Nellis AFB Contributes to JADC2 Effort Through Shadow Operations Center

Nellis Air Force Base has created a Shadow Operations Center as part of its contributions to the Department of Defense’s Joint All-Domain Command and Control mission.

Lt. Col. David Spitler, commander of the 805th Combat Training Squadron, described ShOC-N as a “virtual and physical playground” for collecting and analyzing data at the speed of relevance. 

“We can accommodate many levels of classification and expose data to new applications and tools at the appropriate classification to enable decision making,” the official said in an Air Force statement published Wednesday.

He added that ShOC-N simulates how a data set can improve or hurt an application’s performance, providing real-time feedback to software engineers.

Nellis AFB used ShOC-N to conduct a JADC2 campaign that involved experts from a range of fields and connected 17 laboratories across the military, according to the Air Force.

JADC2 is the concept of connecting the military’s sensors across all domains, including space and cyberspace, into a single network.

ShOC-N contributes to JADC2 through its implementation of DevSecOps, a set of principles tailored to support the rapid development of high-quality and secure software.

Earlier in June, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, a 2021 Wash100 winner, signed off on DOD’s JADC2 strategy, marking the official launch of an effort that the military services have already invested in heavily.

The strategy emphasizes the use of artificial and data-sharing capabilities on the battlefield.

The Air Force is also creating JADC2 capabilities through its Advanced Battle Management System, having recently demonstrated how AI and cloud capabilities can enable the fast travel of data between platforms.