Air Power, Insurgency and the “War on Terror” - Prof. Joel Hayward's ...

Starting with a Blank Sheet: Principles of War for a New Century
such weapons. After all, given our failure to locate accurately such weapons <strong>and</strong> facilities
in Iraq – a country subjected to intelligence over-flights <strong>and</strong> UN inspectors prowling <strong>the</strong>
ground for a decade – how can we claim with a straight face that our intelligence tells us
where such targets exist in closed societies that we can monitor only from a distance?
7. Netcentricity. Related to <strong>the</strong> principles above, this concept refers to <strong>the</strong> increasing
necessity to link toge<strong>the</strong>r, on a global basis <strong>and</strong> in real time, <strong>the</strong> various intelligencega<strong>the</strong>ring
sensors <strong>and</strong> C2 links that are deployed around <strong>the</strong> world. The linkage of
aircraft with air <strong>and</strong> space-based sensors <strong>and</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r C2 assets, worldwide <strong>and</strong> virtually
instantaneously, using machine-to-machine interfaces, has happened. In Afghanistan
<strong>and</strong> Iraq, for example, UAVs were “flown” by pilots at consoles at airbases in <strong>the</strong> US. That
is world war in real time.
One of <strong>the</strong> dominant <strong>the</strong>mes of modern war is speed. Everything happens faster than
even a decade ago. The greatest venue for this revolution in speed takes place in air,
space <strong>and</strong> cyberspace. “Near-real time” is a phrase used increasingly in air operations
centres to denote <strong>the</strong> requirement for intelligence <strong>and</strong> communications almost as soon
as an incident occurs. A former USAF chief of staff went fur<strong>the</strong>r <strong>and</strong> argued that reaction
time must be similarly rapid; he referred to <strong>the</strong> capability of seeing a target, analyzing its
importance <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong>n neutralizing it as “one time of flight.” 486 In o<strong>the</strong>r words, he wanted
planners, comm<strong>and</strong>ers <strong>and</strong> aircrew to see, decide <strong>and</strong> act in seconds; <strong>the</strong> length of time
necessary for a weapon to travel from <strong>the</strong> air to <strong>the</strong> ground.
Such a capability is not a pipe dream: operations in Afghanistan <strong>and</strong> Iraq have shown an
increasing ability to employ force with tremendous speed. Indeed, one of <strong>the</strong> problems in
Afghanistan was that sensors <strong>and</strong> aircrew were not usually <strong>the</strong> limiting factor in putting
weapons on target. Ra<strong>the</strong>r, <strong>the</strong> reason for delay in <strong>the</strong> kill cycle was often human; <strong>the</strong> time
necessary to make a decision based on a deluge of intelligence data. The problem was not
a dearth of information – a problem in times past– but <strong>the</strong> need for comm<strong>and</strong>ers to sift
through <strong>the</strong> abundance of information <strong>and</strong> rapidly arrive at an appropriate decision. 487
One of <strong>the</strong> major reasons for this need to pause was <strong>the</strong> increasing necessity to ensure <strong>the</strong>
target struck was <strong>the</strong> correct one <strong>and</strong> that minimal collateral damage would occur when
it was hit (concerns that will be discussed in more detail below).
The dem<strong>and</strong> for speed has in turn necessitated that sensors from all services, sources,
venues <strong>and</strong> mediums be linked toge<strong>the</strong>r <strong>and</strong> disseminated to <strong>the</strong> appropriate users at
all levels virtually instantaneously. Art Cebrowski, a retired admiral who ran <strong>the</strong> office of
Transformation in <strong>the</strong> US Defense Department until his death in 2005, was <strong>the</strong> individual
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<strong>Air</strong> <strong>Power</strong>, <strong>Insurgency</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> “War on Terror”