Pentagon official emphasizes 'creative approach' to defense

The U.S. military must embrace a "more entrepreneurial, more creative approach" to acquiring the tools necessary to combat enemies abroad and to protect the homeland, the Defense Department's director of force transformation told reporters Tuesday.

Retired Adm. Arthur Cebrowski, who was appointed to the newly created office last October, explained that the rapid proliferation of information technology has made the future of warfare much harder to predict.

"It is ubiquitous," Cebrowski said of information technology during a media breakfast hosted by Defense Week and General Dynamics. "It is low-cost, and the cost is falling. As a result, smaller groups of people--non-state groups--can have access to high-quality technology ... and this poses profound challenges for us."

President Bush issued a broad mandate last year to transform the nation's military capabilities in a manner that reflects society's transition from the industrial age to the information age.

"The mandate from the president and the [Defense] secretary is to stay at a competitive [military] advantage, and my job is to help them find a way to do that," Cebrowski said. "To the extent that we don't change, we will not be benefiting from the information age. We will be static, and consequently, we will be a fixed target and our risks will soar."

Sensor-based technologies such as space imaging are a key example of how the military is moving into the information age. "We're seeing the emergence of sensor-based warfare," Cebrowski said. "In some areas of warfare, [sensors] have always been important, but now, they're universally important."

But rapid advancement in the U.S. military's sensor-based capabilities is prompting attempts by enemies of the United States to foil those sensors with advanced technology of their own.

"The world knows that if we can sense it, we can kill it," Cebrowski said. "Consequently, there is a great deal of work going on ... to reduce firing opportunities--for example, with mobility or with deception."

In response to those counter measures, the military must constantly improve, expand and network its sensor technology while connecting it "more closely and more robustly" to weapons systems, Cebrowski said. "This is an enormous growth area in defense," he said. "I would be surprised if, over the next several years, we didn't see a considerable reallocation of resources in that direction."

Cebrowski added that the U.S. military's transformation must continue indefinitely. "No one can run for very long on the logic that says, 'We've transformed, so we needn't do anymore," he warned. "Transformation is a continuing process, not a destination."