Illuminating the Department of the Air Force Battle Network
![As the Department of the Air Force pursues air- and space-related joint all-domain command and control, it is asking industry to provide capabilities that they can integrate. “If you are a company that is providing more than a single product to the Department of the Air Force, then integrate them. Do the work on your side to integrate the capability across [our capabilities],” says the leader in charge of command, control, communications and battle management. Credit: SergeyBitos/Shutterstock](/sites/default/files/styles/wide/public/2023-05/F6_globenetwork.jpg?itok=2fNzy3zY)
The Department of the Air Force (DAF) is on the hook for meeting the challenge of air- and space-related joint all-domain command and control. Having spent the last couple of years validating the plausibility of its concept to connect every sensor to every shooter in its Advanced Battle Management System, the department, which includes the U.S. Air Force and Space Force, has now set its sights on the so-called DAF Battle Network, a vision of command, control and communications battle management elements and joint all-domain command and control within an advanced battle management system.
“When I talk about the ‘battle network,’ I’m talking about the composite set of things that are operating and connected for the entire command and control structure that function effectively,” explained Brig. Gen. Luke Cropsey, the Department of the Air Force integrating program executive officer for command, control, communications and battle management (DAF PEO C3BM) and assistant secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics, Headquarters U.S. Air Force.
“That’s going to include things that have to plug into that kill chain, like sensors, fighter jets and satellites. It includes the communication networks that allow data and command and control functions to be executed across time and space. It includes the computation that has to happen around the data and the ability to generate decision-quality information for somebody to look at and make decisions around. It involves the ability to actually assess how well all of that is happening. So, when I say Battle Network, I’m talking about the composite picture of all of those things aligned and integrated in a way that allows me to produce the outcome that a combatant commander needs.”
Given the scope and scale of the DAF’s challenge to integrate such a system of systems, Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall put unique constructs in place. In outlining the service’s core functions, the secretary defined command and control as the fifth function, and in standing up the DAF PEO C3BM last September, he essentially made that program executive officer responsible for this core function, Gen. Cropsey said. Another foundational element from the secretary was the merging of architecture authorities within the program executive office, which has never been done before. And this means that his architectural authorities extend to seven or eight other PEOs.
“What the secretary did in September when he created the program executive office that is different or unique was [to] merge the architecture authorities that the chief architect office had at the DAF level, with the programmatic authorities that a classic PEO has for running programs,” Gen. Cropsey explained. “When those portfolios merged under a single office, we ended up with the technical authority to integrate across the entire Department of the Air Force.
This spring, the program executive office continued to round out the organization’s chief architect office, led by Bryan Tipton. As part of DAF PEO C3BM—and under those unique constructs—Tipton will have “more than just the chief architect authorities. He also has the system engineer authorities that are needed to actually affect that Battle Network from an acquisition design standpoint,” Gen. Cropsey stated.
Since the construct is a move away from traditional requirements building, guiding the effort does require a delicate balance, the general continued. “It’s how do I do all of this at the Department of the Air Force level and get all these things to communicate and connect and pass data,” he suggested. “The way that we are really trying to thread that needle is by staying very, very focused around the operational problem that we’re trying to solve.”
Here, the PEO is heavily relying on the Advanced Battle Management System Cross Functional Team (ABMS CFT) and a strategy of having a “continuous ongoing, evolving, very dynamic interchange” between the requirements on the operational side that the CFT sees, the engineering decisions, the physics of what is necessary and the acquisition side.
“[To stay] ruthlessly focused on the operational problem that needs to be solved, we are welded at the hip with the ABMS CFT,” Gen. Cropsey shared. “The ABMS Cross Functional Team, led by Brig. Gen. [Jeffery] Valenzia has the mission of really providing that battle-management, operational look to the DAF Battle Network. And as the CFT builds out what that looks like in terms of decision-making inside of this context of trying to go fight in a pacing challenge scenario, we’re driving that into a model-based system engineering environment.”
The CFT spent the last year and a half building that model-based system for command and control, called the Transformational Model-Battle Management (TM-BM). The DAF will use the tool to evaluate industry solutions necessary for the DAF Battle Network and its integration. The TM-BM is one of a family of models that the CFT is preparing as part of its Transformational Model methodology.
“The kind of classic challenge in this space is, hey, there’s 15 different ways that we could potentially go solve or fill this gap,” Gen. Cropsey ventured. “And do we understand the gap that we’re trying to solve with enough rigor to actually put clear boundaries around the industry solutions that we need? What the TM-BM does, by going through a rigorous functional decomposition of the decision-making process itself and then giving me a context-agnostic way of describing those things, is that I can now pick it up and I can put it into just about any different context that I need to do that decision-making inside of, whether it’s air, whether it’s space, whether it’s electromagnetic—you pick the context. And now, with a high degree of precision, I can look at what you’re selling me.”
Essentially, the TM-BM will show what improved contribution a potential solution will provide to the command and control decision-making process and how it might fit into the larger picture of the DAF’s capabilities.
“Now, rather than me just kind of coming out there with open arms and saying, ‘Hey, send me whatever you got,’ I can be very, very targeted in my request to industry,” Gen. Cropsey emphasized. “And I can say, ‘No, I need something that specifically does this function in this context and has the following characteristics.’”
The TM-BM is already running at the Air Force’s designated joint all-domain command and control laboratory, the Shadow Operations Center at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada, also known as the SHoC-N. And while the SHoC-N is preparing for a specific command and control capstone event this month that will bring in industry solutions related to the Battle Network needs, having the TM-BM functioning consistently at the SHoC-N allows the DAF to benefit from Nellis’ daily activities.
“We thought if we started here, eventually this can help with one of the goals of the experimentation and the SHoC-N, which is the invitation, something that Gen. Valenzia talks about all the time that we want to achieve, this invitation to our industry partners, to explore solutions left of requirements,” he noted.
Additionally, the DAF PEO C3BM has placed a specialized team at the SHoC-N that is an addition to any personnel from the ABMS CFT. “[They] are part of my own staff,” Gen. Cropsey noted. “And what we’re trying to do there is create a dynamic environment, where we have an element of the organization that is focused around being operational, responsive to emerging requirements and needs, and that could be coming from the CFT. So, as the CFT is doing their analysis, and as they’re looking at operational gaps that we need to go fill, some of those things we might be able to do quickly and be able to launch something in short order and get things moving. Our [DAF PEO C3BM] team is designed to be able to pick those things up and run with them.”
And while the issuance of a request for proposals to industry for DAF Battle Network-related technologies will come in the future, Gen. Cropsey is starting to shape the conversation for what they will be looking for from industry. Data—and the military’s need to survive and thrive through decision advantage over near-peer adversaries—means military ownership of information. “If [your] business model is going after making money on the data, you might need a new business model,” he said at AFCEA Lexington-Concord Chapter’s New Horizons conference in March.
The general also specified that industry solutions need to be connectable. “Here is my call to action,” Gen. Cropsey emphasized. “If you are a company today that is providing more than a single product to the Department of the Air Force, then integrate them,” he stated. “Do the work on your side to integrate the capability across [our capabilities]. The architecture that is employed has to be extensible to the next one and the one after that. If it doesn’t help [do that] don’t bother. We have to grow the clusters of things that all talk.”
Lastly, the DAF PEO C3BM has three existing programs of record that he is continuing to advance, including the so-called Airborne Edge Node effort; a cloud-based command and control program; and a digital infrastructure component. “Those all have program costs, schedules and budgets that are associated with them,” he said.
In addition programs of record already on the books, there are additional outgrowths from the operational imperatives work that happened over the last year, he added. The Air Force is exploring ways to integrate into that portfolio of programs and provide capability “with regards to our engagement with both the U.S. Indo Pacific Command, the U.S. European Command, and the Air Force components associated with those areas of responsibility.”
Since the construct is a move away from traditional requirements building, guiding the effort does require a delicate balance, the general continued. “It’s how do I do all of this at the Department of the Air Force level and get all these things to communicate and connect and pass data,” he suggested. “The way that we are really trying to thread that needle is by staying very, very focused around the operational problem that we’re trying to solve.”
Here, the PEO is heavily relying on the Advanced Battle Management System Cross Functional Team (ABMS CFT) and a strategy of having a “continuous ongoing, evolving, very dynamic interchange” between the requirements on the operational side that the CFT sees, the engineering decisions, the physics of what is necessary and the acquisition side.
“[To stay] ruthlessly focused on the operational problem that needs to be solved, we are welded at the hip with the ABMS CFT,” Gen. Cropsey shared. “The ABMS Cross Functional Team, led by Brig. Gen. [Jeffery] Valenzia has the mission of really providing that battle-management, operational look to the DAF Battle Network. And as the CFT builds out what that looks like in terms of decision-making inside of this context of trying to go fight in a pacing challenge scenario, we’re driving that into a model-based system engineering environment.”
The CFT spent the last year and a half building that model-based system for command and control, called the Transformational Model-Battle Management (TM-BM). The DAF will use the tool to evaluate industry solutions necessary for the DAF Battle Network and its integration. The TM-BM is one of a family of models that the CFT is preparing as part of its Transformational Model methodology.
“The kind of classic challenge in this space is, hey, there’s 15 different ways that we could potentially go solve or fill this gap,” Gen. Cropsey ventured. “And do we understand the gap that we’re trying to solve with enough rigor to actually put clear boundaries around the industry solutions that we need? What the TM-BM does, by going through a rigorous functional decomposition of the decision-making process itself and then giving me a context-agnostic way of describing those things, is that I can now pick it up and I can put it into just about any different context that I need to do that decision-making inside of, whether it’s air, whether it’s space, whether it’s electromagnetic—you pick the context. And now, with a high degree of precision, I can look at what you’re selling me.”
Essentially, the TM-BM will show what improved contribution a potential solution will provide to the command and control decision-making process and how it might fit into the larger picture of the DAF’s capabilities.
“Now, rather than me just kind of coming out there with open arms and saying, ‘Hey, send me whatever you got,’ I can be very, very targeted in my request to industry,” Gen. Cropsey emphasized. “And I can say, ‘No, I need something that specifically does this function in this context and has the following characteristics.’”
The TM-BM is already running at the Air Force’s designated joint all-domain command and control laboratory, the Shadow Operations Center at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada, also known as the SHoC-N. And while the SHoC-N is preparing for a specific command and control capstone event this month that will bring in industry solutions related to the Battle Network needs, having the TM-BM functioning consistently at the SHoC-N allows the DAF to benefit from Nellis’ daily activities.
“We thought if we started here, eventually this can help with one of the goals of the experimentation and the SHoC-N, which is the invitation, something that Gen. Valenzia talks about all the time that we want to achieve, this invitation to our industry partners, to explore solutions left of requirements,” he noted.
I’m looking at command and control (C2) as a function that I have to protect. And on the other hand, I am addressing C2 as the element behind how we are going to actually go command and control the forces that we have to get to the battle outcome that we need.
Additionally, the DAF PEO C3BM has placed a specialized team at the SHoC-N that is an addition to any personnel from the ABMS CFT. “[They] are part of my own staff,” Gen. Cropsey noted. “And what we’re trying to do there is create a dynamic environment, where we have an element of the organization that is focused around being operational, responsive to emerging requirements and needs, and that could be coming from the CFT. So, as the CFT is doing their analysis, and as they’re looking at operational gaps that we need to go fill, some of those things we might be able to do quickly and be able to launch something in short order and get things moving. Our [DAF PEO C3BM] team is designed to be able to pick those things up and run with them.”
And while the issuance of a request for proposals to industry for DAF Battle Network-related technologies will come in the future, Gen. Cropsey is starting to shape the conversation for what they will be looking for from industry. Data—and the military’s need to survive and thrive through decision advantage over near-peer adversaries—means military ownership of information. “If [your] business model is going after making money on the data, you might need a new business model,” he said at AFCEA Lexington-Concord Chapter’s New Horizons conference in March.
The general also specified that industry solutions need to be connectable. “Here is my call to action,” Gen. Cropsey emphasized. “If you are a company today that is providing more than a single product to the Department of the Air Force, then integrate them,” he stated. “Do the work on your side to integrate the capability across [our capabilities]. The architecture that is employed has to be extensible to the next one and the one after that. If it doesn’t help [do that] don’t bother. We have to grow the clusters of things that all talk.”
Lastly, the DAF PEO C3BM has three existing programs of record that he is continuing to advance, including the so-called Airborne Edge Node effort; a cloud-based command and control program; and a digital infrastructure component. “Those all have program costs, schedules and budgets that are associated with them,” he said.
In addition to the programs of record already on the books, there are additional outgrowths from the operational imperatives work that happened over the last year, he added. The Air Force is exploring ways to integrate into that portfolio of programs and provide capability “with regards to our engagement with both the U.S. Indo Pacific Command, the U.S. European Command, and the Air Force components associated with those areas of responsibility.”
