The Seven Deadly Sins of Network-Centric Warfare

by Thomas P.M. Barnett

If you're running short of quotable quotes, this TommyB fellow has a bucketful of goodies...

My favorite: [...] no node can be worth more than the connectivity it provides.

Tom's thinking is accessible to working stiffs like me who don't have a lot of time for critical thinking. Gosh, it feels good to be trusted with high level thinking. The whole thing's at:

http://www.geocities.com/ResearchTriangle/Thinktank/6926/7deadly.html

Thanks, Tom.

Critt

-- Critt Jarvis (critt@critt.com), August 26, 1999

Answers

First question: What is NCW? Disabling the enemies' networks? The use and defense of networked systems in our own defenses? Both of these? Something else?

-- Puddintame (achillesg@hotmail.com), August 26, 1999.

DOD now has embraced, at the highest levels, the concept of "network-centric warfare," in which tactical, intelligence and logistics information becomes as much a weapon for the warfighter as light arms or heavy armor, and combat units are ordered to battle from a desktop computer.

http://www.fcw.com/pubs/fcw/1997/1110/wp/wp-netcentric-11-1-1997.html

-- a (a@a.a), August 26, 1999.

See the tail end of Clancy's "Armored Cav" for some of the equipment and logistics on this. The rolling hardware is linked and networked via a number of means and the commander of the various levels have an electronic battlefield status report in their hands....

Chuck

-- Chuck, a night driver (rienzoo@en.com), August 26, 1999.

It all sounds very fancy, but as Dr. B. says, if the juice isn't flowing, it isn't going anywhere. DoD is, we have heard, far from remediated.

I was talking to a crash litigator last night about the GPS and he was saying that there is a move to make it the sole navigation system, which, we agreed, would be mighty foolish. His point was that some "enemy" could bring down one of the satellites easily enough....

-- Mara Wayne (MaraWayne@aol.com), August 26, 1999.

Rather partial to this quote... (right hand ... left hand... Y2K disconnect?)...

http://www.geocities.com/ResearchTriangle/Thinktank/ 6926/y2krep8.html

Conclusion #4--Y2K Will Demonstrate the Price of Secrecy and the Promise of Transparency "Those who are more open and transparent and share information more freely will do better with Y2K than those who hoard information, throw up firewalls, and refuse outside help. Secrecy will backfire in almost all instances, leading to misperceptions and harmful, stupidly self-fulfilling actions. Governments must be as open with their populations as possible, or suffer serious political backlashes if and when Y2K proves more significant for their countries than they had previously let on. People's fears about "invisible technology" will either be conquered or fed by how Y2K unfolds. This is a pivotal moment in human history: the first time Information Technology has threatened to bite back in a systematic way. In a very Nietzschean manner, Y2K will either "kill" us or make us stronger, and the balance of secrecy versus transparency will decide much, if not all, of that outcome."

"Our bottom line: The future is transparency--get used to it! "

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), August 26, 1999.

If you've already read the paper, you know he's not talking about Y2K.

However, does this concern sound relevant to current Y2K events?

What we may well end up with in some blossoming conflict is a "dialogue of the deaf" that precludes effective communication with the other side concerning conflict resolution ormore important avoidance of unnecessary escalation.

Just curious, you know?

Critt

-- Critt Jarvis (critt@critt.com), August 26, 1999.

Maria,

Very soon there will be two GPS systems in orbit...As it stands, the military adds a certain amount of "fuzzyness" to the signal to not allow extreme accuracy to all users. I can not recall the difference in accuracy for the military vs. civilian use and what the new system will offer in terms of reliability or resolution. Regards,

-- william holst (w_holst@hotmail.com), August 26, 1999.

Diane,

That (the quotation you include above) is one of the few statements in the report that jumped out at me.

Sincerely, Stan Faryna

-- Stan Faryna (info@giglobal.com), August 26, 1999.

The Navy seems to have made its decision already on GPS. The teaching of celestial navigation has been discontinued by the Naval Academy at Annapolis.

Ref.: http://catless .ncl.ac.uk/Risks/19.78.html#subj11 (scroll down to 'Navy')

Ref.: Dumbing Down the Navy (cached at Google.com)

-- Tom Carey (tomcarey@mindspring.com), August 26, 1999.