On 4 November 2022, the Director of the Joint Staff J6, Lt Gen Mary O'Brien and Lt Gen Tom Copinger-Symes, Deputy Commander of the United Kingdom Strategic Command, signed a Statement of Intent (SOI) between the U.S. Department of Defense and the Ministry of Defence of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The two General Officers signed the SOI to solidify the mutual understanding of common national efforts, enhance operations and capabilities, achieve military advantage, support economic prosperity, and mitigate against the increasing intent and capability of potential adversaries to perform acts that threaten the stability of both nations.
The U.S. and the U. K. continue to work together to improve command and control (C2) capabilities. The U.S. Joint All-Domain Command and Control (JADC2) and the U.K Multi-Domain Integration Change Program (MDI CP) play an integral role in achieving collaborative C2.
JADC2 is the warfighter capability to enable the Commander's Decision Cycle at all levels and phases of war, across all domains, and with partners. It prioritizes operational requirements and accelerates the delivery of materiel and non-materiel capability, enabling the Joint Force to fight tonight and develop for the future. MPI seeks to integrate efforts across all domains and levels of warfare to ensure that every segment of defence can work seamlessly together, and with other government agencies and allies.
The "coupling bridge" to align these efforts through common principles, capabilities, data, and interface standards is called Fully Networked Command, Control, and Communications (FNC3).
FNC3, known as a "pathfinder" capability, will allow the U.S. and U.K. forces to work more effectively and efficiently. The Next Generation Capability Cooperation (NGCC) bilateral agreement between the two nations outlines the steps necessary to develop a combined approach to interoperability.
Our partners – the Services, Combatant Commands, Allies, and Partner Nations – all play an important part in how the U.S. integrates capabilities to improve C2. The goal is to capitalize on trusted and interoperable data at the appropriate classification and release levels to enable rapid information sharing and decision making among and between allies and mission partners. This FNC3 SOI is a step in achieving collaborative C2 between the U.S. and the U.K.