Enable breadcrumbs token at /includes/pageheader.html.twig

Friday, February 2, 2007

SIGNAL's Online Show Daily
West 2007
Day 3

Quote of the Day:
“The second mouse gets the cheese. We want to be the second mouse and feed off of industry.”
—Vice Adm. Mark J. Edwards, USN, deputy chief of naval operations for communications networks (N-6).

Vice Adm. Mark J. Edwards, USN, deputy chief of naval operations for communications networks (N-6), gives the Friday luncheon keynote address.

The third and final day of West 2007, the annual conference and exposition sponsored by AFCEA International and the U.S. Naval Institute, featured presentations ranging from how to defeat the Iraqi insurgency to the power of home-grown aircraft carrier videos.

The conference videophile was the day’s keynote speaker, Vice Adm. Mark J. Edwards, USN, deputy chief of naval operations for communications networks (N-6). Adm. Edwards took a broad view of the information technology revolution and described numerous opportunities to implement sweeping new capabilities throughout the Navy. Instead of merely building on existing technologies, the U.S. Navy would explore wholly new applications, Adm. Edwards indicated.

The admiral demonstrated just how new information technology capabilities could be exploited more effectively. He showed a display of a standard Navy online video that looked proper, well-designed and unremarkable. About 300 people had viewed this video, he said. Then, right next to it, he ran a video that was put together by Navy personnel in carrier airborne early warning squadron VAW-116. Titled “Pump It,’ the five-minute video set to rock music had been viewed on YouTube more than 400,000 times, and it had earned four stars among reviewers.

The admiral continued that the Navy has not kept pace with technology growth, but many of the people coming into the Navy have. Not only must the Navy tap their expertise, it also must create an environment in which they will flourish. The technology-savvy millennium generation, which comprises people younger than age 25, tends to focus on cutting edge technology and collaboration. Those and other qualities of that generation are the N-6’s focus, he said.

The Navy is spending more money on information technology than industry, but it is not getting its money’s worth, the admiral charged. The leading causes of this shortfall are legacy systems and systems that do not give the navy big payback, he added. It is imperative that the Navy close the gap with industry in part by drawing solutions from industry.

While the early bird may get the worm, he observed, the Navy should apply a different animal analogy. “The second mouse gets the cheese,” he emphasized. “We want to be the second mouse and feed off of industry.”

The Navy is sorely lacking in sufficient bandwidth, and it must improve its networks to provide enough bandwidth with secure links to ensure effective operations, Adm. Edwards declared. Otherwise, the sea service will become the service-least-gone-to for commanding forces in the field. Without better information technology, the Navy will preclude its ever becoming a joint task force commander, the admiral warned.

The dominant operation throughout conference discussions was the Iraq war, and stopping the ongoing insurgency was the theme of the show’s Fast-Track address. Fresh off of a panel earlier in the week, Lt. Col. John Nagl, USA, the commanding officer of the 1st Battalion, 34th Armor, Fort Riley, Kansas, focused on the counterinsurgency manual issued by the U.S. Army (FM 3-24) and the U.S. Marine Corps (MCWP 3-33.5). This manual, which was compiled from input from a variety of military and nonmilitary experts at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, could provide valuable guidelines to help U.S. forces prevail in Iraq. The U.S. military has needed a coherent doctrine for all parts of the force to operate together, and it has it in this manual, the colonel said.

Lt. Col. John Nagl, USA, the commanding officer of the 1st Battalion, 34th Armor, Fort Riley, Kansas, holds up a counterinsurgency manual issued by the U.S. Army (FM 3-24) and the U.S. Marine Corps (MCWP 3-33.5).

The U.S. military is hampered by traditional thinking, but to defeat the Iraqi insurgency it must view it in the proper light. Col. Nagl stated that this enemy is a network, and defeating a network requires being a network and understanding networks. In Iraq, the allied coalition is fighting a network of networks, he declared. In fact, jihadists already have translated the counterinsurgency memo and have posted segments on the Web in Arabic.

Key to defeating the insurgency is obtaining intelligence on the enemy, the colonel said. But another vital element is to obtain the support of the public at large. The insurgency knows this. Col. Nagl offered that the allies must target Americans and different segments of the Iraqi people with information operations, and he called for the re-establishment of the U.S. Information Agency in the form in which it operated during the Cold War, when it was highly effective.

Several audience members questioned whether the manual was comprehensive enough to be useful. One questioner pointed out that the manual lacked any substantive mention of potential enabling technologies. Col. Nagl explained that officials are at work on a revision that will take technologies into account, and he added that the application of technology to this problem is essential to success.

China was the inadvertent focal point of the day’s only panel. Titled “A Maritime Strategy for Asia-Pacific: What Are the Competing Priorities,” the international panel examined many issues involving the dozens of countries that compose that vast region. But, many of the conversations ultimately swung toward the emerging military and economic power that houses one-fifth of the world’s population.

Rear Adm. Michael McDevitt, USN (Ret.), director of he Center for Strategic Studies, Center for Naval Analyses, decried misconceptions about China from both sides of the political spectrum. It is not an accurate description of the U.S./China relationship to view China as an enemy, he emphasized. China is not the Soviet Union. The United States and China have normal political and societal relationships. However, the two countries have competing strategies and are vying for influence in Southeast Asia. And, the cloud of war hovers over Taiwan, he stated.

China is undergoing a revolution in its military, he declared. The country has spent 15 years developing a new doctrine, and every aspect of its military is changing dramatically. China began implementing this change in 1999, the admiral noted, adding that the People’s Liberation Army is a learning organization full of “smart people in a stupid system.”

China has been using Soviet means to counter the U.S. Navy—surveillance, bombers with cruise missiles and submarines, for example. Other advances are on the way, including maneuverable warheads atop intercontinental ballistic missiles. With most of China’s unresolved external issues sitting in the maritime arena—Taiwan, offshore oil, sea-lane assurance—the country has an anti-access maritime strategy for conflict. By comparison, the United States has an access strategy for conflict, and the two overlap each other in the western Pacific Ocean.

Rear Adm. Roger Girouard, OMM, CD, commander, Maritime Forces Pacific (Canada), added that China is increasing its commercial shipping operations to develop economic power. Ultimately, it may be able to establish prices and rates as it gets its exports to market.

Adm. Girouard added that the concept of the 1,000-ship navy—in which allies network their navies to produce a giant ad hoc force—is not new, but its time is right in this new era. A window of opportunity exists to grow this 1,000-ship navy, he added, but the key issue is trust, not technology. Adm. Girouard noted that Canada is going through a major debate on the nature of its military and its roles in the world. Among these is a “guns or green” debate that will spread elsewhere in the Free World, he added.

The key objective for Australia is security in vital maritime straits, according to Cmdre. Jack McCaffrie, RANR, visiting fellow, Sea Power Centre. The Free World must facilitate the growth of small countries’ navies, as the growing strength of India’s and China’s navies will be a factor. The Free World must encourage the establishment and maintenance of good government in these countries, especially to combat the rampant corruption that plagues the region and inhibits economic and social development. Achieving this will require close links with these small countries, he added.

—Begin making plans now for West 2008, to be held on February 5-7 in San Diego.