Pentagon Expands Global Information Dominance Experiments
At the upcoming Global Information Dominance Experiments (GIDE) to be held this year, Pentagon leaders intend to improve “rapid learning methods” to increase data-sharing with allies and guide how the military adopts advanced and emerging technologies, a senior official confirmed.
The GIDE initiative began around 2020, led by U.S. Northern Command and North American Aerospace Defense Command. In 2022, Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks directed the Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office to reshape the series. The new approach was intended to strategically test and advance capabilities to support a joint all-domain command and control warfighting framework. The plan called for experiments to be conducted every 90 days.
“And this year we added a third mission thread — ‘Joint and Partner Integration,’” the official said. “We touched on it last year as a small effort, but now it’s the center of the mission. We’re not just talking about sharing files like Word documents. We’re focusing on digital integration with our allies and partners, which is more complex in classified systems. Making real progress on that front is a critical priority.”
Integrating Allies and Scaling Experiments
The Pentagon’s vision is focused on strengthening AI- and data-driven collaboration with Five Eyes partners — Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the UK — as well as additional allied nations.
While GIDE 9 recently concluded, the tenth experiment is set for just four weeks from now, much sooner than the typical 90-day interval between events.
“The timing overlaps with other major exercises, which is why we moved it up,” Strohmeyer explained. “But GIDE 10 will advance all three mission threads. It’s a major milestone, and by partnering with the Joint Staff and Combatant Commands, we will significantly expand global integration.”
Pentagon’s CDAO Launches New Data Integration Experiments
The Pentagon’s Chief Data and AI Office has launched a new round of experiments aimed at strengthening data integration so operators can better utilize advanced command-and-control capabilities.
The Chief Data and AI Office, or CDAO, has introduced a series of smaller exercises called GIDE X that directly address integration challenges that often prevent operators from taking full advantage of the capabilities demonstrated during larger GIDE events, said Lindsay Shepard, director of the office’s Advanced Command and Control Accelerator.
Shepard explained that while larger GIDE exercises serve as operational demonstrations, smaller-scale GIDE X efforts focus on specific technical and systems integration issues that must be resolved before moving forward with larger events.
Short timelines, regular capability updates
When CDAO launched GIDE a few years ago, Shepard said it was “a big surprise” for the Department of Defense, which has historically prioritized delivering large, complex systems over several years rather than offering incremental improvements on tight timelines.
Now, operators receive new batches of system upgrades after each 90-day GIDE cycle. They also participate in testing those improvements on live networks that are already operational—a critical part of ensuring that new capabilities work effectively in real-world missions, Shepard stressed.
Pentagon on track to demonstrate final CJADC2 by 2025
The Pentagon’s Chief Digital and AI Office (CDAO) Chief Information Officer (CIO) said today that the Department of Defense’s Global Information Dominance Experiment (GIDE) series is on track to demonstrate the “final example” of Combined Joint All-Domain Command and Control (CJADC2) by the end of 2025.
The CDAO resumed the GIDE series in January 2023 with GIDE 5, which increased collaboration between combatant commands and allies. The series, held every 90 days, tests, evaluates, and refines CJADC2 solutions that establish a unified, vendor-neutral data layer.
“In the next iteration – which is happening in the coming months – we are moving towards a global joint mission. The British Carrier Strike Group will pass through three U.S. combatant commands and four allied partners, then return through three more combatant commands and international partners,” explained CDAO CIO Daniel Holtzman at the Defense One event in Washington, D.C. “It represents the ultimate vision of JADC2.”
The CJADC2 strategy aims to create a network that links sensor data across the land, air, sea, space and cyber domains, enabling faster and smarter decisions through AI, machine learning and edge technologies.
Holtzman confirmed that a large-scale GIDE event designed to demonstrate this vision will be held in late 2025.
“We have a structured planning cycle, and the upcoming GIDE will continue the experiments that will take us toward that goal,” Holtzman said. “We are connecting international partners — including the UK, Australia and others — through cloud-based connections that we have prototyped, pushing the boundaries of what unified data can deliver.”
Kathleen Hicks, the deputy secretary of defense, emphasized the broader effort earlier this year. “CJADC2 is not a single system or platform. It is a collection of ideas, technology, policies, tools and talent that, together with allies and partners, is transforming how we command and control,” she said in February.
“The minimum practical CJADC2 capability already exists today. It provides low-latency performance and high reliability,” Hicks added.
Pentagon Focuses on CJADC2, Moves from Speed to Expansion
WASHINGTON — In 2023, the Pentagon’s efforts to build a global battle network known as CJADC2 were focused on moving faster. In 2024, the emphasis was on expanding its reach.
“Last year we went with what we had available … to deliver a minimum viable capability,” said Air Force Col. Matthew “Nomad” Strohmeyer, a former fighter pilot who now leads the quarterly Global Information Dominance Experiments (GIDE). The exercises test CJADC2 in real military command centers, not in laboratories. “This year, we want to expand the scope and give industry partners or other government programs every opportunity to contribute.”
“We’ve worked closely with [Britain] this year, and now we’re expanding that collaboration to include other Five Eyes partners,” he added.
Strohmeyer made his comments during a conference hosted by his superior, Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Officer Craig Martell. As the Pentagon’s primary office for AI and big data, Martell repeatedly emphasizes that the CDAO’s role is not to build AI internally but to enable the services to develop their own AI and analytics in line with their missions — a central element of the “joint” aspect of CJADC2. That effort includes the less glamorous but essential work of cleaning and standardizing data that is often spread across disparate systems.
“Our mission is to ensure that the entire department has the tools it needs to succeed,” Martell told reporters at the event, where Strohmeyer also briefed industry leaders. At the same time, he emphasized, “CJADC2 is ours.”
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