NCW – the future is here

By CPL Andrew Hetherington

Further reading on NCW THERE are numerous books in existence which incorporate different levels and facets of Network Centric Warfare (NCW) into the text of the battles they describe. These four books allow the reader to put different aspects of NCW into the context of a military working environment at a variety of levels: Weapons of Choice: World War 2.1, by John Birmingham, 2004 Fiction. The Hunt For Red October, by Tom Clancy, 1984 Fiction. Black Hawk Down, by Mark Bowden, 1999 Non-Fiction. One Bullet Away, by Nathaniel Fick, 2005 Non-Fiction.

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 capability 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, GPCAPT 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.”

GPCAPT 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.

“The power of that is, an individual unit can also know where other blue force units are.”

GPCAPT 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 readers of the Defence Newspapers will find a different NCW brochure explaining more about NCW and how it affects them.

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.

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

 

 

 

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