Originally published Three Major Challenges Modern C2 Centers Must Overcome on the Battlefield on by https://modernbattlespace.com/2025/07/10/three-major-challenges-modern-c2-centers-must-overcome-on-the-battlefield/ at Modern Battlespace
The war in Ukraine has revealed many unprecedented challenges that command and control (C2) centers now face in modern warfighting. Defending against an enemy that employs a blend of asymmetric, traditional and air warfare tactics, Allied forces are operating in an extremely complex and congested warfighting environment that requires innovative C2 solutions that can outperform all of the traditional C2 capabilities of the past.
As a result, military forces are turning to modernized C2 solutions that can provide decentralized, scalable, and modular capabilities that can quickly aggregate and disseminate sensor data from the battlespace and inform fast and accurate decision-making for the warfighters. Here are three ways that these enhanced C2 solutions are enabling military forces to overcome the challenges posed by modern adversarial threats, while maintaining dominance on the battlefield.
Decentralizing C2
The warfighting environments of today have completely reshaped how command and control centers are stood up and operated. Adversaries have a wider range of faster attack methods and sophisticated weaponry at their disposal, enabling them to strike from further distances at higher frequencies. This results in a centralized C2 center becoming a sitting duck. Commanders and warfighters no longer can afford to spend hours assembling a divisional headquarters on a battlefield, only to spend precious time disassembling it to move and avoid an incoming attack.
For the military to keep pace with these incoming threats on the battlefield and avoid the risk of a centralized C2 center becoming an easy, high-value target for the enemy, it must adapt command and control solutions to be decentralized, distributed across the battlespace, and enable C2 to be mobile.
Additionally, today’s warfighting does not afford the ability to run mission-critical C2 capabilities on large IT infrastructures. Modern C2 solutions must be scalable and modular, enabling the easy on-ramping of new technologies while maintaining interoperability standards that will allow legacy solutions to still be leveraged during a mission.
Agile Warfare
Another challenge that C2 centers face is the highly agile nature of adversarial threats. This is especially true for airborne threats, which are evolving and becoming more sophisticated at faster rates. Today, adversaries are carrying out attacks by leveraging traditional missiles, cruise missiles, and ballistic missiles, but we are also observing them deploying glide bombs and commercial drones that are carrying munitions. The proliferation of these threats have widened the range of potential attacks in the air domain that can be high-altitude, low-altitude, high-velocity, and low-velocity. This has created a battlefield environment that is more congested and complex than ever before. The speed at which adversarial tactics, techniques, and procedures evolve – along with the proliferation and use of low-end weaponry – means that the military must constantly develop countermeasures to defend against the enemy.
For the military to maintain dominance on a battlefield where the air domain threats are extremely complex, it must employ C2 solutions that can track and monitor potential threats through a proliferation of sensors and radars in the battlefield. It then must correlate the sensor data properly to determine the appropriate action.
Today’s C2 systems must also be able to track and assess all the different speeds of incoming threats and discriminate whether the threat is one-sourced or multi-sourced. Multi-source correlation tracking is critical in modern warfighting, especially when adversaries are employing high-innovation weaponry such as hypersonics and low-innovation weaponry like drones equipped with munitions.
Due to the proliferation of sensors on a battlefield, one incoming attack or threat could trigger multiple sensors. This requires C2 systems to quickly determine whether the multiple trigger sensors are indicating multiple, simultaneous incoming attacks or if it is just one attack being picked up by several sensors. This correlation capability will play a critical role in not just assessing the threat, but also how decision-makers can respond appropriately in an asymmetrical warfare environment.
A Shifting Battlespace
In addition to C2 systems needing to be decentralized and tailored to defend against highly complex threats, they also must be able to adapt to a constantly shifting and evolving battlefield where effectors, weapon systems, and stockpiles are always changing depending on who the battlespace is being shared with.
As Allied forces enter the battlefield, they bring with them weaponry and munitions that are donated and available to the warfighters. C2 systems must be able to keep accurate track of incoming and outgoing stockpiles, in order to know what is available to them in times of action. Having a strong library of sensors and effectors across joint and allied forces is essential for the military to have an understanding of what is at their disposal on the battlefield at any given moment of time.
We have a series of upcoming demonstrations that will showcase the latest advancements in BC3 technology. Our team will also be attending DSEI, where we will highlight our innovative solutions and industry-leading capabilities. Stay tuned for more updates and insights from these exciting events!
Originally published Three Major Challenges Modern C2 Centers Must Overcome on the Battlefield on by https://modernbattlespace.com/2025/07/10/three-major-challenges-modern-c2-centers-must-overcome-on-the-battlefield/ at Modern Battlespace
Originally published Modern Battlespace