Prussia did not like its neighbor, Austria. So in 1852, Prussia mobilized its army against Austria. It was an embarrassment. But about two decades later, it mobilized again against Austria with such speed and effectiveness that the war's outcome was decided in Prussia's favor. What made the difference? Networks: railroad and telegraph. They were not the only reasons, but they were big reasons. Since then, these and other networks have enabled quantum leaps in capabilities. Today, the digital network is becoming king, and it, too, promises another big leap. But what can one big digital network—or network centricity—bring to defense?
If you still doubt networks have made a difference, consider a few more examples. In 1863, railroad and telegraph networks enabled the Union Army to move some 20,000 troops from Culpepper, Virginia, to Chattanooga, Tennessee—a distance of 1,233 miles—in 11 days, the longest and fastest movement before the 20th century. In 1940, the radio network tied together German forces in a blitz across the same ground that had seen trench warfare two decades prior, this time shattering the French Army in a week. The radio network enabled big change in naval warfare. Before radio, opposing fleets had a hard time finding and engaging each other on the high seas. Consequently, most naval battles occurred close to coasts, where ports were located. But radio networks enabled cruisers and eventually aircraft to scout the seas for enemy fleets and helped mass forces against them. It also became the glue that held together amphibious operations, in which air, land, and sea forces worked closely to gain access to a hostile shore.
Networks have enabled quantum leaps in capabilities because they rapidly move things to those who can use them. The bigger the network, the more it empowers. Today, it is the digital network that rules, moving information in volumes and speeds that far surpass any means to date. This network already has changed the battle space. In Afghanistan, a networked force was able to hit moving targets within minutes—a dramatic improvement over the hours and days required in Operation Desert Storm. In the 2003 Iraq war, a distant combatant commander watched a digitized map of Baghdad depicting the real-time movement of U.S. forces. "I've just died and gone to heaven," stated General Tommy Franks. "I've seen the first bit of network-centric work that has ever been experienced by the highest level of operational command."
Now it is a matter of networking the rest of defense. "Transformation of our military capabilities depends upon our ability to transform the department that runs the military," states Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. The Department of the Navy is stepping up to this challenge. Its Navy-Marine Corps Intranet and ForceNet will deliver effectiveness and efficiency through a global network integrated into joint capabilities.
There are two major obstacles to a coherently networked defense establishment. The first is what some call computing's original sin. In the beginning, little thought was given to computers talking to each other, and many spoke different languages. When they were linked, it was done haphazardly and from the bottom up. The Department of the Navy is a case in point. Before the Navy-Marine Corps Intranet was initiated in 2000, the department had 1,000 different shore networks with more than 100,000 programs. Some commands could not e-mail each other.
The second obstacle is tougher. It is cultural. Not everyone liked the railroad, telegraph, radio, or even interstate highway networks. They upset the status quo. That is the case today with network centricity in defense—many still do not understand it. Yet, widespread buy-in is needed to make change happen.
Network centricity brings the ability to do six things faster and better: correlation of data, common views, collaborating on experiences, corporate actions, continuous learning, and security. Their cumulative effect translates to better decisions, more effective actions, and more efficient support.
Correlation of Data
An individual uses a credit card in Paris for the first time. When the transaction moves across the credit card company's data grid, it is matched to past behavior and the Paris transaction is noted as an "exception." The company immediately contacts the real card holder to verify whether the Paris transaction is proper.
The power of correlation is at work today. The network can amass data from multiple sensors, match it against linked databases, and detail an entity faster and often more accurately than can humans. Such data correlation is occurring within the battle space.
Wider data correlation has huge implications for challenges ahead. Data on terrorists or defectors can be correlated against sources and databases, providing information on identity, movements, and intent. Broad data correlation means a big change for logistics, too. Technology is presenting radio frequency identification tags that report merchandise status via networks, tracking it in transit, keeping inventory, reporting sales, and prompting resupply. Such data correlation is the enabler for sense-and-respond logistics.
Common Views
In the first Gulf War, commanders and staff developed battlespace pictures by taking radio reports and plotting positions on maps with grease pencils. In the second Gulf War, a seamless network provided a common picture to Army and Marine Corps forces, allowing them to work together and track each others' progress.
The digital network does more than just collect and sort data. It fuses data from multiple sources into a picture—the more sensors in the network, the better the picture. The network then displays it to all users for common viewing. It does this quickly and continuously, replacing slower and more error-prone human processing.
How do common views contribute to quantum leaps in capabilities? Initially, they mean faster and broader awareness of "ground truth"—the facts and issues surrounding a given situation. Ultimately, they enable better analysis across an organization, and thus better decisions. The quest now is to widen the network and improve such views, and not just geographic ones. Such common pictures can portray medical, logistics, personnel, and fiscal logic. Common views will break down stovepipes not only between organizations, but within them, as well.
Collaborating on Experiences
Before the 1st Marine Division landing at Guadalcanal, time and distance prevented some key officers from attending the final planning conference on the USS Saratoga (CV-3). Sixty years later, this same division used video teleconferencing to coordinate its advance on Baghdad, often over hundreds of miles and in up to nine locations.
The battle knowledge of many helps beget battlespace awareness. Many people collectively analyzing a complex issue provide insights toward an optimal solution. This collaboration also stimulates new ideas that otherwise would not occur. In addition, it helps establish, synchronize, and align priorities.
The network provides common views as the basis for collaboration. Then it moves people's experiences, insights, and images across distances. That can be done by teleconferencing as well as—aided by white boarding—chat rooms and instant messaging. Such virtual collaboration speeds and improves decision making and enhances needed synchronization, keeping it within the time lines needed for action.
Corporate Actions
Until the 1880s, America had six railroad gauges (standards for the distance between the rails); consequently, most railroads operated regionally. With acceptance of a common gauge, railroads integrated into a single network, moving people and cargo across the country. Towns synchronized their operations, even changing "local time" to this continental network, and thus transformed the United States into a real union.
The digital network is likely to change corporate actions in unexpected ways. Many organizations have been hierarchical, issuing directions from on high. In the future, a coherently networked organization may perceive challenges and subordinate needs differently. The edge of the organization will be empowered, and command increasingly will mean rationalizing the corporate directive with alternatives presented from the edge.
Continuous Learning
Power lies in our people. If they stand still intellectually, others will gain. They must rapidly learn and translate what they learn into action—the ultimate competitive advantage. That is how corporations use enterprisewide networks. If Coca-Cola marketers are looking to introduce a new product in South Africa, they can use an on-line tool called Information for Marketing, or Inform, to learn how that product was launched in Thailand.
Defense must do the same. Ships' officers must be able to reach back for information on harbor operations in foreign ports. A nurse in Afghanistan should be able to access on-line medical manuals and expert advice. Aviation mechanics should be able to get virtual training in new avionics. The Navy's Transformation in Training initiative is embracing continuous learning. The Defense Department's recent Training Transformation Implementation Plan calls for on-line training systems so deployed forces "have the ability to sustain readiness through training and rehearsal, regardless of location or length of deployment." Now it is a matter of making it happen. The quantum leap will be a highly adaptive defense organization.
Security
Our greatest challenge is protecting information from loss, destruction, and spoof. Security ensures setbacks do not happen after quantum leaps occur. We always have been concerned about intruders entering a network connection and exploiting the system—and they have done it. The recent Blaster worm and So-Big viruses, which wreaked worldwide economic damage, are but harbingers of more sophisticated threats. We now face "bad acting codes" hiding in a vendor's software that can attack after installation. New viruses, self-perpetuating worms, and other network attacks could barrage a network endlessly and prevent its use. Such cyberattacks might be used to widen the damage of a physical attack and diminish timely responses.
Consolidating networks helps defend against such threats. Prior to the Navy merging its networks into the Navy-Marine Corps Intranet, security varied with each, and in many cases was poor. There was little hope of uniform security among these many divergent systems. Security was built into the Navy-Marine Corps Intranet from the beginning.
"Possibly the single most transforming thing in our force will not be a weapon system, but a set of interconnections and a substantially enhanced capability because of that awareness," Secretary Rumsfeld recently stated. That interconnectivity will come from coherently networking defense. It will provide wider correlation, actions from common understandings, collaboration, realization of corporate potential, and continuous learning. It also will contribute to better security.
Ultimately, all that means a quantum leap in capabilities, both in and beyond the battle space. We will decide better and act faster, with a significant reduction in frictions and with improvements in efficiency and productivity. Just as past networks did, the digital network will allow us to do things never before possible. The bottom line for the services is that the expanded network will enable us to keep winning.
Rear Admiral Munns is director of the Navy-Marine Corps Intranet.
DOD
Networked digital images, such as this April 2003 photograph of the Iraqi regime's command and control facility at Saddam International Airport, were beamed back and forth across the globe to allow commanders to make targeting decisions in minutes.
Today, the digital network is doing that on a grander scale. People act locally, but the network ties their actions to global purposes. The networks have become digital nervous systems for widely distributed organizations, allowing them to marshal and coordinate activities as fast as an individual can focus on an issue. The value added is not just faster corporate action; it is reduced friction, greater efficiency, and increased effectiveness—as seen in companies such as FedEx and Wal-Mart.
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