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Experiment looks to inform future joint force operations

USJFCOM's Joint Concept Development and Experimentation Directorate recently completed an experiment to develop and assess processes and technical capabilities to improve the execution of joint future joint distributed operations. The experiment, running for almost two years and ending soon, brought a human element together with previous simulations conducted during the project.

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By Jacob Boyer
USJFCOM Public Affairs

(SUFFOLK, Va. - Aug. 12, 2010) -- Personnel from U.S. Joint Forces Command's (USJFCOM) Joint Concepts Development and Experimentation Directorate (J9) and several partners conducted the last in a series of experiments designed to test the joint force's ability to employ and support geographically dispersed units.

"The Joint Distributed Operations (JDO) Project is a two-year effort to assess the challenges, potential solutions and benefits of conducting these types of operations, which involve units operating at the edges of mutual support," said Jim Nichol, JDO project lead. "The overarching aim of the project is to retain and apply lessons learned from the last eight years of conflict to enable future joint forces to conduct agile distributed operations."

Joint distributed operations support the full range of military operations, including combat, engagement, security, and relief and reconstruction. In this particular experiment, the joint task force (JTF) headquarters faced problems and issues during all four types of operations. Having a scenario loaded with challenges allowed the experimenters to test their potential solutions to the breaking point.

"We fully recognize that we are conducting distributed operations today in both Iraq and Afghanistan, so our goal is to analyze shortcomings and to assess potential solutions by documenting the best practices and lessons we are learning in theater," Nichol said. "Through experimentation, we want to determine whether or not these solutions, best practices and lessons learned hold up under pressure."

The J9 is in the 21st month of the project and has conducted multiple experiments of different types examining the JDO concept. Some involved hundreds of runs through constructive simulations, from which experimenters extracted analytic data speaking to the efficacy of proposed solutions, Nichol said. The latest experiment introduced the human element to those solutions.

"We wanted to take that analytic power and join it with the human dimension of decision making and the interactions that take place," he said. "We wanted to marry up the quantitative and qualitative decisions and bring them together to have a complete answer."

The size and scope of distributed forces can vary - forces can be as small as a four-person civil affairs team operating in the Horn of Africa or as large as a battalion covering a swath of land in Afghanistan. The discerning factor between massed operations and distributed operations is that distributed units must depend upon joint enablers for nonorganic support and capabilities such as intelligence or medical evacuation.

"The backdrop of the scenario was a Pacific nation, so we had robust air, maritime and land aspects," Nichol said. "The scenario began with an earthquake which triggered a tsunami, so we immediately had the humanitarian assistance effort going on. We also stressed our forces with a hybrid adversary that employed conventional and irregular capabilities and tactics, including piracy and terrorism. Our scenario involved a breakaway governor who tried to set up his own territory. We made this scenario complex, yet realistic so we could examine the solutions within our experiment under realistic conditions without putting thousands of troops into the field and at risk."

Marine Brig. Gen. Michael Dana, commander of the 2nd Marine Logistics Group at Camp Lejeune, N.C., acted as the experiment's JTF commander. He said the JDO campaign is important because while individual services are already conducting these operations, the process of conducting them jointly needs to be solidified, especially as the ability to communicate in these environments has increased over the years.

"If you go back to Vietnam, there were small teams with the ability to detect the enemy and call in either naval or air firepower," Dana said. "The thing in the late 60s that was problematic was the communications. Now as we come into the 21st century, we're armed with geometric increases in communication capabilities. The glue that holds distributed operations together is that capability. When forces are out in a distributed environment, the goal is to use that connectivity to better synchronize fires, coordinate operations and do what we need to do against future threats."

Dana said that even with the increase in forces' ability to communicate, it is essential for commanders to articulate their intent clearly to troops all the way down to the lowest level. He drew a parallel between current warfighters and Marines fighting in the Pacific Theater during World War II. Those warfighters could operate with severely limited communications because they knew what needed to be done.

"A young corporal on the point, 20 or 30 miles away from the forward operating base needs to understand where we're trying to go, what we're trying to accomplish, and what tools he has access to if he's going to be successful," he said.

The experiment included participants from across the services, the special operations community and multinational partners including Australia, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Korea, Sweden and the United Kingdom acting as members of the JTF. Army Maj. Shawn Creamer, executive officer of the 1st Cavalry Division's 2nd Brigade Combat Team, brought skills learned on previous deployments to Iraq to the table. He said this experiment is important because the lessons being learned on today's battlefields need to be incorporated into a joint framework for the future.

"I think we have a lot of experience doing distributed operations, especially in the last couple years since the surge in Iraq," said Creamer, whose previous unit conducted distributed operations during its last rotation in Iraq. "This experiment can help capture those lessons in joint doctrine. We can capture it well in Army doctrine. The Marines can capture it well in their doctrine, but everything we do today is joint. If it's not captured in a joint concept of some form, we're going to have to start from scratch. What's easy today is going to be difficult in five years and even more difficult in 10."