By Robert Farley
Surviving a world of diffuse precision strike is a strategic and organizational problem for the US military.
Stepping briefly out of the debate over AirSea Battle, there has been some excellent recent work on the strategic implications of the diffusion of precision-strike technologies. In the summer issue of Parameters (PDF), Conrad Crane warns about the attractiveness of long range precision-strike, a warning that could serve for the allure of airpower more generally.
Crane’s piece works as a nice commentary on Barry Watts’ recent monograph on the history of precision strike (short version here). Watts makes an excellent point: the United States has, in practice, led the precision strike field, virtually to the exclusion of all other players. There are examples in which United States forces have been subjected to certain forms of precision strike, but these are few and far between.
The concern apparent in Watts’ monograph is the increasing lethality of Chinese precision-strike systems. Conventional Chinese weapons can now, or will in the short future be able to, destroy or disable the most sophisticated and advanced U.S. systems with conventional payloads. The premise is fragility; Chinese precision systems can threaten the ability of the USN and USAF to adequately respond to the PLAN and the PLAAF by destroying or disabling critical elements of the U.S. strategic military system, thus inducing system failure.
Read the full story at The Diplomat