This chapter focuses broadly on the technology effects of the net-centric transformation on our industry and civilian market. We start by discussing aspects of command and control principles, how it has run its course within the military and how the hierarchical nature is changing to embrace a matrixed decision making process. We then discuss the evolution of net-centric principles and how the government contracting and civilian industry is being affected by this transformation. We then discuss specific details on DoD to civilian technology transfer. A broad set of industry topics are then discussed and is categorized based on net-centric needs. Then we provide a glimpse into upcoming industry technology areas that have shown promise. We end with a perspective from a guest author, who provides an industry perspective on the use of net-centric concepts and proliferation of net-centric computing. This chapter continues on our transformation perspectives, and steps through the net-centric future from a system perspective. We first review the current nature of the DoD that has worked based on a command and control structure. This then is giving way to the net-centric mechanisms for systems operations. We examine the net-centric transformation from the military to the civilian community and commercial marketplace. It is important to look at defense to commercial technology transfer principles. Then examine how current command and control systems run by government contractors are shifting their focus to net-centric principles. It is also important to figure out how commercial entities are taking advantage of net-centric concepts within the computer and communications industry. There has been an emergence of “Net-Centric Computing” as a concept that we further explore. The types of technologies that are involved in the computing and communications infrastructure are discussed. We then provide a guest author perspective as an industry subject matter expert on the net-centric transformation and industry initiatives.
TopChapter Content
As you explore through Chapter 6, it covers the following topics:
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A Look back at Command & Control Principles
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Evolution of Net-Centric Principles from Command and Control
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Industry Shift toward Net-Centric Systems
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DoD to Civilian Technology Transfer
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Industry Topics related to Net Centricity
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Upcoming Industry Technology Areas
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Transformation Perspective on Net-Centric Computing
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Perspective from an industry veteran on the effects on today’s industry
TopA Look Back At Command & Control Principles
Our defense infrastructure has been relying on a complex set of command and control principles for ensuring that effective operation takes place for military forces. For the past few decades, a number of command and control principles have been implemented within technology systems that are currently in use by Army, Navy, Marines and Air Force for day to day operations. The ability to command and control has allowed the military to hierarchically set up their organizational structure to make decisions in an orderly manner.
Command and control systems have been responsible for the gathering, processing, disseminating, and displaying information that is needed for execution of the Armed Forces. Typical characteristics of a command and control system have been the following:
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Requires the active need of human operators who provide real-time command decision-making to make each command and control system work
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Requires systems to be custom-created and deployed to the field across the globe
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Command and control decisions are made in a serial manner that starts from the top administrative unit and works its way down to field operations
If we take a look at a definition of the command and control principle, one can be provided by DoD Joint Staff, (Joint Publication 1-02, 2001) as the following: