Experiment to examine joint operations concept
Representatives from the United States military, government, and foreign militaries will gather in McLean, Va., from May 31 - June 5 for a week-long wargame to test the Department of Defense's (DOD) recently-revised Capstone Concept for Joint Operations (CCJO).
• Read the Capstone Concept for Joint Operations (CCJO)
By MC2(AW) Nikki Carter
USJFCOM Public Affairs
(SUFFOLK, Va. - May 28, 2009) -- More than 180 representatives from the United States military, government, and foreign militaries will gather in McLean, Va., from May 31 - June 5 for a week-long wargame to test the Department of Defense's (DOD) recently-revised Capstone Concept for Joint Operations (CCJO).
U.S. Joint Forces Command (USJFCOM) is leading the CCJO wargame, the main culminating event of an overall CCJO experiment project that included two previous workshops.
The CCJO, a document approved by Navy Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, envisions how the joint force force will respond to a wide array of future national security challenges in 2016-2028.
The CCJO is a companion piece to the Joint Operating Environment (JOE) which describes future operational environments and challenges the joint force may encounter.
The CCJO describes how the joint force will operate to address those challenges which include:
• winning the nation's wars,
• deterring potential adversaries,
• developing cooperative security,
• defending the homeland, and
• responding to civil crises.
"The Capstone Concept for Joint Operations describes how the joint force will operate in an uncertain, complex and changing future characterized by persistent conflict. While the concept focuses on the future, many of its underlying concepts are timeless," Mullen wrote in the CCJO's introduction.
The wargame is designed to explore the ideas in the CCJO using three different scenarios, each replicating possible key security challenges according to wargame organizers.
"We have some very significant participation at the three- and four-star level, policy makers, former National Security Council members, former assistants to the president for homeland security, political and interagency participation. A very august crowd for a week-long wargame," said Navy Vice Adm. Robert S. Harward, USJFCOM deputy commander.
The classified scenarios have a state competitor, a fragile state, and a globally networked terrorist organization.
USJFCOM will use these scenarios to examine issues like:
• homeland defense,
• weapons of mass destruction,
• adversary use of advanced conventional weapons,
• cyber operations
• and contested access to an area or within a region.
A joint force, represented by select senior leaders and experts from the services, combatant commands, U.S. government agencies and multinational partners, will be assigned to each scenario. Each force will facefaces a robust, dynamic and free-thinking enemy who will challenge their CCJO-based assumptions and solutions.
"The key is to get the right people with the right backgrounds together to challenge the concept and evaluate the implications," said Navy Rear Adm. Dan Davenport, director of Joint Concept Development and Experimentation Directorate (J9).
The experiment will determine if the CCJO's description of how the future force should operate needs to be adjusted and will help identify the capabilities the joint force will need to be successful, including those capabilities currently not planned, according to Davenport.
The experiment will also determine changes that could improve the joint force's ability to better operate in the future environments.
"The ultimate goal of the CCJO experiment is to provide useful information to those who make force development decisions and to those who think about future joint force issues," Davenport said.
The results from the wargame will be available at the end of July 2009.
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