Information Warfare: An Old Operational Concept with New Implications

Abstract

The new balance of information and energy (as well as the degree of coupling between them) is changing the conduct of warfare. Expect to see much more intensive use of deception, stealth and redundancy as well as much smaller and stealthier platforms in order to neutralize the impact of highly accurate PGMs. Taken in aggregate, these changes call for fundamentally different approaches to the design and development of weapon systems, which, in turn, will inevitably lead to basic changes in strategy, tactics and doctrine. Key assets of the national civilian infrastructure may, under certain circumstances, become highly lucrative military centers of gravity for an adversary, blurring the traditional dividing line between the combatant and civilian domains. Even more disturbing is the nature of this critical vulnerability-involving asymmetry of forces, arduous tracing of information warfare attacks, and the bypassing of the military. These conditions, and their interrelationships, may radically alter the role of the military as well as our definition of war.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Dec 01, 1996
Accession Number
ADA394161

Entities

People

  • Abe Singer
  • Scott Rowell

Organizations

  • National Defense University

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Air Platforms
  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Ground and Sea Platforms
  • Materials and Manufacturing Processes
  • Space
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Traffic Control Systems
  • Aircrafts
  • Artificial Satellites
  • Command And Control
  • Control Systems
  • Electronics
  • Guided Bombs
  • Guided Missiles
  • Human Intelligence
  • Information Processing
  • Information Systems
  • Information Warfare
  • National Security
  • Remotely Piloted Vehicles
  • War Colleges
  • Warfare
  • Weapon Systems

Readers

  • Economics
  • Irregular Warfare and Special Operations Cyberspace Operations against Adversarial Threats.
  • Systems Analysis and Design