Ever since I was a child, I’d held the romantic notion that the military must possess some of the most mind-bending, sophisticated war games imaginable—perhaps it was watching movies like War Games or too much time playing Defender in the arcade. This belief carried me through my formative years and into my career with the United States Air Force. However, as I delved into my role, first as an Air Mobility Operations Squadron Commander who served as the Air Mobility Division (AMD) Chief in multiple Air Operations Center globally, and later as a member of the Joint Staff, my enthusiasm was met with a sobering reality. The large-scale Department of Defense and USAF wargames in which I participated left much to be desired.

All domain warfare is far more comprehensive than Joint Operations. Gone are the days when we can select or simply focus in the domains we think we are best at and ignore others. This is the reason why the Department of the Air Force chartered the Enterprise Capabilities Collaboration Team for Multi-Domain Command and Control (MDC2) in 2015 under then Chief of Staff, General David Goldfein. However, domain parochialism runs very deep, and is what doctrinaires term, “original sin.” The Department of Defense (DoD) Directive 5100.01, “Functions of the Department of Defense and Its Major Components,” assigns each service a “domain,” or region of physical distinction, they are responsible for. The genesis of this regulation dates back 1927 with general and secondary functions assigned to each Service. While MDC2 has evolved to Combined-Joint All-Domain Operations (JADC2), “seams” between the domains still exist. The following is just one example.

I think I am finally recovering from the 49ers loss… I recently had an interesting conversation with Jeff DeGraff. The discussion centered around how the USAF might approach Human Performance more like the NFL.