BRIDGING THE GAP FROM COORDINATION (Briana Jones) U.S. Air Force TO INTEGRATION By CURTIS V. NEAL, ROBERT B. GREEN, and TROY CARAWAY Legacy AC2 [airspace command and control] elements buy airspace today for tomorrow’s war. Airspace control measures (ACM) such as Restricted Operating Zones . do not inte- grate airspace users . ACMs deconflict users via exclusive volumes of airspace. Because airspace is a finite resource, as the number of airspace users increases, AC2 elements run out of airspace. To effectively put more users in a given volume of airspace, AC2 elements must provide real time separation from other users and fires. Real time control of a volume of airspace, whether positive or procedural, requires communication with all users, a common reference system, and authority to direct/control the users without affecting their flexibility and freedom of maneuver.1 Colonel Curtis V. Neal, USAF (Ret.), is a Theater Air Ground System Senior Advisor in the Joint Integration Division (JID) of Air Combat Command. Colonel Robert B. Green, USA (Ret.), is a Joint Special Operations Forces Senior Advisor in JID. Lieutenant Colonel Troy Caraway, USMC (Ret.), is a Marine Air Ground Task Force and Naval Senior Advisor in JID. Airmen participate in Tactical Air Control Party training mission ndupress.ndu.edu issue 67, 4 th quarter 2012 / JFQ 97 FEATURES | Bridging the Gap from Coordination to Integration RUBEL n the past, when faced with a large of a joint campaign, executing operational- ments integrate organizationally and procedur- number of competing airspace users level actions to achieve strategic effects.2 ally to conduct operations in a more efficient, and limited command and control To maintain responsiveness and flex- linked, and situationally aware manner. I capabilities, it has generally been easier ibility, the Air Force, in coordination with Unlike most military capability to deconflict competing demands for airspace the Army, made a decision to increase the improvements based on new systems and by implementing procedural control methods number of Air Support Operations Centers technology, the JAGIC is based on organiza- that placed heavy emphasis on the increased (ASOC) from 6 Cold War–legacy ASOCs tional and procedural changes that emphasize use of airspace and fire support coordinat- aligned with each Army corps to 10 ASOCs, proximity and teamwork by collocating ing measures. Prior to Operations Enduring aligned and collocated with the 10 active Theater Air Control System (TACS) person- Freedom and Iraqi Freedom, military opera- Army divisions. Each ASOC is responsible nel with their ground element counterparts. tions demonstrated little need for the much for the coordination and control of air com- By doing so, the JAGIC builds Soldier-Airman more difficult real- or near real-time decon- ponent missions requiring integration with relationships, improves communication effec- fliction and integration of airspace and fires. other supporting arms and ground forces.3 tiveness, and increases situational awareness Beginning about 2004, emerging mili- Three additional ASOCs will remain non- and understanding. Essentially, the JAGIC tary capabilities and ongoing operations in aligned. While still functionally unique, the creates a joint decision-oriented command Iraq began to provide insight into how future aligned ASOCs are being integrated with the and control organization resulting in faster military operations would increasingly chal- division Tactical Air Control Party (TACP) decisions based on better information that lenge our current airspace control abilities. as part of each division’s Air Support Opera- increases effectiveness while decreasing risk. These included large numbers of manned tions Squadron. The ASOC realignment is The JAGIC is neither a staff nor a plan- military, civil aviation, other government scheduled to be complete by fiscal year 2015. ning cell, but is composed of those personnel agency, special operations, and coalition air- directing and monitoring the current fight craft, as well as rapidly expanding numbers A New Approach through the arrangement of operators per- of unmanned military aircraft of all sizes. This new ASOC alignment makes it forming related functions in close physical In addition, combat operations demanded possible to improve the integration of joint proximity. Such an arrangement not only inte- increasingly large volumes of responsive airspace control and joint fires at the division grates the air and ground component opera- ground-based fires that had to be integrated level through an organizational concept called tors, but also collocates the decisionmaking into the airspace. the Joint Air Ground Integration Cell (JAGIC). authorities from the land and air components In a 2007 Joint Urgent Operational The JAGIC is the result of a 6-year Army–Air with the highest levels of situational awareness, Need Statement, Lieutenant General Force Integration Forum effort, spearheaded that is, the senior air director and deputy fire Raymond Odierno, Commander, Multi- by Air Combat Command’s Joint Integration support coordinator, while building habitual National Corps–Iraq, stated, “The joint com- Division and the U.S. Army Training and relationships to support the maneuver com- munity and the U.S. Army are not equipped Doctrine Command (TRADOC) Fires Center mander’s concept of operations. This arrange- to manage or adequately deconflict airspace of Excellence Joint and Combined Integration ment also ensures support of joint forces air component commander (JFACC) objectives to maintain responsiveness and flexibility, the Air Force, in and intent and requirements of joint force commander (JFC)-designated authorities such coordination with the Army, made a decision to increase the as Airspace Control Authority and area air number of Air Support Operations Centers defense commanders. While procedural control methods will of high-traffic density.” As a result of these Directorate. It has been exercised in multiple remain a mainstay of airspace and fires inte- challenges, the way the U.S. military controls Army–Air Force warfighting experiments and gration for the foreseeable future, the integra- airspace during joint operations began to exercises and resulted in increased air-ground tion of personnel from both Services who are fundamentally change. In 2006, the Army effectiveness during each event.4 directing and monitoring ongoing operations began fielding an organic airspace command The JAGIC is created by organizing the permits dynamic coordination, activation, and control (AC2) capability comprised of ASOC operations crew, division TACP person- and deactivation of airspace and fire support over 1,600 trained operators with dedicated nel, the Division Fires Support Element, AC2, coordination measures rather than “buying AC2 cells at corps, division, and brigade air and missile defense, and aviation personnel airspace today for tomorrow’s war.” When levels, all linked through the tactical airspace into a single integrated cell within the division the JAGIC is empowered with the means integration system. In 2007, the Army also Current Operations Integration Cell.5 The and authority to pass control instructions began a migration from a division-centric important point is that the JAGIC is simply directly to the airspace users, mutually sup- force toward a more expeditionary brigade- an integrating cell6 created from Air Force porting operations can rapidly be integrated, centric force, with the Brigade Combat Team and Army personnel already supporting, or conflicts can be resolved on the fly, and real- becoming the primary combined arms assigned to, the division headquarters (HQ). No time coordination of competing requests can building block unit of the Army. Today, the additional manpower is required to form the either be resolved through the use of flexible, divisions employ brigades to fight battles and JAGIC, and it does not replace any current divi- informal control measures or by direct coor- engagements while corps conduct large-scale sion cells or command and control nodes. Quite dination requiring no control measures at all. land operations, employing divisions as part simply, the JAGIC improves the way these ele- For the airspace user, the JAGIC provides a 98 JFQ / issue 67, 4 th quarter 2012 ndupress.ndu.edu NEAL, GREEN, AND CARAWAY single “center” for coordinating requests and recent major combat operations. The first was subsequently briefed at the Army–Air resolving joint airspace conflicts within the was the development of air coordination ele- Force Warfighter Talks in February 2009, division area of operations. ments by U.S. Air Forces Central and special where it was well received. While the overarching function of operations forces during early operations In the interim, a JAGIC concept of the JAGIC is to fully integrate joint airspace in Enduring Freedom.9 The second was the employment containing detailed TTP has control and joint fires at the division level, it integration of a joint air coordination element been developed by the Air Force Command executes integrated tactics, techniques, and with a special operations joint fires element and Control Integration Center, working procedures (TTP) to support numerous joint during early operations in Iraqi Freedom, together with Air Combat Command’s Joint processes including direction and monitoring which resulted in a small JAGIC-like cell Integration Division and the TRADOC Fires of fires and effects, command and control