Technologies Drive Joint Warfighting Concept by USD(R&E) and JS,JFIC
November 3, 2020
To achieve its National Defense Strategy goals, defense officials
have said the Defense Department must increase the pace by which
critical technologies are integrated into the force. The deputy
director for engineering in the Office of the Undersecretary of
Defense for Research and Engineering is working with stakeholders
from the Joint Staff and military services to implement mission
engineering methodologies to facilitate technology integration
aligned with future joint force needs.
 September
3, 2020 - A soldier trains and certifies on a soldier-borne sensor at Schofield Barracks, Hawaii. The sensor enables soldiers to deploy a micro-drone to gain situational awareness and observe where a soldier cannot physically reconnoiter. (U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Thomas Calvert)
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According to defense officials with the Office
of the Director of Defense Research and Engineering (Advanced
Capabilities) and the Joint Staff's joint force integration cell,
where systems engineering helps "build things right," ME ensures DOD
is "building the right things."
ME, as defined in the
forthcoming DOD Mission Engineering Guide being released by R&E, is
"the deliberate planning, analyzing, organizing, and integrating of
current and emerging operational and system capabilities to achieve
desired warfighting mission effects." The officials said ME analyzes
systems and systems of systems in an operational mission context to
evaluate capability solutions, advise on the development of
requirements and inform technology investment decisions.
Officials added that R&E
is currently involved in various activities aligned to the National
Defense Strategy modernization areas and in support of the Joint
Staff. R&E's ME framework focuses on desired activities and effects
rather than the current pipeline of programs and systems, using
mission capability as the measuring stick to make it easier to
decide on technology investments. It provides a systematic method to
analyze, communicate, and compare joint warfighting concepts. It
starts by defining and inputting the activities, assumptions,
dependencies, threats and gaps within a concept's "mission area"
future scenario. Then, using metrics and other indicators, it
examines mission threads and effects-chains to quantify improvement
and expose gaps between current and future technologies through
tradeoff analysis.
 April 12, 2019 - Two reusable rocket boosters land after the successful launch of the SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket carrying a communications satellite at Kennedy Space Center, Florida. (Air Force photo by James Rainier)
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The R&E is working with the Joint Staff and other stakeholders
to apply this methodology to help guide the Joint Warfighting
Concept (JWC), said the officials. The JWC's supporting concepts are
emerging, threat-informed constructs to codify globally integrated
operations encompassing all-domain maneuver warfare — supported by
leading-edge concepts in command and control, joint fires,
information assurance and contested logistics — enhanced by
integrated capabilities in space, cyber, and electromagnetic
spectrum dominance. By setting the JWC in a common analytical
framework, it can validate (or invalidate) assumptions and untangle
complex and intertwined dependencies. Mission blueprints and
enterprise architectures are the products that capture these
dependencies, future constructs, and performance needs.
Additionally, R&E co-chairs the Joint All Domain Command Control,
orJADC2, Research and Engineering/Reference Architecture Working
Group. R&E, in coordination with J6, is conducting ME to apply
analytical and technical rigor in a mission context to identify
JADC2 capabilities and requirements and inform investment decisions
for research and development initiatives. The results will support
the development of the JADC2 reference architecture which provides
the foundation to connect distributed sensors, shooters and data
across all domains to all forces, the officials added.
 October 19, 2020 - An unmanned aerial vehicle delivers a payload to the ballistic missile submarine USS Henry M. Jackson around the Hawaiian Islands during an event designed to test and evaluate the tactics, techniques and procedures of U.S. Strategic Command's expeditionary logistics and enhance the readiness of strategic forces. (U.S. Navy photo by Petty Officer 1st Class Devin M. Langer)
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ME products are
already making a significant impact by providing data-driven
"mission blueprints," as well as government reference architectures
that help decision makers ensure research, technology and programs
converge in the proper timeframes. The officials said that applied
to JADC2, FNC3 and other technical focus areas, the R&E's principal
directors for modernization can apply ME to guide the maturation of
capabilities that deliver the highest mission efficacy and mission
return on investment.
The officials said to face the
challenges of this century, and give U.S. warfighters the
technological edge they need to effectively confront near-peer
competitors, the Defense Department must embrace a new approach to
joint capability modernization. ME and related tools like the ME
Framework will help instill engineering rigor into the technology
and acquisition pipelines, with the promise of keeping U.S. forces
relevant and dominant in the rapidly evolving battlespace of the
coming decades.
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