3 Accelerators for Data Sharing with Allies

Hosted by C4ISRNET and sponsored by Booz Allen, the webcast highlighted the urgency of revolutionizing data on the battlefield. Mariel Cooley framed the conversation with a memory: Working at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence in the weeks after 9/11, she watched a single operator juggling a dozen monitors, each with access to a different network. She had witnessed the problem of "data jails" resulting from a decades-long, network-centric approach to information sharing. 

Brigadier General Chad D. Raduege emphasized the need to fuse, centralize, and harmonize data across U.S. joint forces while proceeding in step with allies. He told of recent information-sharing success with NATO in the highly active European theater, saying the U.S. and its allies have demonstrated the operational imperative for a data-centric environment—both in testing arenas and in real-time response to the war in Ukraine.

Below are the three themes that emerged from the webcast.

1. Data-centricity: Collapse networks and drive data into a cloud-native environment. A traditional approach to data has left information siloed in a multitude of networks across countries and domains. The Department of Defense (DOD) must shift to a data-centric approach, securing the data itself instead of securing large networks that house troves of data. Policy changes must accompany this transition to reduce constraints on data sharing within the United States and across borders. 

2. Collaboration: Work with allies to define operational imperatives for data sharing; agree on policy recommendations and data standards. Communication and collaboration across U.S. services, among mission partners, and with industry partners will hasten progress toward harmonizing data and interoperability on an international stage. This includes the establishment of a common data standard among partner countries and coalitions. It means working with industry partners to continuously integrate the latest advances in cloud computing, zero-trust security, and artificial intelligence. And it entails working toward long-term policy solutions while implementing agile arrangements to keep communication flowing.

3. Testing: Test iteratively, deploy in real time. One of the most rapid paths to speeding mission partner data sharing is to continuously test and iterate new solutions. In early June, the Coalition Warrior Interoperability eXploration, eXperimentation, eXamination eXercise (CWIX) brought together 1,500 attendees from 35 allied and partner nations to test interoperability across multiple networks. Similar exercises—for example, DEFENDER-Europe and Exercise Cold Response—reveal key operational imperatives and areas to improve data sharing technology and policy.