Paris, 14 June 2005 − The WEU Assembly has called on the European Union to increase investment and cooperation in order to meet the challenge of “network-centric warfare” based on C4ISTAR (Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance Target Acquisition and Reconnaissance) technologies, which were used by the United States in Operation Iraqi Freedom.
 
Presenting his report on “European capabilities for network-centric operations” on behalf of the Defence Committee, Klaus Werner Jonas (Germany, Socialist Group) stressed the “radical change in military culture” that had taken place as a result of the extensive use of new Information Communication Technology (ICT), which formed the basis of the concept of network-centric warfare. This was gradually being adopted by modern armed forces. Mr Jonas explained that the concept entailed networking command and control and weapons systems. The purpose of such a network was to provide a continuous link, preferably in real time, with political and military decision-makers down the line to soldiers in a theatre of operations. When it had been tested during Operation Iraqi Freedom, it had proved that it was now possible to win a war more quickly and with fewer soldiers. Mr Jonas added, however, that there was a difference between the phase during which “war” had been waged against Saddam Hussein’s army and the follow-up phase of “reconstruction” in Iraq which had “shown the limits of technology”.
 
While the “human factor” was of prime importance, network-centric operations were an added bonus in terms of decision-making. Europe should rise to this new “challenge” by giving priority to “European solutions, technologies and products” even though it was not at present possible “to close the doctrinal and technological gap and above all the gap in the resources available to American forces as compared with European forces”. Indeed, this gap was getting wider, a fact which the Assembly found worrying.
 
Europe was nevertheless making progress on network-centric warfare capabilities mainly as a result of national initiatives being taken by the four countries (France, Germany, Sweden and the United Kingdom) which were forging ahead with the modernisation of their armed forces. The UK was developing its Network-Enabled Capability (NEC) project while France was pressing on with its Bulle Opérationnelle Aéroterrestre (BOA)1 project based on man-machine interaction, and the French army was due to introduce the FELIN2 soldier system in 2006-2007.
 
1 Air/Land Operational Bubble
2  Integrated equipment and communications system for the infantry.