A collaborative study between the NATO Command and Control Centre of Excellence (NATO C2COE), the Joint Air Power Competence Centre (JAPCC), and the Swedish Defence Research Agency (FOI) was presented by NATO C2COE Deputy Director LtCol Rabia Saylam during the 30th International Command and Control Research and Technology Symposium (ICCRTS), held from 3 to 6 November 2025 at the Swedish Defence University, Stockholm, Sweden. This year’s theme was “C2: Past, Present, Future.”
The paper, “Finding Pathways for Human-Machine Teaming in Command and Control at the Operational Level: Taking Advantage of Both the Best Humans Can Offer and Machines Can Provide” focuses on how collaboration between humans and machines can enhance decision-making in complex, multi-domain operations, and was written by LtCol Rabia Saylam, PhD (NATO C2COE), Gwendolyn Bakx, PhD (JAPCC), LtCol Ralph Dekker (NATO C2COE), Max van Rijn, MA BEd (NATO C2COE), and Magdalena Granåsen, MA (FOI).
Rather than offering a prescriptive blueprint, the paper presents practical considerations and concrete, actionable suggestions for embedding Human-Machine Teaming as a foundational enabler across all features of Cross-Domain Command. Ultimately, Human-Machine Teaming offers not merely a technological enhancement but a paradigm shift toward more adaptive, resilient, and effective command, leveraging both human judgment and machine capabilities in concert.
The paper was nominated for the Best Paper Award and will be published on our website soon, following a workshop on this theme during our Annual C2 Conference, which will be held in Rotterdam next week, where the discussion will continue.
The 30th ICCRTS, organised by the IC2I, was a successful event, bringing together academic C2 experts to discuss current issues, trends, and the future of Command and Control. LtCol Ralph Dekker and Magdalena Granåsen also served as track leads on the track “The State of the Practice, Operational Issues, and C2-related Requirements.”
About:
The International Command and Control Institute (IC2I) is a nonprofit corporation under the US Internal Revenue Code Section 501(c)(3), created exclusively for scientific and educational purposes. The focus of the Institute is on enhancing our understanding of emerging technologies and their implications for the command and control of complex enterprises and endeavors operating in highly dynamic and contested environments. These technologies are enabling the creation of sociotechnical organizations that are learning to leverage networked human-machine collaborations employing autonomous systems, both real and virtual.
The Command and Control Research Community, composed of an international community of researchers (from industry, academia, and government) and practitioners (e.g., military, emergency services), has, over the past 30 years, created an invaluable body of literature that was at risk of becoming inaccessible to researchers and practitioners due to uncertain government funding. IC2I was created, in part, to ensure both continued access to this important body of literature and the continuation of ICCRTS meetings so that researchers could continue to build upon previous work by interacting and collaborating with one another.
