"RAND Arroyo Center."

"The research reported here was … conducted within RAND Arroyo Center’s Force Development and Technology Program"--Preface.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 19-21).

Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) and the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) -- The Afghan Mission Network (AMN) -- Toward a Coalition Contingency Network.

Recent and likely future U.S. military operations depend on coalitions of foreign military and nonmilitary partners, and a coalition mission network is necessary to support those operations. The Afghan Mission Network (AMN) is the primary network for the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan, allowing the United States and its coalition partners to share information and data across a common Secret system. Many view the AMN as a successful enabler of coalition information sharing. It is thus critical that the Army understand the principal lessons of the development of this network as it plans to develop future coalition contingency networks. To this end, the Army Chief Information Officer/G-6 asked RAND Arroyo Center to provide an independent review and assessment of the operational and technical history of the AMN and to identify lessons learned for future coalition networks. The history of the AMN provides an example of how to develop information systems to support operational missions, but perhaps more important, it also yields tactical, operational, and policy-relevant lessons that can inform future efforts to create contingency networks that are both effective across the range of military operations and useful to a host of military and nonmilitary partners. This report presents findings drawn from interviews with key AMN developers and maintainers and the documentation they produced during the network’s development.

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