CIO pushes network-centric warfare

The top priority of the Defense Department's new chief information officer is pushing forward with network-centric warfare — using information systems to bridge the gap between the "sensors" and the "shooters."

John Stenbit, the new assistant secretary of Defense for command, control, communications and intelligence and the department's CIO, said this approach will enable any serviceman with a gun to determine the 10 best targets rather than having to wait for somebody else to tell him.

It will mean that "anybody can get any information at any time," Stenbit said in a meeting with reporters Aug. 24. He took over the CIO post Aug.7.

"That doesn't mean he's supposed to shoot," Stenbit said. "There has to be procedural controls.... But I do believe that it's very important that we decentralize decision-making."

The services must work together, he said, and DOD is increasingly depending on long-range weapons that put fewer U.S. soldiers at risk. But that also creates a gap, he said. "We're separating the shooter from the sensor, and we have to solve that problem. When that happens, you need information to exchange and be coordinated a lot," he said.

Traditionally, such coordination has taken time. But those efforts have to be done essentially in real time today, he said. "We need a different form of information exchange."

Another top priority is changing the information that is available, he said. "We've gotten very used to certain classes of information, and I think there are some that are going to be more useful in the future" than they have been in the past, he said.

Finally, Stenbit said he is going to focus on the reliability of information systems. "Once we start depending upon them, we'd better make sure they're there," he said.

Overall, he said that information technology can help free up money from the non-fighting arm of the military, thereby making more money available for force structure and modernization.