The capacity to decide and direct: national and joint command arrangements, resilient communications and the battle networks that turn sensing into action.
The Capability Development Index tracks the events that move a capability — operational use, technical breakthroughs, procurement decisions and the industrial base behind them — and places each on the record with the date it happened.
Recent developments cover the current period. Historical developments are the inflection points that produced Command, Control & Communications as it stands today.
NATO defined command and control as the exercise of authority and direction by a properly designated individual over assigned resources in pursuit of a common goal. The formulation became a reference point for allied doctrine, with the Australian Defence Force adopting a closely similar definition stressing lawful authority over assigned forces. Agreed terminology of this kind underpins interoperable joint doctrine and procedures between allies.
Versions of US Army Field Manual 3-0 circulating around 1999 set out command and control as the exercise of authority and direction by a properly designated commanding officer over assigned and attached forces in accomplishing a mission. Codifying the concept in capstone doctrine fixed the terms on which American forces organise decision-making.
The edition of the Dictionary amended through April 2010 specified that command and control functions are performed through an arrangement of personnel, equipment, communications, facilities and procedures employed by a commander in planning, directing, coordinating and controlling forces and operations. This tied the abstract notion of command to the concrete systems and networks that enable it.
In the edition amended through 15 August 2014 the sentence describing C2 as performed through an arrangement of personnel, equipment, communications, facilities and procedures was removed from the entry. The revision narrowed the official American definition of the capability.
The military scientists Marius Vassiliou, David S. Alberts and Jonathan R. Agre defined command and control as a set of organisational and technical attributes and processes employing human, physical and information resources to solve problems and accomplish missions. The formulation extended C2 beyond strictly military hierarchies to enterprises generally, reflecting the growing information-centric view of the capability.