This war in Iraq was launched on a theory: That, with the right communication and reconnaissance gear, American armed forces would be quicksilver-fast and supremely lethal. A country could be conquered with only a fraction of the soldiers needed in the past.
During the initial invasion in March 2003, this idea of “network-centric warfare” worked more or less as promised — even though most of the frontline troops weren’t wired up. It was enough that the commanders were connected.
But now, more than three years into the Iraq conflict, the network is still largely incomplete. Local command centers have a torrent of information pouring in. For soldiers and marines on the ground, this war isn’t any more wired that the last one. “There is a connectivity gap,” a draft Army War College report notes. “Information is not reaching the lowest levels.”
And that’s a problem, because the insurgents are stitching together a newtwork of their own. Using throwaway cellphones and anonymous e-mail accounts, these guerrillas rely on a loose web of connections, not a top-down command structure. And they don’t fight in large groups that can be easily tracked by high-tech command posts. They have to be hunted down in dark neighborhoods, found amid thousands of civilians, and taken out one by one.
David Axe — recently back from his 6th trip to Iraq — and I have a special report in this month’s Popular Science, on “Winning (and Losing) the First Wired War.” Give it a read. And see how this network-centric ideal is playing out, for real.
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Winning (and Losing) the First Wired War
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I got that issue the other day great read by Noah and Axe worth picking up for anyone who hasnt read it.
Good Morning Noah,
Your article in PS as I said before, is great. My problem with it is that it’s all old news. All the C4 problems that you and David talk about in the June 2006 issue of PS have been happening since the War in Iraq begain.
In Afghanistan it appears more and more everyday that the U.S. is managing to pull defeat out of the jaws of victory, again. The Taliban have had three years to be educated by there brothers in Iraq, they are learning well.
The return of the Taliban should come as no surprise to anybody since we had Mullah Omar in a shipping container and then released him in 2002.
Catch and release is good in Bass fisning, bad in war.
ALLONS,
Byron Skinner
I have to ask though, what’s new?
“Information is not reaching the lowest levels.”
That’s been happening since the dawn of time, it seems. I mean you ask any WWII or I vet how the information downflow was, and they may respond, “Information? What information?”
It was never, has never, but hopefully will be a priority for the Pentagon to get on the ball about their information.
Did these clowns sleep through U.S History class? Well, yeah, they probably did, but anyone who was even minimally conscious remembers that the Revolutionary War was won by the guys who hid behind walls and snuck up on the enemy (that would be us) and not the guys with the big state-of-the-art military (that would be Britian). Those who do not remember hisotry, yada, yada, yada.
Sound awfully like another case of Server-Client vs Peer-to-peer…
“…the Revolutionary War was won by the guys who hid behind walls and snuck up on the enemy (that would be us) and not the guys with the big state-of-the-art military (that would be Britian).”
Don’t mistake Walt Disney’s version of the American Revolution for the real thing. Remember von Steuben, Pulaski, Kosciusko and the other foreign generals who came to the colonies to help in the war effort? They trained the Continental Army in conventional 18th-century battle tactics. Our side did not fire on the redcoats nearly as often as you might think from watching “Johnny Tremain.”
Uh, I meant to say “our side did not fire on the redcoats from behind rocks and trees and fences…”
Trafficgeek has it absolutely right. It’s an example of a rigid hierarchy being torn to pieces by a million small bites from a distributed, decentralized mycelium network.
For more on that subject, check out john robb @
globalguerrillas.typepad.com. In my opinion, he’s the foremost expert on modern insurgencies.
Sounds to me like a simple case of trying to use a system before it’s ready. When the system’s not actually in place on the ground, you can’t expect it to function as advertised.
Can you provide particulars on the ‘draft Army War College report’ as a Google search does not turn it using the phrases “There is a connectivity gap” and “Information is not reaching the lowest levels.”
The Intel/Cmmunications Sciences are still as in VietNam , at the end of a long money chain in Washington D.C.When did we decide as a nation to not attack the perpetraitors of 911 ? USAma is Arab, as are the Wahabiests sect . They attacked us in two distinct Decades , at the World Trade Center. Politics by one Party dictated tied hands of one President,Clinton , and Money seems the issue tied into the Current President and Pentagon effort. SEND Congress and Presidents of War Supplies Corporations to IRAQ , let the reality effect guide their efforts.The attacks on America were not humane , just human. We need not bother being humane in War. That thinking bankrupted Americaalready, and is doing it again. Kill them all , let GOD sort out the mistakes.
Combat Bob-RVN , etc.
All right…
“Combat Bob”…do you have anything coherent to say? You can *try* to flame me, but chances are, anything you have to say will come across as so much drivel…however, I think it would be amusing if you tried. Let it rip, you monkey-brained fool!
Ok, ok, ok…
I’ll give you guys what you think you know you are talking about…Google the term “asymmetric warfare”. If you are really talented, you can look put “netwar” at the Rand website, read a few of the free publications (written a while ago), then, once again, act like you have a clue about what you are speaking about…talk amongst yourselves now…
Good Morning Angr,
It’s not easy comming up with thoughts how to solve the same stupidity reappearing problems after you express themselves numerious times. But here we go again.
The Military is still locked into the same band withs that won WWII, it’s time to change. The problem is the “selected contractors” such as Harris who have made a bundle off trying to make a system that is backward compatable with digital technonogly.
It is noted that Harris got the contract for the ATC in Afghanistan with a system that is compatable with fifty year old Russian technology, which by the way is also widely used by the Talaban and al Qaeda when they want ot ease drop on the U.S.
The bad guys now hear all the ATC chatter and the number of downed U.S. aircraft in Afghanistan has dramaticaly increased lately.
The reason for this given by the Pentagon is that there are over 500K Radios in the DoD and the cost of total conversion to to much.
Our ground forces are using every thing from the vintage ANPRC 25 (Vietnam Era) to the Harris build ANPRC 119B, it must be noted that both have the same 6km. range at best but they do share the same band with.
The solution is again, scrap the old bandwiths and go digital, amps is no solution to the problem. Maybe then a Platoon Leader in al Sar City on patrol can use an issued transcceiver to communicate with his/her company commander rather the a $29.99 per pair Wal-Mart Motorla Special.
But we all know this won’t happen as long as Harris, and now General Dynamics who has come up to the feed bucket, and other defense Contractors keep hiring former DoD personal both uniformed and Civilian to jobs that pay three times what they were making in public service.
I hope that you are not one of the turnstyle Patroits linning their own pocket with the blood of Americans dieing in Afghanistan and Iraq because of their greed.
ALLONS,
Byron Skinner
Gentlemen,
I flew UAV’s in Iraq as a Guardsman and there is the other side of the coin, too much actionable intelligence, laziness or lack of understanding. The Army in particular is very regimented and hierarchical. I am a low rank, but have a Masters in the civilian world and when I found something, or wanted to go the extra mile to catch someone, or knew something about the system that the Officer’s didn’t, I was looked at like, “Who the hell are you,” and disregarded. The military especially with the new technology needs to become more flexible and open to new ideas.