Teaching Command and Control Systems at the United States Military Academy; Conference paper

摘要

In response to emerging command and control theory, doctrine, and systems, the United States Military Academy Department of Systems Engineering has introduced an undergraduate command and control systems course designed to create a core of active duty engineers who understand the potential advantages to be gained through the systemic application of tactical command and control. This course poses this fundamental hypothesis for cadets to investigate - A trained and cohesive organization enabled by well-designed collaborative command and control systems will be able to apply decentralized command and control processes in order to increase unit agility and gain a tactical advantage as compared to units that are less collaborative and more centralized. In order to allow cadets to test this hypothesis, the course exposes cadets to theoretical concepts including globalization, shared awareness and understanding, self-synchronization, and networked effects. They also investigate supporting technologies including the global information grid, shared data and communications models, and service oriented architectures. They learn how these concepts enable organizational agility by transforming how power and decision making are distributed. Finally, they exercise existing command and control systems including Future Battle Command Brigade and Below and Command Post of the Future in simulated tactical scenarios.