Science, Strategy and War The Strategic Theory of ... - Boekje Pienter

NCW, according to its advocates, is the emerging theory of war in the information age, aparadigm shift, and the military embodiment of Information Age concepts andtechnologies 118 . It has become the concept shaping the future of the US armed forces, andwith the agreement by NATO in 2002 to create the NATO Response Force and embark onmilitary transformation, it has also entered the debates among European militaries.NCW stands for a new way of warfare. It is a ‘set of warfighting concepts designedto create and leverage information’ 119 . The essence of NCW is captured in the followingdescription:the US is poised to harness key information technologies – microelectronics, datanetworking, and software programming – to create a networked force, using weaponscapable of pinpoint accuracy, launched from platforms beyond range of enemy weapons,utilizing the integrated data from all-seeing sensors, managed by intelligent commandnodes. By distributing its forces, while still being able to concentrate fires, the US militaryis improving its mobility, speed, potency, and invulnerability to enemy attack 120 .The network structure is essential, not specific weapon or support systems: ‘In NCW nosingle platform or sensor is the heart of the system’, the NCW Report to Congress states 121 .NCW derives its power from the strong networking of a well-informed but geographicallydispersed force 122 . NCW is ‘a useful shorthand for describing a broad class of approaches tomilitary operations that are enabled by the networking of the force’ 123 . And networking doesnot only imply technological connectivity. NCW goes deeper in that it maintains, likeArquilla and Ronfeldt’s studies, that reaping the maximum benefit of information age tools,organization, command and control philosophy and doctrine should also be radicallyadjusted:Networking is being used in its broadest sense to include the networking of informationrelatedprocesses and all other forms of collaboration among a better informed set ofparticipants[…] ‘Networking the force entails much more than providing connectivity amongforce components in the physical domain. It involves the development of doctrine andassociated tactics, techniques, and procedures that enable a force to develop and leverage aninformation advantage to increase combat power 124 .With explicit reference to Boyd’s OODA loop it notes that the advantage for forces thatimplement NCW lies in gaining and exploiting an information advantage. ‘NCW allows theforce to achieve an asymmetrical information advantage. NCW is predicated upondramatically improved capabilities for information sharing’ 125 . NCW capabilities allow a forceto attain an improved information position that can partially “lift the fog of war” and enable118 David Alberts, Information Age Transformation, Getting to a 21 st Century Military, (Department ofDefence, CCRP, Washington, D.C., June 2002), p.18.119 Ibid, p.7.120 David Gompert, Richard Kugler and Martin Libicki, Mind the Gap, Promoting a Transatlantic Revolutionin Military Affairs (National Defence University Press, Washington, D.C.,1997), p. 4.121 DoD Report to Congress on NCW (Department of Defence, CCRP, Washington, D.C., July 2001),p.vii.122 David S. Alberts, John J. Gartska, and Frederick P. Stein, Network Centric Warfare (Department ofDefence, CCRP, Washington, D.C., 1999), p.90.123 DoD Report to Congress on NCW, p.3-1.124 Ibid, pp.3-5 and 3-1.125 Ibid.309