Netcentric Warfare Revisited (NCW): It's Origin and Its Future ... Revisited
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Authors
Gunderson, Chris
Subjects
Advisors
Date of Issue
2009-09-01
Date
Publisher
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Abstract
It has been a decade since Cebrowski and Gartska, and Alberts, Gartska, and Klein published their watershed Network‐Centric Warfare (NCW) Naval Institute Proceedings article and book, respectively. Through the lens of hindsight, this paper examines how their theories and predictions have held up. The authors find that the tenets of NCW have proven valid. Despite pro forma policy to the contrary, the US Defense community has substantially eschewed Cebrowski et al. in actual practice. Ironically, Al Qaeda has implemented the principles and achieved an advantage from them. Meanwhile, lessons learned in the 21st Century suggest two subtle improvements to the original NCW theory. First, success at NCW requires instantiating “smart push” of valued information at the right time (VIRT) as a key tactic. Second, success at NCW requires rapid, agile, “network‐centric” acquisition conducted literally within the commercial ecosystem of the World Wide Web.
Type
Article