Lessons Learned from the Afghan Mission Network: Developing a Coalition Contingency Network

This report discusses key lessons learned from the development and evolution of the Afghan Mission Network AMN and the lessons born of this effort that are of relevance to the development of future coalition contingency networks. Increasingly, U.S. military operations depend on the support of coalition partners and the networks, like the AMN, that link them. The AMN, a coalition NATO funded, sustained, and maintained initiative, was implemented in 2010 and was created as a common network from a collection of national and NATO networks. The AMN is now the primary Coalition, Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance C5ISR network in the Afghanistan Combined Joint Operations Area CJOA-A. By providing a common network over which to share critical information, the AMN enabled a shift in information-sharing posture from need to know to need to share, resulting in an increase in situational awareness SA among International Security Assistance Force ISAF partners. The end result of this effort has been greater situational understanding and serves as an object lesson in how to approach coalition networking. Although the AMN is not an end-state, it provides valuable concepts and processes for future similar efforts.