Dominating the Data Arms Race

As the U.S. military races to achieve true Joint All-Domain Command and Control (JADC2), the ability to move data seamlessly across dispersed forces has become as critical as the weapons they deploy. The modern battlefield is now defined by connectivity - linking sensors, shooters, and decision-makers across domains in real time. Yet, legacy communication systems, siloed architectures, and long acquisition cycles continue to slow progress, leaving warfighters operating with fragmented awareness and constrained decision timelines.

In this evolving environment, data is the decisive edge. The force that can securely collect, transmit, and act on information fastest will dominate the battlespace. Achieving that requires self-healing networks that can adapt under electronic warfare, scale across services and allies, and maintain resilience from the tactical edge to the enterprise. The Department of Defense’s push toward a Modular Open Systems Approach (MOSA) is accelerating this transformation, demanding greater interoperability and collaboration between industry innovators and military stakeholders.

Q: What are the biggest challenges the U.S. military faces in moving data and digital communications across dispersed, joint, and allied units to ensure true interoperability and domain awareness from edge to enterprise?

A: Today’s battlefield demands a true combined, all-domain command and control (C-JADC2) network. However, with long acquisition cycles, designed to deliver single-use solutions, warfighters are provided legacy point-to-point radios that do not deliver a common operating picture, even for single forces.

In distributed operations, these point-to-point systems are inherently fragile. While providing basic connectivity in constrained areas, legacy radios rely on a stovepiped communications architecture. Warfighters experience loss of communications, slow transfer of data, and difficulty getting high volumes of information to reach their intended destination. These challenges all limit situational awareness across echelon, resulting in slower decision-making and reduced operational effectiveness in joint and coalition environments.

To avoid these pitfalls, warfighters require networks that are self-healing, capable of rerouting traffic if a radio fails, and resilient to maintain connectivity in denied or constrained electronic warfare (EW) environments across various domains. No less critical is the need for systems that match the exponential rise in data, knit together the services, and empower warfighters with an unbroken field of situational awareness stretching from the tactical edge to the enterprise.

Q: Given the DoD’s mandate for Modular Open Systems Approach (MOSA) to prevent vendor lock-in, how can program managers achieve true plug-and-play interoperability across services and allies while maintaining the deep system integration necessary for effective joint operations?

A: The key to a successful MOSA is network-centricity. Serving as the foundational data and digital communications transport layer, the network must be sensor, system, and hardware agnostic. With programs like the F-35 experiencing significant delays and cost overruns, the DoD needs increased industry collaboration that emphasizes competitive innovation in the race to build interoperable technologies. For the past two decades, Persistent Systems has been preparing for the reality of a new battlefield approach where data drives operational dominance.

As a privately held defense-tech company, Persistent Systems’ Wave Relay® Mobile Ad Hoc Network (MANET) enables warfighters to view live video from a drone, retrieve data from a robot, receive orders from a commander, and communicate with all teammates from a single controller, enabling faster decision-making. Operating in a peer-to-peer fashion, Wave Relay has no single point of failure, ensuring continuous connectivity, with each additional node strengthening the network. Where the Wave Relay network stands out is that each node acts as its own router, enabling the intelligent sharing and receiving of data across the fastest possible path.

Persistent Systems’ Cloud Relay™ capability extends this agility beyond line-of-sight (BLOS), via satellite, internet, and cellular communications to connect distributed operating forces. Built-in security, as demonstrated by our Commercial Solutions for Classified (CSfC) and NIAP validations, ensures the secure flow of classified data and coalition interoperability. For example, American forces in the Indo-Pacific can seamlessly exchange data with allies and American forces in CENTCOM, while protecting sensitive information.

With a transport agnostic network layer, Wave Relay delivers the DoD’s vision of plug-and-play interoperability: scalable, secure, and ready for joint and allied operations.

Q: How has existing commercial technology already proven its ability to deliver resilient communications at the tactical edge across platforms and services, and maintain connectivity and data flow when primary networks were jammed, degraded, or destroyed by near-peer adversaries?

A: Ongoing conflicts have demonstrated that future conflicts will require the joint force to operate in denied, disrupted, and low-bandwidth environments. From intelligence sharing to logistics, today’s operations increasingly depend on high-bandwidth networks. Importantly, China and Russia have shown their abilities to disrupt those networks. To preserve battlefield dominance, our warfighters need resilient systems that can withstand the EW environment and adapt under increasing pressure.

In the Indo-Pacific, Persistent Systems’ Wave Relay has already been tested under real work conditions and proven its worth. At Valiant Shield 2024, we provided a ‘plug-and-play’ solution, connecting Marine units, Air Force strike assets, Navy ships, autonomous systems, digital fires networks, and allied forces. As airmen and Marines were rapidly deployed throughout Hawaii, Guam, and the First Island Chain, data was shared in real time across a unified, flat network that was accessible anywhere by every warfighter on the network. With no additional gear or integration layer, warfighters benefited from a low cognitive and physical burden.

Additionally, Wave Relay MANET is counter–EW tested in active combat operations. Across three days of rigorous tests against sophisticated EW threats, Wave Relay maintained network connectivity within yards of the jammer. A mature technology, proven for the modern battlefield, our Wave Relay and Cloud Relay technologies are engineered with the end-user in mind. Persistent Systems is well equipped to meet the battlefield’s evolving demands and deliver Joint All-Domain Command and Control (JADC2).