[المنتصر]

Information Warfare

The ocean environment enhances military command, control, and communications. Ocean-borne platforms can provide military units deployed overseas with constant, secure, real-time communication with tactical and strategic leadership in the United States. Information superiority has several components: gathering, processing, and disseminating information; information operations to defend against attack; and information operations directed against an adversary’s information. Information warfare is in its infancy but holds forth the hope of military dominance without the use of physical force or loss of life.

Intelligence, Surveillance and
Reconnaissance IS&R

The forward presence of ocean-based military forces enable the United States to gain a better understanding of developing political military situations. Developing better intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance are key ways to improve awareness of the battlespace, to track the disposition of enemy forces, to enhance transparency among nations (i.e., reduce the risk of accidental war), and to monitor U.S. allied and neutral warfighting assets. Better IS&R technology permits more precise tracking of enemy assets, allowing for more effective disabling of opponents with less use of firepower, less brute force, and less chance of collateral damage to noncombatants. It also promises the potential for improved tactical and strategic awareness, enabling forces to "fight smarter." Thus, the use of up-to-date information technology and modern sensors can help reduce battlespace confusion, often referred to as the "fog of war."

Tactical Environmental Support

A thorough understanding of the dynamics of the
ocean environment is necessary for the success of maritime missions. The Navy’s operational oceanography community is responsible for understanding the effects of the natural environment on the planning and execution of naval operations, and for interpreting atmospheric and ocean phenomena for forces worldwide. This community must respond to new technological opportunities and to new mission needs. The ocean and marine environment affect all aspects of naval warfare. Amphibious, mine, and special warfare forces all require rapid, accurate environmental information to support their basic operations. The ocean’s structure, which varies due to subtle changes in salinity and temperature, determines how sound propagates through water and thus affects the use of sonars; likewise, the environment can be used to find or hide submarines. Similarly, changes in temperature and moisture through the atmosphere affect radars used to detect incoming aircraft or missiles and can create "ducts" where radars cannot detect incoming threats. Today’s high-tech weaponry increasingly requires sophisticated environmental inputs for optimal performance and to support the precision required to engage hostile targets while avoiding collateral damage to civilians persons, property, and other noncombatants.