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The First Information War?
Alan D. Campen writes, "The Gulf War was a war where an ounce of silicon in a computer may have had more effect than a ton of uranium." Campen a retired air force colonel and former Director of Command and Control Policy in the U.S. Defense Department provides a collection of technical papers on the Gulf War in his book, The First Information War. Now, I propose the question to each or you, was the Gulf War really the first information war? I will leave that for you to decide; however, I will provide some "food for thought." --- Two of the most powerful information weapons flew over the Gulf, AWACs (Airborne Warning and Control System) and J-Stars (Joint Surveillance and Target Attack Radar System). AWACS is a Boeing 707 capable of scanning 360 degrees in all directions to detect enemy aircraft or missiles or jam radar. J-Stars used for the first time in Gulf provided commanders on the ground a visual of enemy movements, under all weather conditions. This aircraft detects fighting vehicles, helicopters, low-speed aircraft, missile launchers, rotating antennas, ships/barges, tanks, trucks/convoys (PBS, Frontline). --- Attacks on mircowave relay towers, telephone exchanges, switching rooms, fiber optic nodes and bridges carrying coaxial communications cables affected Iraqi communications (Report to Congress on the Conduct of the Persian Gulf War, April 1992 by the Department of Defense). --- "Saddam Hussein's ability to transmit detailed, timely orders to his senior field commanders deteriorated rapidly. The physical destruction of the Iraqi C3 (Command and Control) capability destroyed key nodes of the air defense and C3 systems (Report to Congress on the Conduct of the Persian Gulf War, April 1992 by the Department of Defense)." --- How did the United States use information to gain the advantage of their adversaries in WWI, WWII, Korean War & Vietnam War? What techniques did our adversaries use? Did surveillance and reconnaissance take place? How was intelligence gathered? Dispersed?
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