Defense releases Joint Operational Access Concept

The Department of Defense released the Joint Operational Access Concept (JOAC) in January 2012. The JOAC defines how joint forces will operate in response to emerging antiaccess and area-denial security challenges, and is a crucial first step in ensuring the joint force has the capabilities to accomplish any assigned mission.

Operational access serves many strategic purposes, including demonstrating U.S. resolve in managing crisis, preventing war, and engaging an enemy in war. The JOAC outlines how future joint forces will achieve operational access in the face of antiaccess and area-denial strategies, and envisions greater integration across domains than ever before. This cross-domain synergy is essential to exploiting fleeting opportunities for disrupting an enemy system. The JOAC also envisions a greater degree and more flexible integration of space and cyberspace operations into the traditional air-sea-land battlespace.

While the JOAC pertains mainly to branches of military service, it also calls for increased interagency and multinational cooperation in response to emerging antiaccess and area-denial security challenges. The JOAC also encourages intelligence sharing as a means to collect and utilize accurate, timely, and detailed information regarding antiaccess and area-denial systems.

For more information about the Joint Operational Access Concept, please follow the link below.
Joint Operational Access Concept