Network Enabled Capability (NEC) can be seen as all things to all people. At one end of the spectrum, there is maximum reliance on technology – as underlies the American concept of Network Centric Warfare (NCW). The word ‘centric’ is telling: NCW puts the network at the centre of warfare, apparently sidelining the human being. At the other end of the spectrum, the human rules supreme, with technology little more than an adjunct.
NEC is the typically British middle position: it does not put the network at the centre, but aims to enhance capability by the judicious use of information technology.
It will not surprise readers if I position myself on this middle ground. At the strategic and operational levels in symmetric warfare, the endeavour is predominantly intellectual. Science has its essential place, but it is willpower and morale that are often the determinants.
Technology also has its limits: PA research indicates that a doubling in connectivity only translates into some 20% increase in operational effect. This may, at least partly, be due to the accompanying rise in the amount of information presented to the commander. But sifting the wheat from the chaff takes time, and time is what the commander most probably does not have.
In asymmetric conflict, it may well be that NEC makes a lesser contribution, not least because there is much greater emphasis on the human dimension. Such conflict is far more about people’s perception and attitudes, and much less about possession of terrain; our opponents understand this very well, while making good use of commercially available information and communications technology.
I find the analogy of the human body helpful: in military terms, the head provides the command post and the concepts; the muscles represent fighting power; and the nervous system connects the two, while also providing information from the senses to the head. The nervous system is, of course, the NEC of the body, sending data to the command post and transmitting the commands that ensue.
It is true that the command post – the head – is helpless without NEC, but the network only exists to serve the head. Nor should we assume that NEC is a recent invention: beacons, semaphore, signal flags, the heliograph, small boats at sea or gallopers on land with written information or orders enabled the Navies and Armies of the Napoleonic Wars to achieve military effect. It is the rate of technological change that is the hallmark of the current period.
In conclusion, we must continue to develop the network – our ability to be informed and to direct – taking full advantage of developing technology and concepts. But we must remember that technology serves the human being, and not the reverse.
