Extract
Switch on the digitised battlespace.
Rather than discussing each component of modern C4ISR, this Compendium takes a system perspective, looking at the maturity of integrated C4ISR capabilities. the current operational environment, with critical needs for interoperability, jointness and civil-military interaction to deal with threats on the ground, invites one to focus on higher-level C4ISR systems, both in terms of command echelons and bird's-eye view, with a closer look at joint C4ISR, airborne C4ISR and air-to-ground C4ISR integration.
Since its inception in Europe during the Battle of Britain (see Armada C4ISR Compendium 2010), C4ISR has pursued a steady integration trend, moving away from a spread collection of command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance assets towards computerised command, control, communications and intelligence systems. The fast pace of digitisation and microminiaturisation at the end of the 1980s, triggering a global information revolution, has boosted this trend, impacting the way defence and security organisations collect, process, exploit and disseminate information. Thus, the classical John Boyd's paradigm describing a sequential loop of observation, orientation, decision and action (Ooda), has turned into a more parallel, integrated cycle adapted to modern C4ISR, better described at the turn of the century as Suds: Sense (over the entire electromagnetic spectrum) mainly through intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance sensor and sensor exploitation systems; Understand (one's own situation and one's opponent's in its physical and human context), thanks to command and control information systems building recognised environmental and tactical pictures); Disseminate (commander's intent) between echelons and mission over networked communication systems; and Synchronise (manoeuvre and effects) between digitised platforms and weapon systems. The old one-dimensional battlefield is no longer adapted to contain the Suds process. This is why it must be described as a multi-dimensional battlespace, merging the four physical dimensions (sea, land, air, space) with a fifth, logical one: information. The current warfighter in Afghanistan, Iraq, off Somalia or over Libya is indeed leveraging space-based assets (observation, navigation and communication satellites) to build situational awareness over imagery and digital maps. Fed with this information, digitised platforms can project power through maritime, land and air domains, which are then permanently located and recognised through their C4ISR ...See the full content of this document
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