Photo: U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Lawrence Sena
The future of combat missions is starting to look more and more like a scene from Black Mirror. Not only are there all sorts of robot vehicles swarming around and drones flying everywhere, but now there’s a virtual command center that will direct everything.
The U.S. Air Force has taken a big step towards revolutionizing the way that military operations are conducted. A next-generation, virtual command and control platform has been successfully integrated for the first time, by Air Mobility Command (AMC), during the Mobility Guardian 2021 exercise.
AMC’s Security Forces division worked together with the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, the Air Force Warfighting Integration Capability, the 375th Conjure Lab, and several other agencies and private industry partners, to develop an Advanced Battle Management System (ABMS) - a state-of-the-art command and control (C2) platform. This complex system integrates virtual reality, Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning algorithms and cloud computing.
By using an open digital architecture, the ABMS can synchronize communication between warfighters and commanders that are far apart, and centralize an impressive amount of highly important data. The most outstanding benefit of this system is that warfighters can respond to tactical scenarios not in minutes, but in seconds. According to the AMC, this is a “drastically shortening” of the decision-making process.
Plus, the fact that it’s virtual makes this system accessible from anywhere in the world. This way, various users that are in different geographical areas can have access to remote data and images, and are able to communicate with each other in this shared virtual space.
For the demonstration that took place during Mobility Guardian 2021, AMC SF’s Contingency Response personnel simulated an OCONUS (outside the continental United States) Agile Combat Employment mission.
These warfighters, operating at the Alpena Combat Readiness Training Center, in Michigan, were equipped with sensors (mobile cameras) that transmitted video data to the platform. Then, the ABMS sent this information, plus air data from a C-17 Globemaster III aircraft, to decision-makers at Scott Air Force Base, who conducted the operations from a 4D virtual C2 center, by using the real-time feeds, synchronized data and shared maps. This way, they were able to coordinate the mission in real time, by using virtual reality headsets and touch-screen interfaces.
According to the AMC, the success of the virtual command center’s demonstration shows that it could transform the way that the entire U.S. military will conduct future wars.
AMC’s Security Forces division worked together with the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, the Air Force Warfighting Integration Capability, the 375th Conjure Lab, and several other agencies and private industry partners, to develop an Advanced Battle Management System (ABMS) - a state-of-the-art command and control (C2) platform. This complex system integrates virtual reality, Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning algorithms and cloud computing.
By using an open digital architecture, the ABMS can synchronize communication between warfighters and commanders that are far apart, and centralize an impressive amount of highly important data. The most outstanding benefit of this system is that warfighters can respond to tactical scenarios not in minutes, but in seconds. According to the AMC, this is a “drastically shortening” of the decision-making process.
Plus, the fact that it’s virtual makes this system accessible from anywhere in the world. This way, various users that are in different geographical areas can have access to remote data and images, and are able to communicate with each other in this shared virtual space.
For the demonstration that took place during Mobility Guardian 2021, AMC SF’s Contingency Response personnel simulated an OCONUS (outside the continental United States) Agile Combat Employment mission.
These warfighters, operating at the Alpena Combat Readiness Training Center, in Michigan, were equipped with sensors (mobile cameras) that transmitted video data to the platform. Then, the ABMS sent this information, plus air data from a C-17 Globemaster III aircraft, to decision-makers at Scott Air Force Base, who conducted the operations from a 4D virtual C2 center, by using the real-time feeds, synchronized data and shared maps. This way, they were able to coordinate the mission in real time, by using virtual reality headsets and touch-screen interfaces.
According to the AMC, the success of the virtual command center’s demonstration shows that it could transform the way that the entire U.S. military will conduct future wars.
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