The Army contracted you to manage a project to develop the next generation command and control technical communications system. The requirements for communicating with multiple command and control headquarters is well known and there are many experts available with this knowledge.

While the requirements for strategic and operational command and control are well known and are unlikely to change, technology innovations at the tactical level, like drones, will likely change rapidly. What is not well understood, but will be part of this project, is how field commanders will synchronize next generations drones with air, land, and sea forces in contested battle space.

As the prime contractor$$s project manager, you will manage $200-300$ programmers, subject matter experts and operations specialists from $20$ sub$-$contractors, who will work virtually from sites across the continental United States, Alaska, Hawaii, and Europe. Broken communications is well known as a point of failure in military operations. Army leadership will host weekly one$-$hour consultations via Microsoft Teams in a secure channel.

You have two years to develop a working prototype as a proof of concept. The system, when operational, must enable strategic communications between the Pentagon and the $4-$star commanding generals; operational communications between the $4-$star generals and their maneuver forces $($typically commanded by $2-$star and $3-$star generals$),$ and must enable effective real time communications across the tactical battlefield.

The first milestone is to recommend an approach and to develop a project plan. Consider risks and timeline vs different types of scope and technology changes that could occur.

Q$1.$ What approach would you recommend?

Q$2.$ Why?