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 Cooperation
key to intel, surveillance, reconnaissance transformation
U.S.
Joint Forces Command's deputy commander called working together
to transform warfighting a key element of fighting and defeating
non-traditional enemies in the 21st century.
By
Samantha L. Quigley
American Forces Press Service
DENVER,
Sept. 30, 2004 -- Transformation is a hot topic in the military
community. And this week, transforming the Intelligence, Surveillance
and Reconnaissance model is the theme of the ISR Transformation
Government Symposium here.
The
reshaping of the defense community to fight an "asymmetric"
enemy as opposed to the known, predictable Cold War enemy
is of paramount importance, officials said.
The
model of the military that most of today's leaders grew up
with is no longer valid or useful, said Army
Lt. Gen. Robert W. Wagner, deputy commander of U.S. Joint
Forces Command. In that model, each service fought its own
fight in its own arena -- land, sea or air.
"That
was OK, because the enemy did the same thing and it worked,"
he said.
Over
time, it has become necessary to stitch the services together
more tightly. The collective effort today is to make the services
coherently joint and interdependent, Wagner said.
The
United States is seeking to counter the asymmetric advantages
the enemy seems to have, but with more than kinetic weapons
and systems. America's leverage will be knowledge, precision,
speed and lethality, Wagner said.
Technology
will help the U.S. military gain leverage, certainly, but
jointness -- within the military and within the intelligence
community -- must occur before that technology can be put
to optimal use.
"I
think that's it's most important that we figure out how to
diminish the boundary between operations and intelligence,"
Wagner said. "It's starting to blur, and it needs to
go away and be seen as one activity."
Several
of Wagner's colleagues echoed this idea of "horizontal
integration" or information sharing.
In
the past, this idea has not been popular with the intelligence
agencies. However, Letitia A. Long, deputy undersecretary
of defense for policy, requirements and resources, said, it
is necessary to change this culture.
The
walls between the cultures exist because each agency has a
separate mission. For this reason, she said, they will be
hard to tear down.
Defense
Information Systems Agency Director Air Force Lt. Gen. Harry
D. Raduege Jr. said that after using the vertical dimension
-- where information flowed up and down a chain of command
-- for so long, it has become necessary to look at things
in a more horizontal dimension. Becoming horizontally integrated
allows for easier sharing of information across boundaries,
he said.
"When
I think about it -- vertical and horizontal dimensions --
I like the framework of thinking of it more as 'netcentric,'"
Raduege said. "In other words, that it's vertical, horizontal,
diagonal -- all those types of multi- dimensions.
"It's
less important to me to think about vertical dimensions and
horizontal dimensions than to think about network sharing
and networkcentric operations across all mediums," he
said.
When
combined with the advancing technology that is being explored
and employed, joint cooperation within the military and the
intelligence communities will help to create that central
network, he said. And because of that network created by joint
cooperation, he added, warfighters at the tactical to the
national level will have near-real-time access to any ISR
collected.
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