War and Military Atlas

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Strategy and Doctrine

Network-Centric Warfare

Contemporary

Network-centric warfare is a US military doctrine that aims to translate an information advantage, enabled by computer networking of dispersed sensors, decision-makers and shooters, into a decisive competitive advantage in combat. Vice Admiral Arthur K. Cebrowski and John Garstka published the first article naming the concept in 1998. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

Facts
Disputed
Core Claim
Networking dispersed sensors, decision-makers and shooters together turns superior information into decisive combat power faster than an adversary can respond. 1
Origin Year
1998 1
1998 marks Cebrowski and Garstka's first published article naming the concept; Admiral William Owens had introduced a related 'system of systems' concept in 1996.
Connections

Associated With

Iraq War, Wars

Developed By

Source Wikipedia: Network-Centric Warfare
Sources
1. Wikipedia: Network-Centric Warfare
Wikipedia
  • lead paragraph
    Network-centric warfare, also called network-centric operations or net-centric warfare, is a military doctrine or theory of war that aims to translate an information advantage, enabled partly by information technology, into a competitive advantage through the computer networking of dispersed forces.
  • history section
    Vice Admiral Arthur K. Cebrowski and John Garstka - published the first article on network-centric warfare in a 1998 US Naval Institute Proceedings article
  • Contradictory views section
    Fighting forces accustomed to relying upon downlinks for information and commands would have little to fall back upon.
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Dissenting Readings (1 dissenting reading)
Core Claim

Perrow argues that network-centric doctrine's dependence on shared information and satellite links is itself a vulnerability: a force organized around downlinks for information and commands has little to fall back on if an adversary denies its Global Positioning System access or otherwise breaks the network, or simply fights in a way American planners do not anticipate. This challenges the plain reading of this entity's core-claim, which presents networked information-sharing as a source of advantage without qualifying how the same dependence can be turned against the force that relies on it.

A dissenting reading, from Charles Perrow (Information Assurance, National Defense University, May 2003)Wikipedia: Network-Centric Warfare, Wikipedia

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