Network Centric Warfare as Complex Optimization: An Evolutionary Approach
Abstract :
Military operations are very complex undertakings. However, complexity is not a feature unique to military
operations. When biologists wanted to understand the properties of gene mutation they also faced complexity.
Confronted by a large number of genes featuring different characteristics, a difficult-to-decode interac- tion
among those genes, and an environment that could not be excluded as a factor, Sewell Wright introduced the
shifting balance theory, also known as the theory of the fitness landscape. The theory allows complexity to be
seen as a process that rests on adaptation and mutation. These two processes are also central to military
operations as it is imperative to offset the changing conditions coming both from the environment and the
interaction with the enemy. In the article the author uses Wright’s theory to help see military operations as a
complex optimization problem that includes approximations and estimations regarding optimal values.