Collaborative enterprise is key to multi-national operations

Fort Lauderdale—One of the most controversial military actions in recent months was Operation Burnt Frost, where the Department of Defense demonstrated its anti-satellite capabilities by shooting down one of its own satellites that had become unstable in orbit. What proved more eye-opening than controversial to military officials involved was the way various U.S. organizations ranging from the Joint Staff to USSTRATCOM to NASA and the Navy worked together with speed and purpose to accomplish the mission.

GEN Carter Ham, who was part of that effort when he was the three-star director of operations for the Joint Staff, and who is the four-star commanding general of U.S. Army Europe and Seventh Army, now wonders why such jointness can’t be accomplished on a larger scale that includes U.S. forces and its coalition partners.

“What really fascinated me was the networking of so many activities, units and organizations that made it happen,” said Ham, speaking Tuesday morning as the LandWarNet 2009 keynote speaker. “It was multi-service, multi-command and inter-agency, and everyone could share knowledge and information in near real time. “I thought this is how it should be all the time. We shouldn’t have to put together a special effort for an operational event.”

That’s a direction that the military is working to accomplish, which means there is “no better time to be a Signaleer,” said Ham. He added that it is no longer proper to look at Signals as a combat support branch.

“Signals architecture was always a bit of an afterthought,” he said, speaking from the point of view from someone on the operational and tactical side of the equation. “Today, it’s no longer an afterthought. The Signal community has to be fully engaged in the operating concept from the outset because if we don’t build an architecture for effective command and control we are truly missing an opportunity.”

Operating out of Europe, as U.S. Army Europe does, puts it squarely in the milieu of a collaborative environment. Still, data sharing is regularly stymied.

“In Europe today, without the monolithic threat of the USSR, it’s tough to find that unifying cause that forces us to collaborate,” said Ham. “Today, it is far more complex. As we transform the command and control structure to a more secure environment we have to build alliances that take into account the operational needs of the future. To build a partner capacity, we must forge relationships that withstand the test of time.”

At the moment, said Ham, “we can’t talk to each other.”

Ham hopes to change that, and gives himself a deadline of next spring. That’s the scheduled time for Austere Challenge 2010, a joint military exercise with NATO and coalition partners. Next year’s exercise will have added complexity compared to this year’s exercise, by having a French officer as the air combat commander, he said.