Joint Staff creates new division to oversee JADC2 implementation

The Joint Chiefs of Staff has a new division to oversee the implementation of the military’s network-centric framework for battlefield operations, Joint All Domain Command and Control.

The new Joint All Domain Command and Control (JADC2) Division within the Joint Staff’s J-6 office will be the central manager for all things JADC2, a Joint Staff officer confirmed to FedScoop.

The division will directly oversee the more than 150-person JADC2 Cross-Functional Team that has been charged with implementing what is one of the Department of Defense’s top modernization priorities.

JADC2 is the DOD’s broad framework for connecting sensors from across the battlefield and providing commanders a common operating picture that includes all operations from air, land, sea, space and cyberspace.

The new division is “small, but mighty…and growing as we determine emerging requirements,” Col. Jason Parker, chief of the Joint Staff’s Strategic Initiatives Group, told FedScoop. Lt. Gen. Dennis Crall, the J-6’s commander and CIO for the Joint Staff, instituted the interim management change.

The J-6 has 12 divisions, with the JADC2 Division being the most recent one added about two months ago, Parker explained.

Much of the JADC2 framework comes down to herding military branches that have a host of different systems and networks transmitting battlefield data that are not interoperable.

Achieving that interoperability among data and networks has largely fallen to the cross-functional team in recent years. But now, the division will ensure that work gets accomplished, Parker said, taking care of scheduling, oversight and making sure the work of the cross-functional team aligns with DOD priorities.

“It was a long time coming,” Parker said.