A Framework for Precision Conventional Strike in Post-Cold War Military Strategy

A Framework for Precision Conventional Strike in Post-Cold War Military Strategy PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Precision guided munitions
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Precision conventional strike (PCS) is the practice of attacking selected targets with sufficient accuracy for high probability of kill and low collateral damage. Today's precision-conventional-strike weapons were developed for the primary purpose of fighting a major war against the Soviet Union. What value do they have in future military strategies? The answer to this question will help to shape the roles of these weapons in future U.S. military campaigns and will have a bearing on whether some campaigns may even be undertaken. In this report, we present a methodology to assist in arriving at an answer and draw some preliminary lessons from illustrative applications of that approach.

A Framework for Precision Conventional Strike in Post-Cold War Military Strategy

A Framework for Precision Conventional Strike in Post-Cold War Military Strategy PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Precision guided munitions
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Get Book Here

Book Description
Precision conventional strike (PCS) is the practice of attacking selected targets with sufficient accuracy for high probability of kill and low collateral damage. Today's precision-conventional-strike weapons were developed for the primary purpose of fighting a major war against the Soviet Union. What value do they have in future military strategies? The answer to this question will help to shape the roles of these weapons in future U.S. military campaigns and will have a bearing on whether some campaigns may even be undertaken. In this report, we present a methodology to assist in arriving at an answer and draw some preliminary lessons from illustrative applications of that approach.

A Framework for Precision Conventional Strike in Post-Cold War Military Strategy

A Framework for Precision Conventional Strike in Post-Cold War Military Strategy PDF Author: J. L. Birkler
Publisher: RAND Corporation
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 114

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Book Description
What value do PCS weapons have in future military strategies? The authors draw two inferences about investment of system development and acquisition dollars: (1) Over the near term, dollars should be directed toward alleviating the limitations of weather, intelligence support, and jamming; (2) progress on new antitank weapons should be carefully monitored and sufficient numbers should be procured as a matter of high priority.

On Theories of Victory, Red and Blue

On Theories of Victory, Red and Blue PDF Author: Brad Roberts
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781952565014
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
While the United States and its allies put their military focus on the post-9/11 challenges of counter-terrorism and counter-insurgency, Russia and China put their military focus onto the United States and the risks of regional wars that they came to believe they might have to fight against the United States. Their first priority was to put their intellectual houses in order-that is, to adapt military thought and strategic planning to the new problem. The result is a set of ideas about how to bring the United States and its allies to a "culminating point" where they choose to no longer run the costs and risks of continued war. This is the "red theory of victory." Beginning in the second presidential term of Obama administration, the U.S. military focus began to shift, driven by rising Russian and Chinese military assertiveness and outspoken opposition to the regional security orders on their peripheries. But U.S. military thought has been slow to catch up. As a recent bipartisan congressional commission concluded, the U.S. intellectual house is dangerously out of order for this new strategic problem. There is no Blue theory of victory. Such a theory should explain how the United States and its allies can strip away the confidence of leaders in Moscow and Beijing (and Pyongyang) in their "escalation calculus"-that is, that they will judge the costs too high, the benefits to low, and the risks incalculable. To develop, improve, and implement the needed new concepts requires a broad campaign of activities by the United States and full partnership with its allies.

Post-Cold War Conflict Deterrence

Post-Cold War Conflict Deterrence PDF Author: Naval Studies Board
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309553237
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 244

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Book Description
Deterrence as a strategic concept evolved during the Cold War. During that period, deterrence strategy was aimed mainly at preventing aggression against the United States and its close allies by the hostile Communist power centers--the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) and its allies, Communist China and North Korea. In particular, the strategy was devised to prevent aggression involving nuclear attack by the USSR or China. Since the end of the Cold War, the risk of war among the major powers has subsided to the lowest point in modern history. Still, the changing nature of the threats to American and allied security interests has stimulated a considerable broadening of the deterrence concept. Post-Cold War Conflict Deterrence examines the meaning of deterrence in this new environment and identifies key elements of a post-Cold War deterrence strategy and the critical issues in devising such a strategy. It further examines the significance of these findings for the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps. Quantitative and qualitative measures to support judgments about the potential success or failure of deterrence are identified. Such measures will bear on the suitability of the naval forces to meet the deterrence objectives. The capabilities of U.S. naval forces that especially bear on the deterrence objectives also are examined. Finally, the book examines the utility of models, games, and simulations as decision aids in improving the naval forces' understanding of situations in which deterrence must be used and in improving the potential success of deterrence actions.

Conventional Prompt Global Strike (PGS) and Long-Range Ballistic Missiles (BM)

Conventional Prompt Global Strike (PGS) and Long-Range Ballistic Missiles (BM) PDF Author: Amy F. Woolf
Publisher: DIANE Publishing
ISBN: 143794258X
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 40

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Book Description
Contents: (1) Intro.; (2) Background: Rationale for the PGS Mission; PGS and the U.S. Strategic Command; Potential Targets for the PGS Mission; Conventional BM and the PGS Mission; (3) Plans and Programs: Navy Programs: Reentry Vehicle Research; Conventional Trident Modification; Sub.-Launched Intermediate-Range BM; Air Force Programs: The FALCON Study; Reentry Vehicle Research and Warhead Options; Missile Options; Defense-Wide Conventional PGS: The Conventional Strike Missile; Hypersonic Test Vehicle; Army Advanced Hypersonic Weapon; ArcLight; (4) Issues for Congress: Assessing the Rationale for CPGS; Reviewing the Alternatives; Arms Control Issues. A print on demand report.

Parameters

Parameters PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Military art and science
Languages : en
Pages : 172

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Book Description


Conventional Deterrence

Conventional Deterrence PDF Author: John J. Mearsheimer
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 1501713256
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 298

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Book Description
Conventional Deterrence is a book about the origins of war. Why do nations faced with the prospect of large-scale conventional war opt for or against an offensive strategy? John J. Mearsheimer examines a number of crises that led to major conventional wars to explain why deterrence failed. He focuses first on Allied and German decision making in the years 1939–1940, analyzing why the Allies did not strike first against Germany after declaring war and, conversely, why the Germans did attack the West. Turning to the Middle East, he examines the differences in Israeli and Egyptian strategic doctrines prior to the start of the major conventional conflicts in that region. Mearsheimer then critically assays the relative strengths and weaknesses of NATO and the Warsaw Pact to determine the prospects for conventional deterrence in any future crisis. He is also concerned with examining such relatively technical issues as the impact of precision-guided munitions (PGM) on conventional deterrence and the debate over maneuver versus attrition warfare.Mearsheimer pays considerable attention to questions of military strategy and tactics. Challenging the claim that conventional detrrence is largely a function of the numerical balance of forces, he also takes issue with the school of thought that ascribes deterrence failures to the dominance of "offensive" weaponry. In addition to examining the military consideration underlying deterrence, he also analyzes the interaction between those military factors and the broader political considerations that move a nation to war.

Getting MAD: Nuclear Mutual Assured Destruction, Its Origins and Practice

Getting MAD: Nuclear Mutual Assured Destruction, Its Origins and Practice PDF Author:
Publisher: DIANE Publishing
ISBN: 1428910336
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 369

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Book Description
Nearly 40 years after the concept of finite deterrence was popularized by the Johnson administration, nuclear Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD) thinking appears to be in decline. The United States has rejected the notion that threatening population centers with nuclear attacks is a legitimate way to assure deterrence. Most recently, it withdrew from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, an agreement based on MAD. American opposition to MAD also is reflected in the Bush administration's desire to develop smaller, more accurate nuclear weapons that would reduce the number of innocent civilians killed in a nuclear strike. Still, MAD is influential in a number of ways. First, other countries, like China, have not abandoned the idea that holding their adversaries' cities at risk is necessary to assure their own strategic security. Nor have U.S. and allied security officials and experts fully abandoned the idea. At a minimum, acquiring nuclear weapons is still viewed as being sensible to face off a hostile neighbor that might strike one's own cities. Thus, our diplomats have been warning China that Japan would be under tremendous pressure to go nuclear if North Korea persisted in acquiring a few crude weapons of its own. Similarly, Israeli officials have long argued, without criticism, that they would not be second in acquiring nuclear weapons in the Middle East. Indeed, given that Israelis surrounded by enemies that would not hesitate to destroy its population if they could, Washington finds Israel's retention of a significant nuclear capability totally "understandable."

On Limited Nuclear War in the 21st Century

On Limited Nuclear War in the 21st Century PDF Author: Jeffrey A Larsen
Publisher: Stanford University Press
ISBN: 0804790914
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 309

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Book Description
These essays by nuclear policy experts provide “a speculative but serious and well-informed journey through a variety of scenarios and contingencies” (Foreign Affairs). Recent decades have seen a slow but steady increase in nuclear armed states, and in the seemingly less constrained policy goals of some of the newer “rogue” states in the international system. The authors of On Limited Nuclear War in the 21st Century argue that a time may come when one of these states makes the conscious decision that using a nuclear weapon against the United States, its allies, or forward deployed forces in the context of a crisis or a regional conventional conflict may be in its interests. They assert that we are unprepared for these types of limited nuclear wars and that it is urgent we rethink the theory, policy, and implementation of force related to our approaches to this type of engagement. Together they critique Cold War doctrine on limited nuclear war and consider a number of the key concepts that should govern our approach to limited nuclear conflict in the future. These include identifying the factors likely to lead to limited nuclear war; examining the geopolitics of future conflict scenarios that might lead to small-scale nuclear use; and assessing strategies for crisis management and escalation control. Finally, they consider a range of strategies and operational concepts for countering, controlling, or containing limited nuclear war. “A series of trenchant essays that deconstruct a critical national security challenge that most of us wish did not exist. Assembling a star-studded cast of scholars, analysts, and policy practitioners, Larsen and Kartchner have produced some of the most important new thinking on an old topic.” —H-Diplo

The Paradox of Power

The Paradox of Power PDF Author: David C. Gompert
Publisher: Government Printing Office
ISBN: 9780160915734
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 236

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Book Description
The second half of the 20th century featured a strategic competition between the United States and the Soviet Union. That competition avoided World War III in part because during the 1950s, scholars like Henry Kissinger, Thomas Schelling, Herman Kahn, and Albert Wohlstetter analyzed the fundamental nature of nuclear deterrence. Decades of arms control negotiations reinforced these early notions of stability and created a mutual understanding that allowed U.S.-Soviet competition to proceed without armed conflict. The first half of the 21st century will be dominated by the relationship between the United States and China. That relationship is likely to contain elements of both cooperation and competition. Territorial disputes such as those over Taiwan and the South China Sea will be an important feature of this competition, but both are traditional disputes, and traditional solutions suggest themselves. A more difficult set of issues relates to U.S.-Chinese competition and cooperation in three domains in which real strategic harm can be inflicted in the current era: nuclear, space, and cyber. Just as a clearer understanding of the fundamental principles of nuclear deterrence maintained adequate stability during the Cold War, a clearer understanding of the characteristics of these three domains can provide the underpinnings of strategic stability between the United States and China in the decades ahead. That is what this book is about.