By
Michelle Sullivan
WITH the issuing of the Networkcentric Warfare
Road Map pamphlet in late March, ADF personnel will be able to
understand concepts that will guide the future ADF.
The Deputy Director of the Directorate of Future Warfi ghting,
Lieutenant Colonel Mick Ryan said the concepts – robust linkage
of the land, air, maritime, information and space battlefi elds,
shared situational awareness, profi ciency of the decision-action
cycle, synchronisation and interoperability – promoted force agility
and flexibility.
Network-centric Warfare (NCW) would give the ADF numerous tactical
options and the ability to conduct simultaneous operations, which
targeted multiple sites of adversarial weakness.
LTCOL Ryan said NCW would not be just a computer network linking
mission information between decision-makers at the strategic,
operational and tactical levels.
He said while it focused on battlespace visibility and the context
of the strategic environment in which it operated, a networked
force had to assume a changing strategic environment would be
increasingly compounded by the “fog and uncertainty” of war.
NCW would exploit new and emerging technology to enhance multi-dimensional
visibility.
“It offers opportunities for the ADF to understand and manipulate
the various dimensions of the battle space and strategic environment
enabling multidimensional manoeuvre,” he said.
This enhanced awareness promotes and exploits collaboration, providing
commanders with a broader range of options to achieve effects-based
objectives.
“Despite any advancement in technological prowess, warfare will
remain a human activity and force planners must avoid focusing
on technological capabilities at the expense of human ones,” he
said.
The various dimensions of NCW would require thorough analysis
in coming years, including the risks of an overly technical focus,
information overload, mission-command micromanagement, network
vulnerability, and commanders aspiring to an unattainable level
of battlefi eld visibility.
“It offers profound opportunities for the ADF and will be a tool
for understanding how our future ‘seamless force’ might be enabled,”
LTCOL Ryan said.
For more information, visit the future concepts web site at:
http://defweb.cbr.defence.gov.au/milstrat/pga/MS/DFWC/new%20home.htm
on the Defence intranet.
