The Employment of Maritime Operational Weapons in Support of the NATO ground Commander
Abstract
This monograph looks at the possibility of using the Navy's long range weapons systems to support the NATO ground commander. In NATO, the doctrine of Follow On Forces Attack (FOFA) has been developed as a means to defeat the numerically superior Soviet/WP forces. The ground based systems currently available are extremely limited and the allied air force may not survive the first few days of war. In a future environment of probable resource austerity caused by fiscal constraints, naval support may be critical in the execution of FOFA. The monograph first reviews what prominent naval strategists have written about the use of navies, and in particular about the use of power projection. As one would anticipate, power projection becomes a more important part of naval strategy as weapons systems become more accurate and their ranges increase. For the most part, however, strategists agree that control of the sea is necessary before the ground commander is supported. The paper also looks at the Falkland Islands campaign, a modern missile war, to see if sea control was secured before power projection operations began. It also reviews general power projection capabilities and isolates an example of how power projection could support the ground war in both the central and southern regions of NATO. The conclusions are that the Navy could support the ground war without first securing sea control and that this support might be vital to holding the central region. (jhd)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Feb 14, 1989
- Accession Number
- ADA215857
Entities
People
- David F. Young
Organizations
- United States Army Command and General Staff College