OPINION & ANALYSIS
AIR WARFARE, PENTAGON
Is the precision revolution in warfare fading away?
In this op-ed, Mark Cancian of CSIS lays out how the DoD can overcome countermeasures of precision munitions.
By MARK CANCIAN
on July 02, 2024 at 11:36 AM
A High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) from Alpha “Able” Battery, 3-321st Field Artillery Regiment (FAR) from the 18th Field Artillery Brigade (FAB) lights up the night sky on Fort Campbell, Ky., during a Large-Scale, Long-Range Air Assault as part of Operation Lethal Eagle 24.1, April 24, 2024. (Photo by Sgt. 1st Class Joshua Tverberg)
Precision munitions have given the United States a decisive combat edge for 50 years. From Desert Storm to the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, “one bomb, one kill” has become the expectation. As the United States passed this capability to Ukraine for its struggle with Russia, HIMARS with GMLRS, Excalibur 155 mm artillery shells, Ground-Launched Small-Diameter Bombs, and JDAMs have had an immense impact on the battlefield.
Yet, Russia has used electronic warfare, decoys, deception, and dispersion to render some useless. And that raises a potentially destabilizing question for the US military: What if precision location and guidance are losing their battlefield dominance in the face of countermeasures? If so, the United States will need to change its concepts of operations and acquisition strategies to hedge against the possibility of operations with diminished location capabilities.
DoD defines a precision munition as “a guided weapon intended to destroy a point target and minimize collateral damage.” Precision also includes the entire range of command and control capabilities arising from automated and accurate geolocation. The focus on precision permeates guidance and doctrinal publications across the services. Outside DoD, study after study has proposed that the US expand long-range precision munitions to stay outside of adversary defensive zones. Given precision’s centrality, any failure of precision guidance and geolocation on future battlefields would be disastrous for US operations.
https://breakingdefense.com/2024/07/is-the-precision-revolution-in-warfare-fading-away/
