Picture coordinating 70 aircraft and 3,000 service members across 13 million square miles of the Indo-Pacific region. That was the challenge of the U.S. Air Force’s Air Mobility Command tackled for its largest-ever global exercise, Mobility Guardian 23, coordinating with teams from seven nations to seamlessly execute mid-air refueling, medical evacuations, and air mobility ground operations with less-than-perfect communications. As crews navigated aerial refueling long-duration sorties by aircraft like the UK A400M, commanders on the ground were wrestling with a modern military reality: Operations are more complex and interconnected than ever before.
This is not just about moving planes and people across vast distances. It is about making rapid decisions when communications are degraded, coordinating with allied forces who use their own technology, and maintaining a blistering operational tempo in an increasingly contested environment. While Mobility Guardian 23 demonstrated our forces could project power globally, it also highlighted the ongoing need for better ways to share information and make decisions in real-time. Military leaders are now taking a hard look at how technology can create a single operating picture shared by all participants.
Building the digital backbone for modern operations
Think of military operations like an iceberg. Above the water, teams communicate about the mission. But beneath the surface lies a deeper challenge: connecting all the different systems, processes, and dispersed teams in a secure manner. Success depends on seamless coordination across multiple branches, domains, and international partners, whether in an exercise like Mobility Guardian 23 or a real-world mission.
While the Department of Defense’s Combined Joint All-Domain Command and Control (CJADC2) initiative aims to tackle these challenges at scale, many commands are not waiting for complete transformation. They are adopting centralized collaboration platforms that act as connective tissue between systems, allowing teams to aggregate data from multiple sources, automate workflows, and maintain mission-critical checklists. They effectively streamline command and control by:
- Creating shared spaces where everyone can access the information they need, when they need it.
- Enabling secure communication across different security levels and organizational boundaries.
- Keeping teams connected even when network access is limited.
- Supporting both structured processes and on-the-fly collaboration as situations evolve.
It’s exactly the kind of secure, collaborative infrastructure programs like the Air Force’s Advanced Battle Management System (ABMS) and the Army’s Project Convergence are working toward, but such mission-critical collaboration and workflow platforms are commercially available today.
Speeding up the decision loop
Modern military operations require commanders to spin through the OODA loop — observe, orient, decide, and act — faster than ever. The old way of doing things, with information being scattered across different systems and teams physically walking files between offices, or “sneakernetting,” no longer supports the ‘speed of need.’ To dominate the decision loop, military leaders need to put the mission in motion with integrated, real-time collaboration. Access to the right information at the right time to achieve the decision advantage is paramount to success in today’s modern military operations.
By adopting centralized platforms that integrate with existing systems, commands can dramatically accelerate their decision cycles. For example, when an aircraft gets grounded at a remote airfield, every minute counts. Modern integrated platforms now let crews instantly alert operations centers, who can immediately coordinate with embassy teams and foreign partners. What used to take days of back-and-forth can now be resolved in hours, keeping missions on track and aircraft in the air.
Before implementing any new technology, commands need to take a hard look at their existing processes. Sometimes they completely redesign workflows; in other cases, they simply automate what works. The goal is not technology for technology’s sake but rather identifying where digital tools can handle routine tasks while keeping humans in control of critical decisions.
Take Air Mobility Command’s approach to handling waivers. Instead of allowing several minutes to a few hours for routine approvals, they have automated the process to streamline reviews while maintaining appropriate oversight. However, secure collaboration platforms can do more. Leaders can analyze patterns in these requests to identify opportunities for standing policies to eliminate unnecessary paperwork altogether. It’s about working smarter, not just faster.
Building for tomorrow’s fight
As exercises like Mobility Guardian 23 show, military operations are only getting more complex. Success increasingly depends on our ability to share information and make decisions rapidly across traditional boundaries. Modern collaboration platforms are proving essential to this future not by replacing specialized military systems, but by connecting them in ways that enhance their collective capability.
For military leaders looking to modernize their mission systems, the path forward is clear:
- Focus on connecting what you have instead of replacing everything.
- Ensure systems work even when networks do not.
- Keep control of your data and who can access it.
- Build in flexibility for both standard procedures and rapid adaptation.
The future of military operations is about bringing traditional processes and modern technology together, not choosing between them. As exercises become more complex and operational demands increase, this integrated approach is not just nice to have: it is mission critical. It is time to put the mission in motion.