No Navy on earth can challenge the U.S. Navy, but being the "best Navy" is not good enough–we must have greater speed, and information and decision supremacy than our adversaries. We must guard against asymmetrical threats and through a fully netted force with robust intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance capabilities, we will continue to be able to dominate the battle space, having actionable information to employ strike effects whether kinetic or non-kinetic.

Today, the U.S. Navy is embarked on a major FORCEnet concept development effort, which mirrors the Joint Capability Integrated Development System process. It is a top down process whereby capabilities are derived from concepts, and operational architectures are then derived from the concept-based desired operational capabilities.

The FORCEnet concept is grounded in the Joint Operational concepts being developed by Joint Forces Command, the other Combatant Commanders and the Joint Staff as well as the Naval Operating Concept for Joint Operations (NOC). It will be born Joint. The timeframe is 2015-2020 as are the Joint and NOC concepts.

The FORCEnet concept will be the basis for our transformational requirements, our "to be" operational architecture views and our FORCEnet experimentation program. Once the "to be" operational views are derived, SPAWAR, (Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command) in coordination with the other SYSCOMS, (Systems Commands) can then build the system and technical "to be" architecture views.

The central "big idea" of the FORCEnet concept is simple and powerful-FORCEnet is the Naval networked Command & Control (C2) of the future–it is the C2 component of Sea Power 21. The ultimate end-state of a networked force and the supporting information infrastructure is to make better decisions faster.

Command comes down from the commander–it conveys task and purpose. Control is the feedback loop to Command–the feedback loop enables the commander to assess and reform intent and then to command. The networks and sensors are all part of the feedback mechanism of "control."

FORCEnet is all about making the Observe-Orient-Decide-Act loop work better and faster. This includes the information flow, knowledge management, and the "net" all which have a common end state goal of decision superiority.

FORCEnet must enable all types of C2 options and be completely consistent with the new Joint C2 functional concept.

FORCEnet is how we will command Naval Forces in the future in Joint and Coalition Effects Based Warfare. FORCEnet will enable the commander to make better decisions faster–employing combat power faster than the enemy can react, thus creating more opportunities in our favor, keeping the advantage through the decision superiority.