An Appraisal of the Command and Control System at the National Level

Abstract

The United States emerged from World War II in a position of undisputed leadership in the free world. At the same time, the USSR, as the proponent of world communism, was rapidly closing the gap existing between that country and the United States in the development of nuclear weapons and missiles. The influence of these factors as a new dimension of the risks of general war was soon demonstrated by the controlled and limited manner in which the Korean War was conducted. It is this emphasis on limitation or control, occasioned by the introduction of mass destruction weapons, that this paper is concerned with. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the national command and control system as it exists today and to develop recommendations for strengthening the system in the future. The approach of the paper will be to investigate the operational environment of command and control at the national level and to postulate, based on U.S. experience in crisis management in the past, the rationale of high-level decision making, and to evaluate the command and control resources of the Defense Department and other appropriate agencies of government. After analyzing the need and available resources, a delineation of command and control requirements will be developed for various categories of war contingencies. The current Department of Defense field command and control network and supporting communications also will be discussed, particularly as they pertain to the author's appraisal of the prevailing operational situation. The paper will conclude with suggested actions and organizational and management changes aimed at improving the interagency aspects of command and control, and providing for the development of compatible command and control systems within the Department of Defense.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Apr 08, 1966
Accession Number
ADA497988

Entities

People

  • Richard G. Fazakerley

Organizations

  • United States Army War College

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • C4I
  • Counter WMD
  • Space
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Command And Control
  • Command And Control Systems
  • Command Centers
  • Contingency Operations (Military)
  • Control Systems
  • Data Processing
  • Databases
  • Department Of State
  • Employment
  • Governments
  • Management Personnel
  • National Security
  • Nuclear Weapons
  • Personnel Management
  • United States
  • War Colleges
  • Warning Systems

Readers

  • Robotics and Automation.
  • Strategic Security Studies
  • Systems Analysis and Design

Technology Areas

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