C2 framework for interoperability among an air component command and multi-agencies systems

In an environment where there exists collaboration among armed forces and multiple agencies, ensuring interoperability among C 2 systems demands a scalable architecture that is also secure while still supportive for the discovery of newly available services. These requirements have been verified on real-life scenarios by the Brazilian armed forces, which were structured for conventional conflicts but had to face different C 2 environments when participating in humanitarian relief operations. In such situations, the tasks to be executed in a short period need to be planned from an operational view and, whenever possible, maximizing the efficiency of the available resources. Achieving these objectives while operating under a C 2 structure that was not originally designed for interoperating with the many players usually involved in such environment is a major liability to the Brazilian armed forces. This paper presents a proposal for a C 2 architecture currently being development to address this limitation. Although the research focus is on the Joint Forces Air Component, the approach might be applied to different C 2 structures. The first results showed the need for a set of measures to be adopted by the operational sector of the Brazilian Ministry of Defense, which we also address in this work.