WISDOM-II: A network centric model for warfare

Arising from fundamental changes in American society and business, military operations increasingly will capitalize on the advances and advantages of information technology.

The information age has given way to what many military experts are describing as the next major military advancement -Network Centric Warfare (NCW). At its core, NCW has as its objective the translation of information superiority to supreme combat power; providing unprecedented lethality, survivability, and situational awareness to battle commanders and battle staff. One of the challenges associated with effective NCW is the development of environments that provide accurate, relevant and timely information exchange to the right entities at the right time. Studies have shown that one of the keys to effective information exchange is the ability of teammates to anticipate the needs of other teammates and proactively take appropriate action. Outlined in this paper is an on-going research program between the US Army Research Laboratory (ARL) and Pennsylvania State University aimed at combating the battle command information exchange problem by combining the use of shared mental models with software agent technology.

Future Wars (futurewars.rspanwar.net), 2017

Network Centric Warfare (NCW) is an emerging theory of war in the Information Age. The term “network centric warfare” broadly describes the combination of strategies, emerging tactics, techniques and procedures, as well as organizations that a networked force can employ to create a decisive warfighting advantage. NCW provides a military the ability to attain a high level of shared battlespace awareness that is exploited to achieve strategic, operational, and tactical objectives in accordance with the commander’s intent. This write-up gives an overview of the origin, development and main characteristics of this 21st Century warfighting concept.

Naval War College Review, 2010

Future Wars (futurewars.rspanwar.net), 2017

In 21st Century warfare literature, the term “Network Centric Warfare/ Operations (NCW/ NCO)” is often used while discussing warfighting doctrines and transformational measures being taken towards modernising present-day militaries. However, there is often an inadequate understanding of this concept. Indeed, more often than not, the term is used synonymously with “networking”, whereas the concept is much deeper, and the connotations of acquiring net-centric capabilities pretty complex and far-reaching in nature. In this article, an attempt is made to throw some light on the core concept of NCW as propounded by its original authors.

This paper presents current and future uses of adaptive and mobile intelligent agents to increase the dependability of FORCEnet by improving networkcentric warfare in general, and the battlefield single integrated picture (SIP) in particular. In a dynamically changing environment, agents that monitor the battle space and facilitate knowledge management, can be instrumental in providing relevant information, which enables the achievement of a greater degree of Situational awareness for the entire network. This provides the achievement of dominant battle space knowledge over an adversary. Several applications of mobile and adaptive intelligent agents are described.

Future Wars (futurewars.rspanwar.net), 2018

While networks and information management are central to the concept of Network Centric Warfare (NCW), it is important to emphasize that NCW is essentially a Command & Control concept. Further, NCW is also related to the notions of Self-Synchronisation of forces, “Power to the Edge”, Effects Based Operations (EBO) and the concept of Agility. All of these are various facets of how command & control is effected on the battlefield. In this write-up, these ideas are stitched together and discussed.

Future Wars (futurewars.rspanwar.net), 2018

In an earlier two-part write up on “The Changing Nature of Warfare”, it was brought out how, over the centuries, warfare has undergone significant transformation due to new discoveries and innovative application of technologies, and how these inventions and discoveries have resulted in dramatic changes in military doctrine as well as operational and organisational concepts. In another post titled “21st Century Warfare: From ‘Battlefield’ to ‘Battlespace’,” the complex nature of the “arena” in which 21st century warfare is conducted, was examined. In this piece, an attempt is made to analyse the concept of Network Centric Warfare (NCW) as it relates to warfighting and battlespace concepts which have been discussed earlier.

2005

Contending that phenomena seldom have an a priori point of origin, this monograph, organized around four themes - complexity and non-linearity, the technologisation of discourse, the phenomenon of networks and the evolution of two orders of strategy – offers a genealogical account of Network-Centric Warfare. These four themes, coupled with the unprecedented rise of information technologies, are indicative of the multi-sited emergence of Network-Centric Warfare and are discussed in some detail. A significant sub-text of the monograph focuses on the emerging importance of ‘information’ in an increasingly networked society. Has the nature of warfare, indeed its very conceptualization, changed? How has the emergence of the concept of the ‘network’ influenced the understanding and conduct of war? Is Network-Centric Warfare a ‘new kind of warfare’? What does it mean to ‘become dangerous’ in the context of Network-Centric Warfare? Is the emergence of Network-Centric Warfare signaling a shift from the Foucauldian concept of ‘disciplinary societies’ to the Deleuzian concept of ‘control societies’? These are some of the issues that this monograph addresses.

The Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA) in the last decade has affected the way we live, work and fight. Advancements in the information age, coupled with the ongoing RMA, are poised to make a dramatic impact over automation, network centricity and communication security. Net-Centric Warfare (NCW) is an established theory of war that seeks to translate the gains of information gathered into a competitive war-fighting advantage through the robust networking of geographically dispersed forces. NCW is the military’s expression of information age warfare and its impacts across all the levels of war, and can be viewed as a war-fighting concept based on the premise that networking enables leveraging relevant information to maximise the mission effectiveness of diverse and geographically separated military capabilities