Agile C2 Mission Planning (Phoebe)
The Phoebe Agile Command and Control System is a strategic Australian Defence Force initiative to enhance Defence planning. Phoebe was built by x-RD, as part of a consortium of sovereign Defence technology companies, and the Defence Science and Technology Group.
Challenge
Military forces need to conduct planning and synchronisation in a dispersed organisational model, within a Denied, Disrupted, Intermittent, and Limited communications environment.
Enhancements to planning, combined with improvements to situational awareness, allows military forces to make decisions faster than their opponents can react, leading to decision superiority, outmaneuvering their adversaries, and improving battlefield performance.
Solution
The Agile Command and Control (C2) STaR Shot has contributed over several years to the development of an effective, productive, adaptive, and supportable Joint C2 capability that is able to meet the challenges of future contested and concurrent operations.
One of the Agile C2 STaR Shots’ key deliverables is Phoebe (named after the Greek Goddess of intellect and prophecy), a prototype to aid planning and execution funded by the now concluded Rapid Prototype Initiative.
Phoebe is a sovereign, digital visualisation and rapid synchronisation platform that has been developed through long-standing DSTG effort, close integration with selected ADF subject matter experts, an agile partnership with industry, including x-RD, and support from Joint Operations Command.
Phoebe is an operable plan-to-execute digital twin of the C2 networked force. It combines advanced database, plan visualisation and force representation design with targeted modelling and simulation, and live or near-live data feeds from distributed assets.
The solution is designed to share forward planning outputs across ADF C2 nodes enabling synchronous planning cycles across the Integrated Force, and capitalises on familiar interfaces and user processes to improve user acceptance and its potential application across the ADF’s wider C2 network. It is a sovereign product and has the potential to significantly improve the ADF’s ability to command and control complex operations.
Impact
In 2024 Phoebe was awarded with a VCDF commendation for its contribution.