As early as March, the Air Force and Army could begin major experiments on their systems to allow aircraft, sensors and other weapons systems across services to share data instantaneously.
As part of a Sept. 29 agreement signed by both services’ chiefs of staff, the Army and Air Force hope to ensure that their new communications equipment, networks and artificial intelligence systems are compatible with one another and send information seamlessly under the Combined Joint All-Domain Command and Control effort.
The Air Force’s Advanced Battle Management System and the Army’s Project Convergence are the service’s main efforts for experimenting with CJADC2.
RELATED
However, a lot remains unknown about this effort, including how much technology the Army and Air Force will share with one another.
In mid-2020, the Air Force awarded several contracts to dozens of companies for technologies that could become part of ABMS.
And in November, Air Force acquisition executive Will Roper told reporters that the Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office had been given some of the responsibilities for developing ABMS. This is expected to allow the Air Force to start buying its first elements as early as 2021.
Stephen Losey is the air warfare reporter for Defense News. He previously covered leadership and personnel issues at Air Force Times, and the Pentagon, special operations and air warfare at Military.com. He has traveled to the Middle East to cover U.S. Air Force operations.
