Complexity Archives - The Air Power Journal

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The Air Force in a Technologically Disruptive Environment: The Challenges and Imperatives of Leading Change

Leadership styles are critical for empowering organizations toward change. Transformational leadership will be pivotal for the air force in unleashing the potential of its people to evolve to a new way of working. Advancing change and transforming people is, however, not a linear process, and grappling with the adaptive challenge requires more than simply focusing on technical problems.

Dr. Bryan Watters OBE, Associate Professor and Head, Centre for Defence Management and Leadership, Cranfield University & Defence Academy of the United Kingdom

Human Factors

Unlocking Training Technology
for Multi-Domain Operations

Multi-domain operations can present many challenges for training, particularly as various disparate organizations must be involved and centralized coordination must be balanced with decentralized training objectives. Emerging training technologies can help support the unique complexities of MDO, but the training community may need to solve old problems.

Dr. Tim Marler, Senior Research Engineer, RAND Corporation and Professor, Pardee RAND Graduate School, United States

Human Factors, Human-Machine Teaming

Human-Machine Teaming in Artificial Intelligence-Driven Air Power: Challenges and Opportunities

AI is making its way into military operations and warfighters will increasingly co-exist with machines with progressively more advanced autonomous capabilities. As machines make the jump from simple tools to cooperative teammates, human-machine teaming will be at the center of warfare. Understanding how to ensure trust between humans and machines is critical.

Dr. Jean-Marc Rickli, Head, Global and Emerging Security Risk, Geneva Centre for Security Policy, Switzerland

Federico Mantellassi, Research and Project Officer, Geneva Centre for Security Policy, Switzerland

Human Factors, Human-Machine Teaming

Building a Layered Strategy for Artificial Intelligence in Air Power: Understanding its Applications

AI is a formidable enabler but its potential remains far from realized. There is a growing role in using AI for improving the air force’s planning and decision-making processes at the different levels of warfare, if the inherent limitations and constraints of this technology can be appropriately managed. Allowing for as much data as possible to be exploited will be key to expanding AI adoption.

Jean-Christophe Noël, Research Associate, French Institute of International Relations (IFRI) and Editor-in-Chief, Vortex

Command and Control, Space

Joint All-Domain Command and Control
and the Role for Space

Only the space domain can move information at the speed, size, and range required of an effective JADC2 architecture. If the United States hopes to prevail in a peer conflict, foundational space-based capabilities will be essential. The Department of Defense and the Space Force must prioritize a robust space transport layer, sensors, and space superiority to protect these capabilities.

Tim Ryan, Senior Resident Fellow for Spacepower Studies, Mitchell Institute, United States

Innovation, Interoperability

Military Innovation and Capability Development in a Multinational Context: The Costs and Benefits of Cooperation

Military capability development is a highly complex process, and when it happens in a multinational context, the complexities increase significantly. Militaries manage these complexities using several models, but each model presents trade-offs. The most relevant trade-off is between coordination and political costs on the one hand and economic and military benefits on the other.

Dr. Bence Nemeth, Senior Lecturer, Defense Studies Education, King’s College London, United Kingdom

Information Superiority

The Competition Continuum for Information Dominance: The Future of Information Warfare for the Joint Force

The Joint Force has experienced rapidly changing circumstances in the information warfare (IW) environment. The objective of achieving dominance poses new and complex challenges in an emerging environment of hyper-connectivity that spans the physical and virtual domains. IW must become embedded in all activities from the onset of planning—not ‘added on’ at the end or planned in isolation.

Dr. Edwin “Leigh” Armistead, Chief Editor, Journal of Information Warfare, United States

Space

The Emerging Spectrum of Threats to the Military Use of Space and Implications for Capability Planning

The space domain will increasingly provide the means for vital military communications and situational awareness at a global scale. With new threats on the horizon, militaries require ‘hardened’ space capability, better space situational awareness and space traffic management, and space systems that can be designed, developed and upgraded at speed.

Patrick Bolder, Lieutenant Colonel (Ret.), Royal Netherlands Air Force, Subject Matter Expert, Hague Centre for Strategic Studies, Netherlands

Interoperability

Integration and Interoperability for Multi-Domain Operations in the Coalition Environment

Multi-domain operations promise new operational advantages and will reshape air combat, but also necessitate changes in approaches to joint and coalition operations. The challenges of interoperability are reframed however there are no readily available solutions to bridge differences when partner air forces each bring their own sets of capabilities, tools, and platforms to the fight.

Professor Olivier Zajec, Director, Institute of Strategic and Defense Studies, Jean Moulin University, France

Human-Machine Teaming, Information Superiority

Future Options for Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Assisted Decision-Making in Air Warfare

AI has well-known problems in that it can be fooled, cannot transfer knowledge gained in one task to another, and is entirely reliant on data for its performance. Although AI will significantly change decision-making in air warfare, not all air forces will use the same technology in the same way – even in the narrow area of decision-making.

Complexity