In 1996,
Admiral William Owens introduced the concept of a '
system of systems' in a paper published by the Institute for National Security Studies in the United States. He described a system of intelligence sensors, command and control systems, and precision weapons that provided
situational awareness, rapid target assessment, and distributed weapon assignment. Also in 1996, the United States'
Joint Chiefs of Staff released
Joint Vision 2010, which introduced the military concept of
full-spectrum dominance. Full Spectrum Dominance described the ability of the
US military to dominate the
battlespace from peace operations through to the outright application of
military power that stemmed from the advantages of
information superiority.
Network Centric Warfare The term "network-centric warfare" and associated concepts first appeared in the United States Department of Navy's publication, "Copernicus:
C4ISR for the 21st Century." The ideas of networking sensors, commanders, and shooters to flatten the hierarchy, reduce the operational pause, enhance precision, and increase speed of command were captured in this document. As a distinct concept, however, network-centric warfare first appeared publicly in a 1998
US Naval Institute Proceedings article by
Vice Admiral Arthur K. Cebrowski and
John Garstka. However, the first complete articulation of the idea was contained in the book
Network Centric Warfare : Developing and Leveraging Information Superiority by
David S. Alberts, John Garstka and Frederick Stein, published by the
Command and Control Research Program (CCRP). This book derived a new theory of warfare from a series of case studies on how business was using information and communication technologies to improve situation analysis, accurately control inventory and production, as well as monitor customer relations. The
information revolution has permeated the military world as well, with network-centric warfare replacing traditional combat methods. Technology is now at the forefront of battlefields, creating a new era of warfare - network-centric. It's a new level of communication and coordination through what is known as tactical interoperability. From human soldiers to smart weapon systems, command & control systems, automatic sentry systems, and platforms on land, air, and space - all these elements are seamlessly connected in a single communication fabric, with encompass battle management systems for all services, catering to individuals from General HQs to soldiers on the field.
Understanding Information Age Warfare Network-centric warfare was followed in 2001 by
Understanding Information Age Warfare (UIAW), jointly authored by Alberts, Garstka, Richard Hayes of Evidence Based Research and David A. Signori of RAND.
UIAW pushed the implications of the shifts identified by network-centric warfare in order to derive an operational theory of warfare. Starting with a series of premises on how the environment is sensed,
UIAW describes three domains. The first is a
physical domain, where events take place and are perceived by sensors and people. Data emerging from the physical domain is transmitted through an
information domain. It is processed in a
cognitive domain before being acted upon. The process is similar to a
"observe, orient, decide, act" loop described by
Col. John Boyd of the
USAF.
Power to the Edge The last publication dealing with the developing theory of network centric warfare appeared in 2003 with
Power to the Edge, also published by the CCRP.
Power to the Edge is a speculative work suggesting that modern military environments are far too complex to be understood by any one individual, organisation, or even military service. Modern information technology permits the rapid and effective sharing of information to such a degree that "edge entities" or those that are essentially conducting military missions themselves, should be able to "pull" information from ubiquitous repositories, rather than having centralised agencies attempt to anticipate their information needs and "push" it to them. This would imply a major flattening of traditional military hierarchies, however.
Power To The Edge's radical ideas had been under investigation by
the Pentagon since at least 2001. In
UIAW, the concept of
peer-to-peer activity combined with more traditional
hierarchical flow of data in the network had been introduced. Shortly thereafter, the Pentagon began investing in peer-to-peer research, telling software engineers at a November 2001 peer-to-peer conference that there were advantages to be gained in the redundancy and robustness of a peer-to-peer
network topology on the battlefield. Network-centric warfare/operations is a cornerstone of the ongoing transformation effort at the Department of Defense initiated by former
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. It is also one of the five goals of the
Office of Force Transformation,
Office of the Secretary of Defense. See
Revolution in Military Affairs for further information on what is now known as "defense transformation" or "transformation". == Related technologies and programs ==