Armed Forces News

The Defense Department is not taking the right approach to counter moves by potential adversaries that could neutralize U.S. military precision air-strike capabilities, according to a white paper published this month by a Washington-based think tank. The report, prepared by the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments (CSBA), discussed responses by China and other possible aggressors to the U.S. development of effective but expensive precision-guided munitions. Those nations are preparing passive weapons systems that could force the U.S. to “fly more strike sorties and expend more” expensive precision-guided weapons, the authors stated. They recommended:

* Use of more inexpensive munitions that would “reduce the density of defenses” enough to allow precision weapons to reach their targets.
* Collaborative deployment of weapons with better capabilities of maximizing target damage, which would enable precision weapons to “achieve greater effects than larger, non-collaborative salvos.”
* Use of short-range aircraft to defend forward bases and “conduct counterair operations,” which also would make it easier for precision weapons to reach their targets cheaper and more efficiently.
* Basing fighter aircraft in a more highly dispersed mode “inside contested areas,” eliminating an enemy’s capability of targeting and destroying them.
* Launching more short-range, standoff strike operations and fewer direct attacks.