Beyond the Pentagon: Mapping the Strategic Demand Signals of the 11 Combatant Commands
- Jordan Clayton
- Jul 31, 2025
- 7 min read
New entrants to the defense market often commit a fundamental category error: they confuse the "Buyer" with the "Customer."
They focus their entire go-to-market strategy on the Pentagon procurement machine—the Program Executive Officers (PEOs) in Arlington, the Contracting Officers at the Navy Yard, and the political bureaucracy inside the Beltway. They chase the process without understanding the mission. They optimize for the transaction, ignoring the operational reality that drives it.
The real customer isn't an office building in Northern Virginia. It is the warfighter operating under a Combatant Command (COCOM).
These 11 commands represent the "tip of the spear." They are the ultimate end-users who define the urgent, life-or-death capability gaps that your technology must fill. While the Service Chiefs (Army, Navy, Air Force) train and equip the force, and the PEOs buy the hardware, the COCOM Commanders employ the force. They are the ones staring down the adversary.
If your technology does not solve a problem that a COCOM Commander loses sleep over, you are building a solution in search of a requirement. You might win a pilot, but you will never become a Program of Record.
To cross the chasm from "innovation tourist" to "mission partner," you must understand the distinct missions, geographic priorities, and operational pain points of each command. You must understand the role of the J8 Directorate—the gatekeepers of requirements. This is the core of Mission Architecture Mapping.
The Structural Reality: The J8 and the Demand Signal
COCOMs are not just users; they are the primary source of validated requirements in the DoD ecosystem. However, you cannot simply email the Commander. You must navigate the staff structure, specifically the J8 (Force Structure, Resources, and Assessment).
The J8 is the most critical stakeholder you have likely never heard of. They are responsible for analyzing capability gaps and validating requirements. When you pitch a solution, the J8 asks: "Does this fill a gap in our warfighting plan? Is it prioritized on our Integrated Priority List (IPL)?"
If the J8 validates your capability, they generate the demand signals that force the Pentagon to act:
The Integrated Priority List (IPL): This is the classified "wish list" every COCOM submits to the Secretary of Defense and Congress. It outlines the capabilities they need to win in their theater. If you map your tech to a line item on the IPL, you become a priority.
Urgent Operational Needs (JUONs/JEONs): When a threat emerges rapidly (e.g., a new drone tactic), the COCOM issues a Joint Urgent Operational Need (JUON). This document triggers accelerated acquisition authorities, allowing PEOs to bypass the 24-month budget cycle and buy your tech now.
Part 1: The Geographic Combatant Commands (The Theaters)
These six commands own the physical terrain. Each faces unique adversaries, environmental constraints, and tyranny of distance that dictate their technology needs.
The AOR: From the US West Coast to the border of India. This is the DoD’s priority theater. The Strategic Focus: Deterring China. The defining challenge is the "Tyranny of Distance"—operations across thousands of miles of ocean where supply lines are vulnerable.
General Requirements:
Contested Logistics: The Navy cannot rely on safe ports. They need autonomous resupply vessels, predictive maintenance AI to reduce spare parts capability, and additive manufacturing (3D printing) at the tactical edge to repair ships at sea.
Long-Range Fires & Hypersonics: The command needs to strike targets from outside the adversary's "Anti-Access/Area Denial" (A2/AD) bubble. This drives demand for hypersonic delivery systems and the high-speed thermal sensors required to track them.
Resilient C5ISR (JADC2): In a conflict, satellites will be jammed and fiber cut. INDOPACOM needs "mesh networking" capabilities that can stitch together a picture of the battlefield using disparate sensors on ships, planes, and drones in a chemically/electromagnetically denied environment.
Maritime Domain Awareness: They need to see everything on the surface and underwater. This requires low-cost, proliferated sensor networks—thousands of cheap buoys and solar-powered gliders rather than a few expensive ships.
The AOR: Europe, Russia, Israel. The Strategic Focus: Deterring Russia and strengthening NATO interoperability. The war in Ukraine has radically shifted their priorities toward high-intensity, land-based attrition warfare.
General Requirements:
Integrated Air & Missile Defense (IAMD): Defending against massive salvos of Russian cruise missiles and loitering munitions. They need AI-enabled battle management systems that can instantly decide which interceptor to fire at which threat to maximize survival.
Electronic Warfare (EW) Resilience: The spectrum in Eastern Europe is the most contested on earth. GPS jamming is constant. EUCOM needs navigation systems (Alt-PNT) that work when GPS is down and radios that cannot be triangulated by Russian artillery.
NATO Interoperability: Data sharing is the bottleneck. They need "Data Fabric" software that allows a US F-35 to share targeting data seamlessly with a Polish tank or a German frigate, automatically translating the message formats.
The AOR: The Middle East, Central Asia. The Strategic Focus: Countering Iran and VEOs (Violent Extremist Organizations). The environment has shifted from counterinsurgency to maritime defense and asymmetric drone warfare.
General Requirements:
Counter-UAS (C-UAS): This is the single highest priority. Bases and ships are under constant threat from cheap, Iranian-designed one-way attack drones. They need "cost-per-shot" solutions—lasers, microwaves, or kinetic interceptors that cost $1,000, not $1M, to shoot down a $500 drone.
Maritime Security: Protecting the Red Sea and Strait of Hormuz from surface drone attacks. They are pioneering the use of "Task Force 59" - a fleet of unmanned surface vessels (USVs) leveraging AI to spot threats, driving demand for edge-compute vision systems.
The AOR: The African continent. The Strategic Focus: "Economy of Force." They cover a massive continent with very few assigned assets, focusing on VEO containment and countering Chinese influence.
General Requirements:
Persistent, Affordable ISR: They cannot afford to fly $100M Global Hawks. They need long-endurance, solar-powered drones or stratospheric balloons that can watch a target for weeks at a fraction of the cost.
Austere Comms & Power: Operations happen in undeveloped areas. They need tactical power units (hybrid/solar) that reduce reliance on fuel convoys, and satellite communications (like Starlink) that require zero ground infrastructure.
Language & Info Ops: Tools for rapid translation of local dialects and AI for sentiment analysis to monitor the information environment.
The AOR: North America and the Arctic. The Strategic Focus: Homeland Defense. The Arctic is opening up as a new front for competition with Russia and China.
General Requirements:
Over-the-Horizon Radar: Seeing threats (cruise missiles) further out.
Arctic Operations: Hardware that functions at -40°F. Batteries that don't die in the cold. Communications satellites in polar orbits (where traditional GEO satellites don't reach).
AI for Warning: They ingest massive amounts of sensor data. They need AI that can distinguish a flock of birds from a cruise missile in milliseconds to prevent false alarms.
The AOR: Latin America and the Caribbean. The Strategic Focus: Counter-Narcotics and Counter-Influence. They operate heavily through partnerships and law enforcement collaboration.
General Requirements:
Open-Source Intelligence (OSINT): Tracking "dark vessels" (illegal fishing/drug running) using commercial satellite imagery and AIS data.
Information Sharing: They need secure platforms to share intel with partner nations (Colombia, Brazil) who are not on the secret US network (SIPRNet).
Predictive Analytics: AI to predict trafficking routes based on historical patterns and weather data.
Part 2: The Functional Combatant Commands (The Enablers)
These five commands operate globally. They are often the "early adopters" because they own their own unique acquisition authorities or operate in domains defined by technology.
The Mission: Elite, rapid global response. The "Cheat Code": SOCOM has its own checkbook (MFP-11 funding) and acquisition authority. They do not have to ask the Army or Navy for permission to buy.
General Requirements:
The Hyper-Enabled Operator: They want the "Iron Man" suit reality. Heads-Up Displays (HUDs) with augmented reality, biometric sensors that track operator stress/fatigue, and exoskeleton assist for load bearing.
Signature Management: The ability to operate without being detected electronically. They need radios that look like operational noise and digital camouflage that hides thermal signatures.
Edge Compute: AI running on a chip in a radio, identifying targets without needing to send data back to the cloud.
The Mission: Moving the Joint Force globally. They run the world's largest airline and shipping company.
General Requirements:
Digital Twins & Predictive Maintenance: They need to know a C-17 engine is going to fail before it takes off. They invest heavily in AI that analyzes vibration data to predict part failure.
Secure Supply Chain: Blockchain or immutable ledger tech to prove that a microchip in a tank wasn't swapped by an adversary during shipping.
Autonomous Lift: Heavy-lift cargo drones to move supplies the "last tactical mile" from a ship to a beach, keeping sailors out of harm's way.
The Mission: Strategic Deterrence (Nuclear Arsenal). The Strategic Focus: "Always, Never." The weapons must always work when called upon, and never work when not.
General Requirements:
NC3 (Nuclear Command, Control, and Communications): This is the highest standard of resilience. They need comms that can survive an Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) and function in a post-nuclear environment.
Advanced Modeling: Supercomputing to model nuclear effects and deterrence scenarios in a multi-polar world (Russia/China).
The Mission: Cyberspace superiority. The Strategic Focus: Defending the DoDIN (DoD Information Network) and "Hunting Forward."
General Requirements:
Zero Trust Architecture: Moving beyond firewalls to a model where no user or device is trusted, even inside the network.
Automated Remediation: AI that detects a cyber intrusion and patches the vulnerability instantly, faster than human reaction speed.
Offensive Cyber: Capabilities to disrupt adversary infrastructure (strictly classified, but a massive demand signal).
The Mission: Protecting US interests in space. The Strategic Focus: Space is no longer a sanctuary; it is a warfighting domain.
General Requirements:
Space Domain Awareness (SDA): "Space Traffic Control." They need to track thousands of debris operational satellites and debris objects. They need commercial data fusion to see what adversaries are doing in orbit.
Dynamic Space Operations: Satellites that can maneuver to avoid attacks or inspect other objects.
Alt-PNT: Navigation systems that allow the Joint Force to fight even if GPS satellites are destroyed.
The Alignment Playbook: Engaging the J8
Understanding the map is Step 1. Aligning with the J8 is Step 2. You do not win by emailing a pitch deck. You win by engineering a requirement.
Ghostwrite the Requirement: Don't pitch your product's features. Pitch how your product solves a "Capability Gap" identified in the COCOM's Posture Statement. Use their lexicon. If INDOPACOM asks for "Distributed Maritime Operations," do not pitch "Cloud Computing"—pitch "Edge-Resilient Data Fabrics for Distributed Fleets".
Target the Exercise: Every COCOM runs major exercises (e.g., Valiant Shield for INDOPACOM, Cyber Flag for CYBERCOM). The J8 uses these exercises to test new tech. Your goal is not a meeting; it is an invitation to participate in the exercise. If you work in the dirt, you get the data.
Find the JUON: Monitor government channels for Broad Agency Announcements (BAAs) that reference specific COCOM needs. If a JUON is released, speed is the only metric that matters.
The Combatant Commands are the arbiters of relevance. Aligning your technology with their urgent requirements is the most direct path to putting real capability into the hands of the warfighter. At DualSight, we provide the Mission Architecture Mapping to identify these demand signals and the Strategic Narrative Engineering to speak the language of the J8 Directorate.
