Unity of Command and the Prosecution of the Joint Theater Missile Defense Battle
Abstract
By incorporating theater missiles into Joint Pub 3.01, "Doctrine for Countering Air and Missile Threats," the Joint Staff risks subsuming the most potentially catastrophic strategic, operational, and tactical threat poised against U.S. forces and the nation's regional interests. Since the Gulf War, U.S. forces have made great progress in developing Joint Doctrine and weapon systems to counter theater missiles. Lessons learned from the Gulf War indicated that countering theater missiles under the deliberate, centrally controlled framework of theater air defense was not effective. This precipitated the publishing of Joint Pub 3.01-5, "Joint Doctrine for Theater Missile Defense." This Joint Pub legitimized theater missiles as a major threat to U.S. forces requiring unique and focused efforts to counter them. The Joint Staff is now in the process of incorporating both air and missiles under one doctrinal manual in an effort to preserve the JFACC's unity of command over his/her battlespace. In so doing, theater missiles will potentially be placed into the category and framework that was deemed inadequate for the counter missile battle 6 years ago. Currently, the Army has made the most progress in integrating the operational elements of Joint Theater Missile Defense into a holistic system of doctrine and hardware, facilitating a responsive and decentralized framework to counter the unique aspects of the theater missile battle. The best way to integrate the advances made by the Army in Joint Theater Missile Defense and facilitate the JFACC's unity of command is to establish the Army as the Joint Theater Missile Defense Coordinator. This coordinator would be the focal point of all Theater Missile Defense functions, integrating the unique capabilities of all services into a seamless theater wide architecture. In this way the JFACC could exercise unity of command without subsuming the most important threat and sub-optimizing the gains made by the Army in TMD operations.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 1997
- Accession Number
- ADA514646
Entities
People
- Joseph M. Fischetti
Organizations
- Marine Corps War College