Towards a roadmap for future command and control - Final project report Future C2 and command posts 2021-.2023

Authors:

  • Magdalena Granåsen
  • Jonas Herkevall
  • Björn J E Johansson
  • Gustav Tolt
  • Erik Axell
  • Mika Cohen
  • Anders Josefsson
  • Fergus Bisset

Publish date: 2024-03-22

Report number: FOI-R--5570--SE

Pages: 66

Written in: Swedish

Keywords:

  • command and control
  • command posts
  • roadmap

Abstract

Development of command and control is challenging. Command and control systems are complex and sociotechnical. Furthermore, military organisations are characterized by culture and traditions associated with organisational inertia. Additional challenges comes from the difficulty of bridging theory and practice, where abstract visions of future command and control must be operaitionalized into tangible development activities in order to accomplish change. This report describes two studies. A workshop study concerning future technologies' impact on C2 was conducted with aid of technology cards describing different future technologies. The purpose was to achieve an understanding of the potential use of these technologies in military headquarters, their impact on C2 capability, and to identify prerequisites for implementation. The results from the workshops showed that the selected technologies were perceived as both relevant and useful. The technologies resulted in requirements on the various parts of the sociotechnical command and control system in terms of doctrine, methods, organization, personnel and command posts. The second study aimed to identify and visualize how different development activities are related from a sociotechnical systems perspective, in terms of doctrine, organisation, methods, personnel, technology and command posts. The aim was an initial roadmap. The study was informed by the results of the workshop study. An initial roadmap has been developed. The two studies are both interesting to further work. The technologies presented during the workshops are all worth pursuing more in depth, and provided good input for the roadmap work. Many ideas exist for the continued development of the roadmap, where its design needs to go hand in hand with detailing and validation of the content.