Accessible Concept

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey today signed version 1.0 of the Pentagon's new Joint Operational Access Concept, which "proposes a concept for how joint forces will achieve operational access in the face of armed opposition by a variety of potential enemies and under a variety of conditions, as part of a broader national approach."

"This framework describes how we will gain entry and maintain access anywhere and in any domain: land, air, space, sea, and cyber," Dempsey writes today in a blog post about the document. "No matter how formidable our forces, if we are unable to bring our capabilities to bear in any of these domains, we may not be able to complete the mission or meet our nation’s needs. Our adversaries know this as well."

Inside the Pentagon broke news about the high-level document last month, reporting that an unsigned copy of version 1.0 declared that U.S. armed services must achieve unprecedented synergy to ensure access to contested waters, skies, land, space and networks in the face of emerging weapons.