A Self‐Consistent Context for Unit‐ and Force‐Level Tactical Decision‐Making

Abstract

ABSTRACTAs the U.S. Navy and other services continue the transformation to network centric operations, there is a need for a self‐consistent context for describing and understanding the tactical decision‐making process at both the unit and battle force levels. A self‐consistent context will allow the combat systems engineer a framework for allocating “system” combat control functions at the unit level, as well as “system‐of‐system” command and control functions at the battle force level. This paper will recommend the use of a context used for many years by the Navy to describe an engagement or mission sequence: detect, control, and engage (DCE). It will be shown that DCE has as its foundation the observe, orient, decide, act (OODA) loop developed by Colonel John Boyd in the mid‐1980s. Using the OODA‐based DCE sequence, as well as the Department of Defense Joint Directors of Laboratories’ (JDL) Data Fusion Model, a unit‐ and force‐level context can be developed for the tactical decision‐making process and allocation of system functions. Further, the DCE sequence can be extended to the force level within the framework of network centric warfare introduced by VAdm. Arthur Cebrowski in 1998.