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Abstract. In this paper, we examine the spectrum of choices between
organisational centralisation and decentralisation in the presence of emerging trends
in communications, information-processing, and sensor technologies. These technologies are important
drivers in the current move towards Network Centric Warfare (NCW),
and raise the question: should the new networks being developed
be used to enable greater centralisation, or greater decentralisation? We
reduce the choice to six basic questions (covering issues such
as facilities, information availability, communications, and time constraints), and examine
how the answers to these questions are impacted by technological
change. Our analysis suggests that most new technologies can support
both centralisation and decentralisation. As a result, over coming decades,
the choice will be increasingly determined by a purely theoretical
question, namely the possibility of a "global optimum". This in
turn is based on characteristics of the air, maritime, and
land environments, with a global optimum more likely in the
air and maritime environments, and less likely in the land
environment.
Related topics:
network centric warfare, command and control, command systems
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