War is violent. It is not something we should take lightly. Nor is it anything we should engage in unless our vital national interests are at stake. The past two decades saw the United States military very involved in counter insurgency wars in what came to be known as the Global War on Terror (GWOT). We paid a huge price in both blood and treasure fighting those wars. They followed the unprovoked attack by radical Al-Qaeda Islamists on the World Trade Center buildings in New York City, the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, and above a lonely field in rural Pennsylvania where brave passengers battled hand-to-hand to stop the terrorists.
Americans have grown tired of the endless nature of counter insurgency wars, referred to in the military as COIN operations. One can only hope, however, as we leave Afghanistan, that we will avoid the precipitous departure undertaken by President Barack Obama in 2011 that gave rise to resurgent terrorists and the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
But COIN operations had other costs as well. During the years we found ourselves going house to house to root out insurgents and terrorists, the ability of the military to wage conventional war atrophied. Now termed Large-Scale Combat Operations (LSCO), full-blown wars rely on the ability of the military to synchronize combat power at key times and places on the battlefield through what we called in the Army, combined arms warfare. That required synchronization so our leadership could bring the lethal effects of the Army’s infantry, armor, artillery, and attack aviation, along with a broad array of supporting combat arms like air defense, engineers, intelligence, the signal corps, and logistics together in a coordinated manner to defeat the enemy. But LSCO also requires that the Army fight jointly with the capabilities of the U.S. Air Force, the Navy, and the Marine Corps, much as we did in the First Gulf War. It worked brilliantly then.
During the COIN years, those combined and joint skills—while exercised narrowly to defeat terrorism—fell into a state of disrepair for LSCO. The synchronization skills for fighting terror are simply not the same as those to fight large scale enemy formations that we might one day encounter. Enter the naysayers who will no doubt assert “But those wars are passé now that we are in the cyber age. It will all be high tech and done with precision munitions over great distances.” So here’s my response. Hogwash.
To be sure, the technological innovations we are seeing—indeed pursuing—to reshape our combat capabilities are important and vital. So too are precision weapons and hypersonic munitions able to achieve unimaginable distances and speeds to attack our enemies. We are wise to pursue these things. But it would be unwise to forget some fundamental facts about war. You must have the ability to effectively synchronize your combat power to achieve overwhelming results to destroy the will of the enemy to resist.
That means we also need a fighting force that exudes a warrior spirit. That is not the stuff of social engineering. It’s the stuff of battle-focused and tough training that pushes Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, and Marines to their physical and mental limits so they will be conditioned to fight and win. And training and readiness cannot be neglected as we focus on the bright shiny objects of technology.
As we recover from the COIN years to rebuild and strengthen our military from much overuse, we need to remind ourselves that more than new technology, artificial intelligence, stealth, and cyber capability are required. These are all important. But we must not forget that we need an Army that can gain ground and decisively defeat the enemy; an Air Force that can dominate the skies; a Navy that can rule the seas; and Marines who can pave the way across the beaches for the joint application of military power. That takes hardware too. If you want to defeat enemy tanks, you had better have good ones yourselves. You can repeal a bad traffic law pretty quickly. You cannot repeal the law of physics.
And there’s this. When you’ve acquired all of the high tech you think you need to win, you had better be prepared for it to fail. At some point the GPS satellites won’t work, the cell phone communications will be jammed, the precision munitions will be unable to find their targets, and the gee-whiz computer screen will no longer clearly show the battle situation.
That’s the point when cold steel and spirited warriors will be required. It’s also the time when we may find ourselves reduced to compasses, canteens, and bayonets and facing an enemy—hand to hand—who are as intent on killing us as we must be in killing them. Are we ready for that day?
PS: If you want to read about combat synchronization done well, get a copy of my book Desert Redleg: Artillery Warfare in the First Gulf War, You can acquire one from major outlets now or, if you want a signed hardback copy, visit Shop on my website and order one directly from me, autographed and personalized as you desire. Happy Birthday America!
Categories: CBW
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