Today, a very sharp military reporter, @rachelkaras, asked for a simple explanation of the @usairforce Advanced Battle Management System (ABMS). I tried to answer this way...

To win, we must be a team...ground ops cannot be separated from air/sea/cyber/space, etc. Our current teamwork is not enough to win in the future. Why? Because we can’t share what we are seeing, & our communication is too slow & stovepiped.

Each of the services has started a project to address these problems. The Air Force’s is ABMS. It takes what we see & allows us to share it with all our teammates. It also helps us communicate much faster, so we can fight faster, with all our teammates on the same page.

When @rachelkaras asked why we haven’t done that yet, I replied with these five reasons:

1. It’s harder than it looks, technically

2. It was not spelled out in requirements (in fact, some weapons systems were intentionally stovepiped

3. There were incentives for companies to keep their architectures in proprietary compartments

4. There were no joint standards for data or architectures, and we in the services had not worked together to create them

5. Let’s be honest, we didn’t need to fight as a closely knit team to win against the opponents we were facing. Separate components worked well enough. Only now, when we see the rise of worthy opponents, do we have the incentive to flatten & break down stovepipes

If anyone has questions about why the military needs to be networked and connected, or on how we plan to do it, I’m here. It’s the most important thing we can do to prepare for conflict and protect our citizens and friends.

Don’t let the acronyms get in the way—CJADC2, ABMS, etc—you got this. Let me help you!