Future Counterland Operations: Common Lessons from Three Conflicts
Future Counterland Operations: Common Lessons from Three Conflicts

Author:

Publisher:

Published: 2003

Total Pages: 73

ISBN-13:

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Through the study of past military experiences, especially the examination of common lessons from differing conflicts, implications for future warfare can be revealed. Common counterland lessons from three major US conflicts are the focus of this study. Specifically, this monograph seeks the common lessons from the counterland experiences from the Persian Gulf War, the air campaign against Serbia, and the war in Afghanistan against the Taliban and Al Qaida. To reveal these lessons, this study analyzes the counterland campaigns from three operations Desert Storm, Allied Force, and Enduring Freedom by laying out the counterland thinking behind the initial planning and how counterland evolved and developed during each conflict. Then the effects of counterland operations for each operation, both physical and psychological, are evaluated and compared. From this analysis, four significant common lessons emerge these are described and assessed. These lessons, considered in aggregate, form the output of this study, with specific implications and recommendations for both future counterland and future joint warfare. This study determines that three general lessons emerge from the counterland experiences since the Cold War: the value of intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance; the power of innovation; and the dominance of air power over surface forces. The three conflicts in question also reveal the limitations of counterland and how these limitations should be overcome. These lessons suggest a new balance of land and air power when facing opposing land forces. This new balance of power, first seen in Desert Storm and recently validated in Enduring Freedom, reveals a new way of thinking about land warfare and has direct consequences for joint planning, training, and doctrine.

Future Counterland Operations
Future Counterland Operations

Author: U. S. Military

Publisher:

Published: 2018-04-17

Total Pages: 75

ISBN-13: 9781980864905

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Through the study of past military experiences, especially the examination of common lessons from differing conflicts, implications for future warfare can be revealed. Common counterland lessons from three major US conflicts are the focus of this study. Specifically, this monograph seeks the common lessons from the counterland experiences from the Persian Gulf War, the air campaign against Serbia, and the war in Afghanistan against the Taliban and Al Qaida. To reveal these lessons, this study analyzes the counterland campaigns from three operations - Desert Storm, Allied Force, and Enduring Freedom - by laying out the counterland thinking behind the initial planning and how counterland evolved and developed during each conflict. Then the effects of counterland operations for each operation, both physical and psychological, are evaluated and compared. From this analysis, four significant common lessons emerge - these are described and assessed. These lessons, considered in aggregate, form the output of this study, with specific implications and recommendations for both future counterland and future joint warfare. This study determines that three general lessons emerge from the counterland experiences since the Cold War: the value of intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance; the power of innovation; and the dominance of air power over surface forces. The three conflicts in question also reveal the limitations of counterland and how these limitations should be overcome. These lessons suggest a new balance of land and air power when facing opposing land forces. This new balance of power, first seen in Desert Storm and recently validated in Enduring Freedom, reveals a new way of thinking about land warfare and has direct consequences for joint planning, training, and doctrine. For the best results in future war, planners and leaders need to fully exploit the potential of air power in a counterland role. This is only possible with a fully joint form of land warfare. CHAPTER 1: LAND WARFARE IN THE POST-COLD WAR WORLD * CHAPTER 2: U.S. COUNTERLAND THINKING, 1991 - 2003 * Case One - Operation DESERT STORM (1991) * Case Two - Operation ALLIED FORCE (1999) * Case Three - Operation ENDURING FREEDOM (2001-2003) * CHAPTER 3: THE COMMON LESSONS * Lesson One: The Value of Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance * Lesson Two: The Power of Innovation * Lesson Three: The Dominance of Counterland Air Power * Lesson Four: The Limits of Counterland Air Power * CHAPTER 4: CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS * APPENDIX

Counterland Operations
Counterland Operations

Author: United States United States Air Force

Publisher: CreateSpace

Published: 2015-02-14

Total Pages: 116

ISBN-13: 9781507877173

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In war, defeating an enemy's force is often a necessary step on the path to victory. Defeating enemy armies is a difficult task that often comes with a high price tag in terms of blood and treasure. With its inherent speed, range, and flexibility, air and space power offers a way to lower that risk by providing commanders a synergistic tool that can provide a degree of control over the surface environment and render enemy forces ineffective before they meet friendly land forces. Modern air and space power directly affects an adversary's ability to initiate, conduct, and sustain ground combat.

AirLandBattle21
AirLandBattle21

Author: Ellwood P. Hinman IV

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2016-12-05

Total Pages: 176

ISBN-13: 1351959808

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The changed strategic landscape of the 21st century has driven a shift to more flexible, adaptable capabilities across the spectrum of conflict. Operations in Iraq and Afghanistan have demonstrated the validity of team warfare between air and land forces during open hostilities with an enemy. The time has come for innovative counter-air and counter-land concepts focused on medium- to large-scale conventional combat operations that will merge air and ground forces even more effectively into a single potent fighting force. Such is the focus of AirLandBattle21. A basic assumption in this study is that, during major combat operations, a relevant number of Brigade Combat Teams (BCTs) will conduct distributed operations in a non-linear, non-contiguous and geographically separated fashion. The study introduces a flexible counter-air framework that allows for the most efficient use of limited air assets and advocates only the necessary levels of air control in different areas across the theatre. The study also offers alternative views of strategic attack and explores the critical role tactical airlift will play in employing and sustaining the brigade combat team.

Reorganising the Air Force for Future Operations
Reorganising the Air Force for Future Operations

Author: A K Tiwari

Publisher: Vij Books India Pvt Ltd

Published: 2012-04-01

Total Pages: 175

ISBN-13: 9381411727

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This is an era of exponential growth especially in technologies. Air Forces are the most technology intensive fighting arms. An ideal Air Force would constantly embrace and adopt new technologies to retain it's cutting edge and all dominant status in battle space. Failure to do so may spell it's doom when faced with more current Air Force. Along with new technology there is a need to reorganise many aspects in the organisation. These include, but are not limited to, command and control setup, inter-service integration, HR function, organisational culture and attitude etc etc. This study focuses on the reorganisation already due and suggests ideas for the future.

Airpower, Afghanistan, and the Future of Warfare: An Alternative View
Airpower, Afghanistan, and the Future of Warfare: An Alternative View

Author: Craig D. Wills

Publisher: Lulu.com

Published: 2010-04-19

Total Pages: 96

ISBN-13: 1105810356

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The author argues that the 20th-century argument between air and ground proponents has changed significantly since the Gulf War and that it comes down to the relative importance of the ground or air in the mix. It is more than just using air as a supporting component to the ground forces-if this is true, current force organization and employment are adequate. However, if the air predominates in combat operations, then, as Wills puts it in his first chapter, joint-operations doctrine needs to be rethought. A changed balance "will affect the military at every level . . . force structure, organization, weapons acquisition, doctrine, and training." (Colonel Wills was the operations officer of the 493d Fighter Squadron "Grim Reapers" at Royal Air Force Lakenheath, United Kingdom. Originally published by Air University Press.)

Learning Large Lessons
Learning Large Lessons

Author: David E. Johnson

Publisher: Rand Corporation

Published: 2007-03-30

Total Pages: 265

ISBN-13: 0833042416

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The relative roles of U.S. ground and air power have shifted since the end of the Cold War. At the level of major operations and campaigns, the Air Force has proved capable of and committed to performing deep strike operations, which the Army long had believed the Air Force could not reliably accomplish. If air power can largely supplant Army systems in deep operations, the implications for both joint doctrine and service capabilities would be significant. To assess the shift of these roles, the author of this report analyzed post?Cold War conflicts in Iraq (1991), Bosnia (1995), Kosovo (1999), Afghanistan (2001), and Iraq (2003). Because joint doctrine frequently reflects a consensus view rather than a truly integrated joint perspective, the author recommends that joint doctrine-and the processes by which it is derived and promulgated-be overhauled. The author also recommends reform for the services beyond major operations and campaigns to ensure that the United States attains its strategic objectives. This revised edition includes updates and an index.

Synchronizing Airpower And Firepower In The Deep Battle
Synchronizing Airpower And Firepower In The Deep Battle

Author: Lt.-Col. R. Kent Lauchbaum

Publisher: Pickle Partners Publishing

Published: 2015-11-06

Total Pages: 138

ISBN-13: 1786256037

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In this award-winning study on Synchronizing Airpower and Firepower in the Deep Battle, Lt.-Col. R. Kent Lauchbaum argues that current joint doctrine does not provide sufficient and acceptable guidance for synchronizing Air Force and Army deep operations. To improve such synchronization, Colonel Lauchbaum proposes five modifications to current joint doctrine.

Airpower Advantage
Airpower Advantage

Author: Diane T. Putney

Publisher: CreateSpace

Published: 2015-02-02

Total Pages: 494

ISBN-13: 9781507814796

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American air power is a dominant force in today's world. Its ascendancy, evolving in the half century since the end of World War II, became evident during the first Gulf War. Although a great deal has been written about military operations in Desert Shield and Desert Storm, this deeply researched volume by Dr. Diane Putney probes the little-known story of how the Gulf War air campaign plan came to fruition. Based on archival documentation and interviews with USAF planners, this work takes the reader into the planning cells where the difficult work of building an air campaign plan was accomplished on an around-the-clock basis. The tension among air planners is palpable as Dr. Putney traces the incremental progress and friction along the way. The author places the complexities of the planning process within the con- text of coalition objectives. All the major players are here: President George H. W. Bush, General H. Norman Schwarzkopf, General Colin Powell, General Chuck Horner, and Secretary of Defense Richard Cheney. The air planning process generated much debate and friction, but resulted in great success - a 43-day conflict with minimum casualties. Dr. Putney's rendering of this behind-the-scenes evolution of the planning process, in its complexity and even suspense, provides a fascinating window into how wars are planned and fought today and what might be the implications for the future.