The past five years have seen remarkable transformation in how military Command and Control (C2) systems are designed and procured. Proprietary and costly custom developed systems are now giving way to commercial off-the-shelf networking products with the same level of reliability and capability. While the benefits are numerous, the resistance from traditional vendors and contractors is equally significant.

While it is probable that such platforms will be the de facto standard in future systems, it will be done against the strong will of some of today’s, well-established contractors. Strangely enough, these firms could play a major role in the transition if they understood a business case for doing so.

Commercial Technology Advances Abound

Today’s global economy has brought with it technological advances never before seen. Near ubiquitous IP networks, Network-based servers, commoditized Geographic Information System (GIS) applications and email/ virtual chat/instant messaging/Voice Over IP (VoIP) applications can now foster collaboration and real-time response to situations as they happen in virtually any area of the world, and can be leveraged in C2 environments for both military and coalition operations. These features and functions were once specialty tools available only from defense contractors who developed customized solutions and the overhead that goes with it.


What’s more, the advances of such technologies are now being led as much – if not more – by Corporate America than by the defense industry, as Fortune 500 organizations continue to rely on precise logistics management to coordinate assets across multiple continents simultaneously. Technology manufacturers have responded with IT and telecommunications equipment that are not only secure and unfailing, but also cost effective for a wide range of budgets – often all the way down to individual consumer use. This does not mean that defense contractors don’t hold valuable, relevant technical expertise. However, they no longer maintain sole possession of C2 technology knowledge.

The Role of the Defense Contractor

Some of the traditional defense contractors are strongly resisting this movement, in large part to avoid the continued devaluation of their intellectual property. While understandable, the inevitable transformation toward just-in-time, off-the-shelf systems for C2 environments follows similar migrations in other defense operations. Shipbuilding and industrial machinery have successfully integrated such platforms in their designs. Other defense operational systems have fared equally well, so it stands to reason that C2 technology products will eventually follow suit.