The Military Leader recently published the article '5 Things Commanders Should Know About Communications.' Whilst this is an American article and some of the terminology differs, it highlights relevant themes that Australian commanders and communicators should consider when planning and executing C4 (command, control, communications and computers):
- Diggers are synonymous with being innovative and commanders need to encourage their communicator to 'fight-for-comms' and identify a solution.
- Resources are scarce, so communicators need to front-load user expectation and manage what they have to achieve their commander's intent.
- Commanders need to use their communicators by ensuring they are involved in their training programs.
- Redundancy reduces risk – PACE (primary, alternate, contingency and emergency) provides commanders with options.
- Every soldier is required to be an expert in close combat; and as a digitised force all soldiers also need to be communicators.
Understanding C4 capabilities, practising them and exploiting them is critical for our modern force.
