The Evolution of Preemptive Strikes in Israeli Operational Planning and Future Implications for the Cyber Domain
Abstract
The strategic and operational use of preemptive strikes has transitioned from the traditional tactic of air raids to the use of covert cyber attacks like Stuxnet, which are designed specifically to disrupt enemy capabilities. Through a close examination of the evolution of preemptive strikes by the Israeli Defense Forces from the 1967 and 1973 wars to its air strikes on neighboring nuclear production facilities in Iraq and Syria to its use of Stuxnet, operational planners can gain an understanding of the evolution of preemption as a concept. Examining this shift from air strikes to cyber attacks through the lens of U.S. Army Doctrine and the tenets of Unified Land Operations (Depth, Synchronization, Integration, Adaptability, Flexibility, and Lethality) as well as the cyber concepts of Untraceability and Deception gives operational planners a deeper understanding of how to conceptualize and integrate cyber activities into planning. By grasping these concepts and their usage in the cyber domain, planners can gain a position of relative cognitive advantage when using preemptive attacks. Conceptualizing and interpreting the evolutionary process of Israeli operational planners and their understanding and planning of preemptive attacks can shed light on how they disaggregated depth and integrated cyber into preemption. This utilization of cyber provides insights that can assist the U.S. Army in accomplishing its core competencies of Combined Arms Maneuver and Wide Area Security within the cyber domain. Understanding how the cyber domain transforms the tenets of Unified Land Operations and other cyber concepts, and how planners can better utilize cyber weapons similar to Stuxnet in preemptive strikes will contribute to the U.S. Army's ability to retain its position of relative advantage over its adversaries in future wars.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- May 23, 2013
- Accession Number
- ADA589616
Entities
People
- Robert C. Parmenter
Organizations
- United States Army Command and General Staff College