On Thursday 7 January 2021, the NATO C2COE gave a guest lecture on Command and Control and Multi-Domain Operations during the senior staff course of the Führungsakademie der Bundeswehr, The General Staff College (Senior Military Academy), of the German armed forces. As many activities last year, also the first one of 2021 was conducted fully digitally.
During the lecture, Director Colonel Robert Meeuwsen (NLD A) briefly spoke about the general thought on C2 from a NATO C2COE perspective and took a deep dive into the question; ‘Why Multi-Domain Operations (MDO)?’. After two pre-recorded video’s the Director elaborated on the key-takeaways of the 2020 webinar ‘Multi-Domain Operations: ‘Keys to master complexity’ and introduced the students to one of centre’s main products, the Multi-Domain Operations C2 Demonstrator.
It was interesting to discuss the results and outcomes of our webinar about Multi-Domain Operations and which impact it will have in future military operations. The term “Multi-Domain Operations” is being used more and more to define the operating environment and Engagements of the future, but what does MDO truly mean? How is it different from Hybrid Warfare or the Comprehensive Approach? What has to be changed for joint forces to effectively conduct MDO? Is the consideration of MDO required to understand and guide NATO´s warfare development of the future? Enough food for thought for the students to take home to their own departments within the armed forces.
After the lecture a vivid question and answer session took place with the participating students from multiple nations on the topic of the lecture, Federated Mission Networking and the use of virtual reality for accelerating the decision-making process (DMP).
