How Much Capability Does a Capabilities Based Force Need

Abstract

In 1990, with the Soviet threat fading, General Powell knew it was time to act and lead the military past the Cold War. His solution, as noted above, was the creation of the "Base Force". Absent a clear and quantifiable threat, the Base Force focused on "capabilities" needed for the future. The resulting change to the Defense Department's weapons acquisition requirement's process was a major break from almost five decades of cold War "threat based" analysis. The thesis of this paper is that moving from threat based to capabilities based requirements has had an unexpected and profound consequence - services now have unprecedented "capability" to compete in each other's mission areas.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Apr 26, 1999
Accession Number
ADA442448

Entities

People

  • Michael P. Locke

Organizations

  • National War College

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Ground and Sea Platforms
  • Space
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Acquisition
  • Air Defense
  • Air Force
  • Aircrafts
  • Amphibious Operations
  • Anti-Tank Missiles
  • Artillery
  • Cold War
  • Defense Systems
  • Department Of Defense
  • Liquid Propellants
  • Military Budgets
  • Second World War
  • Short Range Ballistic Missiles
  • Unmanned Aerial Vehicles
  • War Colleges
  • Warfare

Readers

  • Maritime Combat Support and Expeditionary Logistics.
  • Military History of the United States in the 20th Century.
  • Systems Analysis and Design