C2 Rising: A Historical View of Our Critical Advantage

摘要

The command and control (C2) core function can be somewhat difficult to grasp. For example, consider the service publication Global Vigilance, Global Reach, Global Power for America. This compelling piece lays out concise, one-page descriptions of the original five Air Force core functions: air and space superiority; intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR); rapid global mobility; global strike; and C2.1 The first four core functions have power and clarity. They are the legacy of the air and space nation. However, when readers reach the fifth core function, they are led to believe that the meaning of C2 is maintaining networks in the cyber age. Yet, in terms of grasping C2, networks do not explain that concept any more than missiles explain air superiority or bombs define global strike. America s greatest advantage in war fighting lies not in the quality of its people, ideas, weapons, or planes but in the systematic integration of those elements via C2. Going back to Napoleon, modern thinkers have consistently made this observation. Men such as Field Marshal Helmuth von Moltke (the Elder) and the US Air Force s Col John Boyd mark a steady rise toward identifying C2 operations as the prime integrator of military power in terms of people, ideas, weapons, and machines.