HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK ---------------------------
SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST Net as warfare tool comes of age ======================= REUTERS The Afghan war has been the coming out party for the Internet as the new medium of modern warfare communications and planning. Just as it did in society at large, US military officials said that Web-based technology had sparked a profound revolution in the way armies wage war, bringing enormous advantages and an explosion in the information available to soldiers. But the new technology - originally devised for military purposes but now spearheaded by private enterprise - has also thrown up significant problems, not least information overload. "In war you live and die by information," said US army signals officer Major Matthew Holt, based at the Bagram air base 50km north of the Afghan capital Kabul. "I think we've made the true leap at this point. This conflict clearly demonstrates that Web-based technologies offer an advantage for the collaborative exchange of information to assist the unit or to assist command and control. From '95 to today, it's day and night." >From highly classified closed networks to secure battlefield communications and streaming video that allows troops in the field to talk to families back home, Web-based technologies have helped the US military to improve the speed and efficiency of its communications and boost morale in the ranks. Generals can now plan for battle by chatting in a closed Net-meeting, protected from hackers. A reconnaissance patrol can beam back images of a target through a satellite up-link, to be viewed instantly by commanders in different parts of the world. The limitations to distributing information through one-to-one radio or telephone have been swept aside by Web pages with selective access and e-mails. Allies are easily brought into the loop. And soldiers from general to grunt can watch CNN on laptops, quickly learning about events in other parts of the world that could affect them. That means better "situational awareness". Second pair of eyes On the frontline, it's like giving troops a second pair of eyes. Surveillance systems such as the unmanned Predator aircraft used by the US military in the six-month Afghan conflict can transmit enemy positions that they see in a nanosecond to soldiers on the ground after bouncing the data through the military Net. "That information, I used to get it by people shooting at me. This has changed the pattern of war," said US Army spokesman Major Bryan Hilferty. Afghanistan was the first battlefield test for the military's wide area network and it came out singing, US military officials said. The sprawling, derelict former Soviet air base at Bagram, where the US-led coalition forces have their main Afghan base, is now strung with around 130km of blue Cat 5 cable, linking servers, routers and around 1,000 computer terminals to a 100-megabyte backbone. With the machinery set up in a tent, it is probably the first decent Internet access that Afghanistan has ever had and some of the infrastructure will be left behind. But there are drawbacks that are rapidly becoming apparent. The main one is information overload, which can lead to paralysis in the decision making process, said Charles Heyman, editor of Jane's World Armies. Data from the battlefront used to be filtered before reaching commanding officers. Now everything gets dumped in their mailboxes or retinas. The new technology also runs in parallel with the old - radio, telephone, satphone and even runners. Computer graphics of maps are run side by side with old-style maps covered in acetate. The backups are necessary to guard against blackouts or electronic warfare. But they sometimes result in an unwanted vexation -- contradictory information. Again, the risk is of paralysis. Furthermore, experts fear that a general's ability to "see" what is going on in a firefight several thousand kilometres away undermines the ability of frontline commanders to make decisions. "This really is a revolution in military affairs," said Mr Heyman, speaking from London. "There's a lot of pluses to this, but there are also significant drawbacks. I think it is a little bit too early to see [how this will work out]." --------------------------- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^================================================================ This email was sent to: [email protected] EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================
