ShOC-N Capstone 24A ... Shorten The Kill Chain
by U.S. Air Force Debora Henley
505th Command and Control Wing
October 7, 2024

The 805th Combat Training Squadron, also known as the Shadow Operations Center – Nellis, or ShOC-N, executed the Capstone 24A event at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada, June 24–28, 2024.

The Department of the Air Force, major commands, and Air Force centers use the capstone series to examine scenarios and technology to experiment with command, control and communications needed for battle management and tactical applications. These capabilities make up portions of the DAF Battle Network, the integrated system-of-systems connecting sensor, effector, and logistics systems providing better situational awareness, faster operational decisions, and decisive direction to the force.

During the event, the ShOC-N experimented with current data and command and control processes, tactics, techniques, and procedures. Additionally, they focused on emerging technology and how it integrates into the kill chain to best conduct battle management in a resource constrained and chaotic battlespace.

Air Combat Command and the ShOC-N developed a new Capstone Campaign Plan to accelerate changes to software or hardware, expanding the number of Capstones from two in 2024 to four in 2025. The addition of more events allows for greater advancement of objectives through increased experimentation compared to a 6-month gap between events.

The ShOC-N hosted C2 professionals, targeteers, intelligence warfighters, and allied partners to operate the systems. Simultaneously, ShOC-N personnel conducted daily coordination and fidelity checks with counterparts in the United Kingdom, establishing a shared experimentation environment.

“This is the one place we are all in the same room, working towards the same goal, talking about the pain points as they relate to either the process or the product, which immediately gets back to vendor or requirements owners,” said Lt. Col. Shawn Finney, 805th CTS commander. “This is what makes the ShOC so special, in that it allows us to move faster.”

Capstone 24A focused on three experiments, all directly relevant to Combined Joint All Domain Command and Control, the DAF Battle Network, and the U.S. Air Force Warfare Center’s Pacing Challenge Campaign Plan.

Experiments included:

1. Combined Federated Battle Laboratories Network, or CFBLNet, with the United Kingdom
2. C2 Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance, or C2ISR, Convergence and Data Flow Validation
3. Exercise Bamboo Eagle Risk Reduction Event

Combined Federated Battle Laboratories Network

The Department of Defense's CJADC2 concept's aim is to improve coalition interoperability, by making information accessible anywhere, anytime for quick decision-making on the battlefield.

For this reason, the DAF focused its efforts in the CFBLNet experiment toward enhancing and refining the data-centric information exchange across U.S. and coalition partners' different C2 systems.

UK-distributed participants connected to the CFBLNet could see the same information as U.S. participants during the same scenario.

“I think what doesn’t jump out is that the UK is using their own software,” said Finney. “We are sending the data to the UK; they didn’t buy our software or kit, which gave them the freedom to use their own software. We sent them the data, and they captured and interpreted it however they needed to -- talk about integrated development and integrated design.”

A future goal for CFBLNet experiments as it relates to allies and partners is two-fold. First, to get more Five Eyes participants to connect remotely to the CFBLNet and second, have them participate from remote locations and within the ShOC-N operating on its systems. FVEY is the alliance comprising of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

“In the future, we would like to have a completely integrated allied partner group connected remotely and working together in the ShOC,” said Finney. “When we [U.S. and partners] operate as a crew, we will learn TTPs because we are doing them together, which we will take back to our respective countries and operate the same way in a future fight.”

C2 Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance

Capstone 24A served as an observation event for the Advanced Battle Management System Cross Functional Team’s Transformational Model and those insights will be used in Capstone 24B to assess decision advantage and increased lethality in highly contested environments.

The C2ISR Convergence and Data Flow Validation experiment informed optimization of new data pathways and TTPs intended to leverage technological advances to improve speed and scale of the fix-to-target process for surface-based, mobile, deliberate, and on-call targets in Phase 2 operations.

“We’re moving closer to automation, in removing some of the manual human processes, so the operator can focus on some of the harder tasks that only a human can do,” said Finney.

Exercise Bamboo Eagle Risk Reduction Event

The Exercise Bamboo Eagle RRE was designed to further develop and enhance the large-scale constructive exercise scenario outcome in keeping with the U.S. Air Force Warfare Center’s Pacing Challenge Campaign Plan.

The Bamboo Eagle RRE provided opportunities for high-technology readiness-level prototype capabilities within a combat-representative scenario to develop TTPs for integrated two-way kill chain automation between operational and tactical battle management C2 levels, creating competitive advantages for the United States and its allies and partners.

“Capstone 24A was essentially the official, unofficial RRE for Bamboo 24-3; Capstone AARs [after-action reports] data points were incorporated into exercise targeting and DT [dynamic targeting] cell processes, which provided participants with a more operationally relevant environment,” said Capt. Alexandria Smith, 805th CTS assistant director of operations and Capstone 24A lead planner. “The data points and AAR that come out of Bamboo Eagle 24-3 will drive the objectives for December’s Capstone 24B’s data flow and targeting methodologies, which will then inform the next Bamboo Eagle iteration.”

Smith continued, “ShOC Capstone is in full alignment with SECAF’s [Secretary of the Air Force] One Team, One Fight attribute four, through analysis by creating a Capstone and Bamboo Eagle continual feedback loop to affect enterprise decision making. He also stated that ‘we must not be afraid to identify root causes and learn from our mistakes’, which is exactly why the ShOC is using capstone to feed information into Bamboo Eagle to use that data flow.”

The ShOC-N designed constructive large-force employment experiments with data generated organically by their modeling and simulation flight. This was designed to improve dynamic targeting kill-chain automation through software integration and associated TTP development.

“An overlooked aspect of C2, whether in Bamboo Eagle or ShOC Capstone, is the communications side and how the data flows to ensure it is not sitting there and becoming latent or stagnate,” said Finney. “This is where the ShOC conducts experiments to say whether we want data to flow omnidirectionally, or however, and we will feed those results back to the WIO [USAFWC Warfare Integration Office], who can then immediately apply to Bamboo Eagle.”

The ShOC-N’s execution of capstone events enables the unit to complete the mission, which is to provide an environment for the DAF to make rapid acquisition decisions, provide data-driven requirements, and distribute warfighter feedback to the industry to drive information advantage and decision superiority against current DOD pacing challenges.

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