NCW – the future is here

Conceptual image shows the inter-relationships between sea, land and air forces in a Network Centric Warfare environment. Image courtesy of BAE Systems Australia

Photo by LAC Euan Grant

Photo by Lt Ian Lumsden

Photo by AB Justin Brown

All about people: The technology is there to assist people to make quicker and better decisions. Photo by Sgt Darren Hilder

By Cpl Andrew Hetherington

“At the end of the day, Network Centric Warfare is all about people-centric warfare...what it is about is technology enabling people to do things faster and do things better.”

- ACM Angus Houston, CDF

DEFENCE is moving towards being a more networked and integrated force as a part of the ADFs Network Centric Warfare (NCW) concept.

The recently released NCW Roadmap 2005 by the Chief of the Capability Development Group (CCDG) outlines the ADF’s future NCW capability requirements, its current capabilities and how the future NCW capabilities requirements will come about.

Then there is the question of what is NCW? A Google search on the topic receives 391,000 results for the query. It is a current, well discussed and popular topic worldwide. In addition to the many Google entries a booklet Explaining NCW will be released this month by Defence as the first significant guide to coordinate a common understanding of NCW within the ADF.

The NCW concept states: “NCW is a means of organising the ADF’S forces by using modern information technology to link sensors, decision makers and weapon systems to help people work more effectively together to achieve the commander’s intent. It is a tool that can contribute significantly to producing a warfighting advantage.”

NCW makes a major contribution to this warfighting advantage by increased synchronisation through the four major and interdependent elements of command and control systems (the C2 grid), sensor systems (the sensor grid), engagement systems (the engagement grid) and the network (the information network).

Defence sees NCW as a way of structuring itself so that people can take advantage of information and ultimately increase joint force combat power.

Essentially NCW has two dimensions, these being the network dimension and the human dimension. The network dimension is the way different platforms, firepower and headquarters are linked. The human dimension recognises that the network includes people and people make decisions and fight in the battlespace.

These two dimensions are brought together through networking.

The Director of Network Centric Warfare Implementation, Gp-Capt Ian Meyn, said NCW was essentially about technology assisting people to enable them to make better and quicker decisions.

“Too many people unfortunately get confused, as they believe NCW is just about the technology, it is not, it is also about people as well,” he said.

“I would prefer to have well-trained people with a less capable network, rather than have the best network and poorly trained people. The network can’t adapt but people can.”

Gp-Capt Meyn, while serving as Chief of Staff of the Australian National HQ in the Middle East during Operation Falconer, experienced working first hand in an NCW environment and has seen the benefits it brings to military operations. He has used the US forces Blue Force Tracker system.

“On my desk I was able to open my laptop and I could see on the screen where all of the Blue Force units were on land, sea and in the air,” he said. “Where the power of that is, that an individual unit can also know where other blue force units are.”

Gp-Capt Meyn said we have to be aware that we are not going to have a button that will be pressed and all of the technology will appear and so will a NCW environment.

“It is about a convergence of equipment, technology and training which will be introduced over time and will continue to be introduced gradually leading up to the year 2020,” he said.

“NCW is bringing all of the new equipment and technologies together, such as GPS, Wedgetail aircraft and UAVs. It will take some time for this to occur.”

“It has to be remembered that we are not building an NCW; we are actually building a better Defence Force, which is enabled by NCW.

“The ADF has adopted the NCW concept because it is one way of enabling the ADF to make sure that its speed of decision is faster than that of its enemies.”

Defence is serious about the implementation of NCW and has established a NCW program office within Capability Development Group to better integrate Defence Capability Plan projects into an NCW architecture.

Also the creation of a Rapid Prototyping Development and Evaluation Program known as RAPID brings together Defence and industry in an innovative and collaborative way to accelerate the insertion of NCW capabilities into the ADF. An education program on NCW started with the NCW Roadmap 2005 and continues with the booklet Explaining NCW.

Over the next few months, three NCW brochures will be inserted in Army to explain more about NCW.

Each and every one of us, as members of Defence, has an important part to play as the changes are made to link people and technology into a networked force. The three NCW brochures are a good start to understanding NCW.

Further information as well as the links to publications such as Explaining NCW is available at http://intranet.defence.gov.au/CDGWeb/Sites/NCWI/.

Due to the convenience and efficiency provided to the consumer, EFTPOS and BPAY®, have gained universal acceptance. Over time, using them has become second nature.

Electronic banking: an illustrative example

UP until the 1970s, people paid for purchases using either cash or cheques. Credit card use has only become popular over the last 30 years.

Automatic teller machines did not exist in Australia 25 years ago and facilties for electronic funds transfer at the point of sale (EFTPOS) only became available in the late 1980s.

Due to the convenience and efficiency provided to the consumer, EFTPOS and BPAY®, have gained universal acceptance. Over time, using them has become second nature.

There is no single date as to when this change to electronic banking occurred. The development and evolution of technology such as the Internet have in themselves taken decades and will continue to evolve.

The point is that a whole variety of technology, skills and attitudes have all converged, across a relatively short period of time, to produce a relatively rapid change to the way buying products is done.

NCW is a lot like the change to electronic banking: