Ready for What? Readiness Reporting in 2015

Readiness reporting systems measure the readiness of the military to execute the National Military Strategy. Under current concepts of operations (CONOPS), this involves known Operations Plans (OPLANS) and predefined command arrangements. These CONOPS worked well during the stable era of the Cold War; however, the vulnerable, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) environment of today, and the foreseeable future, requires increased flexibility and responsiveness. The Force Management Joint Functional Concept describes operational planning in 2015 as "the systematic on demand creation and revision of executable plans, with up-to-date options, as circumstances require. By using authoritative data and Net-Centric analytical tools, the force manager can rapidly assess the capabilities of any given set of assets to fulfill requirements of operational commanders."2 The Joint Command and Control Functional Concept describes a Command and Control (C2) environment in 2015 that will "allow commanders and staffers to tailor the C2 system as required by quickly assembling cohesive teams and by adopting C2 procedures suited to each situation rather than relying on 'one size fits all' procedures."