Navigation in the Age of Network Centric Warfare

摘要

In today's military, navigation of platforms, personnel and weapons centers around the use of the Global Positioning System (GPS). Whole weapons programs rely solely on GPS for their precision strike capability. While offering a level of accuracy unheard a couple of decades ago, GPS is vulnerable to asymmetrical attack in the form of jamming and spooling. Because of the platform-centric nature of our current navigation architecture, the Joint Commander has virtually no ability to control weapons in the event of a GPS failure. Additionally, he has no ability to provide networked navigation information or provide error control of navigation information to his forces. With the coming of Network-Centric Warfare (NCW) and the information superiority it will provide, the Joint Commander must be able to control, exploit and disseminate navigation information just like any other battlespace-critical factor. By incorporating geospatial information as a subset of overall battlespace awareness, we can ensure the robust and reliable navigation information flow that will allow the Joint Commander to dominate the battlespace of the future.