War Strategy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

War Strategy - Essay Example Krepinevich in an influential article published in 1994. As a close associate of Andrew W. Marshall, the American godfather of the RMA concept, Krepinevich's definition carried unusual weight. He explained RMA as "What is a military revolution It is what occurs when the application of new technologies into a significant number of military systems combines with innovative operational concepts and organizational adaptation in a way that fundamentally alters the character and conduct of conflict. It does so by producing a dramatic increase-often an order of magnitude or greater-in the combat potential and military effectiveness of armed forces". (1). Soviet writers actually coined the term RMA in the 1950s to describe changes in warfare wrought by nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles. In identifying American military capabilities with an RMA, Soviet and then U.S. military analysts were communicating something profound about the historical importance of U.S. long-range precision strike capabilities, which were replicating the battlefield effects small nuclear weapons had on armored forces. (2). By the 1980s, security challenges in each area called for advanced conventional warfighting forces. Conventional warfighting innovations were pursued to restore deterrence credibility in Europe. A wellspring of studies and prolific media references to 'revolutionary' warfighting capabilities permeated defense planning discussions following the American military victory over Iraq in the 1991 Gulf War. Even among the more conservative analysts, defense planning discussions and military thought were dominated by an American RMA thesis. This thesis faded in the late-1990s but remains central to more recent defense transformation discussions. (4). The RMA Thesis Usually identified in hindsight, after a stunning military success, RMAs involve radical changes in the conduct of military operations and sometimes even the characterization of war-fighting. The 1990s witnessed a shift in American military thought and defense discourse as new terms and concepts were widely used to describe U.S. military forces, doctrine, and capabilities. (3). The American RMA thesis holds that a historically significant shift in U.S. military power was underway by the end of the Cold War based on the synergy of advanced intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) capabilities, automated target identification systems, information-enabled weapons, superior education and training, and joint war-fighting capabilities. Among the RMA terminology retained in U.S. defense discourse are terms like information superiority, rapid dominance, dominant battle-space knowledge, common operating pictures, decision superiority, persistent