C3: The Challenge of Change

The power, range, and speed of weapons have increased exponentially during the last 50 or so years. The more powerful the weapon, the more serious becomes its use. The faster the weapon, the shorter the reaction time required of the user. The greater the range of the weapon, the larger the problem of knowing target location. The more quickly these parameters change, the greater the user's learning problem and the less the opportunity to learn through experience. The cultural shock widely recognized in society in general is even more serious to today's military commander, because the consequences of his acts can be global in nature. Technology offers some help in making the use of modern weapons more efficient and in reducing the probability of unwanted effects. But the problem of matching the rapidly changing new technology to the rapidly changing requirements of military command, control, and communications (C3), selecting improvements that will help, and rejecting those just nice to have-all this, in the absence of pertinent experience, is the challenge of change.