The Big Network Could
Save Your Life
By Rear Admiral Charles L. Munns, U.S. Navy
Proceedings, September 2004
Integrating networks will transform a command
establishment bogged down in red tape and old ways. During the Iraq
conflict, digital networking enabled Army General Tommy Franks to use
live data to make critical decisions.
Prussia did not like its neighbor, Austria. So in 1852, Prussia mobilized
its army against Austria. It was an embarrassment. But about two decades
later, it mobilized again against Austria with such speed and effectiveness
that the war’s outcome was decided in Prussia’s favor. What made the
difference? Networks: railroad and telegraph. They were not the only
reasons, but they were big reasons. Since then, these and other networks
have enabled quantum leaps in capabilities. Today, the digital network
is becoming king, and it, too, promises another big leap. But what can
one big digital network—or network centricity—bring to defense?
If you still doubt networks have made a difference, consider a few
more examples. In 1863, railroad and telegraph networks enabled the
Union Army to move some 20,000 troops from Culpepper, Virginia, to Chattanooga,
Tennessee—a distance of 1,233 miles—in 11 days, the longest and fastest
movement before the 20th century. In 1940, the radio network tied together
German forces in a blitz across the same ground that had seen trench
warfare two decades prior, this time shattering the French Army in a
week. The radio network enabled big change in naval warfare. Before
radio, opposing fleets had a hard time finding and engaging each other
on the high seas. Consequently, most naval battles occurred close to
coasts, where ports were located. But radio networks enabled cruisers
and eventually aircraft to scout the seas for enemy fleets and helped
mass forces against them. It also became the glue that held together
amphibious operations, in which air, land, and sea forces worked closely
to gain access to a hostile shore.
Networks have enabled quantum leaps in capabilities because they rapidly
move things to those who can use them. The bigger the network, the more
it empowers. Today, it is the digital network that rules, moving information
in volumes and speeds that far surpass any means to date. This network
already has changed the battle space. In Afghanistan,
a networked force was able to hit moving targets within minutes—a dramatic
improvement over the hours and days required in Operation
Desert Storm. In the 2003 Iraq
war, a distant combatant commander watched a digitized map of Baghdad
depicting the real-time movement of U.S. forces. “I’ve just died and
gone to heaven,” stated General Tommy Franks. “I’ve seen the first bit
of network-centric work that has ever been experienced by the highest
level of operational command.”
Now it is a matter of networking the rest of defense. “Transformation
of our military capabilities depends upon our ability to transform the
department that runs the military,” states Defense Secretary Donald
Rumsfeld. The Department of the Navy
is stepping up to this challenge. Its Navy-Marine
Corps Intranet and ForceNet will deliver effectiveness and efficiency
through a global network integrated into joint capabilities.
There are two major obstacles to a coherently networked defense establishment.
The first is what some call computing’s original sin. In the beginning,
little thought was given to computers talking to each other, and many
spoke different languages. When they were linked, it was done haphazardly
and from the bottom up. The Department of the Navy is a case in point.
Before the Navy-Marine Corps Intranet was initiated in 2000, the department
had 1,000 different shore networks with more than 100,000 programs.
Some commands could not e-mail each other.
The second obstacle is tougher. It is cultural. Not everyone liked
the railroad, telegraph, radio, or even interstate highway networks.
They upset the status quo. That is the case today with network centricity
in defense—many still do not understand it. Yet, widespread buy-in is
needed to make change happen.
Network centricity brings the ability to do six things faster and better:
correlation of data, common views, collaborating on experiences, corporate
actions, continuous learning, and security. Their cumulative effect
translates to better decisions, more effective actions, and more efficient
support.
Correlation of Data
An individual uses a credit card in Paris for the first time. When the
transaction moves across the credit card company’s data grid, it is
matched to past behavior and the Paris transaction is noted as an “exception.”
The company immediately contacts the real card holder to verify whether
the Paris transaction is proper.
The power of correlation is at work today. The network can amass data
from multiple sensors, match it against linked databases, and detail
an entity faster and often more accurately than can humans. Such data
correlation is occurring within the battle space.
Wider data correlation has huge implications for challenges ahead.
Data on terrorists or defectors can be correlated against sources and
databases, providing information on identity, movements, and intent.
Broad data correlation means a big change for logistics, too. Technology
is presenting radio frequency identification tags that report merchandise
status via networks, tracking it in transit, keeping inventory, reporting
sales, and prompting resupply. Such data correlation is the enabler
for sense-and-respond logistics.
Common Views
In the first Gulf
War, commanders and staff developed battlespace pictures by taking
radio reports and plotting positions on maps with grease pencils. In
the second Gulf War, a seamless network provided a common picture to
Army
and Marine Corps forces, allowing them to work together and track each
others’ progress.
The digital network does more than just collect and sort data. It fuses
data from multiple sources into a picture—the more sensors in the network,
the better the picture. The network then displays it to all users for
common viewing. It does this quickly and continuously, replacing slower
and more error-prone human processing.
How do common views contribute to quantum leaps in capabilities? Initially,
they mean faster and broader awareness of “ground truth”—the facts and
issues surrounding a given situation. Ultimately, they enable better
analysis across an organization, and thus better decisions. The quest
now is to widen the network and improve such views, and not just geographic
ones. Such common pictures can portray medical, logistics, personnel,
and fiscal logic. Common views will break down stovepipes not only between
organizations, but within them, as well.
Collaborating on Experiences
Before the 1st Marine Division landing at Guadalcanal, time and distance
prevented some key officers from attending the final planning conference
on the USS Saratoga (CV-3). Sixty years later, this same division
used video teleconferencing to coordinate its advance on Baghdad, often
over hundreds of miles and in up to nine locations.
The battle knowledge of many helps beget battlespace awareness. Many
people collectively analyzing a complex issue provide insights toward
an optimal solution. This collaboration also stimulates new ideas that
otherwise would not occur. In addition, it helps establish, synchronize,
and align priorities.
The network provides common views as the basis for collaboration. Then
it moves people’s experiences, insights, and images across distances.
That can be done by teleconferencing as well as—aided by white boarding—chat
rooms and instant messaging. Such virtual collaboration speeds and improves
decision making and enhances needed synchronization, keeping it within
the time lines needed for action.
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Networked digital images, such as this April
2003 photograph of the Iraqi regime’s command and control facility
at Saddam International Airport, were beamed back and forth across
the globe to allow commanders to make targeting decisions in minutes.
(Photo courtesy of DOD)
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Corporate Actions
Until the 1880s, America had six railroad gauges (standards for the
distance between the rails); consequently, most railroads operated regionally.
With acceptance of a common gauge, railroads integrated into a single
network, moving people and cargo across the country. Towns synchronized
their operations, even changing “local time” to this continental network,
and thus transformed the United States into a real union.
Today, the digital network is doing that on a grander scale. People
act locally, but the network ties their actions to global purposes.
The networks have become digital nervous systems for widely distributed
organizations, allowing them to marshal and coordinate activities as
fast as an individual can focus on an issue. The value added is not
just faster corporate action; it is reduced friction, greater efficiency,
and increased effectiveness—as seen in companies such as FedEx and Wal-Mart.
We are seeing it in targeting, too, which no longer is a local process.
As a result of a more common “gauge”—interoperable networks—a U-2 can
transmit a target image to the United States, where it is analyzed and
beamed back to a combined air operations center in theater, which then
passes target data to another aircraft for attack—all within minutes.
The network has enabled a global targeting process. Similarly, an enterprisewide
network could make other defense functions more responsive to operational
forces.
The digital network is likely to change corporate actions in unexpected
ways. Many organizations have been hierarchical, issuing directions
from on high. In the future, a coherently networked organization may
perceive challenges and subordinate needs differently. The edge of the
organization will be empowered, and command increasingly will mean rationalizing
the corporate directive with alternatives presented from the edge.
Continuous Learning
Power lies in our people. If they stand still intellectually, others
will gain. They must rapidly learn and translate what they learn into
action—the ultimate competitive advantage. That is how corporations
use enterprisewide networks. If Coca-Cola marketers are looking to introduce
a new product in South Africa, they can use an on-line tool called Information
for Marketing, or Inform, to learn how that product was launched in
Thailand.
Defense must do the same. Ships’ officers must be able to reach back
for information on harbor operations in foreign ports. A nurse in Afghanistan
should be able to access on-line medical manuals and expert advice.
Aviation mechanics should be able to get virtual training in new avionics.
The Navy’s Transformation in Training initiative is embracing continuous
learning. The Defense Department’s recent Training Transformation Implementation
Plan calls for on-line training systems so deployed forces “have the
ability to sustain readiness through training and rehearsal, regardless
of location or length of deployment.” Now it is a matter of making it
happen. The quantum leap will be a highly adaptive defense organization.
Security
Our greatest challenge is protecting information from loss, destruction,
and spoof. Security ensures setbacks do not happen after quantum leaps
occur. We always have been concerned about intruders entering a network
connection and exploiting the system—and they have done it. The recent
Blaster worm and So-Big viruses, which wreaked worldwide economic damage,
are but harbingers of more sophisticated threats. We now face “bad acting
codes” hiding in a vendor’s software that can attack after installation.
New viruses, self-perpetuating worms, and other network attacks could
barrage a network endlessly and prevent its use. Such cyberattacks might
be used to widen the damage of a physical attack and diminish timely
responses.
Consolidating networks helps defend against such threats. Prior to
the Navy merging its networks into the Navy-Marine Corps Intranet, security
varied with each, and in many cases was poor. There was little hope
of uniform security among these many divergent systems. Security was
built into the Navy-Marine Corps Intranet from the beginning.
“Possibly the single most transforming thing in our force will not
be a weapon system, but a set of interconnections and a substantially
enhanced capability because of that awareness,” Secretary Rumsfeld recently
stated. That interconnectivity will come from coherently networking
defense. It will provide wider correlation, actions from common understandings,
collaboration, realization of corporate potential, and continuous learning.
It also will contribute to better security.
Ultimately, all that means a quantum leap in capabilities, both in
and beyond the battle space. We will decide better and act faster, with
a significant reduction in frictions and with improvements in efficiency
and productivity. Just as past networks did, the digital network will
allow us to do things never before possible. The bottom line for the
services is that the expanded network will enable us to keep winning.
Rear Admiral Munns is director of the Navy-Marine Corps Intranet.
