Some Principles of Network-Centric Warfare: A Look at How Network-Centric Warfare Applies to the Principles of War

Abstract : The principles of war are one of the most important and enduring facets of operational art. Network centric warfare, enabled by technology of the information age, is a new concept the U.S. is adopting in order to fight faster, cheaper and better in the 21st century. This analysis shows that network centric warfare applies to the principles of war specifically, the principles of mass, offensive, unity of command and security. With regard to mass, the information, sensor and engagement grids of network centric warfare, will enable dispersed forces to mass effects by coordinating location, identification and targeting information from sensors to rapidly employ long range, precision fires, using shared information from a common operational picture. With respect to offensive, network centric warfare will effectively allow us to dominate factor time and operate inside the enemy's decision cycle. Thus, it will enhance our ability to seize and retain the initiative and preserve our freedom of action. As it applies to unity of command, network centric warfare will aid tactical commanders, armed with a clearly defined commander's intent from the operational level, to maintain the situational awareness required to self synchronize and act on opportunities while maintaining unity of effort toward achieving the operational commander's objective. Finally, with regard to security, network centric warfare will increase our ability to achieve battle space dominance through information superiority. However, we will be increasingly dependent on protecting our C4I systems to ensure that we can achieve our military objectives. The tie that binds network centric warfare to the principles of war is that it will enable enhanced situational awareness, which will improve our ability to abide by the principles in a more sufficient manner.