Enabling the objective force: concepts, technologies, and challenges

This paper addresses some of the key technological needs that will enable the transformation of the army to the objective force. The objective force operates as a cohesive, mobile, lethal, survivable, and sustainable land combat force capable of rapid deployment and immediate employment upon arrival, as a unit. This is achieved through network-centric operations wherein the force is realized through the network. The communications architecture of the objective force employs a variety of communications techniques and protocols to enable the mission. Key enabling technologies include adaptive communications techniques, mobile ad-hoc networking, quality of service based networking, seamless internetworking, and seamless network management across disparate networks.