Countering Strategic Preclusion: The Requirement for Truly Global Reach in the 21st Century
Abstract
The shift in focus of US strategic vision to the Pacific region also brings with it a shift in focus to adversaries with the capability to complicate or even deny US power projection. Much of the current emphasis on such capabilities is in the area of anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) technologies and tactics. However, A2/AD technologies are only one part of a larger concept for power projection denial, Strategic Preclusion, where an adversary attempts to fully deny access to an area at all levels and not just operationally or tactically. This thesis is an analysis and evaluation of the recommendations presented by documents suggesting a strategic vision for the Air Force for the ability they provide to counter an adversary who executes Strategic Preclusion. The thesis first provides a new definition of Strategic Preclusion, a term first used in the early 1990s as part of a debate over how best to rapidly project power in overseas contingency operations. The study then examines US power projection experiences in Operations DESERT SHIELD, DESERT STORM, and IRAQI FREEDOM, focusing on airpower operations. Following that is an examination of the British power projection experience in the Falkland Islands in 1982. The comparison between the two experiences shows how US airpower operations have essentially been local operations that followed a long-range deployment, while the British difficulties in using airpower to its maximum extent were primarily the result of having to conduct both deployment and employment operations over great distances. Following those historical examinations is a brief overview of a strategy document published by two Colonels in Chinas Peoples Liberation Army Air Force, indicating a belief in the ability to deny the US the opportunity to conduct such localized airpower operations and describing the methods by which China could accomplish that denial. The thesis then analyzes and evaluates the recommendations put forth in two documents,
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jun 01, 2012
- Accession Number
- AD1019394
Entities
People
- Jonathan W. Graham
Organizations
- Air University