10. C4ISR

C4ISR is expanded beyond C3I – that is, Command, Control, Communication, Intelligence (C3I) plus Computers, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (CSR) resulting in C4ISR. This expanded concept came about as a result of Battle Command needs. A journal, C4ISR: The Journal of Net-Centric Warfare is a journal published by the Defense News Media Group containing articles on C4ISR studies.

The expanded concept originally had a strategic application to battlefield command, but in truth it applies to the National Command Authority as well. C4ISR to provide capabilities that enable the highest command level, as well as field forces, to generate, use, and share the information necessary to survive and succeed.
As presented in the precious blog, Command and control systems provide the means to execute nuclear, conventional, and special operations effectively.

Intelligence provides the capability to collect, process, and disseminate an uninterrupted flow of information while exploiting or denying an adversary’s ability to do the same. It includes comprehensive knowledge of the theater in contention, including the status and intentions of both enemy and friendly forces. Part of the intelligence function is Surveillance and Reconnaissance. For intelligence to be useful it must be detailed to allow decision makes to out-think and out-operate enemy forces and protect American lives.

Computers and computer systems are highly vulnerable to attack. Since they are vital to security, planning for resisting penetration and security of systems is essential. It has become a new part of the Intelligence function. Surveillance and Reconnaissance have always been part of intelligence operations, but now these two functions are raised to the level of command and control itself.

All this shows that when a command structure is vulnerable to decapitation – loss of any of the C4ISR – it may lose its entire ability to deal with a critical situation. On 9/11 we got a good lesson in this, as all functions were lost, limited, or inadequate.