Dr. Jeff Reilly, director of Future Security Studies at the Department of Joint Education at the United States Air Force’s Air Command and Staff College (ACSC) , dives deeper into the transition of multi-domain operations and the Requirements for forging a Joint All Domain Operational Concept. This as part of the read-ahead package of the NATO C2COE’s Annual Seminar in November.
In the ideal, MDO is an advanced form of maneuver warfare designed to meet the demands of the complexity, speed, and precision that are rapidly evolving in our technologically sophisticated global environment. The essence of MDO is creating competitive space through a deliberate synchronization of combinations of domains. This is necessary for several intrinsic reasons. Those reasons involve the number of domains that require synchronization, the massive transformation occurring in civilian and military technology, and the tremendous vulnerabilities associated with the interdependencies between domains. What is being missed in the US Army’s explanation of the concept is the underpinning principles of MDO that will guide offensive and defensive operations. An example of this is the interdependencies that exist between domains. The disruption, degradation or destruction of an interdependency between two domains has the potential to collapse entire systems such as command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance (C4ISR).
This article has three principal objectives. The first is to provide the main arguments against transitioning to MDO. The second is to explain why transitioning to MDO is essential to future military success. The final objective is to propose an initial framework for developing MDO as a maneuver warfare concept.
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