National Center for Urban Operations

Excited to share that my work was featured in the most recent edition of the Canadian Army Journal. Huge thanks to editor-in-chief Aditi Malhotra for including me!

We develop leaders! Please join us in congratulating some of our newest IDB alumni, the 2024 September graduates of the Dense Urban Studies Strategic Broadening Seminar! This group of capable and knowledgeable leaders completed the 2-week seminar in NYC after numerous academic sessions and site visits. The program was full of networking, collaboration, and broadening, and students were recognized last Thursday, 9/26 at Ft. Hamilton at the celebratory graduation dinner after completing their capstone projects earlier that morning. The group heard from COL (R) Patrick Mahaney, the Senior Mentor for the course, and as the participants prepared to receive their certificates, Ret. FF Sal D'Agostino of the FDNY provided a powerful and emotional perspective on the events of 9/11 and inspiring words of encouragement as the group reflected on their time at DUS. On Wednesday, 9/25, participants welcomed Prof. Steven King to Ft. Hamilton in Brooklyn. Prof. King discussed emerging technologies and their implementation in urban environments and delved into implementation VR, augmented reality, and mixed reality. After lunch, Dr. Douglas Winton joined the program and discussed key topics related to the strategic effectiveness of military operations in urban environments and led in-depth discussions on the importance of understanding the narrative during urban operations! We are so proud of what this group accomplished during their time in New York, and we look forward to seeing how they take the valuable information from this seminar back to their respective organizations to drive success forward! William Faulkner Clark Streets #dus #idb #strategicbroadening #urbanenvironment #innovation #leadership #emergingtech #ai #nyc

This year, U. S. Central Command (USCENTCOM) has been heavily focused on countering UAS attacks (cUAS). This should not come as a surprise, given our experience over the past 12 months: Iranian-backed militia groups have launched hundreds of one-way UAS attacks on US and partner forces in Iraq and Syria, and the Houthis have launched hundreds of their own UAS into the Red Sea with devastating effect on maritime traffic. In January of this year, three of our team members were killed in a UAS attack on Tower 22. This threat is front-of-mind for everyone at the Command. For that reason, it has never been more important to drive experimentation with cUAS capabilities. Just last week CENTCOM's Army component executed RED SANDS, a series focused on testing cUAS defeat systems with realistic heat/sand/wind/humidity/users to ensure those systems work as they should. This week, we're executing DESERT GUARDIAN, a series focused on forcing different systems to integrate and function together. Over the coming year, we'll execute more RED SANDS and DESERT GUARDIAN events to peek pushing these capabilities forward. Every day this week, I'll be sharing more about how we think about the cUAS problem set and the lessons we're learning from DESERT GUARDIAN. We'll kick off the week with the graphic below, explaining how we think about the different parts of the cUAS problem, and each day I'll do a deep-dive into each piece. DETECT: We must be able to detect potentially threatening objects in our airspace This challenge can become increasingly complex depending on the size, speed, distance, and altitude of the object. FUSED DETECT: No one sensor will ever give us 100% coverage - we need "layered defense" with multiple mixed sensors. That means our sensors must share their data into a single third-party interface. CHARACTERIZE: We must be able to determine whether an object is "hostile" or "non-hostile" in our airspace. Additionally, we need high quality locational data ("fire control quality") to help us shoot it down. DEFEAT: We must be able to neutralize threats in our airspace (with kinetic or non-kinetic means). This challenge can look different depending on whether we are defending a fixed location or mobile team, or what type of system we are trying to defeat. FUSED DEFEAT: As with sensors, no one shooter will ever give us 100% defeat - we require "layered defense" with multiple shooter, which need to be integrated into a common command and control interface so we don't overwhelm users. As always, we do not experiment alone - none of this would be possible without the partnership of DoD Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office, 10th Mountain Division, United States Army, IWSTD, Army Futures Command, and PEO MS. We also have nearly a dozen industry partners who have been trailblazing this open architecture path with us, and we're excited to share more about those teams later in the week. #innovation #technology #cuas #centcom #desertguardian

We develop leaders! The 12th iteration of Dense Urban Studies (DUS) is progressing excellently with some valuable site visits and course instruction! On Friday, 9/20, participants welcomed Dr. Scott Shackelford JD, PhD to Ft. Hamilton in Brooklyn. Dr. Shackelford provided insight into the current climate of cyber threats to critical infrastructure and other key vulnerabilities, global cybersecurity norms in various countries, and subsequent operational impacts. The first week of the program was capped off with informative sessions and battle analyses by COL (R) Patrick Mahaney and the team from the National Center for Urban Operations. Participants learned about the state of efforts in Ukraine, the dense urban environment of Taiwan, valuable updates and information regarding Israel, and key pieces of information from a case study of the Battle of Mosul.   To kick off week two, the group visited the New York Sector of the U.S. Coast Guard on Monday, 9/23 to learn about the importance of interagency relationships and other essential considerations in dense urban environments. This was done from the water with assistance from the New York City Fire Department! After lunch, the group visited Randall’s Island and gained insight into how the FDNY trains and prepares for missions in a city as dense as NYC, especially when considering multi-domain operations.   Yesterday, Tuesday, 9/24, the group travelled to ACME General Corp. in SoHo to sit down with Dr. Adam Segal who discussed strategic competition and national security innovation. The day was capped off with an informative session by NSIN - National Security Innovation Network, as well as our host ACME General Corp., and a discussion of innovation initiatives.   We are so proud of this group’s progression and cannot wait to see how the rest of DUS continues to engage these leaders! #dus #idb #denseurban #innovation #leadershipdevelopment #strategic #seminar #cybersecurity #maritime #operations #interagency Clark Streets William Faulkner

We develop leaders! The IDB | Institute for Defense & Business kicked off another iteration of the Dense Urban Studies (DUS) Strategic Broadening Seminar (SBS) in New York City this past Sunday, 9/15! Participants and esteemed guests were greeted at Fort Hamilton in Brooklyn, just below the Verrazano Bridge and lights of New York City, as they arrived for the 12th iteration of the impactful seminar. IDB Program Director Clark Streets addressed the group comprised of individuals from Active Army, USAR, Government Civilians from various functional areas across the DoD, and various VIP guests. IDB President LtGen William Faulkner, USMC (Ret) provided a warm welcome to the group and encouraged everyone to engage with each other and embrace the city as a living learning environment. Army COL (R) Patrick Mahaney, CEO of the National Center for Urban Operations (NCUO) and Senior Mentor for DUS, also spoke to the group about the importance of understanding the complexities of urban operations.   Yesterday, Monday, 9/16, the cohort welcomed Dr. Neil Kleiman, who discussed urban governance and the concept of smart cities. In the afternoon, Dr. Navin Bapat spoke to participants about the global impacts and effects of urban conflict on the world economically. Students then divided into small teams to build responses to conflict scenarios involving various cities across the globe, sparking discussion and collaboration between each group!   We are looking forward to seeing this group grow through educational broadening and immersion in an urban environment over the next two weeks! Clark Streets William Faulkner #idb #dus #mdo #leadershipdevelopment #urbanenvironment #strategic #broadening #seminar

The Readiness Lab consistently provides innovative and realistic training for public safety and national security professionals. See the link below for information regarding their upcoming training in Colorado during 22-24 OCT. Reference "NCUO" for a 15% discount when registering. https://lnkd.in/eYhQEhfE