ISSUE 150 : Sep/Oct - 2001 - Australian Defence Force Journal

Australian Perspectives on Network CentricWarfare: Pragmatic Approaches withLimited Resources19Ed Kruzins and Jason ScholzThe term Network Centric Warfare (NCW) describes the concept proposed by the US Navy todescribe the paradigm shift central to the revolution in US naval affairs. 1 It is defined as a conceptof operations that generates increased combat power by networking sensors, decision-makers andshooters to achieve shared awareness and synchronised activity. The emergent properties of sharingresults in increased speed of command, higher tempo of operations, greater lethality and increasedsurvivability.Australia is determining its own response to NCW, which it terms “network enabled warfare”(NEW). NEW necessarily seeks jointness with our three Services and is also being seen as amechanism for seeking a Joint capability focus. The development of a joint C4ISREW environmentis an important staging point for NEW.In this article we describe the current activities and mechanisms being undertaken to seek NEWwithin the Australian Defence Organisation (ADO) and suggest some new perspectives forrepresenting NEW and the acquisition process for supporting it.IntroductionAdmiral W. Owens while serving as VC ofthe US Joint Chiefs of Staff noted thatsuperior technologies were emerging in threeareas: Intelligence, Surveillance andReconnaissance systems (ISR), Command,Control, Communications and Computingsystems (C4) and systems involving Targetingand Weaponry. 2,3 Networking these is enablingthe creation of new types of information-basedrelationships. The shift to an information basisto warfighting also heralds the shift fromplatform enabled to network enabledoperations.The ADO has recognised that a NEWapproach will raise organisational, training anddoctrinal issues that will need to be effectivelyanalysed and overcome to maximise thepotential inherent in the network enabledparadigm. This raises a resource allocationproblem for NEW investment decisions whichmust be analysed.An approach is to weigh upon themeasures of effectiveness for the warfightingadvantages promised by NEW to compare costeffectiveness, however this only makes sense ifwe balance advantage with potentialsusceptibility as a result of networkingpreviously un-networked systems.Potential Advantages to:• Battlespace Awareness;• Agility/Manoeuvre;• Lethality;• Synchronisation;• Engagement Diversity;• Operational Tempo; and• Decision Speed.Potential Susceptibilities:• Emergent unforeseen network and nodeinteractions;• Multiple enemy attack points;• Increased enemy stand off range;• Selectable precision of enemy attack; and• Difficulty in identifying attacker andresponding proportionally.It is obvious that we could reduce foreseensusceptibilities by the adequate engineering of