Fighting Today's Peer/Near-Peer Fight with Today's Technology
Abstract
Centralized command and control (C2) is a luxury afforded to those with military superiority. Conflicts with near-peer adversaries will contest Jominis interior lines of communication such that superiority may be local and temporary. While centralized C2 presents less risk, the near-peer enemy forces a model of centralized command and decentralized control. The US Air Forces answer to the near-peer contest is to develop a mesh-networked C2 system called the Advanced Battle Management System (ABMS), bringing the internet of things to the battlefield. Projected to cost hundreds of billions of dollars, ABMS is ambitious, creative, and nebulous. Before embarking on another massive acquisitions quest to build ABMS, akin to the F-22 and F-35 programs, the Air Force should first consider the following maxims. First, innovation does not necessarily require invention. In other words, consider the possibility that the hardware to meet the proposed capabilities and requirements that ABMS will address already exists and needs to be assembled, refined, and incrementally improved. Secondly, along this vein, the drive to counter improvised explosive devices led to tremendous computational advances in wide-area motion imagery (WAMI) for persistent intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) packaged for use in low-cost attritable airframes. WAMI used for persistent ISR is the precursor to ABMS. Finally, the speed of future conflict may require the use of artificial intelligence within ABMS for automated targeting. The legal and ethical considerations of automated targeting must be considered prior to the acquisition of ABMS, before the Air Force opens a Pandoras Box of futuristic dystopia.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 2020
- Accession Number
- AD1108171
Entities
People
- Heath Phillips
- Robert Vincent
- Troy Taylor
Organizations
- Air Command and Staff College