The agility imperative - a revelation in military affairs.indd

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the speed of those interactions, and you will understand how the speed of learning and adaptation in the battlespace itself has taken a quantum leap. So the military has realised that its battlespace is a nexus – a sort of smelting pot – for net sum interactions of the physical and cognitive realities of the battlespace. The adage ‘actions speak louder than words’ is not really a cry for kinetics but rather a cry for physical confirmation of a socially defined cognitive understanding. If you do it – you must mean it. So what are the key characteristics of a 21 st -century battlespace in my view? 1. Actions in modern warfare acquire meanings and understandings, while meanings and understandings require actions in modern warfare. In this regard the information age has expanded and speeded up the ‘meanings and understandings’ part beyond anything seen before in history. Roughly stated it is not just what you blow up that is important; it is its effect on the systems of systems context surrounding the why, how, when, where that determines the end value of the kinetic action. The action must be encased in the appropriate narrative perceived to be to your advantage. If not, though a certain physical action in the battlespace might be desired from a military standpoint, you might actually be shooting yourself in the foot politically, economically or socially with regard to perceptions of the action. The net worth of the action is therefore determined by the sum of effects in both the physical and cognitive realities of the battlespace. 2. The greater part of complexity and uncertainty in the modern battlespace comes from the interaction of multiple subjective contexts in one time and space. Or stated another way, if all belligerent parties in the battlespace had the same culture, norms, values and narrative histories – managing warfare in the information age would still likely be a relatively straightforward test of physical strength. So, there it is. Note the absence of any discussion as to conventionality versus unconventionality. As inferred earlier, this revelation is far deeper than competing (and somewhat deterministic) taxonomies of doctrine. As the chances of everyone suddenly enjoying each other’s company in a common constructed narrative of ‘mankind’ are not high for the foreseeable future, military efforts must focus on managing the challenges found in the first principle. It is based primarily on the need for speed and precision in knowledge development. It depicts a battlespace that is dynamic, subject to rapid transformations in time and space due to the speed of information flow. Action and perception can be as instantaneous as the streaming video or tweeting technology in use on the day will allow. It depicts a battlespace that demands agility. Battlespace agility ‘Battlespace agility’ is a war fighting concept that is simply defined as the speed at which the war fi ghting organisation is able to transform knowledge into actions for desired effects in a battlespace. It stems from a decade of NATO agility research and the application of conventional constructivist understandings in intelligence analysis and operational planning. At its very heart is the call for developing both the human and tech- 4
nical capabilities to learn and exploit knowledge of the battlespace faster than an opponent, the objective being to outpace, deceive, disrupt and if possible destroy the enemy’s Observe, Orient, Decide and Act (OODA) loop. If you destroy their OODA loop, you have effectively destroyed their ability to manage the interaction between the physical and the cognitive realities of the battlespace. When they take action, it will be perceived as the wrong one; when they decide on actions based on their perceptions, they will be based on the wrong understandings. As battlespace agility is itself a function of knowledge over time and space and in an age of split-second knowledge development, the onus of being agile starts with a competent military intelligence capacity continuously developing and presenting the commander with opportunities to exploit knowledge. It also requires a completely synthesised working relationship between operational planners and intelligence providers in order to be agile and responsive to the war fighting environment. And this agility must be trained so that the process of discovery and learning about the environment one finds oneself in (the Observe and Orient phases of OODA) is not lost through the constant hand feeding of scenarios for validation of existing organisation and doctrine. Battlespace agility requires that we stop trying to make the situation fit existing organisation and doctrine and focus on our ability to adapt the organisation and doctrine to the situation. Instead we should focus on building a military intelligence organisation that can observe and orient complex war fighting environments with good speed and precision. Instead we should train for the validation of the military organisation’s ability to observe, learn, adapt, innovate, respond, and change to exploit the situation. Agility is the imperative for war fighting in the 21 st century, and training to be agile is training to fight and win. Further reading Alberts, D. (2011) The Agility Advantage. Washington, DC: CCRP. Henrotin, J. & de Swielande, T. S. (2004) Ontological-Cultural Asymmetry and the Relevance of Grand Strategies. Journal of Military and Strategic Studies. 7 (2). 1-25. Libicki, M.C. and Johnson, S.E. (eds.) (1996) Dominant Battlespace Knowledge. April. Mann, P. (2001) Defence Reform Stresses Speed, Agility, Jointness. Aviation Week & Space Technology, 154 (25), 72. Mitchell, W. (2013) Battlespace Agility 201: The OODA Moment. Copenhagen: Royal Danish Defence College Press. NATO SAS-085, (Forthcoming 2013) Operationalizing Agility. Robinson, C.Jr. (2003) Military Marches Towards Agility. Signals Magazine. May. 5
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