Command, control battle lab closes doors after one decade

  • Published
  • By Margaret Scottie Cornwell
  • Global Cyberspace Integration Center
LANGLEY AIR FORCE BASE, Va. (AFPN) --  The Command and Control, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Battlelab held its official inactivation ceremony here June 14.

The C2ISRB was one of seven battlelabs established by the Air Force in 1997 to address the acquisition system's inability to rapidly field technology and the warfighter's inability to meet today's warfighting requirements with fielded capabilities.

Officials announced the C2ISRB, along with all other Air Force battlelabs, will close by Oct. 1 due to tightening fiscal constraints across the Air Force.

The C2ISRB was a small, highly focused organization that rapidly integrated new command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance technologies, doctrine, and concepts of operations into the joint warfighting arsenal.

"The battlelabs provide an environment where warfighters, developers and industry come together to evaluate, integrate and apply technology," said Lt. Col. Kevin Damato, C2ISRB commander.

"These innovative command and control, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance ideas improve the USAF's ability to execute its core competencies and support joint warfighting," the colonel said.

Originally located at Hurlburt Field, Fla., the C2ISRB worked closely with the 505th Command and Control Wing and its predecessor, the C2 Training and Innovation Group. With the move to Langley AFB in 2005 and the June 2006 expansion of the mission to include intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, the C2ISRB worked hand-in-hand with the Air Force Command and Control, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Center and its Transformation Center.

"By working the complementary C2 and ISR innovation opportunities as a single mission, the C2ISRB generated high payoff initiatives with minimum cost and investment that could be rapidly integrated into today's Air Force," Colonel Damato said.

Since its inception, the C2ISRB completed 40 initiatives and earned the distinction of being the first Air Force battlelab to start and complete an initiative, the Air Tasking Order Visualization and Assessment, in 1998. More than 80 percent of its initiatives have been fielded in their original form or as part of a follow-on initiative.

Most recently, the C2ISRB completed its most ambitious effort, the Theater Battle Operations Net-centric Environment, or T-BONE. T-BONE demonstrated the net-centric future for the Air Operations Center Weapons System by creating a single, temporal data environment that could link data across all phases of air operations planning and execution processes.

"The C2ISRB not only accomplished its original mission, but also made significant strides in providing needed technologies to the warfighter and coordinating disparate groups," Colonel Damato said.

While Air Force battlelabs are closing, the battlelab culture of innovation will be incorporated in the new Global Cyberspace Integration Center. The C2ISRB processes created to achieve rapid identification, development and fielding of innovative C2 and ISR concepts that support warfighters will now be applied to the new Air Force domain of cyberspace.

"The legacy of this unprecedented group will continue to impact Air Force support to joint warfighting," said Maj. Gen. Kevin Kennedy, the GCIC commander.

Comment on this story (comments may be published on Air Force Link)

Click here to view the comments/letters page