Commanders seek funding control

In an effort to put the money where the priorities are, the Defense Department is considering a plan that would give joint force commanders control over the allocation of joint information technology budgets, a senior DOD official said.

The Joint Staff will present a recommendation to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld later this year that would make joint combatant commanders — rather than the individual services -- responsible for setting priorities, said Army Lt. Gen. Joseph Kellogg Jr., director of command, control, communications and computer systems for the Joint Staff.

The idea is that the change in funding perspective will increase joint warfighting ability, a cornerstone of DOD's transformation efforts.

Joint force commanders often have been frustrated that they have not been given priority from the individual military services, which traditionally have made funding decisions. The new concept could call for joint commanders to make the funding decisions for joint command and control functions.

"It's top-driven instead of bottom-driven," Kellogg said during a speech this week at the Military Communications conference in Anaheim, Calif. "We've turned everything on its head."

The recommendations are part of a larger study required by Defense Planning Guidance. The overall review will be presented to Rumsfeld by the end of the year, Kellogg said, but the IT provisions of the review are essentially completed.

Information has become a critical part of the way the military wages war, he said. "The role of info will be the new silver bullet of the future, one that will change how we deploy our forces" by creating a unified, seamless, integrated fighting force, he said.

The change will be significant, he acknowledged, and will require that the services give up some of their sovereignty.

But, he said, this is part of the way DOD is thinking differently about the way that it wages war.