Follow InsideDefense.com on TwitterInside the Pentagon -- The U.S. armed services must achieve unprecedented synergy to ensure access to contested waters, skies, land, space and networks in the face of emerging weapons, the military's top officer warns in a new high-level document.
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey's admonition comes in the Defense Department's new Joint Operational Access Concept, which names no adversary but focuses on "anti-access" and "area-denial" threats -- terms that DOD associates closely with China. The threats include advanced long-range weapons designed to keep forces away and short-range arms designed to limit freedom of action.
Inside the Pentagon obtained an unsigned copy of version 1.0 of the 75-page concept document, dated Nov. 22, which was recently blessed by senior military leaders and is due to be signed by Dempsey.
The concept casts the access problem as global, underscoring the growing importance of the Pentagon's AirSea Battle initiative, which aims to counter anti-access and area-denial threats. The proliferation of these weapons, changes in the U.S. overseas defense posture and the emergence of space and cyberspace as contested domains will drive "future enemies, both states and nonstates," to favor using anti-access and area-denial strategies against the United States, the document states.
The concept directs the armed services to collaborate on military capabilities like never before. It calls for new "cross-domain synergy" integrating Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps forces across the air, cyber, sea, land and space domains "without regard for which service provides the action or the capability." Responding to anti-access and area-denial threats requires creative "asymmetrical" thinking that transcends traditional service boundaries, the concept states.
The new approach might use "airpower to defeat anti-ship weapons, naval power to neutralize air defenses, ground forces to neutralize land-based threats to air and naval forces, cyber operations to defeat space systems, and so on," the concept states. This could involve major movements like the use of airborne or amphibious forces to secure forward bases to extend the range of airpower as well as low-level, tactical teamwork that pits aerial, naval, space, cyber and land-based weapons against a single anti-access system.
The concept also envisions "a greater degree and more flexible integration of space and cyberspace operations into the traditional air-sea-land battlespace than ever before."
"It's huge," said Army Col. Mark Elfendahl when asked about the importance of the document, which paves the way for future concept-development work. He is chief of the Joint and Army Concepts Division at the Army Capabilities Integration Center, part of the service's Training and Doctrine Command.
"The concept identifies 30 operational capabilities the future joint force will need to gain operational access in an opposed environment," the document states. "The implications of creating and maintaining these capabilities in the necessary capacity are potentially profound."
But the "most serious" risk associated with adopting the Joint Operational Access Concept, or JOAC, is that joint forces will fail to achieve the required cross-domain synergy, the document states, noting that commanders must strive to create the conditions in which synergy can emerge.
A recent DOD report to Congress warns that China is "pursuing a variety of air, sea, undersea, space counterspace, information warfare systems and operational concepts" to achieve anti-access and area-denial capabilities. The report cites China's "sustained effort to develop the capability to attack, at long ranges, military forces that might deploy or operate within the Western Pacific."
With such threats in mind, the Pentagon recently established an AirSea Battle office to coordinate military and interagency efforts related to AirSea Battle; supervise how the concept is implemented in terms of organizing, training and equipping forces; and guide, facilitate and monitor the execution of AirSea Battle force development.
"The intent of Air-Sea Battle is to improve integration of air, land, naval, space and cyberspace forces to provide combatant commanders the capabilities needed to deter and, if necessary, defeat an adversary employing sophisticated anti-access/area-denial capabilities," the concept states. "It focuses on ensuring that joint forces will possess the ability to project force as required to preserve and defend U.S. interests well into the future."
DOD is also concerned that the Iranian-backed militant group Hezbollah, armed fighters in Afghanistan or other potential foes could wield guided munitions that are simple compared to high-end Chinese systems but still amount to new deadly threats. Earlier this year in Singapore, then-Defense Secretary Robert Gates cited Hezbollah's possession of "anti-ship cruise missiles with a range of more than 65 miles that potentially puts our and other ships at risk off the coast of Lebanon."
"While Iran is unlikely to initiate or launch a preemptive attack, it could attempt to block the Strait of Hormuz temporarily, threaten U.S. forces and regional allies with missiles and employ terrorist surrogates worldwide," Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lt. Gen. Ron Burgess told the Senate Armed Services Committee in March.
The concept defines anti-access threats as those designed to prevent an opposing force from entering an operational area. These threats include surface-, air- and submarine-launched ballistic and cruise missiles "able to accurately attack forward bases and deploying U.S. forces and their supporting logistics at ranges exceeding 1,000 nautical miles," the concept states. Also included are satellites, aircraft and land- and ship-based radar that gather targeting information; kinetic and nonkinetic anti-satellite weapons; submarines; cyber attacks; and terrorists willing to attack bases in the United States or abroad.
Area-denial threats aim to limit an opposing force's freedom of action within an operational area, the concept states. These threats include air forces and air defense systems, both fixed and mobile; shorter-range anti-ship missiles and subs with advanced torpedoes; precision-guided rockets, artillery, missiles, and mortars (G-RAMM); chemical and biological weapons, computer and electronic attack capabilities; land and naval mines; armed and bomb-laden small boats and craft in cluttered waters; land maneuver forces; elite forces capable of direct action and unconventional warfare; and unmanned systems.
Tighter integration between the services would be "critical" for countering an anti-access/area-denial strategy that cuts across multiple domains, the concept states. "The concept thus envisions a seamless application of combat power between domains, with greater integration at dramatically lower echelons than joint forces currently achieve," the document adds.
The Army and Marine Corps have been developing a concept for "gaining and maintaining access." To date, that document has been formally signed by the Army but not the Marine Corps. A Marine Corps official said the service thinks the effort has produced a good body of work that will inform future joint concept work related to ensuring access. -- Christopher J. Castelli
