Maritime operations centers with integrated and isolated planning teams

Abstract

The Maritime Operations Center (MOC) was designed to effectively utilize the planning elements of Future Operations (FOPS) to provide more rapid, accurate resource allocations consistent with the vision of the Commander. MOC staff simultaneously participate in the planning effort, while executing the current operation, and supporting headquarters during planning and execution. Frequently, an operational planning team (OPT) – a task-organized team formed to conduct integrated planning for a specific mission – is formed by the MOC because it offers the advantage of a focused group of subject matter experts approaching the problem in an integrated manner. However, performance problems may be realized with the OPT being isolated in situations that require the OPT to coordinate closely with the rest of the MOC. An experiment was conducted in which the MOC planned with either an integrated or an isolated planning team where the (1) FOPS team was supported by a decision aid/planning tool that fosters coordination or (2) FOPS team used a planning tool with a reduced coordination capability. In line with the theme of this year’s symposium – The Evolution of C2 – this paper describes an experiment conducted to gain insight into advantages and disadvantages associated with formng an OPT.