Power to the Edge: Command and Control in the Information Age and its relevance to the 3rd Generation Republic of Singapore Air Force

University Degree Business and Administrative studies

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“Power to the Edge: Command and Control in the Information Age and its relevance to the 3rd Generation RSAF”

“Power to the Edge” by David S. Alberts and Richard E. Hayes is part of the Information Age Transformation Series of publication by the Command and Control Research Program (CCRP). The CCRP’s mission is to improve United States of America (USA), Department of Defense (DoD)’s understanding of the national security implications of the Information Age. CCRP focus on improving both the state of the air and the state of the practice of command and control and assist DoD to take full advantage of the opportunities afforded by emerging technology. With DoD endorsement of this program, it will be most appropriate for the Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF) to exploit potential concept and recommended practice from this series of publication so as to elevate the RSAF’s “Centralized Command and control; Decentralized Execution” concept to the meet the 3rd Generation RSAF command and control concept of operation.

INTRODUCTION

The event of 11 September 2001, signaled an inflection point between the remnants of the security environment dominated by the symmetrical calculus of the Cold War and the uncertainties and asymmetries of the 21 century security environment. Concurrently, the complexity of military operations is increasing as strategic, operational and tactical levels merges, as operation serve a mixture of military and civil objectives. The link between military effectiveness and policy effectiveness can no longer be assumed. Effects- based operation (EBO) changes the dimensionality of effectives and explicitly connect effect in the military arena to effect in the other arenas. This sea change in the security environment comes at a time when the Information age is emerging and transforming information from an ordinary commodity into a “golden goose”. The emergence of Information age offer is the opportunity to leverage new sources of power to meet the new challenges we faced.

For the Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF), Information Knowledge Command and Control (IKC2) had been identified as the turn key to transform the RSAF from the Air Superiority 2nd Generation Airforce to the 3rd Generation RSAF that is capable of peace- war continuum full spectrum integrated warfare.

“Power to the Edge” exploit why current command and control (i.e. 2nd Generation RSAF) concepts, organizations and systems are not up to the task at hand, and present the approach to command and control and C2 support system that will be needed to transform into a Information age fighting force. “Power to the Edge” is about change the way individuals, organization and systems relate to one another and work. “Power to the Edge” involves the empowerment of individuals at edge of the organization.

OBJECTIVE

This paper will attempt to relate the “Power to the Edge” concept to the 3rd Generation RSAF Command and Control concept. It will explore the breakdown of the Industrial Age Command and Control principles and process leading the emerging the Information Age Force. It will compare the desired characteristic of the Information Age Force vis- a- vis the emerging 3rd Generation RSAF force structure. This paper will then articulate the command and control requirement in the Information Age and conclude by exploring ways for the RSAF to move forward so as to fully utilize the power of ...

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OBJECTIVE

COMMAND AND CONTROL

The official U.S’s DoD definition of the terms C2 and Command can be found in a Joint Chiefs of Staff Publication. Command as defined in the publication includes, “responsibility for effectively suing available resources, planning the employment of, organizing, directing, coordinating and controlling military forces for the accomplishment of assigned mission.” This definition subsumed Control as a part of command although many had tried to draw a distinction between Command and Control. One of these distinctions includes Command as an Art and Control as Science.

Given that the term command and control encompasses as much as it does, its elements spans all of the four domains of warfare, namely, physical, information, cognitive and social. Since Command and control are functions that need to be accomplished, the enduring principles of command and control are about the necessary and sufficient conditions for success in military operation.

INDUSTRIAL AGE VS INFORMATION AGE

The 21st century national security environment differs qualitatively from the security environment that the world faces in the Industrial Age hence the necessary and sufficient conditions for success in military operation in the Industrial Age are no longer relevant in the Information Age. This is the impetus to transform Command and Control so as to create a necessary and sufficient conditions ensure continuity of military success.

Industrial Age militaries are comfortable doing threat –based planning and focusing on traditional combat and combat skills. This is a result of the Industrial Age biases towards decomposition and specialization. Similarly, in the 2nd Generation RSAF, the focus was on achieving Air superiority and support for land and maritime battle. The RSAF seek to specialize in our core area, which are air defense and air combat, little emphasis were placed on shaping the land or maritime time battle, even if there is, it is mainly support- based mission.

Due to the complexity of security challenges faced, modern military need to 1) bring all their information to near to make sense of the situation and 2) be able to employ all their assets to effectively response to the situation. The Industrial Age principles and practices of decomposition, specialization, hierarchy, optimization and de- confliction will not permit an organization to bring all its information and its assets to bear. In addition, Industrial Age military will also not suited to fulfill the 2 key force capabilities of the Information Age military, which is Interoperability and agility.

DESIRED CHARACTERISTICS OF INFORMATION AGE FORCES

With threats posed by non- state actor armed with weapon of mass destruction and disruption, the implication of globalization, the internet and ubiquitous “news” coverage, it is clear that traditional military forces and capabilities alone are not adequate to meet these Information Age security challenges. In order for a traditional military force to transform into an Information Age force, they not only need to process specific mission and task related capabilities, it also must have 2 force level attributes: Interoperability and agility.

Interoperability

The basic tenets of NCW begin with the existence of a robustly networked force. Such a force can only be achieved if there is a high level of interoperability among the mission participants and the systems that support them. Interoperability, the ability to work together need to simultaneously occur at a number of levels and at various degrees so as to enable entities to communicate, share information and collaborate with each other.

In the IKC2 aspect of the RSAF Command and Control Information System (CCIS) development, the MAESTRO platform has been identified as the tools to enhance interoperability. In fact, this CCIS interoperability initiative was coined by Joint Ops and had been extended to encompass the whole SAF. The MAESTRO platform is based on the Service Orientated Architecture (SOA) which leverage on a post and smart pull approach. In this approach, data and information generators will post their data in a specific format such that end user will able to smart pull the data to create their own knowledge environment. This is, in effect, a move away from application to application interoperability to data interoperability.

Agility

The term nimble is sometimes used as a synonym for agile. It conjures up the correct image of an Information Age force- the ability to move rapidly but sure- footedly. The potential of agility is greatly enhanced by the shared awareness and collaboration in NCW. An agile force with an agile C2, organization and system must have a synergistic combination of 6 attributes, which are also the key dimension of agility. There are:

1. Robustness: the ability to maintain effectiveness across a range of tasks, situation and conditions.

2. Resilience: the ability to recover from or adjust to misfortune, damage or a destabilized perturbation in the environment.

3. Responsiveness: the ability to react to change in the environment in a timely manner.

4. Flexibility: the ability to employ multiple ways to succeed and the capability to do move between them.

5. Innovation: the ability to do new things and the ability to do old things in the new ways.

6. Adaptation: the ability to change work processes and the ability to change the organization.

The transformation of the 3rd Generation RSAF has indeed focuses on the above attributes and makes the RSAF an information age force. Under project Phoenix, the RSAF had clearly shown the ability to change the organization hence meeting the adaptation attribute. Dynamic Strike Concept development had also shown that the RSAF can be a responsive, flexible and innovative force that has the capability to re- role strike aircraft for time critical targeting. The ability of the 3rd generation RSAF to fulfill full spectrum mission with seamless transition from peace to war effectively had cemented RSAF robustness. The SARS episode in 2003 had also clearly demonstrated the resilience of the RSAF. In a broad brush and without going into specific that will compromise the security classification of this book review, the RSAF have indeed show that she has the attributes and desire to be a agile Information Age force upon the successfully transformation of the 3rd Generation RSAF.

COMMAND AND CONTROL IN THE INFORMATION AGE

Command in the information age involves creating the conditions for success, including the selection of a vision and associated goals. However, control in the information need to be thought about and approach differently. Control is not something that can be imposed on a complex adaptive system, especially that of the information age. Hence, instead of being in control, the enterprise creates the conditions that are likely to give rise to the behaviors that are desired. Command and control in the information age required new norms of behavior to be established. It will take time, a great deal of experimentation and transformation for these new norms to be developed, accepted, widely understood and universally applied. There is a need to remember that exiting C2 approaches and processes, however well- understood, are not well suited to meet emerging security challenge.

“Centralized Command and Control; decentralized Execution” policy have served the RSAF well for the past 38 years. As we transform to the 3rd generation RSAF, there is a need to review the concept of Centralized Command and Control and validate its suitability for the 3rd generation RSAF in the Information Age. With the emerging technology of datalink, Beyond Line of Sight (BLOS) capability etc, the RSAF might want to work towards a “Centralized Planning; Decentralized Command, Control and Execution” to enable a highly interoperability and agile Information Age force.

POWER OF “POWER TO THE EDGE” ORGANIZATIONS

Power is the expression of potential, the concept of “Power to the Edge” therefore is about empowerment of the edge of the organization. The reason for moving power to the edge is to make the organization more powerful and this is directly related to a corresponding increase in the organization agility. The source of power comes from:

1) An improvement in an organization’s ability to bring all of its information and all of its assets to bear;

2) The ability to recognize and take advantage of fleeting opportunities.

Based on the book research, it is expected that organization that adopt the “Power to the Edge” principle and conduct NCW operation to be more agile and more capable to meet emerging security challenges.

CONCLUSION

As the RSAF move towards a 3rd Generation force, it is an impetus that we understand the true scope and nature of Information Age transformation. Should the RSAF adopt the “Power to the Edge” policy? This can be farther deliberated and discussed at higher forum. However, it is necessary for the RSAF to understand that the 3rd Generation Information Age RSAF need to be an integrated (i.e. Interoperability) force that can engaged in full spectrum operation seamlessly from peace to war (i.e. Agility).

IKC2, a term used in SAF which is similar to Network Centric Warfare (NCW) commonly use in other literature to represent the new frontier of Information Age.

Department of Defense Dictionary of Military and Associated Terms, Joint Pubs. <>