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June 29, 2021
Advanced Battle Management System (ABMS)
The Advanced Battle Management System (ABMS) is the
Since ABMS’s inception, Congress has expressed interest
U.S. Air Force’s latest effort to create a next-generation
in the development of next-generation C2 systems. The Air
command and control (C2) system. ABMS proposes using
Force states that ABMS is a nontraditional acquisition
cloud environments and new communications methods to
program. As a result, Congress has questioned the Air
allow Air Force and Space Force systems to share data
Force’s approach to replacing older systems and its
seamlessly using artificial intelligence to enable faster
approach to experimenting with emerging technologies.
decisionmaking. The Air Force describes ABMS as its
effort to create an internet of things, which would allow for
ABMS Development Efforts
sensors and C2 systems to be disaggregated from one
The Air Force has performed five events to date to
another (counter to how the Air Force has traditionally
demonstrate the new C2 capabilities it hopes to eventually
performed C2). This program is the Air Force’s
field. In December 2019 the Air Force, in its first ABMS
contribution to the DOD’s Joint All Domain Command and
“on-ramp”—the term the Air Force uses to denote a
Control (JADC2) effort focused on modernizing DOD
demonstration—showed the ability to transmit data from
decisionmaking processes for combat operations.
Army radars and Navy destroyers to both F-22 and F-35
fighter aircraft. This event also demonstrated the Space
ABMS was originally envisioned to replace the E-3
Force’s Unified Data Library (UDL), which is a cloud
Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) (Figure
environment combining space-based and ground-based
1), which currently directs air combat operations, but later
sensors to track satellites.
took on a broader scope. Former Assistant Secretary of the
Air Force for Acquisition Will Roper directed that the
In September 2020, ABMS performed its second on-ramp.
program become less focused on command centers and
This second on-ramp demonstrated detecting and defeating
aircraft, and to instead create digital technologies, like
a simulated cruise missile bound for the United States using
secure cloud environments, to share data across multiple
hypervelocity weapons as defenses. In addition, ABMS
weapons systems. Dr. Roper stated the contested
exhibited capabilities to “detect and defeat efforts to disrupt
environment envisioned by the 2018 National Defense
U.S. operations in space.” According to an Air Force press
Strategy forced the Air Force to restructure the ABMS
release “70 industry teams and 65 government teams”
program. In May 2021, General David Allvin, the Vice
participated in the event.
Chief of Staff of the Air Force in a DefenseOne article
The Air Force held a third on-ramp event in late September
stated, “What exactly is ABMS? Is it software? Hardware?
2020, in support of exercise Valiant Shield at Joint Base
Infrastructure? Policy? The answer is yes to all.” In other
Pearl Harbor-Hickam. During this event, the Air Force
words, the Air Force envisions ABMS as an acquisition
demonstrated using a KC-46 tanker aircraft to perform
program that will both procure things and implement other
tactical C2 by relaying data from older, fourth-generation
nondevelopmental efforts that the service views as equally
fighters to newer, fifth-generation aircraft like the F-22. In
important: new techniques to command and control
May 2021, the Air Force stated that procuring a
airborne forces.
communications pod for the KC-46 will be the first
Figure 1. E-3 AWACS
capability release for the ABMS program. The Air Force
said, “In a fight, the tankers will need to be flying near the
action anyway, supporting fighters, so using them as a
command-and-control system, either as the primary or a
resilient backup, just makes sense.”
A fourth on-ramp was held in Europe in February 2021.
According to press releases, the Air Force curtailed this
event due to budget constraints. This fourth on-ramp linked
allied nations including the Netherlands, Poland, and the
United Kingdom into combined air operations. According
to General Harrigan, commander of U.S. Air Forces
Europe, this fourth event tested U.S. and allied capabilities
to perform long-range strike missions with F-15E aircraft
launching AGM-158 Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile
(JASSM) (see Figure 2), while simultaneously utilizing
U.S. and allied F-35s for airbase defense missions.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_E-3_Sentry#/media/
File:E-3_Sentry_exercise_Green_Flag_2012_(Cropped).jpg.
https://crsreports.congress.gov
Advanced Battle Management System (ABMS)
Figure 2. F-15E Launching a JASSM Missile
Summary of Congressional Actions on
AMBS
Since the beginning of the ABMS program, Congress has
expressed interest in the development of these systems. The
following list summarizes congressional action in the
previous three NDAAs:
FY2019 NDAA (P.L. 115-232)
o Section 147: Limitation on Availability of
Funds for Retirement of E-8 JSTARS Aircraft
FY2020 NDAA (P.L. 116-92)
o Section 236: Documentation Relating to the
Advanced Battle Management System
FY2021 NDAA (P.L. 116-283)
o Section 146: Analysis of Moving Target
Source: https://news.lockheedmartin.com/2018-02-06-Lockheed-
Indicator Requirements and Advanced Battle
Martins-JASSM-R-ER-Declared-Operational-on-F-15E-Strike-
Management System Capabilities
Eagle#assets_117:19452
o Section 221: Accountability Measures
Relating to the Advanced Battle Management
The Air Force had planned a fifth on-ramp in the Pacific
System
theater in spring 2021, but canceled this event due to budget
constraints.
The FY2021 Defense Appropriations Act (P.L. 116-260
Division C) reduced ABMS funding from the $302 million
GAO Report Recommendations
requested to $158.5 million, citing “unjustified growth and
The FY2019 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA)
forward financing.”
directed the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to
evaluate the ABMS program. In an April 2020 report, GAO
Throughout ABMS’s development, Congress has expressed
recommended to the Air Force Chief Architect four actions
concern about retiring older C2 systems such as JSTARS
to improve program performance:
and AWACS before identifying a suitable replacement.
Congress has also directed the Air Force to develop
1. Develop a plan to attain mature technologies
traditional acquisition justifications such as cost estimates
when needed for ABMS development areas.
and requirements documentation to ensure that both
2. Produce a cost estimate updated regularly
Congress and the service understand what is to be procured.
reflecting actual ABMS costs, updating
These actions reflect the recommendations from GAO.
Congress quarterly.
Potential Questions for Congress
3. Prepare an affordability analysis that should
be updated regularly.
What are the risks of disaggregating command and
4. Formalize and document acquisition authority
control using the ABMS approach?
and decisionmaking responsibilities of Air
How should the Air Force balance innovation and
Force offices involved in ABMS.
experimentation with procuring mature technologies?
What opportunities does ABMS provide that traditional
The Assistant Secretary of the Air Force concurred with all
command and control systems cannot provide?
recommendations. General David Goldfein, former Chief of
Would ABMS benefit from utilizing the new budget
Staff of the Air Force, disagreed with the recommendations,
authority flexibilities found in the 6.8 Software and
noting that GAO’s analysis did not reflect classified
Digital Technology Pilot Program budget activity code?
information. GAO stated that it had access to the classified
information, and that this additional information did not
CRS Products
affect its analysis and recommendations.
CRS In Focus IF11493, Joint Al -Domain Command and Control
ABMS Management Structure
(JADC2), by John R. Hoehn
According to the same GAO report on ABMS, the Air
CRS In Focus IF11654, The Army’s Project Convergence, by
Force originally identified the Air Force Chief Architect,
Andrew Feickert
currently Preston Dunlap, to coordinate ABMS-related
efforts across each of the Air Force’s Program Executive
Other Resources
Offices. GAO expressed concern about the potential lack of
GAO-20-389, Defense Acquisitions: Action is Needed to Provide
decisionmaking authority for ABMS as a result of this
Clarity and Mitigate Risks of the Air Force’s Planned Advanced
management structure. In November 2020, however, Dr.
Battle Management System
Roper selected the Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office to
serve as the ABMS Program Executive Office. The Chief
This product benefited from research efforts by Katherine
Architect Office continues to develop the service-wide
Leahy during her internship with the Congressional
architecture (i.e., how software and radios are able to
Research Service.
connect with one another) to support ABMS.
John R. Hoehn, Analyst in Military Capabilities and
Programs
https://crsreports.congress.gov
Advanced Battle Management System (ABMS)
IF11866
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