Military operations research and situation awareness in networks

Information dominance and superiority and network centric warfare are terms that have become part of the lexicon associated with the transformation of the military force in the 21st century. Also well-known are the four tenets of network centric warfare: 1. Arobustly networked force improves information sharing and collaboration; 2. Suchsharing and collaboration enhance the quality of information and shared situationalawareness; 3. This enhancement, in turn, enables further self-synchronization andimproves the sustainability and speed of command; 4. This combination dramaticallyincreases mission effectiveness. The concept of NEC involves the use of complex systems, consisting of many components that are heterogeneous in functionality and capabilitywith both non-local and non-linear interactions and effects. The network aspect of this all captures the essence of transformation and is also a central element in improving combat effectiveness. Studying social, cognitive, physical and information networks is thereforeof paramount interest. But, in spite of this dependence on networks, in military sciences, little is known about, for example, the relationship between architecture and functioning of a network: given some task, will a hierarchical network be outperformed by certain other network configurations that are more flexible? What about information propagation through a network? What are the mechanisms that explain why and how networks change over time? Or, with respect to security, which networks are prone to deliberate attacks ontheir nodes? What about the modelling of networks characterised by noisy andincomplete data? The answer to these questions contributes to the desired situationawareness at higher command levels and thus to the decision-making process. In this article, the authors focus on the relation between the networks architecture andsituation awareness, which forms the basis for decision-makin