Joint All-Domain Command and Control (JADC2) is an initiative to make the systems we have and build in the future work together to enable joint interoperability. Each branch of the Department of Defense has their own version they are developing:
Navy and Marine Corps – Project Overmatch
Air Force – Advanced Battle Management System
Army – Project Convergence
One of our Subject Matter Experts (SME) is Jim Darenkamp. Jim has a ton of experience as a Joint Intercept Control Officer (JICO). He is also a SME for the Advanced Battle Management System (ABMS), Air Force’s contribution to JADC2 Program. We highly recommend checking out his insights on JADC2 here.
Project Overmatch
Project Overmatch is the Navy and Marine Corps contribution to the JADC2 program. The JADC2 Strategy provides a vision and an approach to connect sensors from all branches of the armed forces into a unified network.
Back in October of 2020, Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Mike Gilday signed two memos. The first created the Project Overmatch initiative and placed Rear Adm. Doug Small, commander of the Naval Information Warfare Systems Command at the time, at the helm. It tasked him with developing the networks, infrastructure, data architecture, tools, and analytics to support maritime dominance. The second memo directed Vice Admiral Kilby to pursue both unmanned and long-range precision to support RADM Small’s work.
Since then, while most of Project Overmatch’s details are still kept under wraps for security reasons, there are a few public-facing overarching goals. These include:
Aligning resources and expertise to field Naval Operations Architecture (NOA)
Enable Distributed Maritime Operations (DMO)
Employ a core team to execute approach with Fleet centric design
Deploy on multiple strike groups by mid-decade
The Navy sought $195 million for Project Overmatch in fiscal year 2023, a 167% increase over the $73 million requested in fiscal year 2022. With that budget, work on the project has been pushing forward.
In August 2023, Large Scale Exercise 23, the biennial Navy and Marine Corps event, included testing advanced networking capabilities with nine maritime operations centers, six carrier strike groups, three amphibious ready groups, multiple ships, submarines, and 25,000 sailors and marines. The first carrier strike group to deploy with Project Overmatch capabilities was the Carl Vinson Strike Group, which deployed to the Pacific last month. The next test will include undersea capabilities overseen by PEO for Integrated Warfare Systems and software and hardware will continue to be installed until all 11 carrier strike groups have these capabilities.
Project Overmatch will still take time to be fully implemented, but it is in full swing and will continue through the next few years.
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