The U.S. Army and network-centric warfare a thematic analysis of the literature

This paper examines network-centric warfare (NCW) penetration within the U.S. Army. NCW was intended to be an emerging theory of war for the information age. It was supposed to provide a conceptual framework that would prevent new technology enabled approaches to warfare from being constrained by outmoded ideas. A thematic analysis of the literature was performed using NVivo 10, a computer assisted qualitative data analysis software, to assess NCW adoption within the U.S. Army. The data did not support the idea that it has been adopted. A lack of adoption can result in limitations on the ability of today´s soldiers to take advantage of the enhanced approaches to warfare offered by the theory. U.S. Army leaders should adopt NCW so that they have a theoretical framework for the conduct of military operations in an information rich environment.