Non-Kinetic Capabilities for Irregular Warfare: Four Case Studies

Abstract

"Kinetic" capabilities focus on destroying enemy forces through the application of physical effects. For the purposes of this study, we take "nonkinetic" capabilities to be all other capabilities relevant to irregular warfare (IW). For example, a major U.S. objective in IW is to strengthen a host nation government (HNG) and its underlying society to enable them to resist insurgency, terrorism, or criminality. Both kinetic and nonkinetic capabilities can contribute to this objective, but nonkinetic capabilities will often play the dominant role. However, nonkinetic capabilities are not traditional focal points for Department of Defense (DoD) development programs. DoD must improve such capabilities if experiences in the first decade of the 21st century are indicative of future national needs. Such improvement will require initiatives across the full range of DOTMLPF+ categories. This study explores four key focus areas of IW: influencing the population, unity of effort in civilian-military actions, countering corruption in host nation police forces, and vehicle identification and tracking. The first three relate, respectively, to three principal dimensions of IW: (1) human terrain and the centrality of the population in IW; (2) civilian-military actions and the critical importance in IW of establishing unity of effort from disparate organizations; and (3) the HNG whose stability and legitimacy in the eyes of the population are overarching objectives of IW, yet are often threatened by endemic corruption. The fourth focus area, vehicle identification and tracking, takes a different perspective. Instead of emphasizing IW needs and identifying capabilities, it focuses on a capability and identifies its applications to IW needs. In each case, the study examines the structure of the focus area, identifies key capabilities, and suggests directions for Science and Technology (S&T) initiatives. Specific S&T proposals are not described.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Mar 01, 2009
Accession Number
ADA501354

Entities

People

  • A. M. Lidy
  • Christine R. Bucher
  • Joel B. Resnick
  • Stephen M. Ouellette
  • Sue K. Numrich
  • William J. Hurley

Organizations

  • Institute for Defense Analyses

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • C4I
  • Cyber
  • Electronic Warfare
  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Engineered Resilient Systems
  • Human Systems
  • Sensors
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Computational Science
  • Contingency Operations (Military)
  • Employment
  • Ethnic Groups
  • Families (Human)
  • Geography
  • Information Systems
  • International Organizations
  • Military Applications
  • Military Organizations
  • Military Science
  • National Security
  • Organizational Structure
  • Recreation
  • Sensor Networks
  • Societies
  • Warfare

Readers

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  • Irregular Warfare and Special Operations Cyberspace Operations against Adversarial Threats.
  • Systems Analysis and Design