The roles of ground and air power have shifted in U.S. post–Cold War warfighting operations. Furthermore, the two services largely responsible for promulgating the relevant doctrines, creating effective organizations and procuring equipment for the changing conflict environment in the domains of land and air—the U.S. Army and the U.S. Air Force—do not appear to be fully incorporating the lessons of post–Cold War ...Read more >

The Task Force was asked by the Deputy Assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Nuclear and Chemical and Biological Defense Programs to examine the current and future capabilities of the specialized skills necessary to maintain,upgrade and design replcacement strategic nuclear and non nuclear strike system. Recently, there has been considerable concern that the majority of the personnel involved with critical engineering skills may soon be retiring, thus endangering future capabilities to ...Read more >

Instant military history is always dangerous and inaccurate. This is particularly true when one goes from an effort to describe the fighting to trying to draw lessons from uncertain and contradictory information. The following analysis is based largely on media reporting, data provided by Israeli and Arab think tanks and a visit to Israel sponsored by Project Interchange of the American Jewish Committee. This visit made it possible to visit the front and talk with a number of senior Israeli ...Read more >

This report provides background information and discusses possible oversight issues for Congress on DOD’s strategy for implementing network centric warfare (NCW). NCW forms a central part of the Administration’s plans for defense transformation. Possible issues for Congress are whether to approve, modify, or reject the Administration’s plans for implementing NCW. Congress’ decisions on this issue could affect future U.S. military capabilities, the composition of U.S. defense spending and the ...Read more >

There are two major drivers of the need for disruptive innovation, sometimes referred to as transformation, in the Information Age. The first and arguably the most compelling drivers are the changes to the environment in which an entity operates. For militaries, this is the changing nature of their adversaries, their strategies and tactics, as well as the nontraditional nature of the missions they are expected to undertake. For businesses, it is the changing nature of their competitive ...Read more >

With the end of the Cold War, Western reform assistance to Central and East European militaries reflected US and NATO concerns regarding potential challenges to still unconsolidated “democratic” authorities and new dangers arising from nontraditional and non-military transnational threats. In order to guard against the first danger Central and East European authorities were encouraged to introduce,as quickly as possible, the Western liberal model of democratic civilian control. To address the ...Read more >

What has been happening to conventional warfare; how does it stand in relation to other forms of war around the world; and where may it be going in the future. Partly because fifteen years are not enough to provide a true perspective, partly for other reasons that will become clear in a moment, the best starting-point for answering these questions is not the end of the Cold War (1989), as was proposed by the organizers of the present conference.Instead, the starting point of paper will be the ...Read more >

This work discusses the historical development of technology and techniques to command and control large military forces actively engaged in combat operations against an armed enemy in fast-paced, mobile-style actions. The ‘mobile’ nature of such operations can be defined as the movement of a military force swift enough to either surprise its enemy by its speed of advance or retreat, or which forces the enemy to respond in a manner that he is either unprepared for or less likely to be ...Read more >

The Modular Force design will fundamentally change the way Army forces conduct reconnaissance on the future battlefield. Tactical reconnaissance organizations will replace their traditional combat capability with a surveillance capability. Under the Modular Force concept, dedicated tactical reconnaissance units are found at three levels of command. the battalion scout platoon, the armed reconnaissance squadron (ARS) and the battlefield surveillance brigade (BFSB). All three organizations are ...Read more >

In a sustaining base, the military and commercial sectors share a common, often static,infrastructure of landlines, fiber optics and wireless communications. Further, many military and commercial applications are similar, for example, business enterprise applications such as human resources. In such instances, even though security requirements may differ, the military can rely upon the commercial sector to offer solutions.However, where commercial and military sectors differ most is in combat ...Read more >

Today as U.S. armed forces fight our enemies in Southwest Asia, South Asia and many other parts of the globe, it is clear that the nature of war and combat remains essentially the same. Though our weapons have become increasingly more effective and our tactics and organizations for fighting have thus evolved, what remains constant is the fact that war and combat remain a brutal test of human wills. Enemies of the United States are displaying the ability to resist and adapt. U.S. soldiers and ...Read more >

Change is all around us. Today, it is perhaps unparalleled in terms of the scope, scale and rapidity it has taken in many areas. Change is and has remained a fundamental characteristic of the conduct of land warfare in recent times. The advent of information technologies in the late 20th century has certainly blurred the lines of distinction between the strategic, operational and tactical levels of Land Warfare. It has also truncated the amount of time taken to reconnoiter,gain situational ...Read more >

Brigadier General Huba Wass de Czege retired from active duty in December 1993 as the Assistant Division Commander (Maneuver) of the 1st Infantry Division. He was one of the principal developers of the Army’s AirLand Battle concept and the founder and first director of the School of Advanced Military Studies, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. He has served as a consultant for the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command advanced warfighting experiments over the last seven years. He also serves as ...Read more >

The United States and its coalition partners have been militarily involved in Iraq since March 19,2003, when Operation Iraqi Freedom I began. Two years later, Operation Iraqi Freedom I has ended, “major combat operations” have ceased—and Operation Iraqi Freedom II is now in full swing, with coalition forces stabilizing the country until full sovereignty for Iraq becomes a practical reality.Aside from traditional generic concerns about nation-building, one could be forgiven for thinking that ...Read more >