A Contrarian View of Strategic Aerospace Warfare
Abstract
This paper presents a new vision of strategic aerospace warfare that expands and looks beyond the traditional roles and missions of strategic aerospace forces. Current joint doctrine divides warfare into three separate levels: strategic, operational, and tactical. Actions in these levels are many times planned, prepared, and executed with very different emphasis on size, scope, and importance. This division of objectives has met with varied success throughout history with many tactical victories leading to strategic defeats. It is important not to disregard the lessons of history as the theory needed to operate effectively in the year 2025 is developed. The alternate future scenarios developed in the 2025 study suggest the future will involve many different interconnected actors. Even in the year 2025, much of the general population may still not have access to communication systems. However, the leadership of most of these organized entities will. Understanding the effect of knowledge transfer systems upon the global system is the key to strategic warfare in the year 2025. As knowledge transfer systems expand, all leaders in the global community will have access to near-real-time information. As a result, the boundaries between the current strategic, operational, and tactical levels of warfare will fade, resulting in only one level of war-the strategic level. Strategic aerospace forces will be used to influence the will of the adversary's leadership. Due to the impact of information, all actions will have some measurable effect on the contextual elements that make up the leadership's decision-making process. To successfully influence and maintain harmony in the global system of 2025, our aerospace forces must: (1) View the world as a single system by expanding from a regional to global perspective.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Aug 01, 1996
- Accession Number
- ADA333285
Entities
People
- Christopher A. Cook
- Robert D. Gaudette
- Terrence J. Foley
Organizations
- Air War College