Development of warfighter decision-making program centers on Nellis AFB, Nev.

June 16 (UPI) -- The Shadow Operations Center at Nellis Air Force Base, Nev., is a test bed for emerging warfighting technologies, the U.S. Air Force said this week in a statement.

The unit, known as ShOC-N, was identified by the Joint Chiefs of Staff as the laboratory for the Air Force Joint All-Domain Command and Control [JADC2] program in a November 2020 Defense Department explanation of the organizational framework.

JADC2 is essentially a communications system to "amalgamate sensors with shooters across all domains, commands and services," according to the U.S. military.

"The services each have a system looking to tie sensors to shooters," the framework said. "The JADC2 will gather all sensor information and connect all warfighters. A threat could be sensed by an Air Force unmanned aerial vehicle but the best weapon against it could be a Navy missile fired from offshore."

The operation at Nellis Air Force Base is designed to further enable the development of the Air Force's Advanced Battle Management System, a statement on Monday said.

"ABMS is the Department of the Air Force offering to meet the JADC2 operational imperative," said Lt. Col. Kelii Chock, head of the Warfighter Integration Division within the Department of the Air Force's Rapid Capabilities Office.

"We can really accelerate our ability to deliver capability to our airmen by bringing everybody together in this facility and going after it, iterating and learning and failing fast," he added. "The ShOC-N is that facility that anybody can come to, and we can all work toward this end state of getting whatever capability we want for the warfighter."

The Air Force announced the battle laboratory in April.

It is used by software companies and the military to process data from training exercises to create a network technology that could enable JADC2's rapid decision-making capabilities.

ABMS programs from the ShOC-N would then be moved to the Virtual Test and Training Center, also at Nellis Air Force Base, for simulation activities, according to the Air Force.

"Our goal at the ShOC-N is to enable U.S. decision advantage in the context of great power competition by providing better operational understanding of all the domains [for example, land air, space, maritime and cyber]" said Lt. Col. David Spitler, commander of the 805th Combat Training Squadron.

"Once all the data is collected, we will then put that information in front of decision makers, so that they can send a tasking out to our fielded forces," Spitler said.