Simulation architectures for information operations

Information Operations are an emerging military capability in defence organisations worldwide and consequently little is known of their effectiveness or impact on current and proposed network centric systems. The conjunction of information operations with, for example, full spectrum conflict, and the overarching rapid changes in technology, represents a substantial change in the way modern military operations are likely to be conducted. Current simulation support for investigating the impact of information operations has been largely provided by enhancements and extensions to existing simulation domains or tools. This method potentially fails to consider the unique characteristics of information operations and thereby may provide an inadequate environment for investigating the issues such as the impact on network centric warfare. In this paper the authors describe the relationship between information operations and network centric warfare. The authors argue that broader architectural issues associated with information operations and related information technologies need to be considered when such systems are being developed. Finally, through an example of land force operations a simulation-based architecture for assessing the impact of information operations on Army reconnaissance architectures is proposed.