Operational Command and Control in the Age of Entropy

Abstract

Operational leaders face a myriad of command and control challenges in 21st Century warfare. These challenges all have a common denominator: the increasing macro-effects of entropy. Entropy effects are far more than Clausewitzian friction on and in the battlespace; they are intrinsic to the very command and control supra-system, its information and succeeding actions. This paper discusses the more important entropic effects as they affect operational art and operational science. It concludes that militaries face significantly different problem-solving and decision-making challenges than in the past: instead of planning to maximize one's maximum benefit in operations (overwhelming force), one will be forced to plan on minimizing one's maximum regret (lowering expectations.) Militaries must realize that there is no way to avoid these effects, and that they must expect and plan for the increasing appearance of them in all operations.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jun 01, 2007
Accession Number
ADA481372

Entities

People

  • Jonathan E. Czarnecki

Organizations

  • Naval War College

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • C4I
  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Ground and Sea Platforms
  • Space
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Channel Capacity
  • Command And Control
  • Command And Control Centers
  • Doctrine
  • Friction
  • Heat Energy
  • Information Processing
  • Information Systems
  • Military Science
  • Navy
  • Organizational Structure
  • Second World War
  • Students
  • Training
  • United States
  • Uss Hue City
  • Warfare

Readers

  • Fluid Dynamics.
  • Military History / Militaries and War Studies
  • Systems Analysis and Design

Technology Areas

  • Fully Networked C3
  • Fully Networked C3 - Command and Control