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DISA Official Says: No NOSCs

It is time for the services to get rid of their network operation and support centers, or NOSCs, according to a high-ranking Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) official. Maj. Gen. Ronnie D. Hawkins Jr., USAF, vice director, DISA, called for the end of service NOSCs as part of DISA's effort to eliminate stovepipes.

By Robert K. Ackerman

It is time for the services to get rid of their network operation and support centers, or NOSCs, according to a high-ranking Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) official. Maj. Gen. Ronnie D. Hawkins Jr., USAF, vice director, DISA, called for the end of service NOSCs as part of DISA's effort to eliminate stovepipes. "We must get rid of service NOSCs; they are hindering our capability," Gen. Hawkins said in his Wednesday morning breakfast address at TechNet Asia-Pacific 2010 in Honolulu, Hawaii. He added that he believes that any combatant command J-6 will say the same thing. Gen. Hawkins also called for the elimination of the term "network centric," saying it was obsolete. Network centric refers to ownership, but cyberspace has no owner. Instead, the military should adopt the term "cyber centric" as it continues to exploit information technologies.

Comment

Interesting thoughts; flawed in the extreme (or taken WAY out of context). Not realizing that NOSCs serve a key and critical purpose shows short-sightedness and a dangerously limited point of view. Granted, they can hinder desired actions/changes from quick implementation; but one of their inherent functinos: the deliberate evaluation of orders based on more local circumstances, network architecture and impact to the user/service. Without the deliberate pause, changes would be made from on-high without impact evaluation closer to the reality. I work in a NOSC. The reality is that TOO MANY NOSCs is bad; lack of a clear chain of command in the NOSCs and Cyber Community is bad (both conditions currently exist). Just loosing the NOSCs is an action of convenience and power expansion for whomever remains, and we all know DISA's here to stay. Also, shifting Network Centric to Cyber Centric is amongst the least meaningful suggestions in history. Cyberspace is owned by everyone who controls it's various sections/subnets/services. No ownership implies equal access, equal conrol and a cyber utopia that exists only in dreams; reality is decidedly different.

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