drive late-model cars, they’re driving digital platforms dependent on commercial chips and software. Smart phones are entirely digital platforms. Those systems are an example of commercial capabilities that the Navy is trying to tap. “We’re just trying to bring that to the Navy and Marine Corps,” he allowed.

And the service is hard at work inputting commercial capabilities into Overmatch. The project is not completed, yet it already is absorbing new technologies, and the pace of that incorporation is likely to pick up. “We have been working at a fever pitch … to deliver the best of world class commercial technologies into the Navy, Adm. Small declared.

I don’t want you to guess what we need or want from industry. I want you to contact us.—Rear Adm. Douglas Small, USN, commander, Naval Information Warfare Systems Command #WEST2022
— Bob Ackerman (@rkackerman) February 17, 2022

Security will be a key part of Overmatch, and this is especially true of the classified portions. The admiral noted that adversaries would love to get inside the project before and during its operation. Its security will be a key component of its nature. “Our competitors steal everything, and they’re not ashamed of it,” he declared. “We’re trying to make their job harder.”

Our competitors steal everything, and they’re not ashamed of it. We’re trying to make their job harder.—Rear Adm. Douglas Small, USN, commander, Naval Information Warfare Systems Command #WEST2022
— Bob Ackerman (@rkackerman) February 17, 2022

The ongoing supply chain problem that has limited the amount of chips available for digital platforms has not affected the Navy, the admiral said. Those devices tend to support the platforms in which they are incorporated, and it is entirely possible that the Navy already has whatever chips it needs as part of the procurement process. So, the shortage has not affected the fleet or any of its systems, the admiral offered.