Battleship Dominance in the First Days of the Next War: Cruise Missiles or Bombers?

Abstract

This monograph compares sea-launched cruise missiles to heavy bomber delivered munitions performing the battlespace dominance mission in the first five days of a major regional contingency (MRC). Battlespace dominance is a Navy doctrinal term. The paper uses the projected year 2006 cruise missile and bomber force structure each attacking the same hypothetical target list. The paper examines two cases. The first case compares both cruise missiles and bombers without sensor fuzed weapons (SFW) and brilliant anti-tank (BAT). The second case posits that SFW and BAT munitions are in the force structure for the two means of delivery. Both systems have advantages and disadvantages. Bombers are better able to deliver a wide variety of munitions against many different targets with persistence. Cruise missiles are particularly well suited for attacking integrated air defense systems and other counterair targets.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Dec 20, 1996
Accession Number
ADA325060

Entities

People

  • Charles E. Forshee

Organizations

  • United States Army Command and General Staff College

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Air Platforms
  • Space
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Defense
  • Air Force
  • Air Power
  • Aircrafts
  • Combat Areas
  • Contingency Operations (Military)
  • Guided Bombs
  • Military Organizations
  • Military Science
  • National Security
  • Naval Operations
  • Naval Warfare
  • Navy
  • Precision-Guided Munitions
  • Test And Evaluation
  • War Colleges
  • Warfare

Readers

  • Maritime Combat Support and Expeditionary Logistics.
  • Missile Defense Systems.