Sensing's Crucial Link in Completing the Kill Web for the DoD

Faced with disorienting and life-threatening situations in combat, military personnel are trained to apply the doctrine of "observe, orient, decide, and act" (OODA) to guide their decisions. Unfortunately, the order provided by OODA is becoming more difficult to apply, as non-traditional tactics spread across the battlefield and non-state actors become more central in today's conflicts. These factors create greater unpredictability and sometimes outpace traditional intelligence methods.

This reality has created a pressing need to invest in upgraded government defense sensors for capturing intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) information about the enemy. These sensors are redefining the concept of “observing,” going beyond what an individual warfighter can see to include data collected automatically by devices deployed on the ground and in the air across a wide area.

Next-generation sensors have become critical to the development of mobile, flexible “kill webs” that connect equipment, data, communications, and personnel on the battlefield. Integrated advanced analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) round out the kill webs, enabling the military to coordinate across multiple domains for more effective missions.

The rapid and unpredictable transformation of modern warfare demands sustained investment in advanced defense sensors and the networks that will integrate them, ensuring that the military remains ready for tomorrow's challenges.

The Growing Importance of Sensors in the Kill Web

Sensing technology has always been important for the US military and its allies in making command-and-control decisions. However, given the advances in information and battlefield communications technology, legacy methods like early forms of radar start to look almost primitive by comparison.

Historically, sensing has been used in narrowly tailored ways, with specific mission objectives based on data from fixed and/or other large-scale systems. These items generally provide basic situational awareness delivered in the form of a kill chain. Decisions travel from sensors in the field to commanders in the rear and are sent back down to front-line forces. Their applications in multi-domain operations are limited.

Today’s sensors offer improved sensitivity, resolution, and miniaturization. With the development of the kill web concept, they are being used multidimensionally to deliver more precise targeting in real time across land, sea, air, space, and cyber domains. In the language of the military, these networked sensors connect “any sensor to any shooter” and enable cross-domain integration.

The evolution of this technology has made sensors as crucial to the acquisition community as any major weapons system. However, it also requires a different procurement approach, one that aims to synchronize investments to build capable and interactive battlespace networks.

Examples of Sensor Systems in the Cross-Domain Kill Web

For nearly two decades, the DoD has steadily advanced the kill web concept, enabling collaboration across land, air, sea, space, and cyberspace.

Embedded sensors make the kill web work. They provide the intelligence and the command-and-control flexibility needed for the military to adapt to new and emerging threats. Different types of sensors deliver new capabilities, and developing their functionality is becoming even more urgent with the integration of AI and advanced analytics tools that produce the insights that commanders need to win.

Examples of these efforts are widespread across the various branches:

• The Joint All-Domain Command and Control program, known in the DoD as JADC2, links sensors from the Army, Air Force, Navy, Marines, and more recently, Space Command into a single network. General Terrence J. O’Shaughnessy, USAF (Ret.), describes the program as, "C2 for the digital age—the architecture needed to produce faster and better decisions for our warfighters from the tactical edge to the strategic leader."
• The Advanced Battle Management System (ABMS) is the US Air Force's contribution to JADC2. As Charles Pope, then-Secretary of Air Force Public Affairs, describes it, the goal of ABMS is to enable integration by "simultaneously sensing, making sense of and acting upon a vast array of data and information from each of these domains, fusing and analyzing the data with the help of machine learning and artificial intelligence and providing warfighters with preferred options at speeds not seen before."
• The US Navy’s Aegis Combat System aims to improve operational efficiency in surface warfare engagements. It is deployed on Ticonderoga-class cruisers and Arleigh Burke-class destroyers and as the Navy describes it, “provides an overlapping architecture to detect, identify, and engage an incoming threat.”

One challenge for these system engineering efforts is developing sensors that can detect new and different threats. These include platforms like hypersonic missiles and aircraft; chemical, biological, or radiological weapons; stealth submarines and acoustic signatures; satellite threats; and electromagnetic spectrum activity.

Investments will need to continue and accelerate in the future, as the battlefield is not static. New capabilities will place different demands on procurement, program management, and vendors alike. They require a superior understanding of system engineering to enable all components to work together.

Deliver the Kill Web with Expertise from Sumaria Systems

Successfully integrating sensors into a larger command-and-control network to counter known and unknown threats requires new skills from professionals in all parts of the DoD. Sumaria Systems can deliver that broader perspective.

With decades of experience in lifecycle management, enterprise IT, C5ISR, cybersecurity, and cyber defense, Sumaria is well-positioned to support program managers and acquisition officers in navigating this significant change.

Sumaria Systems is a reliable and trusted industry partner offering AI services that include advisory, assistance, and advanced analytics. With over forty years of experience, Sumaria has steadily improved its analytic capabilities with AI through research and development. DOD leaders can make rapid, well-informed decisions and gain a competitive edge by expertly leveraging high-quality data, advanced analytics, and AI.