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JAG[C.sup.2]: a concept for future battlefield air-ground integration.

Article Excerpt
As a result of lessons learned during combat operations in Afghanistan and Iraq (2001 to 2006), the imperative to build joint integrated command and control structures has highlighted doctrinal and technical air-ground integration issues. This is demonstrated by the many ad hoc organizations created to deal with the challenges of the modern battlefield.

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The key is to enhance joint collaborative efforts to integrate joint assets rather than just deconflict them. An example of this collaboration is represented by the joint air-ground control cell (JAG[C.sup.2]), a concept not yet established in joint doctrine but supported by combat operations.

Established within the corps or division, JAG[C.sup.2] provides the commander the ability to plan, coordinate, deconflict and control all third dimensional operations in the airspace overlying the division or corps area of operations (AO) in real time or near real time (battlefield airspace control (1)). With airspace control combined with the joint integration of intelligence, targeting and fires, the commander can employ his intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) assets effectively (unmanned aircraft, or UAs, and fixed- and rotary-wing). He also can leverage joint ISR capabilities to find, track and target the enemy and more rapidly decide, target, deconflict and precisely engage emerging high-value, time-sensitive targets within his AO using a combination of organic and joint assets (called dynamic attack (2)).

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Background. The Air Force theater air control system/Army air-ground system (TACS/AAGS) is the combined command and control system that provides the interface between Army and Air Force tactical air support agencies in planning, coordinating and controlling air support operations. Evolving from the lessons of World War II, Korea and Vietnam, this system is the basis for requesting and controlling close air support (CAS) since it was formalized in a "Concept for Improved Joint Air-Ground Coordination" signed by the Army and Air Force Chiefs of Staff in 1965.

Within the TACS/AAGS, the Air Force is responsible for communications to request and deliver CAS, providing advisors and forward air controllers (FACs) in the form of tactical air control parties (TACPs) and establishing regional coordinating centers (now called air support operations centers, or ASOCs) that plug into Army maneuver headquarters. The Army commander, through his G2 and G3 air personnel and the fire support cell (FSC), specify the targets to be attacked, determine the priorities and coordinate tactical air integration with the fires and maneuver of the ground forces.

The TACS/AAGS is a "stovepipe" system that is satisfactory for rapid management, planning and deconfliction. However, it was not designed for real-time (or near-real-time) coordination, deconfliction and control of all tactical air operations and fires or to quickly execute complex processes that require joint integration of airspace control, intelligence, targeting and fires.

The Growing Airspace Congestion Problem. It's widely acknowledged that airspace control within the ground commander's AO is becoming more complex and difficult. In a 2005 Air Force Magazine article, author Rebecca Grant notes there are some 775 UAs--from miniature UAs to the high-altitude Global Hawk--now in operation over Iraq and Afghanistan. (3) Michael Heinz, who heads Boeing's Unmanned...