Online Sponsor: April 01, 2003
Rush to network centric warfare may underestimate risk By GOPAL RATNAM, DEFENSE NEWS MEDIA GROUP
The Pentagon’s “rush to network centric warfare is interesting … compelling, but what happens if the network is not there,” said Russell A. Haas, senior manager for Combat Capability Development and Strike Weapons Systems at Raytheon Co.’s Missile Systems unit in Tucson, Ariz. Haas spoke to defense industry and service officials here April 1 for a Defense News Media Group conference , Strike Warfare and Precision Attack: Compressing the ‘Flash-to-Bang’ Cycle. A significant number of precision weapons in the U.S. inventory are guided to targets by global positioning system (GPS) satellites, Haas noted. “What happens when the GPS is jammed,” Haas said. “Can I still take out a target?” The scenario is not entirely hypothetical. U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld complained recently that Russian firms were supplying GPS jamming devices to Iraq that could be used to divert or confuse missiles in the ongoing war. Haas said the Pentagon must ensure that even if key components of high-tech warfare, like the GPS, take some hits, the military’s ability to deliver weapons on target is not severely eroded. He said autonomously guided missiles and munitions such as the AGM-65 Maverick family of missiles, made by Raytheon, may be a more reliable solution. Other speakers on the industry panel included Christopher Chadwick, vice president at Boeing Co., Chicago, and deputy program manager for the F/A-18E/F; David Stafford, vice president at Northrop Grumman Corp.’s Integrated Systems division, El Segundo, Calif.; and Larry Lawson, vice president, business development at Lockheed Martin Corp., Bethesda, Md. The industry executives said rules of engagement will change with advances in precision weapons, which have greatly compressed the cycle time from identifying a target to destroying it. Auto identification of targets by weapons, expected to emerge as the next step in precision weapons, will alter the rules of engagement, Stafford said. Return to news coverage |
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