Are Movable Joint Command and Control Units Needed?

Summary of Henrik Friman's and Claes Sundin's article in RSAWSPJ no 2 2001.

The Swedish Armed Forces have since the mid-1990s been examining the possibilities of introducing a new joint command and control system. The National Defence College (FHS), the Defence Materiel Administration (FMV) and the former Defence Research Establishment (FOA) - after having received an assignment from the Armed Forces Headquarters - together launched a project under the Swedish acronym ROLF (to be interpreted as Movable Operative Leadership Function). The task set was to propose a vision for a mobile - or movable - joint command and control system for the future. One fundamental point of departure for this undertaking was the assumption that the existence of traditional command and control systems placed in fixed shelters could no longer be taken for granted.

It is time to make a critical analysis of the traditional command and control systems, thereby gaining an insight into the demands for the future. One way of analysing this was to make a comparative study between a fully operative fixed command and control system and a mobile or movable system. The results as presented in the ROLF project will be reviewed and discussed in this paper.

Henrik Friman is a researcher at The National Defence College. Colonel Claes Sundin is a management and leadership consultant and a fellow of The Royal Swedish Academy of War Sciences.