On 6 June 1944, Supreme Commander General Dwight D. Eisenhower led the Allied multinational coordination of operation code-named Overlord, which took place on the beaches of Normandy in France; this operation involved 12 nations and led to the success of breaching a Nazi defense wall of over 2,400 miles of obstacles, mines, bunkers, machine guns, and artillery.1 On that date, Allied forces executed one of history’s most significant, prominent joint warfighting operations. Although this operation did not have dramatically evolved technologies of today’s military services, some view it as one of history’s most successful joint operations. The utilization of radios, phone systems, signaling, and decoding enabled reliable interoperability during one of the deadliest conflicts in human history. Today, there is a new question we must ask ourselves: are we at pace to have this level of interoperability, utilizing advanced technologies, in a large-scale future conflict? In today’s Great Power Competition, the Department of Defense (DoD) must prioritize interoperability across all DoD military services in the interest of National Security and to achieve relative advantage and convergence in a complex multi-domain construct. AI can help military leaders with planning, procurement, and integration of advanced technology to improve interoperability among joint forces and allied partners. With rapidly evolving technology and proprietary data-centric systems within each military service, in addition to those used by allied partners, there are often challenges with software compatibility, lexicon, and network infrastructures. These challenges can all affect operational technologies that joint forces utilize to effectively compete in a complex multi-domain environment.
Boosting Interoperability of Joint Forces with AI: A Unified Language for Joint Warfighting (Richard Farnell, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs)
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