Command and control concepts within the network-centric operations construct

As America and her allies enter the 21st Century's information age; military operations are being transformed to address the new threats facing the global economy, such as Global War on Terrorism (GWOT) and Joint Urban Operations (JUO). At the heart of this transformation is a new theory of warfare, called network centric warfare (NCW). This new theory can be subdivided into two main sections, infrastructure and operations. Network centric infrastructure (NCI) is comprised of all the networks, communications and information management applications required to "assure delivery" of data/information to the "right place at the right time in the right format". Network centric operations (NCO) is the series of processes and applications required by the commander and staff in order to conduct military operations at the strategic, operational, and tactical levels. To fully utilize NCO, the NCI must consist of a robust, adaptable series of services to ensure rapid dependable data/information flow from source to destination. This paper first provides an overview of NCW and its two basic sub-divisions, NCO and NCI. For NCW to be effective, it must be deeply rooted in operational art. Simply applying new technologies to the current platforms, organizations, and doctrine is not enough to fully realize NCW's potential in conducting military operations. To explore this premise, this paper discusses some of the challenges in transforming NCW into a real operational capability within the command and control (C2) environment, utilizing today's offensive and defensive information operations capability. Discussion of C2 applications such as predictive battlespace awareness, cyber operations, and a concept called the situational awareness infosphere is presented and how they apply to NCW. Lastly, a detailed example of how the situational awareness infosphere can be applied to space and how it is affected by NCW will be presented along with a corresponding list of technology challenges.