As the premier expeditionary total force in readi- ness, the Marine Corps requires a robust C2 capa- bilityto execute actions across the range of joint and coalition military operations. This capability increases strategic agility, operational reach, and tactical flexibility. MAGTF C2 enhances lethal- ity and effectiveness across the range of military operations through better decisionmaking and shared understanding. It is an intuitive and hol- istic environment of people, processes, and tech- nology enabling network centric operations throughout the enterprise and empowering the ini- tiative of warfighters at all levels in the context of the commander’s intent. It is a strategy to harmo- nize all aspects of command and control concepts, requirements, training, and doctrine; an integrat- ing process to provide governance over the C2 community to ensure that it meets the objectives of the strategy across the enterprise; and a capa- bility that will provide common, modular, and scalable material solutions from the lowest tacti- cal level across the MAGTF at all echelons. MAGTF C2 is the strategy by which the Marine Corps implements the ideas in Command and Control Joint Integrating Concept, Net-Centric Operational Environment Joint Integrating Con- cept, and FORCEnet: A Functional Concept for the 21st Century. It is the functional and concep- tual equivalent to other Services’ network centric concepts, such as the Army’s LandWarNet and the Air Force’s C2 Constellation. The Marine Corps is fully engaged with the development of the joint command and control (JC2) and network centric concepts to ensure that Marine Corps
requirements are fully considered and that Marine Corps programs align to these concepts. The Marine Corps is currently involved in the devel- opment of C2 concepts with the other Services to ensure that MAGTF C2 is fully employable in the littorals, from the air, on land, and at sea. The ability to engage in the joint arena and to function effectively within the labyrinth of interdependen- cies that exist is of key importance. Integrated with formal alliances such as NATO, MAGTF C2 facilitates command and control within less formal coalitions.
Creating networked capabilities is the basis of the MAGTF C2 approach to commanding and con- trolling Marine forces. Every node in the net- w o r k — c o m m a n d e r , s t a f f , u n i t , r i f l e m a n , supporting organization, platform, piece of equip- ment, or item—can be a producer, processor, and user of information. All information must be readily available to nodes without overloading or paralyzing them with irrelevant information. Fur- ther, many of the nodes in the network are required to perform multiple functions, so the essence of MAGTF C2 is decentralized and highly adaptive. It uses the digital, global net- work to foster and exploit the human capacity for mutual understanding, implicit communication, and intuitive decisionmaking. The cumulative network effect, achieved by organizing all nodes into an information-rich, collaborative, global network, is expected to enhance these inherently human qualities. The goal of MAGTF C2 is to ensure that the entire Marine Corps and its sup- porting elements become nodes in the network that can share information seamlessly and attain true, end-to-end capability, fundamental to the future network centric environment.
Future MAGTF C2 will provide its capabilities from the sea base. Within the construct of the FORCEnet functional concept and MAGTF C2, the sea base is a node within the larger network that can produce, process, and consume informa- tion in support of C2 functions. In strategic and operational terms, seabasing, as one of the three key pillars of A Cooperative Strategy for 21st Century Seapower, serves as the foundation from which offensive and defensive fires are projected, making the two companion concepts of sea strike and sea shield realities. In direct support of Marine Corps concepts such as opera- tional maneuver from the sea, seabasing acceler- ates expeditionary deployment and employment timelines by prepositioning vital equipment and supplies in-theater, preparing the United States to take swift and decisive action during crises. Seabasing capabilities include providing Marine Corps and JFCs with global command and con- trol and extending integrated logistical support to other Services. Afloat positioning of these capabilities strengthens force protection and frees airlift-sealift to support missions ashore. Commander centric, MAGTF C2 enhances the ability of commanders at all levels to gain and maintain situational awareness and shared under- standing, to make better decisions at an increased tempo, and to exercise authority through com- mander’s intent and mission-type orders. It facili- tates planning and execution by providing the warfighter with distributive and collaborative planning tools. It also provides an accurate, user- defined, fused, common operational picture of the battlespace to facilitate more rapid decisionmak- ing through increased situational awareness and shared understanding. The intent is to increase freedom of action and small unit initiative through decentralized command and control while minimizing the requirement for specified and implied linear control measures that limit the initiative of subordinates in a complex and increasingly ambiguous battlespace.
To exploit the power of the network centric environment is also to consider the potential needs levied by operations in an austere bat- tlespace, or when disconnected from the net- work. All Marine operations must be equally capable of operating either within the GIG or without the benefit of its full range of services. As a result, it is critical to ascertain the proper balance between GIG services and organically deployable networking capabilities.
As stated in the Marine Requirements Oversight Council (MROC) Decision Memorandum (DM) 29-2005, MAGTF C2 includes both C2 and com- munications systems that provide “end-to-end, fully integrated, cross-functional, reachback as well as a deployed set of C2 capabilities.” There- fore, MAGTF C2 is an all-encompassing system of systems, which includes families of systemsin layers that aggregate applications, enterprise ser- vices, network services, and transmission service capabilities (MROC DM 39-2004).
To maintain the superiority of these MAGTF C2 capabilities, the Marine Corps must have a plan to continually integrate new and proven technolo- gies as they become viable and affordable. Often, these solutions only become apparent during ongoing operations, so the plan must allow the Marine Corps to leverage technologies in the near-term with a consistent, repeatable process that will continue to meet the long-term goals of interoperability and cross-functional integration. The increasing numbers of C2 support systems that are not integrated place an ever increasing burden on the time and funding required for opera- tions, maintenance, and training. These burdens impact the ability of the Marine Corps to support troops on the front lines as it transforms to meet the challenges of the future. Two of the key near- term goals of MAGTF C2 are to reduce the oper- ating and maintenance requirements of C2 systems and to support the overall transformation of DOD.