Force XXI and Sea Dragon - Issues for the Operational Commander.

Abstract

The United States Army and United States Marine Corps are both in the process of developing two futuristic command systems. Force XXI is the system that the U. S. Army is developing to fight and win the wars of the next century. The U. S. Marine Corps is developing the vision called Sea Dragon to be the basis of their futuristic warfighting command system. This piece will address the two command systems in the context of command and control and how it influences the commander's selection of tactical employment and unit organization to accomplish the mission. There are similarities and differences between Force XXI and Sea Dragon. Both exploit the Information Age's technologies to accomplish the mission. Both predict smaller force structures due to the enhanced technology. There are processes and organizations that will monitor the technical interoperability challenges of the two systems. The main differences are within the type of command and tactics that each will employ. With training and exchange of liaison officers, these differences could become a force multiplier for the operational commander. Two implicit assumptions are made in the development of these systems. First, that the U.S. military will maintain dominant technological superiority over its adversaries. The second assumption is that the U.S. will dominate the electro-magnetic spectrum. By negating these two assumptions, the premise that smaller forces using new technology to achieve the same or greater results as past large conventional forces is not longer valid. The operational commander must be aware of the risk entailed by smaller, reorganized force structures based on the assumption of technological superiority. If he does not agree with that assumption, he must weigh in with the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs and two Service Chiefs for resolution.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jun 14, 1996
Accession Number
ADA312048

Entities

People

  • Ronald L. Mcclair

Organizations

  • Naval War College

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • C4I
  • Cyber
  • Ground and Sea Platforms
  • Human Systems
  • Materials and Manufacturing Processes
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Command And Control
  • Command And Control Systems
  • Doctrine
  • Fire Support
  • Force Structure
  • Marine Corps
  • Military Operations
  • Military Science
  • Organizational Structure
  • Processing Equipment
  • Sea Based
  • Situational Awareness
  • Task Forces
  • Training
  • United States
  • War Colleges
  • Warfare

Readers

  • Joint Military Operations and Doctrine.
  • Maritime Combat Support and Expeditionary Logistics.

Technology Areas

  • Fully Networked C3
  • Fully Networked C3 - Command and Control