Tactical Nuclear Weapons and NATO.pdf - Program on Strategic ...

systematology to operational art in the epoch of deepprecision
strikes. 43 Riabchuk emphasized the increased
role of knowledge management in comm<strong>and</strong> <strong>and</strong> control
<strong>and</strong> spoke of making the comm<strong>and</strong> <strong>and</strong> control
of combat the cardinal skill of the comm<strong>and</strong>er. It dem<strong>and</strong>s
of him the capacity to manage information to
ensure a systemic underst<strong>and</strong>ing of the environment,
his own forces, <strong>and</strong> those of the enemy. In this manner,
power can be effectively deployed against critical subsystems
of the enemy <strong>and</strong> bring about collapse without
having to engage in annihilation. 44 His approach
would target key sub-systems for disruption <strong>and</strong> depend
on the creation of robust mathematical models
of complex systems. It requires that the comm<strong>and</strong>er
have the necessary skills to appreciate their application
<strong>and</strong> to draw conclusions from them. The objective
is not the annihilation of enemy combat forces but the
disruption of their C4ISR to bring about operational
paralysis. Riabchuk did not, however, discuss the use
of TNWs/NSNWs to achieve these effects. 45
The Russian Navy has also embraced sixth generation
war, but its focus has been upon the threat posed
by U.S.-<strong>NATO</strong> forces to Russian strategic nuclear
forces. Retired Admiral Ivan Matveyevich Kapitanets
has written on this mission, noting that by year 2010,
Russia would not possess the conventional means to
counter such an attack by U.S. naval forces employing
conventionally-armed cruise missiles against the bastion
areas of the Barents Sea <strong>and</strong> Sea of Okhotsk. In the
absence of its own advanced conventional precisionstrike
weapons, Kapitanets stated that in that time
frame Russia would have to respond to the threat of
such an attack with its own preemptive nuclear strike,
with all the associated risks of further escalation. 46
Kapitanets laid out a number of scenarios covering
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