The Department of Defense (DOD) has been reengineering the way they integrate their war fighters, military platforms and command and control systems. One of the big elements of this effort is known as “Network-centric warfare”. Network-centric warfare basically means that the nodes of the network can find each other and exchange information in a manner that does not require a brittle (non-adaptive), high latency (slow), hierarchical communication channel.
Why?
During the first Gulf War one element of our military would sense the launch of a SCUD missile and based on its trajectory compute its geo-location. Using hierarchical command and control systems and the ATO (Air Tasking Order) processes in place, 24-48 hours later the shooter elements of our military would be tasked to respond. Unfortunately, this did not matter because the Iraqi Army understood this process all too well, so they moved their launch vehicles in less than two hours after each launch.
Network-centric warfare changed the game. During the second Gulf War sensor to shooter communications were non-hierarchical. These two elements could effectively exchange information in a more peer-to-peer fashion. This time lag between sensing and responding was now so diminshed that after any SCUD launch our military was able to retaliate against the launch vehicle in minutes, long before the vehicle was even able to retract its stabilization legs. Net effect -- each SCUD launch vehicle never launched twice.
Another important transformation made by the DOD Command Control and Communication (C3I) division was the notion of “posting before processing”. Prior to this radical change in thinking information was collected and routed to analysts for analysis and annotation before being posted and made available to the war fighter. Relying on “processing before posting” denied war fighters timely content. Imagine a Delta Force request for overhead imagery of the valley they will be encountering over the next ridge line. In the old model where processing occurred before posting, their request would often arrive too late (i.e., the target had moved on). In the new model where posting occurs first the Delta Force team can see the images as soon as they become available, make their own conclusions about them and rely on analyst annotation when necessary. In the network-centric environment enterprise sensor content is made available to the edges (e.g., the war fighter on the front lines), and immediately where possible.
Why this post first? I plan on blogging in a “post before processing” model. This means that I am going to post before perfecting my post. As such, I reserve the right to tinker with previous posts when seeking to improve the quality of my workmanship.
Net-centric warfare is the belated realization that whereas each of us can only act locally, with technology many of us can be aware globally. But that awareness is often useless because if I am too far from the place to do anything about it, what good is it? Net-centric strategy tries to close this loop by providing the 'local' (on-the-spot, boots-on-the-ground) person what he needs to work. This concept is relatively easy to understand when applied to objects with physical presence. The challenge ahead is how to apply it in cyberspace. Then, what and where you hit becomes real challenges.
Posted by: Francis Hsu | March 10, 2006 at 02:04 PM
Net-centric warfare is the belated realization that whereas each of us can only act locally, with technology many of us can be aware globally. But that awareness is often useless because if I am too far from the place to do anything about it
Posted by: eveisk | June 22, 2009 at 12:33 AM