Counterforce Targeting Capabilities and Challenges

Counterforce targeting is one of the important means of removing potential weapons of mass destruction (WMD) threats to the United States and its allies and is one of the multiple means available to thin out the weapons of mass destruction threat. To fully understand what progress the United States...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Schneider, Barry R
Format: Report
Language:English
Subjects:
BURIED OBJECTS
CHALLENGES
COUNTERFORCE
COUNTERFORCES(MILITARY)
LEADERSHIP
MASS DESTRUCTION WEAPONS
MILITARY CAPABILITIES
Military Operations, Strategy and Tactics
MILITARY PLANNING
THREATS
UNITED STATES
WEAPON SYSTEMS
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Summary:Counterforce targeting is one of the important means of removing potential weapons of mass destruction (WMD) threats to the United States and its allies and is one of the multiple means available to thin out the weapons of mass destruction threat. To fully understand what progress the United States has made in counterforce capability, as well as the continuing shortfalls and the way ahead, one has to search for answers to a few key questions, namely: What would the ideal counterforce capability entail? How has weapons accuracy changed warfare? What are the implications of stealth technology for counterforce? How can the U.S. military neutralize deeply buried hardened facilities and what challenges do these present to U.S. forces? How can the U.S. military defeat the threat of adversary missiles fired from transporter-erector-launchers? How capable are we at present? What needs to be done to neutralize such future Scud Hunt threats? How can the U.S. military eliminate enemy WMD assets without major collateral damage? How far have we come in creating thermobaric and agent defeat weapons for this purpose? What strides has the United States taken in Science and Technology to improve U.S. counterforce weapons capability? What advantages do new U.S. counterforce targeting planning tools such as the Counterproliferation Analysis and Planning System (CAPS) provide to commanders? When should and should not the United States leadership elect to employ counterforce attacks in a preemptive or preventive war mode? Finally, what future steps in organizing, training and equipping U.S. forces needs to be taken to make U.S. counterforce capabilities adequate to the challenges of finding, fixing, and destroying adversary WMD and other military assets in a time of war? II. commanders?