In the traditional theater of war, the “Fog of War” was a vacuum—a lethal absence of information that forced commanders to gamble on the unknown. In 2025, the fog has condensed into a flood. For the modern commander, the risk is no longer absence, but excess. We are no longer starving for data; we are drowning in it.
I. The OODA Loop vs. The Deluge
The classic OODA Loop—Observe, Orient, Decide, Act—was designed for a world where the “Observe” phase was the hardest to achieve. Today, that phase is a firehose: 10,000 data points a second from loitering munitions, signals intelligence, and real-time social media scraping.
The bottleneck has shifted to the Orient phase. When the volume of observation exceeds the human capacity to synthesize it, command paralysis sets in. This was seen frequently in the later years of the war in Afghanistan, where commanders often sat before “walls of glass”—dozens of simultaneous drone feeds—leading to analysis paralysis where tactical decisions lagged behind the tempo of the fight. If you cannot orient yourself within the data, you cannot decide, and the loop breaks.
II. Information Fratricide: The Self-Inflicted Jam
Just as Electronic Fratricide involves the accidental jamming of friendly radio frequencies, we have entered the era of Information Fratricide. This occurs when units flood the network with so much redundant or low-priority data that they effectively conduct a “Denial of Service” (DoS) attack on their own headquarters.
Just as friendly fire can wound allies, friendly data can cripple command. In the rush to achieve “Total Information Awareness,” we ensure that we can comprehend nothing. We have replaced the physical friction of the battlefield with a digital friction of our own making.
III. The Strategic Economy of Attention
Following the principle of Strategic Economy, we must recognize that attention is the most finite resource in the Tactical Operations Center. To protect it, a commander must practice Aggressive Neglect.
This is not a new requirement, but a forgotten one. General Eisenhower famously ignored a myriad of peripheral intelligence reports in 1944 to avoid distraction from the core objectives of the Normandy planning. In 2025, this discipline is the only way to survive.
- The Filter is the Weapon: The most valuable asset is no longer the sensor that collects, but the “editor” (human or AI) that knows what to discard.
- Prioritization as Survival: Consider the Iron Dome system: it ignores thousands of incoming signals from rockets projected to hit empty sand, focusing its “attention” only on those threatening populated areas. This is the embodiment of the filter as a weapon.
IV. Synthesis: From Collection to Curation
The deluge forces a fundamental doctrinal pivot: from collection to curation, and from mass to precision. If Sun Tzu’s goal of “knowing the enemy and knowing yourself” is to be met, we must acknowledge that in the deluge, excess knowledge becomes noise. Wisdom lies in discernment.
True command in the age of the flood is the ability to stand in the middle of a digital blizzard and identify the one snowflake that actually matters. The goal is no longer to know everything; it is to achieve Decision Advantage. In the final analysis, victory goes not to the side with the most sensors, but to the side that can filter the noise fastest to find the signal.
Exactly. Think of it as the Operational Appendix to your theoretical essay. While the essay establishes the why (the doctrine), the toolkit provides the how (the tactics).
In a professional journal like The Service Record, the essay changes how a commander thinks; the toolkit changes how they run their morning briefing.
Here is a draft of that “Tactical Toolkit” for Command in the Deluge:
Appendix: The Commander’s Toolkit for Information Curation
To move from “Data Saturation” to “Decision Advantage,” command structures must transition from a culture of collection to a culture of curation. Below are four tactical frameworks for managing the deluge.
1. The “Threshold of Relevance” Filter
Every data point entering the Tactical Operations Center (TOC) must pass a relevance test. If the information does not affect the current operational phase or the commander’s intent, it is archived but not briefed.
- The Rule: If a report doesn’t answer a “Primary Intelligence Requirement” (PIR), it stays at the analyst level. It only moves “up” if it forces a change in the OODA Loop.
2. Information Red-Teaming
Designate a “Devil’s Advocate” in the command cell whose sole job is to identify Information Fratricide.
- Tactical Action: This officer identifies redundant sensors or reporting streams that are clogging bandwidth without adding unique value. They are empowered to “silence” non-critical data feeds to preserve the commander’s bandwidth during high-tempo operations.
3. The “Signal-to-Noise” Briefing Format
Discard the “everything-we-know” briefing style. Use a Status-Delta format:
- Status: What is the current state? (Minimal time spent here).
- Delta: What has changed that challenges our assumptions? (Maximum time spent here).
- Result: This forces the staff to filter out the noise and present only the “signal” that requires a decision.
4. Edge-Weighted Decision Making
To prevent the “Sponge Effect” at headquarters, push decision-making authority down to the lowest possible level.
- Concept: If the data is local, the decision should be local. By decentralizing command, you reduce the amount of data that needs to travel “up” to the bottleneck, allowing the senior commander to focus only on the strategic “Pivot Points.”
The Command Checklist
- [ ] Have I defined what I am ignoring today?
- [ ] Are my sensors reporting “everything” or just “exceptions”?
- [ ] Is the data I’m seeing actionable, or is it just “interesting”?
- [ ] Am I practicing Aggressive Neglect on non-essential feeds?
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