[ISN] US Navy dumps Microsoft, makes network the weapon

From: InfoSec News (isnat_private)
Date: Tue Jul 22 2003 - 00:20:18 PDT

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    Forwarded from: William Knowles <wkat_private>
    
    http://inquirerinside.com/?article=10581
    
    By Doug Mohney
    21 July 2003
    
    THE UNITED STATES Navy is quietly and aggressively touting its horn on
    adapting a Network-Centric philosophy, one that will win them brownie
    points with Donald Rumsfeld and the current wave of "transformational"  
    thinking flowing through the Pentagon. To rework the old cliche, the
    network is the weapon, more specifically the glue that binds together
    sensors and weapons, allowing warfighters to view the battlefield more
    precisely and apply the force necessary to achieve desired "effects."  
    The new way of fighting is built around Internet standards, including
    web pages, routers, Ethernet, instant messaging, and chat rooms.  
    Casualties appear to be both expensive customized systems and
    Microsoft software.
    
    According to retired Admiral Dennis McGinn, now in private industry
    and an NBC analyst, the U.S. Navy has embraced the information age
    with more successes than failures. Presenting at the SuperNova 2003
    conference, McGinn described the overhaul of fleet decision-making
    from a stove-piped set of legacy system using Mil-Spec CRT monitors to
    a quick purchase of off-the-shelf "smart boards" incorporated into a
    display wall (Oh, and the off-the-shelf equipment used less power and
    was cooler to boot). Sailors and officers, once laboring under the
    burden of daily PowerPoint presentations, went web-crazy, putting and
    updating information in real-time on a web-site and sharing the
    information using the Navy's secure network.
    
    Naval Allies saw the new toys in action during a war game and wanted
    to plug in to share the data wealth. Unlike the Yanks, they didn't
    have a lot of cash, so they too went the COTS (commercial,
    off-the-shelf) route and joined up in a Coalition Wide-Area Network
    linked together by Inmarsat 64Kbps satellite links and Lotus Notes.  
    The WAN was put together in weeks and was used to coordinate
    everything thing from anti-sub warfare to live fire missile shoots.
    
    Organization and planning, once highly centralized, became very flat
    and horizontal, commanders getting out of the way with a few
    exceptions. Chat rooms were used to exchange data in real time between
    units so much McGinn told his staff only half-jokingly, "If the war is
    going to start in a chat room, please make sure I'm in the chat room."
    
    However, the cornucopia of information flow needs to be shaped and
    processed. Information in the network-centric world– especially on a
    war-footing – needs to be current, accurate, comprehensive, and
    relevant. If the data being passed around meets those criteria, said
    McGinn, it should result in better and faster decisions. Pull out one
    of those four characteristics, and there's a problem.
    
    Challenges of the network-centric world include the security of
    information (Don't want to be shooting at false targets), bandwidth,
    and the whole concept of information warfare. Bandwidth was a
    particularly hot button issue. The Navy has been a wireless shop from
    day one, ships can't always get the bandwidth they want when they need
    it. Satellites currently provide the "backbone" for operational needs,
    but the number of satellite hops to pass around information is clumsy
    and there was the unspoken fear of "Gee, what happens if we lose the
    satellite." Line-of-site communication with data-rates of at least
    8-10 Mbps seems to be the wave of the future as well as turning every
    node into a repeater.
    
    McGinn's evangelizing is supplemented by two articles published in the
    July 2003 Proceedings, the hard-copy magazine of the U.S. Naval
    Institute by Lieutenant Pet Majeranowki and Captain Eileen MacKrell
    respectively. MacKrell's account is particularly amusing. Since the
    carrier battle group used a web site with information updated in real
    time by all participants, briefings for command staff were done
    directly from the site, rather than the old-fashioned method of a
    daily PowerPoint briefing. The dumping of PowerPoint freed up
    MacKrell's assistant to stand watches onboard ship and train junior
    officers. µ
    
    * INQBLOT it hasn't happened in Her Majesty's Royal Navy yet. A
    programme last night about the nuclear submarine HMS Splendid, clearly
    shows Windows software being used not only in the sub, but also at the
    command HQ in Northwood, just a few miles down the road from the
    INQwell.
    
    
     
    *==============================================================*
    "Communications without intelligence is noise;  Intelligence
    without communications is irrelevant." Gen Alfred. M. Gray, USMC
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