Enabling The Joint Vision

The purpose of Joint Vision implementation is to meet the critical security challenges of the future by transforming the Armed Forces into a joint force capable of meeting the requirements of 21st century operations. Implementation will enable a Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA) through a continuous, three-fold process of (1) Concept Development, (2) Assessment, and (3) Integration. The Joint Vision Implementation Master Plan (JIMP) contains guidance on the implementation process, project management, long range planning, and defines roles and responsibilities. This plan recognizes that 2010 is a "waypoint", not an "endpoint", and that the development, assessment, and integration of emerging concepts and capabilities is a continuous, never ending journey of discovery.

Today, America's Armed Forces are the world standard for military excellence and joint warfighting. We will further strengthen our military capabilities by taking advantage of improved technology and the vitality and innovation of our people to prepare our forces for the 21st century Joint Vision 2010 creates the template to guide the transformation of these concepts into joint operational capabilities. It serves as the basis for focusing the strengths of each individual Service or component to exploit the full array of available capabilities and allow us to achieve full spectrum dominance. It will also guide the evolution of joint doctrine, education, and training to assure we will be able to achieve more seamless joint operations in the future. As we pursue this vision, we must remain mindful of our responsibilities: to prevent threats to our interests from emerging, deter those that do, and defeat those threats by military force if deterrence fails. In 2010, we will meet these responsibilities with high quality people and leaders, who are trained and ready for joint operations and able to exploit high technology equipment. Even during a time of unparalleled technological advances we will always rely on the courage, determination, and strength of America's men and women to ensure we are persuasive in peace, decisive in war; and preeminent in any form of conflict.

"Since the mid-1990s, the concept of strategic asymmetry has begun to receive serious attention from the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD). The 1997 Quadrennial Defense Review, for instance, stated, "U.S. dominance in the conventional military arena may encourage adversaries to use ... asymmetric means to attack our forces and interests overseas and Americans at home." But while American strategists and defense leaders sense the importance of strategy asymmetry, much analytical work remains to be done before it is fully understood. The author assesses the revisions to Joint Vision 2020, DOD's roadmap to the future, that must be undertaken in order to prepare for asymmetric challenges."--Summary.

In response to the changing strategic environment and the declining budgets, the Joint Chiefs of Staff have created a vision to help guide the Department of Defense (DOD) through a transformation that will enable it to meet the challenges it will face in the 21st Century. Now that the Joint Chiefs have articulated this vision, the next and most difficult step is implementing it. This paper explores two fundamental questions. What steps has DOD taken to implement Joint Vision 2010 (JV2010) and are these steps adequate? The DOD has taken significant steps to implement the vision. The DOD has further refined the JV2010 concepts in several key documents. They have also identified a management structure responsible for implementation and a framework for the implementation process. The key question concerning JV2010 is whether or not the implementation process is adequate. Is it capable of performing tough trade-offs and focusing our resources on the right mix of information technologies and traditional capabilities? This paper explores this question by using the systems engineering model to analyze the JV2010 implementation efforts. The analysis concluded the implementation process has many positive aspects. However, if optimal system development is to be achieved the process must take on more of a top down approach capable of evaluating competing alternatives and properly focusing investments on the right technologies and weapon systems required to achieve JV2010 capabilities.