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NETWORK CENTRIC WARFARE
Our existing hierarchical structure, created long before IT
started making its impact, is unable to cope with our current
and future requirements. We will be at a great disadvantage
if we do not realize the value of networking as we move
towards the next millennium.
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- General VP Malik
INTRODUCTION
At the start of the new millenium we are driven to a new era of warfare. The emergence
of Information Technology (IT) is changing the society at an extremely rapid pace.
Naturally the fundamental changes happening all over would affect the very nature of
war and how we fight them. In this information age we are in the midst of a Revolution in
Military Affairs (RMA) which is being called as, “A fundamental shift from what we call
platform centric warfare to something we call network centric warfare.”
In the business world Information Technology is undergoing a fundamental shift from
platform centric computing to network centric computing. Platform centric computing
emerged with the widespread proliferation of Personal Computers (PC) in business and
at home. However, with the explosive growth of internet, intranet and Local Area
Networks personnel using these are well aware of Transmission Control
Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP), Hypertext Mark Up Language (HTML), Web
Browsers (such as Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator), Search Engines (like
Yahoo or Altavista) and JAVA Computing Architecture. These technologies combined
with high volume, high speed data access and high speed data networking using hubs
and routers have led to the emergence of network-centric computing. The business
world is shifting towards network-centric operations which are characterized by
information-intensive interactions between computational nodes on the network.
Whether these interactions are focused on commerce, education or military operations,
there is “value” which is derived from the content, quality and timeliness of information
moving between nodes on the network. Network centric warfare would give the military
the same advantages as is being accrued by the business world.
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In this information age it is already apparent that new levels of military effectiveness can
be achieved by networking together disparate sensors, weapons and command and
control systems. Rapid advances in information and related technologies allow military
forces to detect, identify and track a far greater number of targets over a larger area for
a longer time than ever before. Increasingly powerful information processing and
communication systems offer the ability to distribute this data more quickly and
effectively. The result is a dramatic improvement in the quality and quantity of
information that modern military organization can collect, process and disseminate.
