Compromising the Principles of War: Technological Advancements Impact Multinational Military Operations

Abstract : Coalition and multinational military operations are inherently complicated from a command and control (C2) perspective. As the United States endeavors to conduct future military operations in the form of a coalition, Unity of Command, a traditional Principle of War, is receiving less emphasis in joint doctrine. The short term nature of a coalition is not conducive to establishing a long term solution to chain of command relationships. Current U.S. joint doctrine directs military commanders to abandon unity of command in favor of focusing on a more robust unity of effort and, on at least one occasion, issues conflicting guidance. By placing greater emphasis on unity of effort and subverting vital chain of command issues, a future multinational military force is liable to experience more problems with interoperability due to rapidly advancing technology. Network Centric warfare and the Digitized Battlefield concept are two revolutions in military affairs (RMA) systems that threaten future coalition C2 through isolation. The U.S. military must take the lead on standardizing C2 system development to ensure compatibility and interoperability issues are addressed. The inability of coalition forces to share vital intelligence information, tactical locating data, and coordinate maneuver is damaging to achieving unity of effort and does not promote consensus planning.