The Linkage of Joint Operational Fires, Information Operations and the Army: Does the Army Have Effective Feedback Mechanisms that Integrate Operational Fires (Physical Destruction) and Information Operations?
Abstract
The information revolution seems to hold a lot of promise to the U.S. economy and the U.S. military, but rigid bureaucratic hierarchies make it extremely difficult for effective integration of operational fires and information operations (IO). As one observes the transformation of the U.S. military and other traditional institutions, they have been ill prepared to meet new organizational challenges posed by nonhierarchical, amorphous, and networked opponents due to adapting unevenly to the information revolution. This monograph serves only to suggest that the U.S. military has adapted to the information revolution unevenly due to constraints by institutional inertia, service rivalries, and conservative thinking. Doctrine traditionally has emphasized centralized control of fires as the most efficient means of matching fires to capabilities, missions, and desired effects. In Objective Force (OF), due to the complexity and importance of integrating lethal and non-lethal fires and effects within IO, employing fires will require positioning delivery systems in a way that allows the ability to apply effects where they are needed. Additionally, as the concept of information warfare (IW) becomes more popular with certain circles of the U.S. defense establishment, it is imperative that the U.S. Army and the fires support community begin establishing effective feedback mechanisms at the operational level that effectively applies IO across all phases of an operation, throughout the range of military operations, and at every level of war.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- May 26, 2004
- Accession Number
- ADA429751
Entities
People
- Charles D. Mills
Organizations
- United States Army Command and General Staff College