The Data-Centric Warfighter and Ongoing Efforts to Leverage Data

By Chief Warrant Officer 5 Chris R. Westbrook, Regimental Chief Warrant Officer

Article published on: April 1, 2025, in the Army Communicator Spring 2025 Edition

Read Time: < 2 mins

In February 2022, the secretary of the Army set a goal for the Army to become more data-centric to enable success on the future battlefield. Since then, the Army has developed the 2021 Unified Network Plan (updated this year) and the 2022 Army Data Plan. There are many articles in the press and from the Army itself regarding this revolution in how we will fight future wars.

The Army University Press has many examples of units focusing on data centricity as they complete their culminating training exercises. I will highlight one here and urge you to take the time to read a snippet of what is in store for us as this is happening fast: http://www.armyupress.army.mil/Journals/Military-Review/Online-Exclusive/2024-OLE/Data-Centric-Culture/

Officers from 4th Infantry Division (ID) laid out an excellent article talking about their data problem, how they are leveraging the Army Data Plan to solve the problems at their echelon and describes their framework on how to drive their processes into the mainstream. It did involve a lot of education and collaboration to provide a data-driven set of automated processes and dashboard to enable the commander and staff in practical use of live data in enhancing readiness.

When 4th ID’s stakeholders collaborated and shared the data they used in their daily duties, they quickly realized that there was the opportunity to cross-talk and work with each other’s data to provide insights and provide answers to the commander’s questions without the inevitable storm of follow-up questions experienced in the past as answers were incomplete or used untimely data in their analysis.

Enhancing the efforts to make data more accessible, the Unified Network Plan 2.0, https://api.army.mil/e2/c/downloads/2025/03/04/0b7f95c5/army-unified-network-plan-2-0.pdf, will enable a framework to streamline the Army’s access to their network, resources, and data in a secure manner. This plan will enable you — as a Soldier, civilian, and in some cases, a contractor — to move from your home camp, post, or station to another and have access to the resources you are authorized to access without cumbersome processes or reimaging of machines through the centralized delivery of services such as identity, access, and credentialing management. No more System Access Requests when you PCS and global recognition of your past training to retain elevat-ed privileges.

For fiscal year 2026, the Data for Leader’s Competency Course (9E-F122/920-F119) and Data Engineering Foundations Course (4C-F83) will be in the Army Training Requirement and Resources System (ATRRS) for our Signal leaders to receive data literacy training as well as training for our 26B functional area officers and 255A warrant officers to receive data engineering training if they have already completed the FA26 or Warrant Officer Advanced Course prior to 2024.