Scott Hall
Modern battlefields are shaped by data saturation, multi-domain complexity, and the accelerating convergence of effects across physical, informational, and human dimensions. While advanced sensors and AI promise rapid decision-making, commanders often face fragmented data streams, stovepiped staff processes, and poorly integrated fires. This is more than a technical problem—it undermines mission command by limiting how leaders orchestrate tempo and capitalize on opportunities.
Synchronizing Multi-Domain Operations (MDO) with non-lethal effects (NLE) and non-kinetic activities (NKA) is therefore not just an innovation; it’s an operational necessity. Done right, this integration restores commanders’ decision space, creates information advantage (IA), and forces adversaries into dilemmas they cannot easily solve.
Reframing Command and Control: Beyond Firepower
U.S. formations—cavalry, armor, and combined arms teams—have long relied on mobility, firepower, and shock. But today’s adversaries challenge these strengths through layered denial strategies and continuous information campaigns. In Ukraine, Russian attempts to use cyberattacks and propaganda to shape the fight before kinetic blows largely failed against Ukrainian resilience and agile strategic messaging. Meanwhile, Azerbaijan’s operations in Nagorno-Karabakh demonstrated how synchronizing drones, electronic warfare (EW), deception, and narrative shaping can collapse defenses and will to fight through multi-dimensional pressure.
Maneuver alone is no longer sufficient. As operational studies have argued, true advantage comes from “baking in” information forces alongside maneuver—forcing adversaries to react to our timing, not theirs.
Synchronizing Across Domains: The COP as the Centerpiece
A fused, trusted Common Operational Picture (COP) lies at the heart of effective MDO. It must go beyond depicting friendly and enemy maneuver units to overlay electronic attacks, cyber campaigns, psychological operations (PSYOP) narratives, and anticipated adversary decision points. Only then can commanders visualize crucial convergence windows where synchronized effects deliver compounding impacts.
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