BATTLEFIELD OF THE FUTURE

PRINCIPLES OF WAR
The enemy WMD threat might even extend beyond the
theater of war to the capitals of allied countries, including even
Washington, D.C . It may be possible that the adversary has
aircraft or missiles capable of reaching such capitals . Even if
this was not technically possible, it is conceivable that
nuclear, biological, or chemical weapons could be delivered
against such cities by unconventional means via saboteurs
smuggling them in the allied countries and detonating them or
threatening to do so to achieve favorable diplomatic
concessions at the end of the conflict .
Unfortunately, most allied capitals are highly vulnerable to
WMD threats . For example, Washington, D.C ., has long been a
vulnerable target and will remain so in the foreseeable
future .23 A clandestine nuclear detonation in the city would
likely doom the US president, the vice president, Cabinet
members, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and members of Congress
who were there at the time . The chaos that such an attack
would cause would be difficult to overstate . One of the more
difficult questions to answer in the hours after such a NASTI
decapitation attack would be "who is in charge here?"
This chaos would be compounded if the headquarters housing
the US regional CINC and his staff also were to suffer a similar
decapitation strike at the same time . It is possible that the
national leadership and the regional military forces of the
United States would be plunged into chaos for sometime .
The threat of communication disruption and command disablement
in conflicts with NASTIs leads to several conclusions
regarding the preservation of unity of command in such conflicts :
" Command unity may have to give way to subcommand
dispersal under a preset unified contingency plan ;
" Military units may need to be more autonomous and
dependent on prewar planning of operations ;
" Unit commanders will need simpler, less frequent
updates from central headquarters ;
" Alternative commanders in mobile and hardened command
posts will be needed for all regional and supporting
CINCs, with trained backups in reserve several layers
deep, ready to assume command if and when the CINCs
are targeted, killed, or isolated from their forces ;
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