Transforming the Force: Suggestions for DoD StrategyThe Department of Defense is embarking on an effort to transform U.S. forces for the years and decades ahead. This will involve many of the ideas often discussed under the rubric of the revolution in military affairs (RMA). This paper suggests a possible transformation strategy for the Department to employ. The paper begins with a discussion of why transformation is essential for U.S. grand strategy. It then describes a strategy rooted in compelling strategic objectives. The strategy includes defining key operational challenges as "forcing functions" to encourage change while addressing major military problems. It then discusses how such challenges should be studied with a combination of basic research, modeling and simulation, and joint experiments. Such study would employ basic principles of decomposition, but would emphasize joint-level integration going far beyond mere "coordination." Finally, the paper discusses the need to change analytic approaches to highlight issues of risk and uncertainty. The new operational concepts of most interest involve new forms of warfare that are not currently well understood and will potentially involve substantial risks. It is therefore essential to identify those risks in assessing operational concepts and, subsequently, in understanding how risks can be eliminated or mitigated. The paper suggests new types of analytical methods well suited to such work |
Common terms and phrases
adapt Air Force aircraft approach Assessment attacker bottom-up budget building blocks C3 and RSTA Calif CINC USACOM complex core principle D-Day Davis decision support decomposition Defense Planning Defense Science Board distributed doctrine DynaRank early counteroffensive Early halt effective enemy army Era-A Era-B RMA example experimentation exploratory analysis factors FFRDC Figure focused forces be able ground forces Gulf War Halt Problem innovation integration investment involves issues JICM joint experiments Joint Staff Joint Vision 2010 joint-level JSTARS JTF command group Kuwait long-range ments modeling and simulation National network-centric Network-centric warfare operational challenges precision fires Probability Distribution problems programs Quadrennial Defense Review Radar equation reengineering require responsibility Richard Hillestad rigorous risk and uncertainty Santa Monica scenario space SEAD sensitivity testing Services Speed km/day strategic motivations systems of systems technical testing theater threats tion tional tive transformation strategy U.S. Ability U.S. forces United warfare warfighting