Boosting Interoperability of Joint Forces with AI: A Unified Language for Joint Warfighting

On 6 June 1944, Supreme Commander General Dwight D. Eisenhower led the Allied multinational coordination of operation code-named Overlord, which took place on the beaches of Normandy in France; this operation involved 12 nations and led to the success of breaching a Nazi defense wall of over 2,400 miles of obstacles, mines, bunkers, machine guns, and artillery.¹ On that date, Allied forces executed one of history's most significant, prominent joint warfighting operations. Although this operation did not have dramatically evolved technologies of today’s military services, some view it as one of history’s most successful joint operations. The utilization of radios, phone systems, signaling, and decoding enabled reliable interoperability during one of the deadliest conflicts in human history. Today, there is a new question we must ask ourselves: are we at pace to have this level of interoperability, utilizing advanced technologies, in a large-scale future conflict?

In today's Great Power Competition, the Department of Defense (DoD) must prioritize interoperability across all DoD military services in the interest of National Security and to achieve relative advantage and convergence in a complex multi-domain construct. AI can help military leaders with planning, procurement, and integration of advanced technology to improve interoperability among joint forces and allied partners. With rapidly evolving technology and proprietary data-centric systems within each military service, in addition to those used by allied partners, there are often challenges with software compatibility, lexicon, and network infrastructures. These challenges can all affect operational technologies that joint forces utilize to effectively compete in a complex multi-domain environment.

Setting Conditions for Superior Joint Interoperability

Imagine AI tools that quickly provide recommendations for equipment procurement related to interoperability with joint forces within a given scenario crucial to the success of each military service's unique mission. DoD Principal Deputy Chief Information Officer Lesli A. Beaver stated, "To succeed, today's warfighter requires information technology that is compatible with the complex demands of a dynamic operating environment and modern battlefield."² Whether land, air, sea, or space, these domains must overlap within the context of interoperability and data sharing to elicit the fusion to converge against a near-peer threat effectively. Shared visualization of the battlefield on all fronts is crucial to winning the next war, and with technology rapidly evolving and significant international players seeking the next attractive innovation, supreme joint interoperability will be the benchmark in projecting power in a technology-advanced conflict. In particular, the United States’s ability to support NATO initiatives requires equipment to exchange data through various technical, procedural, human, or informational dimensions.³ As tech giants rapidly produce advanced equipment, the implementation of AI tools is imperative to transform the landscape and help the U.S. military quickly integrate advanced technologies such as DoD's combined joint all-domain command and control (CJADC2) and other mission command systems utilized by each joint service and allied partner to create a common operating picture.

Indeed, the DoD has made significant progress through project convergence exercises, and the Army's III Armored Corps recently conducted command and control exercises with militaries from France, Germany, and the U.K. to identify solutions to interoperability challenges.⁴ These types of collaborations help identify issues in network gateways for their equipment to connect to other nations' command and control systems. However, AI can expedite these efforts and promote more precise visualization across all joint forces focused on interoperability gaps and opportunities. In turn, this could aid senior leaders at the multinational level in making better acquisition decisions, saving the DoD and allied partners billions of dollars in technology purchases.

Defense companies and militaries often collaborate and unveil sweeping plans for reshaping the battlefield through some form of new technology. Still, keeping pace with the nuances and changes in technological aspects of transferring data between entities that are not organic to each other requires thorough analysis and massive data management. AI tools can help with these gaps and keep pace with multiple strands of information. Each military service's ecosystem of advanced technologies differs based on the organization's needs. It is often required to link to other services in a joint operation to produce a common operating picture. Here are a few additional ways senior leaders can utilize AI to improve data-centric systems' interoperability.

Enhanced planning and procurement of new technology—the DoD's joint forces capabilities depend on agile and effective requirements, acquisitions, planning, programming, and budgeting processes to field advanced technology capabilities to keep pace with the competition.⁵ We know superior interoperability and accuracy could be the ultimate advantage in the next war, so utilizing AI tools for forecasting and scanning global markets to promote sustainable interoperability is imperative. This line of thinking entails how AI can aid in assessing technology capabilities within policy, training, maintenance, risk management, and automation cost/life cycle analysis, eliciting keen decision-making to revolutionize identifying new technology, procured, and integrated into a formation. This approach will save the DoD and allies billions of dollars and incentivize restructuring procurement to protect interoperability and keep what matters most at the top regarding integrating advanced technology.

Ergonomics of human and technology interface—technology proliferates, which requires deep analytics on how that equipment will interface with the users alongside other complementary technologies. With multiple multinational exercises occurring throughout the year and periodic personnel changes, AI can help organizations promptly maintain continuity and share updates across the joint force. These updates can entail software updates, troubleshooting, and network gateway challenges. In addition, AI tools can curate this data while providing deep analysis to skill and knowledge match personnel with technology suitable for interoperability.

Technology and strategic goal alignment—as geopolitical, economic, and climate changes occur, so do the restructuring and modernization of militaries and allied forces, which also involves changes in each entity's strategic and operational objectives. Keeping track of how the new technology is integrated and synchronized vertically and horizontally across the joint force requires massive analysis that must leverage AI tools for efficiency. The DoD is moving in that direction with a signed contract with Scale AI to use artificial intelligence for planning and operations to integrate into military workflows.⁶ Military leaders need to be able to see the field and understand what their blind spots are regarding technological advances that continue to evolve to address national security and efficiency.

The future of the DoD's ability to outpace global competitors is predicated on interoperability, which can deliver speed and accuracy. Therefore, future warfare requires agile and scalable communication architectures capable of sharing data with multiple organic partners and alliances across battlefields. Despite the level of technological advancements, any capability is only as good as its ability to connect people through shared understanding. Joint operations require interoperability to optimize the utilization of advanced technology. With the rapid pace of evolving technology, the DoD must implement AI tools to sustain that shared understanding of solving complex problems with joint partners. Correspondingly, there is an array of interoperability gates like lexicon, software, network infrastructures, encryptions, and system proprietorships; we must strongly consider using AI tools to prevent diminishing returns on investing in advanced technology. DoD has invested in some of the most innovative technology for the battlefield, but we must be ready to use it in a balanced aesthetic fashion—AI can get us there.

Opinions, conclusions, and recommendations expressed or implied within are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the United States Army, the Department of Defense, or any other US government agency.

Rich Farnell is a 2024 National Security Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center. He is skilled in strategic level planning, has led multiple organizations, and has experience in data analytics. His research focuses on artificial intelligence parallel planning in dynamic environments.

Statements and views expressed in this commentary are solely those of the authors and do not imply endorsement by Harvard University, the Harvard Kennedy School, or the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs.