Cursor On Target

(CoT)

The Future to Network Centric Warfare

Last Updated:  10 September, 2006

The challenge of interoperability between services has been a problem for many years. Each military service is leaning forward on development and the exploration of new advanced technology to enhance their mission effectiveness.  As each service seeks these new technologies, the ability for the services to communicate with eachother through these new advancements has proven very difficult.  This was evident during Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) in Afghanistan and in Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF). 

The problem is simply the inability to pass information – the what, when, and where - in a timely and accurately fashion from one system to another.  As information becomes available our antiquated process of verbal exchanges, translations, and regurgitation of this information has proven to slow and inaccurate to operate efficiently with today's technology.  Capabilities in the field have advanced, but the communication between these technologies has been left behind leaving considerable gaps in our network centric operations.

In a speech given to the Command Communication Intelligence Surveillance and Reconnaissance (C2ISR) conference June 2002, General John Jumper, former Chief of Staff of the Air Force, challenged the services to develop the capability to pass information from one resource to another, regardless of service.  This challenge was a direct result of significant communication problems encountered during OEF and OIF.  In both operations, and in some cases still today, there were many cases when soldiers on the ground needed fire support from airborne assets but were unable to communicate with them. 

The challenge set forth was to develop the capability for one machine operating its own unique software to communicate with another machine operating completely different software, otherwise known as Machine-to-Machine language (M2M).   In response to Gen Jumpers challenge, the US Air Force Material Command, Electronic Systems Center (ESC) and the MITRE Corporation developed the concept of ‘Cursor on Target’ (CoT).