CAC2S
New toy for the Corps:
There's an old saying among grunts: The more complex the machine, the quicker it will fail in combat.
I'm sure this is very useful and all, but it worries me that field commanders will become reliant on whiz-bang devices like this to make tactical decisions. What happens when it breaks? Will they even know how to fall back to analog radio communication networks to build a tactical picture?
Maybe I'm just old, but I spent some time working in a Fire Support Coordination Center as the mortars officer and I can tell you it's damnably difficult to organize all the information by radio -- even when you know what you're doing and are well-practiced. If this magic box fails, it could throw command & control and fire support into chaos as they scramble around trying to figure out how to do it the old fashioned way. I'm not saying don't use it, but it would be dangerously easy to become addicted to it.
General Dynamics Mission Systems' Common Aviation Command and Control System recently completed a U.S. Marine Corps operational test, the company announced Wednesday.
Also known as CAC2S, the system is a command and control system that integrates information from various aerial and ground-based radar systems and sensors to enable greater interoperability. It is used by the Marine Air-Ground Task Force and visually combines ground and aviation command and control data for increased situational awareness and quicker decision making.
There's an old saying among grunts: The more complex the machine, the quicker it will fail in combat.
I'm sure this is very useful and all, but it worries me that field commanders will become reliant on whiz-bang devices like this to make tactical decisions. What happens when it breaks? Will they even know how to fall back to analog radio communication networks to build a tactical picture?
Maybe I'm just old, but I spent some time working in a Fire Support Coordination Center as the mortars officer and I can tell you it's damnably difficult to organize all the information by radio -- even when you know what you're doing and are well-practiced. If this magic box fails, it could throw command & control and fire support into chaos as they scramble around trying to figure out how to do it the old fashioned way. I'm not saying don't use it, but it would be dangerously easy to become addicted to it.
posted by Jar(egg)head at 16:04
1 Comments:
Well, this will fit nicely in with the new Facebook/Twitter generation. The only issue I have will be the Ol' TMI (too much information) With up to the minute updates on battleground situations, will the commanders act on what they have or will they hesitate waiting for new,up to date info, or even worse, react to every single bit of intel and continually change orders minute by minute "Go this way, wait, go this way, no, go back the other way, turn around, hold on, no go back the original way".
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