Concepts of operations, also known as CONOPS, essentially lay out the features and expectations for how proposed capabilities will be used by warfighters.

“Just two weeks ago … we had all five service chiefs talking JADC2 for two hours,” Brig. Gen. John Olson, the Space Force’s chief data and AI officer, noted during a panel at a JADC2 conference hosted by the National Defense Industrial Association.

“We’ve identified some very key challenges — and, just with the technology, every bit as important and maybe even more so is the concept of operations — you’ve got to have the concept of operations,” he said.

He confirmed that the senior officials will prioritize this “fundamental” topic in the near term.

Taking shape over the last several years, the Pentagon’s vision for Joint All-Domain Command and Control is to better connect sensors, shooters and networks across all the military services and allow for better information-sharing between a wide variety of platforms, systems and components.

Contracts have and will continue to be awarded to companies who will help make this happen, and developments are occurring gradually.

“I would describe that today the rhetoric is very hot, and the rhetoric is outpacing the actual progress or activity as it relates to JADC2 — but there is movement,” Sean Stackley, L3Harris president for integrated mission systems, said during a panel at the conference.

Stackley previously served as acting secretary of the Navy and the assistant secretary of the Navy for research, development and acquisition, among other roles.

Now operating “from the outside looking in,” Stackley said it looks like the various military services and departments are approaching the overarching initiative quite differently.

“The Army is pressing forward with experimentation,” while the Air Force “seems to be focused on things like architecture and standards and getting that right, upfront,” he said. Meanwhile the Navy is honing in on the battlefield deployment cycle. 

“So there’s three different approaches, which what that raises is — where’s the ‘joint’ part of JADC2?” he said. “What are the CONOPs that can allow the department and industry to focus, target, build and deliver, and test and deliver [capabilities] all moving in the right direction in terms of JADC2? And I don’t think that CONOPs has been formed yet, which is why the service departments are approaching the problem somewhat differently.”

In addition to sorting out a concept of operations, Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics and Technology Douglas Bush said the JADC2 initiative could also benefit from the Pentagon establishing a “joint organizing body” to ensure more seamless integration and interoperability as the effort evolves.

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The move is part of the Corps’ plan to develop a more “AI aware workforce,” according to Brig. Gen. Joseph Matos, director of information, command, control, communications and computers (IC4).

The software factory, located near Army Futures Command headquarters, was stood up last year in one of the nation’s top technology hubs to help the Army train and build up its organic software talent. Unlike some of the U.S. military’s other software factories, it is primarily soldier led.

The organization has “done a great job developing a coding capability,” Matos said this week at the Pentagon’s annual Digital and AI Symposium.

“We are now partnering with them. We’re on the very cusp of doing a joint venture with them where we embed,” he said. “Up to about 36 Marines a year will go through that process, stay down there for a couple years after they finish the training, developing coding” tools.

Meanwhile, the Corps is sending personnel to the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) where they are taking courses in operations research and other areas of study that could help the service integrate AI across its enterprise.

“As we develop algorithms and develop the coding capabilities within Python or whatever, those Marines [that go through the Army Software Factory] become kind of the seed corn who help … the graduates out of the NPS to really implement this” vision for expanding the use of artificial intelligence, Matos said.

The software factory is a pilot program that’s going to run at least five years, Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics and Technology Douglas Bush told reporters in February.

“The cadres moving through there are learning some very valuable skills about how to do software,” he said. “I’m excited at the potential, for example, to have more people in my [program executive offices] who know about software and how to write it — helping advise the people trying to buy it. I’m all for that … I’m optimistic that it could be a way for us to spread more talent across the Army in many places — my area of the Army, but also others.”

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The man-portable Stinger anti-aircraft system gained fame during the 1980s when U.S.-backed fighters used them to great effect against Soviet forces that had invaded Afghanistan. The weapons are back in the news as the Ukrainian military uses them to shoot down and deter Russian aircraft during the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.

The White House on March 16 authorized a new security assistance package for Ukraine that included 800 additional Stingers, among other weapons.

“What we want to do is give them what they need to defend themselves, and then we have to replenish those stocks so we’re ready for any type of future conflict,” Army Chief of Staff Gen. James McConville told reporters Thursday at a Defense Writers Group meeting.

“Our intent is to replenish those stocks,” he said. “We think we could do that” but “it takes a little time,” he added.

Separately, the Department of Defense is funding R&D to upgrade the weapon.

“That’s actually not to replenish [the stockpile], that’s to improve” the capability, McConville said.

Money for the effort was included in the fiscal 2023 budget request, McConville said, without specifying how much.

The Biden administration released its fiscal blueprint Monday but many details about Pentagon spending plans were lacking, including for the Stinger.

McConville did not provide details about how the improved variant will be superior to the ones that have been supplied to Ukraine.

The upgraded system isn’t quite ready for prime time.

“It’s gonna be probably about, you know, a year, year and a half” before it’s ready to be fielded, he later told FedScoop.

An immediate priority is replenishing the existing stocks of Stingers as well as Javelin anti-tank weapons, Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics and Technology Douglas Bush told lawmakers during a House Armed Services subcommittee hearing Thursday.

The service plans to use some of the $3.5 billion that Congress provided in the recently passed fiscal 2022 omnibus bill to replenish U.S. stocks of weapons that DOD has transferred to Ukraine.

“We already have that money. Congress will very soon get the first of several responses showing how we intend to use that funding. It’ll be specifically the Stinger [and] Javelin. So that is imminent,” Bush said.

He declined to say in an open hearing how low U.S. stockpiles of weapons and ammunition have been drawn down to aid Ukraine, noting that information is classified.

“In some cases, what we provided is a tiny amount of our overall stocks. In other areas, it’s a more significant amount,” he said, adding that some inventory levels are more concerning than others.

Meanwhile, the Army is pondering replacing the Stinger with a next-generation system at some point in the future.

“We have a current requirement for the current weapon, which … is a classic design but still effective,” Bush told lawmakers. “We need to get Stinger back in production to replenish what we’ve sent and also to support likely allies requesting more weapons … but also look to start — once the Army decides — a research and development effort to look at a potential new missile with perhaps greater range.”

He continued: “That process in the Army is still underway to determine what the requirements would be for that, but I expect us to do both.”

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Douglas Bush, who was sworn into the top Army acquisition job Feb. 11, said that increasing the speed and agility of how the Army buys software is a top priority. Achieving that will depend heavily on using recent authorities granted by Congress, including one that allows the Army to pilot a new way to purchase software outside of standard acquisitions practices.

“I believe we have the authorities we need — it’s a question of using them well,” Bush said Thursday during a call with reporters.

Bush said the main issue when buying software is the lack of flexibility in the way the Army is allowed to spend money. Traditionally, the Army is authorized to use specific types of funding — also known as a “color of money” — for certain types of programs, like research and development or production procurement.

The rigidity in that construction often slows down programs that cut across those areas, especially software-based tech, Bush added.

“I don’t believe the private sector distinguishes between [research and development] and the procurement of software, but we do,” he said. “Does that make sense anymore? I’m not so sure.”

Congress allowed the Pentagon and military services to test a new budget activity specifically for software called Budget Activity 8 in the fiscal 2021 National Defense Authorization Act. That’s a new lever Bush says he wants to pull, and he hinted that he hopes the flexibility it offers might increase.

“The funding might have to be more flexible,” he said.

Bush used to work in Congress, most recently as a senior staff member of the House Armed Services Committee. He stressed that he plans to include Congress in key decisions he makes and will consult with members closely on budgetary matters. His plan for boosting software acquisition agility has yet to be finalized, he said.

“I can’t say I’ve got a master plan, but I want to develop a plan … to get us better than we are,” he said.

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