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The joint forces air command problem: is network-centric warfare the answer?
Naval War College Review, Wntr, 2003 by Major William A. Woodcock
Training, however, as we have pointed out, is one of the most pressing shortcomings of air component command. The level of skill in the command and control of aerospace power is presently inadequate. (30) Here again, network-centric concepts would bring in a new era.
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The current effort in the Air Force to eliminate the expertise problem is the "AOC as a Weapons System" program. (31) The concept is to make the training of members of centers mirror that given for weapon systems, such as fighters and bombers. AOC staffs will be required to maintain complex qualifications commensurate with their wartime roles. Presently, initial training is given at the Command and Control Warriors School, a division of the Command and Control Training Innovations Group at Hurlburt Field, Florida. (32) Final mission-qualification training is accomplished within the assigned air operations centers. The current major deficiency is fidelity; interactions with agencies that are geographically distant or not manned in peacetime must be simulated. Network-centric organization, because it would keep the entire virtual AOC connected at all times, would raise the frequency and quality of training.
Theoretically, virtual battles can be fought within the existing network; (33) however, that involves large, cumbersome, off-board computer systems, such as a system known as the Air Warfare Simulator. NCW architecture would allow higher-fidelity training by connecting existing systems so as to replicate an actual battle space. (34) Its "virtual environment" capabilities could simulate battle spaces within the architecture of the system. (35) Since all involved entities would be connected to the system anyway, deployments of masses of people and equipment to support training would be eliminated. Network-centricity would improve the realism and value of war gaming and training, at a great reduction in cost.
This capability would also mean that more people could be trained per unit of time in AOC operations. Since airpower is an inherently joint endeavor, combined and joint training is crucial. With the necessary equipment, allies and other services could train in the virtual environment. Joint forces air component commanders of other services--anywhere, including aboard ship--could train with a virtual air operations center. In the process, joint air commanders could tailor their organizations and think out exercising lines of communication, command-and-control relationships, information flows, and decision-making processes in advance. Air operations centers should not be limited to ad hoc, "come as you are" responses to crises; network-centric warfare can bring this principle to reality.
One of the fundamental characteristics of network-centric warfare--flexibility through ability to share battlespace awareness--can directly address one of the most cumbersome and inflexible aspects of the current joint air component system, the air tasking order. As noted earlier, production of ATOs is a lengthy process. Because they represent an entire theater's air effort, they can be over nine hundred pages in length. (36) NCW offers a more responsive and less burdensome approach. Shared battlespace awareness, in the form of a common operational picture, would already be available to all players; in fact, they would have a degree of situational awareness not previously possible. Tasking could be transmitted to individual subordinates, in plain view of all interested parties. Because the orders could therefore be timelier, they could better reflect changing battlespace situations. Additionally, fratricide could be virtually eliminated. Because all commands would possess a real-time and accurate "picture" of the battle space, even in the heat of battle they would be able to identify definitively their targets prior to engaging them; their displays would alert them if they were about to engage a "friendly."
