The Global Command and Control System- Maritime has been the Navy’s mainstay C4I system for the past 20 years. In recent years, chat has become the “killer app” that was introduced in the late '90s. The onslaught of social media applications is now driving the current and future sailors to understand and require more social tools and applications to become part of the next generation C4I architecture.
In addition to adding more social applications to the next C4I system, the acquisition process must be modified to ensure that the fleet receives relevant applications that provide leading tools to allow our C4I systems to be ahead of the capability of our adversaries. Here too, Social can assist in reducing the timeline for system acquisition, development, certification and accreditation and all the legacy processes that must be re-defined and migrated into the age of the internet and web.
MIT’s leading engineer Andy McAfee describes it best in the below discussion. The introduction of social into enterprise collaboration can be an example of future C4I systems and also how the naval enterprise will adapt.