James J. Lee, AFJ staff Marine Corps Maj. Gen. Michael E. Ennis

Jointness in the U.S. military has come a long way in terms of equipment sharing and doctrine, but three main issues still need to be addressed, said Marine Corps Maj. Gen. Michael E. Ennis. Interoperability, slow decision-making and the continued lack of information sharing still prevent the services from maximizing the capabilities each service has to offer, he said. Speaking at the Armed Forces Journal’s Power & Limits of Jointness conference in Washington, D.C., Ennis said a general “lack of understanding” persists about information sharing among the services, and that the joint world needs to “get over the idea that information is proprietary.”

He points to the commercial world and its success with information sharing platforms, including Amazon.com, Napster, Mapquest and Orbitz. Databases also need to be networked so that data are accessible to soldiers in the field, he said. Information should be organized and standardized so that it’s retrievable and understandable; it should also be tagged with metadata so that what’s needed is “discoverable,” he said.

Citing a worst-case scenario, Ennis said the military has “bombed things we shouldn’t have bombed” when “the information was there. It just wasn’t accessible at the time. We can do a better job than that.”

The joint world also needs to move faster when it comes to developing standards in technology so that one service doesn’t become impatient and develop systems on its own. This results in expensive and cumbersome “work arounds,” which could be avoided upfront, Ennis said. While he’s a “big believer” in the joint concept, Ennis cautioned against taking it too far. “Cultures evolve around your mission,” he said, noting how different it is to be in command at sea than it is to be in command in the air. “We should celebrate the differences in cultures without changing the mission because that’s what makes our DOD so capable.”

Return to news coverage