Marines looking for capability portfolio approach to command and control

The Marine Corps is looking to take more of a capability and portfolio approach as it builds out command and control solutions for the force, rather than pursuing a systems approach as it has in the past.

In other words, whereas the Corps historically has delivered specific systems — such as a radio or radar — it wants to begin combining several systems in order to produce more integrated capability packages that are the sum of their parts rather than one-off systems.

Last year, the service combined at least 15 different systems into an integrated command and control portfolio. Much of that was driven from the ongoing force design updates that come directly from the commandant of the Marine Corps.

“Part of that is we lack the established multi-domain organizations or agencies to execute and facilitate task force target engagement. We lack a common unified [Marine Air-Ground Task Force] C2 system … and we lack a C2 framework that is unbound by unique warfighting domains and restricted classification bureaucracy on top of how we fight as a MAGTF,” Col. Jeffery Van Bourgondien, MAGTF C2 Program Manager, said during a presentation at the Modern Day Marine expo Wednesday. “The charge was to develop a portfolio that is going to deliver capabilities — not systems — deliver capabilities that are going to do multi-domain or all-domain situational awareness and multi-domain command and control.”

Through a series of mission assessments over the last year, the Corps determined that it has stovepiped systems, requirements and funds, all of which limits its ability to maneuver through the acquisition space. That provided the impetus for more of a capability portfolio management approach.

In fiscal 2027, the Corps will be breaking down all of its program elements within each color of money in the budget so there will be one element in research and development, procurement, and operations and maintenance.

“That allows me to move money across my entire profile and solve gaps for various capabilities even in stride and during the current year of execution without having to do any type of below threshold reprogramming and get that authorization from higher headquarters,” Van Bourgondien said.

Additionally, the Corps identified two target priorities to start looking at to answer the commandant’s charge: establishing joint kill chains or kill webs and what the Marines are calling command and control at echelon.

The latter seeks to ensure forces have the right command and control capabilities to survive in a contested battlespace at echelon and allow them to close kill chains.

“Since we have ended the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, our transition to this C2 at echelon capability set is something simply we need to accelerate,” Maj. Gen. Farrell Sullivan, director of the Capabilities Development Directorate, said at the Modern Day Marine conference.

More specifically, the effort aims to marry mission-essential tasks of each unit at echelon to the information that they need to exchange at various echelons within a fighting formation and better equip them with assets and information technology to process, analyze and then make decisions based on their authorities they’ve been given, Van Bourgondien told DefenseScoop following his presentation.

He said he’s applying a Lego block concept where common parts of the command and control ecosystem can be plugged and played to scale up or down and retrofit for a particular mission.

“Right now, with my stovepipe systems, I don’t have the flexibility to do that,” he said. “I’m re-engineering in order to break down the stovepipes between systems. I need to create a multi-faceted system of systems, gain efficiencies where I can with common hardware, common software, data processing tools … [and] focus in on the unit commander to make those decisions, [which] comes down to their own mission analysis.”