Network centric warfare, a term that was in vogue a few years ago, has been rehabilitated by Admiral Gary Roughead, recently appointed to the important position of Commander, Fleet Forces Command, i.e., head of the Navys Atlantic and Pacific ship and air type commanders.
Admiral Roughead spoke at a three-day conference in Virginia Beach on 19–21 June, sponsored by the U.S. Naval Institute and the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association (AFCEA). Roughead took over the Fleet Forces Command on 17 May.
He said that U.S. warships need improved capabilities to detect contacts, process data, and distribute the information to other platforms. In an address at the transformation warfare conference, Admiral Roughead expressed concern that the fleet needs a better picture of what other ships and aircraft are at sea as well as in the underwater dimension.
Our strike groups are challenged in persistent surveillance today. And in 2010, I believe that were going to be suffering even more so in the area of persistent surveillance, he said. Maritime domain awareness is where it all begins. We cannot conduct the operations that we must if we dont have a good sense of whats out there, moving on, above or under the sea.
Admiral Roughead continued, We must take into account a network approach that goes from the sensor to the network to the weapons platform to the weapon itself and the decisions we make in each one of those must be integrated, he said. The war will be won and lost on the initial battles that take place on that network battleground. That is something that we must all be mindful of and ask ourselves the question, Are we prepared to fight in that environment?
He also said the latest in low-cost unmanned aerial vehicles, target recognition, and anomaly detection systems are needed for the future fleet.
We have some tremendous opportunities ahead of us. We have some great technologies there, he said. But I would submit that we have to maintain the focus on the war fighter and also look at how we come at the network solutions that are going to be so much a part of our future.
Some observers believe that Admiral Roughead is the most probable candidate to succeed Admiral Mike Mullen as Chief of Naval Operations. Mullen has been proposed as the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Roughead previously served as Commander U.S. Pacific Fleet and before that Deputy Commander U.S. Pacific Command. Before that he held major positions in the Atlantic Fleet.
Like Admiral Mullen , Admiral Roughead is a surface warfare specialist.
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Sounds like typical Surveillance Strike, RMAish stuff. The problem is that the Navy isn’t going to get a boatload of money for all this by tying it to GWOT. Surely they will begin playing up the China angle to justify implementation.
Well, it comes to this: you want to go to where they are, not where they’re not, and you REALLY don’t want to get blindsided while doing so.
Seems like a crucial force multiplier to me.
The concept and context of NetCentricity has been around for 20 years, just called another name. Strategic and tactical information has been shared to those with the “need to know” as long as we have had a military, just ask a current or previous warfighter that actually served on missions and received information. The first part of a solution is to actually listen to the warfighter, hear what they are saying they need (what works, what does not), understand the scope of the problem, and develop an update to what is currently in force or align technology to support their mission needs with current or future technology. Most plans encompass changing the world without an execution strategy, thus the reason for repeated failure. A cleaner, less complicated business approach may actually address the problem as specified by our warfighters.
Admiral liar!It can’t be that bad otherwise it wouldn’t have been bought!R&D…
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