Click to edit Master text
styles
Knowledge Management and
Knowledge
and Warfare:
The Revolution
in Military Affairs
Warfare
in the
Information
Age
Dr Michael Evans
Land Warfare Studies Centre
Land Warfare Studies Centre
Click to edit Master text
The
Meaning of a Revolution
styles
in Military Affairs (RMA)
The contemporary RMA refers to the
transformation of war by informationage technologies such as computers,
microelectronics and precision
weapons
Land Warfare Studies Centre
Click to edit Master text
The RMA and Information
styles
Superiority
The cornerstone of the RMA is
information superiority, the capability
to collect, process and disseminate
an uninterrupted flow of information
while exploiting or denying an
adversary’s ability to do the same
Land Warfare Studies Centre
Click
to edit
Master textof
The US
Philosophy
styles
Information
Superiority
‘To find, fix, track and target - in near real time anything that moves or is located on the face of
the Earth’.
General Ronald R. Fogelman, Chief of Staff, US Air
Force, February 1997
‘Information superiority [is] at the core of military
innovation’.
General Henry Shelton, Chairman, US Joint Chiefs
of Staff, March 1999
Land Warfare Studies Centre
Click to edit Master text
Three Themes of the
styles
Presentation
 Overview the American RMA and the
role of knowledge in war
 Outline US Pentagon response to
information-age warfare
 Assess Australia’s Knowledge Edge
philosophy and its implications
Land Warfare Studies Centre
Click to edit Master text
styles
An Overview of the
American Revolution in
Military Affairs
Land Warfare Studies Centre
Click to edit Master text
Key
Technologies
of
the
styles
RMA
 C4ISR (command, control,
communications, computers,
intelligence, surveillance and
reconnaissance)
 PGMs (long range precision strike)
 Stealth (low-observable platforms)
Land Warfare Studies Centre
Click to edit Master text
Four
Characteristics
of
styles
the RMA Debate
 RMA is at once a process, a hypothesis
and a debate
 RMA closely linked to globalisation and
information revolution
 RMA largely an American phenomenon
 Notion of an RMA is attractive to Western
theorists for cultural reasons
Land Warfare Studies Centre
Click to edit Master text
styles
American RMA Schools
 System of systems
 Dominant battlespace knowledge
 Global reach, global power school
 Economic determinists
 Contingent innovators
 Vulnerability school
 Essential continuity school
Land Warfare Studies Centre
Click to edit Master text
System
of
Systems
styles
RMA School
 Promotes information superiority via
situational awareness
 Believes information grid connecting
‘sensors to shooters’ will emerge
 Future of war lies in network-centric
warfare (exploiting OODA Loop)
Land Warfare Studies Centre
Click
to edit Master
text
Dominant
Battlespace
styles
Knowledge RMA School
 Believes new technology will create DBK
and transparent non-linear battlespace
 Believes that unity of C4ISR, PGMs and
Stealth technology will make military
operations full-dimensional
 Linear mass in war will give way to nonlinear ‘effects-based operations’
Land Warfare Studies Centre
ClickDr
toLibicki
edit Master
andtext
The
styles
Terminator Vision
 Future warfare will be a conflict between
machines (MEMS, robotics,
nanotechnology battlefield meshes)
 The ‘small and the many’ will triumph
over the ‘large, the complex and the few’
 ‘To see is to know; to know is to be able
to strike; to strike is to be able to win’
Land Warfare Studies Centre
Click
to edit
MasterGlobal
text
Global
Reach,
styles
Power RMA School
 Associated mainly with USAF and based
on Rapid Decisive Operations (RDO)
 Promotes deep strike air power (B-2
bombers, cruise missiles, JDAMs)
 Sees evolution of USAF into an aerospace
force based on UAVs/UCAVs and lasers
Land Warfare Studies Centre
Click
to
edit
Master
text
Economic Determinist or
styles
Third Wave RMA School

RMA shaped by civilian IT/knowledge
economy

Third Wave war: ‘the way we make
war reflects the way we make wealth’

Third Wave militaries will be small,
specialised and knowledge-based
Land Warfare Studies Centre
Click
to
edit
Master
text
Contingent Innovation
styles
RMA School

Looks to lessons of military history
for guidance (e.g. 16th century
gunpowder revolution and 20th
century blitzkrieg doctrine)

Argues that military revolution
springs from technology added to
knowledge (doctrine and concepts)
Land Warfare Studies Centre
Click to edit Master text
Technology, Knowledge
styles
and Military Revolution
[A military revolution] occurs when the
application of new technologies into a significant
number of military systems combines with
innovative operational concepts and
organisational adaptation in a way that
fundamentally alters the character and conduct
of conflict
Andrew Krepinevich, ‘From Cavalry to Computer: Patterns of
Military Revolution’ (1994)
Land Warfare Studies Centre
Click
to edit Master text
The Vulnerability
RMA
styles
School
 Fears rapid weapons proliferation, WMD
threat and asymmetric challenges
 ‘Future may not be “Son of Desert Storm”
but “Stepchild of Somalia and Chechnya”’
- General Charles C. Krulak, USMC (1996)
 Fears of this school realised on
September 11 with al-Qaeda attacks on US
homeland
Land Warfare Studies Centre
Click
to
edit
Master
text
Essential Continuity RMA
styles
School
 Sees no revolutionary paradigm shift in
warfare
 Believes in military transformation
rather than military revolution
 Warns that many RMA models ( e. g.
blitzkrieg) were based on evolution not
revolution
Land Warfare Studies Centre
Click
to editofMaster
text
The Heart
the American
styles RMA Debate
At the heart of the RMA debate lies
the impact of electronics, computers
and precision munitions on warfare
and the notion of a transition
towards ‘information-age knowledge
based warfare’ although there are
differences over pace and direction
Land Warfare Studies Centre
Click to edit Master text
styles
Towards Knowledge
Warfare:
The Pentagon and the RMA
Land Warfare Studies Centre
Click
to
edit
Master
text
Main Features of
styles
Joint Vision 2020
Seeks information superiority by:
 dominant manoeuvre (using IO)
 precision engagement (missile power)
 full-dimensional protection
(battlespace control)
 focused logistics (force sustainment)
Land Warfare Studies Centre
Click
to edit Master
textover
US Military
Caution
styles
Transformation

Lack of RMA consensus provides limited
options for rapid force transformation

Uneven technology means much
experimentation and field trials

RMA developments in computers,
electronics, munitions not matched by
revolution in sensors or platforms
Land Warfare Studies Centre
Click
to editSystems
Master text
Legacy
and
styles
Information Superiority

US still requires ‘legacy’ systems
(artillery, manned aircraft, helicopters)

Legacy systems accompanied by
revolutionary weapons systems (JDAMs,
UAVs, UCAVs)

Complete information superiority still an
aspiration rather than a reality
Land Warfare Studies Centre
Click to edit Master text
styles
The Experience of Kosovo
NATO had information superiority but:
 Did not achieve full battlespace
awareness or perfect precision
 Aircraft struck wrong targets and could
not stop ethnic cleansing by Serbs
 Sensor technology was inadequate
 Campaign showed dangers of
‘information saturation’
Land Warfare Studies Centre
The
of
Click
to Experience
edit Master text
styles Afghanistan
USAF pulversised Taliban/al-Qaeda but:
 Unlike Kosovo key role played by
Special Forces and Afghan proxies
 Overreliance on PGMs led to possible
escape of Osama bin Laden
 Air power like teenage sex offers instant
gratification not lasting commitment
Land Warfare Studies Centre
The Precision Revolution
Click to edit Master text
and Knowledge-Based
styles
Warfare
 Parts of RMA greater than whole
 From information superiority to
DBK still more theory than reality
 Precision revolution coexists with
legacy systems
Land Warfare Studies Centre
Click to edit Master text
styles
Australia and the
Knowledge Edge
Land Warfare Studies Centre
Click
to edit
Master
text
Defining
the
Knowledge
styles
Edge
Outlined in 1997:
 as ADF’s highest capability priority
 and defined as ‘the effective
exploitation of information
technologies to allow us to use our
relatively small force to maximum
effectiveness’
Land Warfare Studies Centre
Click to edit Master text
The RMA’s Potential for
styles
Australia
[The RMA will introduce] a fundamentally
different style of warfare . . . where distance
offers no protection; where if a target can be
found it can be destroyed; where the most
precious commodity will be information and the
most deadly military weapon will be speed’
Ian McLachlan, Minister for Defence, June 1996
Land Warfare Studies Centre
Click
to edit Master
text and
Information
Warfare
styles
the ADF Knowledge Edge
‘Information warfare. . . The ‘Revolution in
Military Affairs’ . . . Is where our
comparative advantage over potential
adversaries is likely to last longest. In
coming years, it will be harder for
Australia to match regional numbers of
platforms such as ships and aircraft’.
Defence Review 2000: Our Future
Defence Force, June 2000
Land Warfare Studies Centre
Click to edit Master text
Developing the Knowledge
styles
Edge in the 21st Century
A Knowledge Edge exists when, as a result of
leveraging and exploiting information,
communications and other technologies, and by
the application of human cognition, reasoning
and innovation, there is a comparative
advantage in those factors that influence
decision making and its effective execution
ADF Brief on the Knowledge Edge, June 2000
Land Warfare Studies Centre
Click to edit Master text
Defence
2000
and
the
styles
Knowledge Edge
 2000-12 A $2.5b to be spent on ADF
Information Capabilities
 Will include JSF, stealth, ARHs,
UAVs and UCAVs
 ‘Knowledge Edge will be the
foundation of our military capability’
Land Warfare Studies Centre
Click to edit Master text
Knowledge
Management
styles
and the Knowledge Staff
 ADF Knowledge Staff created in mid-2001
 Focuses on Network-Enabled Warfare
(NEW) and creating a surveillance system
 NEW described as ‘warfare deriving
power from robust, rapid networking of
well-informed, rapidly deployable forces
and/or effects’ (July 2002)
Land Warfare Studies Centre
Click
toCharacter
edit Masteroftext
The
the
styles
Australian Knowledge Edge
Viewed in terms of American RMA
schools:
 Is a blend of system of system and
contingent innovation schools
 Growing recognition of asymmetric
challenge may mean closer affinity with
vulnerability school
Land Warfare Studies Centre
Click to edit Master text
styles
Conclusion
Land Warfare Studies Centre
Click to edit Master text
styles
Future Scenarios to 2025
 Likely: system of systems or variant of
DBK will emerge making the battlespace
much more transparent
 Unlikely: a Terminator-style battlefield
mesh based MEMS, robotics and
biotechnology. These trends are in their
infancy operationally
Land Warfare Studies Centre
Click
to edit Knowledge
Master text and
Information,
styles Wisdom
What shapes the conduct of international
relations and therefore the course of history is
not only the number of people with access to
information; it is more importantly how they
analyse it. Since the mass of information tends to
exceed the capacity to evaluate it, a gap has
opened up between information and knowledge,
and even beyond that, between knowledge and
wisdom
Henry Kissinger, Does America Need a Foreign
Policy? (2001)
Land Warfare Studies Centre
Click to edit Master text
21st Century Modes of
styles
Conflict
 Pre-modern conflict (religious terrorists,
low-tech ethnic militia)
 Modern conflict (conventional wars a la
Gulf or Korea)
 Post-modern conflict (combinations of
high-tech warfare and casualty limitation)
Land Warfare Studies Centre
Click
to
edit
Master
text
Why a Knowledge Edge is
styles
Important in War
War is a matter of vital importance to
the State; the province of life or
death; the road to survival or ruin. It
is mandatory that it be thoroughly
studied
Sun Zi, The Art of War
Land Warfare Studies Centre
Click to edit Master text
styles
Questions?
Land Warfare Studies Centre