NATO is moving ahead with its embrace of the Multi-Domain Operations approach to warfare which stresses inter- and intra-force secure, redundant connectivity at strategic, operational and tactical levels.
The October/November print edition of Armada International includes our annual Tactical Radios Supplement. For those not familiar with this section of the publication, it includes a comprehensive table with specifications of a raft of transceivers. We have also included two articles in this year’s supplement. One looks at the US Department of Defence’s (DOD’s) Joint All Domain Command and Control (JADC2) architecture. The other article examines how the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) is retooling for Multi-Domain Operations (MDO).
What is MDO?
Regular visitors to Armada’s Military Communications webpages, and our accompanying newsletter, may be familiar with the MDO concept. For those who are not, definitions differ, but broadly speaking MDO advocates the inter- and intra-force connectivity of all military assets. These assets can include personnel, platforms, weapons, sensors, bases, networks and capabilities. Deep connectivity is intended to improve militaries’ abilities to perform synchronous operations at all levels of war across all domains, notably sea, land, air, space and cyberspace. The goal of MDO is to enable blue forces to take faster and better-quality decisions than their red force adversaries. MDO embraces the manoeuvrist approach to war emphasising the imperative to place an adversary in a reactive position to ensure one’s own side retains and shapes the initiative.
NATO and MDO
Militaries across NATO are embracing the MDO mindset. JADC2, which is examined in another of the Tactical Communications Supplement’s articles, is the DOD’s manifestation of the Multi-Domain Operations approach. In addition to the alliance’s membership, NATO itself is working to foster and promote MDO: “(MDO) represents a pivotal shift in NATO’s approach,” say official alliance documents: “This transformative concept empowers the alliance to strategically influence events, synchronise efforts with external stakeholders, and present formidable challenges to adversaries.” NATO is working to develop structures and architectures to facilitate synchronous operations across all domains as noted above.
NATO’s MDO vision perceives the depth and breadth of secure and redundant connectivity that the concept requires as effectively coalescing the disparate forces mentioned above into a single, cohesive unit. The speed of technological development, particularly in the tightly-integrated digital and communications domains, is forcing the alliance’s hand. Russia, alongside the People’s Republic of China and Islamic Republic of Iran, are likewise cognisant of these technology trends. The Russian military is embracing digitisation for similar reasons to those of NATO and allied nations. The Russian Army’s operational and tactical level YESU-TZ and tactical level Strelets command and control systems are cases in point: “The speed of information, data flows and adversarial capabilities, the necessity of orchestrating military activities across all domains as a single force is crucial for long-term defence and deterrence initiatives within NATO,” the alliance asserts.
A key discriminator for NATO’s approach to multi-domain operations is that it fosters a whole-of-government approach. A war on NATO territory would encompass many aspects of government and society beyond the armed forces. Civil defence organisations, law enforcement, the emergency services, critical national infrastructure, the media and the commercial world, to name just some actors, would be involved. These actors, known by NATO as ‘instruments of national power’ will need to share data with the military and vice versa. Sharing data is vital to aiding decision-making superiority. A NATO military expert told Armada that another MDO definition focuses on “(the)orchestration of military activities across all operational domains and environments, synchronised with non-military activities, to enable the alliance to create converging effects at the speed of relevance.”
Embedded in doctrine
At the strategic level, NATO is taking several steps to incorporate MDO and its characteristics into alliance doctrine. The military expert continued that the NATO MDO concept focuses on “interconnectivity, agility, unity and creativity.” The alliance MDO concept was approved by the North Atlantic Council, NATO’s principal decision-making body, in May 2023. At the July 2023 Vilnius Summit, NATO’s heads of states and government agreed, in the words of an alliance communiqué to “significant measures to further enhance NATO’s deterrence and defence posture in all domains.” The alliance pledged to “continue work on multi-domain operations, enabled by NATO’s digital transformation, which further drives military and technological advantage, strengthening the alliance’s ability to operate decisively across domains.”
The NATO military expert was keen to emphasise that “NATO already operates across multiple domains. Some nations can conduct MDO within one service, while other nations can provide expertise in another. The important factor is that MDO in NATO is about using the collective strength of the alliance.” NATO’s embrace of MDO, the expert continued, is supported by the alliance’s command and force structures. Meanwhile, “(c)ontinuous education and training provides the opportunity to embrace change and embed MDO as a culture and mindset towards an MDO-enabled alliance.”
The military expert stressed that “(t)he alliance’s approach to MDO will enable NATO’s military instrument of power to prepare, plan, orchestrate, and execute synchronised activities, across all domains and environments, at scale and speed in collaboration with other instruments of power, stakeholders and actors.” Ultimately, “MDO is fundamental to NATO’s core tasks (of) deterrence and defence, crisis prevention and management, and cooperative security.”
by Dr. Thomas Withington
