Shock and Awe — Achieving Rapid DominanceUllman, Harlan
History
Shock and Awe — Achieving Rapid Dominance
Ullman, Harlan
Rapid dominance (Military science)
Intelligence used to nominate the targets for these strikes must
examine the functions and then define the physical objects or people
who comprise the system which is responsible for the successful
operation of the function. You define the system and then attack the
critical elements in order to achieve economy of force. Often these
target sets are difficult to define, as these functions often
represent the enemy's most valuable and therefore protected elements.
The intelligence collection associated with each function will vary
from target set to target set. Large, fixed infrastructure, such as
associated with an electrical grid, lends itself to traditional
reconnaissance and evaluation of technical analysis. Leadership
targets are better defined by using human intelligence and subjective
analysis. In all cases success starts with innovative intelligence
products, which has not been a hallmark of United States operations.
Such intelligence products must be examined through the eyes of the
enemy, their values and concerns. Too often we apply judgments based
on our viewpoint.
One target system may serve the attainment of a number of different
goals. For example, attacks on the electrical power system of the
enemy may debilitate his capacity to command and control his military
forces, operate vital elements of the economy and thus degrade the
political support required to sustain the conflict. This same target
system may be attacked a variety of ways. Most common methods would be
using stealth aircraft and cruise missiles to bomb power plants and
switching centers. Areas with isolated populations lend themselves to
using special operations forces infiltrated to destroy an isolated
power grid node for transmission of energy from one highly populated
area to another. Now it is obvious that computer signals used to
command the power grid are targets as intrusion into the enemy's
control system provides the means to simply turn off electricity to
selected areas. Attacks by all these means achieves even greater
results than the sum of its parts because enemy responses to restore
electrical power will be confused as elements such as computer
intrusion are confused with bombing destruction.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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