Abstract
In 2014, Commander Joint Task Force (JTF) 633 asked deployed operations analysts to examine information flow between deployed units of the Australian Defence Force (ADF) in the Middle East Region (MER) and to consider the contribution to decision-making of flows within and between the various deployed headquarters, Headquarters Joint Operations Command (HQJOC) and other strategic and coalition nodes. Data were collected across the theatre, using attributes such as frequency, means, network and type. Data were also collected on the information function of the interaction, which relates to the role of the communication within Boyd’s Observe–Orient–Decide–Act (OODA) loop. Insights from these data were communicated to Commanders in theatre in late 2014 and early 2015. Further analysis used a representation of the C2 arrangements to generate a network diagram showing both information function and frequency. The network may now be visualised as a full socio-technical system, with nodes representing both organisational entities and information artefacts or systems, or as a pure social network (human-to-human). This approach extends the Situation Awareness Weighted Network (SAWN) framework, creating an OODA Weighted Network model presented here as OODAWN. This paper will discuss the context for the work, the data collection techniques and the resulting network diagrams. We demonstrate the utility of the model by discussing insights regarding the C2 arrangements, both within theatre and from theatre back to Australia.
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Notes
- 1.
Combined refers to a multiple nation force and Joint refers to force comprising multiple services such as the Army, Navy and Air Force.
- 2.
Grant and Kooter [13] argue that “Orient” in Boyd’s OODA loop does not include Planning, whereas Endsley’s model does; we would argue that the Projection into future states is simply not as elaborated with Boyd’s level of fidelity.
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Acknowledgements
The authors would like to acknowledge the senior leadership of HQJTF633 from October 2014 to May 2015. This leadership team initiated the study and provided Command directives to facilitate data collection. Sincere thanks to the deployed ADF personnel who took time to provide quality and considered input to this study. The authors would also like to acknowledge the MER Theatre Information Manager for her input to the study design and data collection. Thanks also to Robert Graham, the other half of the deployed analyst team, for his excellent advice and general support with the data collection, and Mathew Zuparic for assistance with NetMiner in processing the preliminary dataset.
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Kalloniatis, A., Rowe, C., La, P., Holder, A., Bennier, J., Mitchell, B. (2018). Network Analysis of Decision Loops in Operational Command and Control Arrangements. In: Sarker, R., Abbass, H., Dunstall, S., Kilby, P., Davis, R., Young, L. (eds) Data and Decision Sciences in Action. Lecture Notes in Management and Industrial Engineering. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-55914-8_25
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