Using the war room process to explore network-centric warfare

During the last decade, the commercial world demonstrated that significant gains were possible from network-centric computing, i.e., linking computers together over networks to speed transactions, monitor sales and inventories, and identify shifts in customer trends. The Navy realized that this approach could also provide significant military gains. When the Network-Centric Warfare (NCW) concept first appeared, its potential capabilities, possible vulnerabilities, and implementation requirements were not fully understood. The Joint Warfare Analysis Department set up an NCW War Room to increase our understanding of NCW and identify its implications and opportunities for APL. This article describes the development of the NCW War Room and illustrates how insights were gained from the War (or Study) Room analysis process. We also highlight many of the questions and issues that were considered, but do not attempt to present a comprehensive or current discussion of NCW. An innovative procedure adopted in the NCW War Room was the use of a parallel electronic War Room to record the process. (Author)