Network Centric Warfare Speech by Scholar General
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Wow, this is news to me. I haven't seen any of 'them' in all my years with the service. I still don't believe!Originally posted by dkhoo:The OCS PC that fought guerillas in Phillipines was a scholar
That's why he was attending the military academy (university) there. He had a thousand different tips on what worked and didn't work in combat. Nearly got shot several times, at least one kill (cut off the guy's ears as a trophy). SAF infantry tactics worked great against Abu Sayyaf, apparently. He's probably a "crab" now, and might make stars if he's lucky. Other scholars have attended Sandhurst military academy, patrolled Belfast and fought IRA terrorists, though I've not met these people personally.
Note that SAF scholarships require the scholar to be attached to foreign military units during their education, so my PC was not unique. Scholars are the most likely people to have seen combat in the SAF, so don't look down on them too much. Of course, having survived a few firefights and gotten a few kills doesn't necessarily make you a good leader. Many scholars are still crap. But saying that people with combat experience should lead is basically saying that the situation we have now is perfect.
I think the problem is more basic. The personnel advancement system in the SAF needs a revamp. Unit leadership performance should count more toward an officer's promotion than performance in staff or training billets. Or even better, officers who do well in unit leadership positions should get them more often, but not be crippled in pay compared to his staff colleagues. And officers who do well in staff or training positions should get them more often. That would make so much more sense. No more desk jockeys getting laughed at by the men, or fire-breathing combat machines wasted in the office.
Best leader is the one that survive the longest like Sgt Sharon! -
Originally posted by Fairyland:Wow, this is news to me. I haven't seen any of 'them' in all my years with the service. I still don't believe! Most of them even today strikes me as very green and....... pale
Best leader is the one that survive the longest like Sgt Ariel Sharon!
And I don't mean organisation politik! -
Originally posted by gary1910:
At least give a link to where you got it from...
News from the first Digital Div on the field, hope that SAF could get some tips from
http://www.spacewar.com/2004/040101145955.s9kzktzb.html
Source-AFP
Even the words of the most junior officer/NCO is more valuable than what BG Khoo blabbered about. I wondered was he asked to give the keynote speech. Self-styled "Architect" indeed. Castles in the sky, castles in the sky. -
BTW, those from Jurong Camp might know, the former Div Commander was shot in Philippines during his junior officer years. Apparently was there to fight off the Muslim insurgents or something. He has a scar on his torso as memory. Told to us by Div RSM
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This is something I never I heard of..Originally posted by dkhoo:The OCS PC that fought guerillas in Phillipines was a scholar That's why he was attending the military academy (university) there. He had a thousand different tips on what worked and didn't work in combat. Nearly got shot several times, at least one kill (cut off the guy's ears as a trophy). SAF infantry tactics worked great against Abu Sayyaf, apparently. He's probably a "crab" now, and might make stars if he's lucky. Other scholars have attended Sandhurst military academy, patrolled Belfast and fought IRA terrorists, though I've not met these people personally.
omitted..
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So he was appointed as a PC there too? -
More news from ID4:
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=ourWorldNews&storyID=4080922&pageNumber=0Video Game War for U.S. 'Digital Division' in Iraq
CHARGE!!!
Tue January 6, 2004 10:59 AM ET
By Robin Pomeroy
TIKRIT, Iraq (Reuters) - The blue dots moving on the computer screen are U.S. tanks and Humvees, the red ones are the enemy American soldiers must kill or capture.
This is not a video game but how the most high-tech division of the U.S. Army conducts operations in Iraq.
The 4th Infantry Division, which patrols a large chunk of northern Iraq, caught the world's attention when it captured Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. But in the U.S. military, it is known for the space-age gear fitted in its vehicles.
"The 4th ID is the only division to have it," said Sgt. Jeff Mann, an infantryman from Farmsville, Ohio. "That's why they call us the 'digital division."'
For soldiers like Mann, the navigation console on his Humvee has replaced the map and compass as the tool to find the way across a desert or through the streets -- in his case in Tikrit, Saddam's hometown.
The computer uses satellite positioning technology to tell the operator where he is and where his comrades are. Back at base, computer operators plot the red icons showing where they believe the enemy to be.
"It is a huge advance," said Maj. Lou Morales, a training officer who was a company commander during the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq last March.
"It freed me up to see who was around me. I knew where my helicopters were, my trucks, my tanks ... It frees you up from staring at a map."
With its touch screen and keyboard, the console can send instant messages to HQ or other units and has a "line of sight" device that tells the user what he would be able to see -- and shoot at -- if he moved to a different position.
The console, which in the U.S. Army tradition of acronyms is referred to as FBCB2 or Force XXI Battle Command, Battalion, Brigade and Below, is only part of the 4th Infantry Division's digital armory.
In a mobile office next to one of Saddam's palaces that U.S. forces have made their home in Tikrit stand three large video screens that replicate the information from the various consoles and give additional data.
This is the Command Information Center, the heart of the operation, where the troops' commander, Maj. Gen. Ray Odierno, moves his forces around a computer screen in the way generals of old pushed model tanks across a table-top map.
On the center screen, a map can show the whole of Iraq or zoom in on a single house, using recent satellite photographs.
The left-hand screen is used to bring up lists of data. On the right, the screen can air live aerial video filmed by remote-controlled planes.
The division operates eight UAVs -- unmanned aerial vehicles -- the only ones in Iraq. The winged craft can circle, quietly and usually undetected, above friendly or enemy forces, sending pictures and map coordinates back to the command center.
The Iraqi army put up little defense against the U.S-led invasion so the technology has mostly been used for fighting insurgents, who according to the U.S. military are mainly Saddam loyalists or foreign militants, rather than conventional forces.
"It was never envisaged to be used in the kind of environment we are in right now," said Lt. Col. Ted Martin, the division's chief of operations.
Instead of the tank battles the troops trained for, they face the daily risk of snipers and low-tech but deadly roadside bombs, not easily spotted by expensive gadgets like unmanned aircraft.
But commanders say the technology is proving its worth in the anti-insurgency effort, for example by moving troops more quickly to precise locations when the enemy is spotted.
"Digital systems have improved our ability to action on intelligence, for example to cordon off a building at night," Martin said.
When the division's troops closed in on Saddam's hiding place last month, they relied more on intelligence gathered by humans than technology, but the gadgets played their part.
"The rapid movement of about 600 soldiers into the area to cordon it off and tighten the noose was all done in a digital environment," Martin said.
Soldiers like the gear, but say it is costly and often unreliable. "It's like any other computer. Anything can go wrong," said Mann, the sergeant, as his comrades tried to fix the hard drive on his Humvee. "It's great, when it works."
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This is standard stuff you see in the NTUC Comfort taxi fleet management application......wonder why it took them so long to get in?!
UAV pictures all this is 15years old for SAF......ok you want to pipe this back......but even this is easily done.
What's new today is that it's integrated on one big picture.....GIS application like MapInfo.
All the COTS is at hand. Except anti-jam datalinks........aiyah DSO can come up with one tomorrow.
What would be interesting is to see the complete Air, Sea and Land situation in one map. Even then, it's no biggie. -
It's because of the scholars again. Other than copying, they're no good an innovating. The real innovators are those engineers on the ground who have done things with their own hands and know what people really want.Originally posted by Fairyland:This is standard stuff you see in the NTUC Comfort taxi fleet management application......wonder why it took them so long to get in?!
UAV pictures all this is 15years old for SAF......ok you want to pipe this back......but even this is easily done.
What's new today is that it's integrated on one big picture.....GIS application like MapInfo.
All the COTS is at hand. Except anti-jam datalinks........aiyah DSO can come up with one tomorrow.
What would be interesting is to see the complete Air, Sea and Land situation in one map. Even then, it's no biggie.