BATTLEFIELD OF THE FUTURE

BATTLEFIELD OF THE FUTURE
Inchon invasion during the Korean War? Indeed, would the US
nuclear threat communicated to Beijing via the Indian government
have been credible if the People's Republic of China also
had possessed nuclear warheads and long-range aircraft in
1953? In the 1990-91 Gulf War, how would things have been
different if Iraq had possessed even a few nuclear weapons and
had been prepared to use them prior to the allied ground
offensive while coalition troops were massing in Saudi Arabia?
The Principle of Maneuver in Warfare
Perhaps far greater emphasis will have to be placed on
maneuver, the second "M" in J.F.C . Fuller's principles of war,
rather than on the first "M," mass . Inherent in maneuver is the
idea that mobility enhances both offensive and defensive
capabilities as well as one's ability to achieve a viable deterrent
and escalation superiority in both peace and war.
Coupled with the need for maneuver is the concept of
dispersion . Armies in modern times are increasingly mobile
and dispersed due to increases in battlefield lethality and
other technical changes . Moving and spreading out gives the
adversary less probability of targeting success and less of a
target to hit. Prudence would advise spreading friendly forces
even more in the future to expose fewer of them to any single
WMD attack .
On the other hand, this need to disperse forces can greatly
hinder conventional combat capability . An army dispersed will
have less capability for achieving local superiority and
breakthroughs against its opponents armed forces and less
opportunity for battle and war termination until the main
weapons of the enemy are silenced .
The need to simultaneously guard against vulnerability to
WMD attack and to conduct a conventional campaign will
impose contradictory pressures on regional CINCs planning
future campaigns . Such dual concerns might prevent quick,
decisive engagements in the future that are based on the 1991
Gulf War model . Instead, future armies may be forced to fight
more at the low-intensity warfare level or to engage in
prolonged conventional wars of attrition while avoiding
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