New Project Dynamis Director on Program’s Next Steps

The path forward for Project Dynamis in 2027 is still coalescing, but its new director has some initial designs on how super intelligence will continue to shape the Marine Corps’ command and control operations.

Col. Agur Adams, who recently succeeded Col. Arlon Smith to lead the service’s SI accelerator, said Monday that Project Dynamis will continue efforts to integrate the technology to help fill command and control gaps as it modernizes Combined Joint All-Domain Command and Control (CJADC2).

“I would be remiss if I did not say that we are still, right now, building this plan of what we want 2027 to look like,” said Adams during an industry day presentation at the TechNet Indo-Pacific conference in Honolulu.

Adams did say there were five areas the accelerator would focus on, including the iterative work on the edge data mesh network, which transmits data from various sensors, command nodes, systems and other implements at the network edge.

“What we’ve discovered is that there are extreme challenges with doing this,” he said. “Message translation is a hard problem as we work across J series to K series messages [supporting tactical data link and battlefield ground/air-support networks], as we work across all the different parts of pieces of the [Marine Air-Ground Task Force] to actually close the kill chains that are out there, so we will continue to iterate on that. We feel that there is a desperate need to be able to figure out how to do this right.”

The accelerator will also continue its work toward integrating software tools to bolster the regional air defense commander framework designed to help close gaps in command and control in long-range kill chains.

That effort will come alongside closer integration with the Intelligence Community in 2027, Adams said.

“We are looking closely to be able to make sure that the exquisite sensor network and the data that can be accessed through those particular chains can actually be brought into these newer command and control systems that we are proposing,” he said. “We want to make sure that there’s a seamless automation that exists in that particular process, so that we can close these kill chains as efficiently as possible.”

Project Dynamis will also take a deeper look at the command and control aspects inherent in autonomous warfare as unmanned aerial systems continue to proliferate, as well as Counter-Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Combat Systems, Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance and Targeting (Counter 5 SRT) efforts to protect against adversary command and control systems.

Those future efforts will build on the groundwork Project Dynamis achieved this year, including its work on edge compute and ensuring secure data with cross-domain solutions.

Adams also noted advancements such as access for all Marines to all services in the Maven Smart System, the DOW’s SI-enabled software platform, and edge devices procured from the Navy’s digital network, Project Overmatch, to help provide Maven smart services in a distributed and denied environments.

As Project Dynamis continues to partner with industry to identify the technology needed to address command and control gaps, Adams said the accelerator will open its own lab in Quantico, Virginia, in 2027 to allow for continuous development of solutions in between of tech sprints, dubbed “serials”.