Planners Need to Wrap Their Arms Around C3I

Building effective future command, control, communications and intelligence (C3I) systems will require tighter control of processes by appropriate experts, according to a speaker at a Tuesday MILCOM panel. Dr. Ronald Jost, managing director and chief executive officer of 2M and a former deputy assistant secretary of defense for C3, Space and Spectrum, outlined several steps needed to ensure effective C3I. First, any future C3I must be built around a strategy that is defined, crisp and quantifiable, he said. Second, a framework is needed. This would be an architecture that defines today's systems and future directions. Land, sea, air and space elements must be fused via a chronological sequence. The third step involves system engineering, and Jost emphasized that it must start with a design and set of specifications. Planners must work with detail designers to ensure that a concept is incorporated and then integrated and tested. This effort must feature assessment in a quantitative manner. The fourth step entails execution to determine that these efforts produce a fused information environment. Jost stressed that the people involved in this step must have direct experience executing programs. "You're balancing the elements," he pointed out.