Cyber OODA: A Candidate Model for Cyberspace Engagement

摘要

This thesis explores whether the Network Centric Conceptual Framework can be applied to evaluate and improve cyberspace engagemeents. Military operations have shown fantastic increases in speed, lethality, and effectiveness by employing cyberspace capabilities. The Network Centric Operations Conceptual Framework (NCO CF) has proven to be a useful analytic tool to explain why and how network effects can be such a powerful enabler in military operations. However, the manmade nature of cyberspace makes it different from the other warfighting domains, defines its boundaries, drives its utility and creates its vulnerabilities. This thesis seeks to determine if the NCO CF can be applied to cyberspace engagements despite these differences. Acknowledging the primary differences between cyberspace engagements and traditional military operations, the Candidate Cyberspace Engagement Model provides a framework for understanding and tracking the specific actions, reactions, and causes of cyberspace exploitations and attacks. Although the primary conclusion of this thesis is that the NCO CF can be used to analyze cyberspace conflicts, insights from the Candidate Cyberspace Engagement Model lead to some important qualifications and updates that must be applied to the NCO CF before doing so. The Candidate Cyberspace Engagement Model also demonstrates how crucial situational awareness, command and control, collaboration, and stealth are to cyberspace engagements. These insights suggest policy and operational changes to the way cyberspace is created, defended, and operated for the Department of Defense and other organizations.