@@ Pentagon lays out "Long War" strategy -- QDR-2006 @@
Arash
February 4, 2006
Ability to Wage 'Long War' Is Key To Pentagon Plan
Conventional Tactics De-Emphasized
By Ann Scott Tyson
The Pentagon (www.pentagon.mil), readying for what it calls a "long war", yesterday
laid out a new 20-year defense strategy that envisions U.S. troops deployed, often
clandestinely, in dozens of countries at once to fight terrorism and other
nontraditional threats.
Major initiatives include a 15% boost in the number of elite U.S. troops known as
Special Operations Forces (www.socom.mil), a near-doubling of the capacity of
unmanned aerial drones to gather intelligence, a $1.5 billion investment to counter a
biological attack, and the creation of special teams to find, track and defuse
nuclear bombs and other catastrophic weapons.
China is singled out as having "the greatest potential to compete militarily with the
United States", and the strategy in response calls for accelerating the fielding of a
new Air Force long-range strike force, as well as for building undersea warfare
capabilities.
The latest top-level reassessment of strategy, or Quadrennial Defense Review or QDR
(http://www.defenselink.mil/pubs/pdfs/QDR20060203.pdf PDF-2MB), is the first to fully
take stock of the starkly expanded missions of the U.S. military -- both in fighting
wars abroad and defending the homeland -- since the September 11, 2001, terrorist
attacks.
The review, the third since Congress required the exercise in the 1990s, has been
widely anticipated because Donald H. Rumsfeld is the first defense secretary to
conduct one with the benefit of four years' experience in office.
Rumsfeld issued the previous QDR in a hastily redrafted form days after the 2001
strikes (http://www.defenselink.mil/pubs/qdr2001.pdf PDF-500KB).
The new strategy, summarized in a 92-page report, is a road map for allocating
defense resources. It draws heavily on the lessons learned by the U.S. military since
2001 in Iraq, Afghanistan and counterterrorism operations.
The strategy significantly refines the formula -- known as the "force planning
construct" -- for the types of major contingencies the U.S. military must be ready to
handle.
Under the 2001 review, the Pentagon planned to be able to "swiftly defeat" two
adversaries in overlapping military campaigns, with the option of overthrowing a
hostile government in one.
In the new strategy, one of those two campaigns can be a large-scale, prolonged
"irregular" conflict, such as the counterinsurgency in Iraq.
In the 2001 strategy, the U.S. military was to be capable of conducting operations in
four regions abroad -- Europe, the Middle East, the "Asian littoral" and Northeast
Asia.
But the new plan states that the past four years demonstrated the need for U.S.
forces to "operate around the globe, and not only in and from the four regions".
Yet, although the Pentagon's future course is ambitious in directing that U.S. forces
become more versatile, agile and capable of tackling a far wider range of missions,
it calls for no net increases in troop levels and seeks no dramatic cuts or additions
to currently planned weapons systems.
For example, the active-duty Army will revert by 2011 to its pre-2001 manpower of
482,400, with the additional Army Special Operations Forces incorporated in that
number, defense officials said.
The Air Force will reduce its strength by about 40,000 personnel.
Moreover, the review's key assumptions betray what Pentagon leaders acknowledge is a
certain humility regarding the Defense Department's uncertainty about what the world
will look like over the next five, 10 or 20 years, as well as its realization that
the U.S. military cannot attain victory alone.
"U.S. forces in all probability will be engaged somewhere in the world in the next
decade where they're not currently engaged. But I can tell you with no resolution at
all where that might be, when that might be or how that might be", Ryan Henry
(http://www.defenselink.mil/bios/henry_bio.html), principal deputy undersecretary of
defense for policy, said at a Pentagon news briefing unveiling the QDR.
"Things get very fuzzy past the five-year point", Ryan Henry said of the review in a
talk last month.
At the same time, Ryan Henry stressed yesterday, "we cannot win this long war by
ourselves".
When a major crisis, such as a terrorist strike or outbreak of hostilities, occurs --
requiring a "surge" in forces -- the U.S. military will plan for "somewhat higher
level of contributions from international allies and partners, as well as other
Federal agencies", the review concludes.
The new strategy marks a clear shift away from the Pentagon's long-standing emphasis
on conventional wars of tanks, fighter jets and destroyers against nation-states.
Instead, it concentrates on four new goals:
!) defeating terrorist networks;
2) countering nuclear, biological and chemical weapons;
3) dissuading major powers such as China, India and Russia from becoming adversaries;
4) and creating a more robust homeland defense.
Central to the first two goals is a substantial 15% increase in U.S. Special
Operations Forces (www.soc.mil), now with 52,000 personnel, including secret Delta
Force (www.bragg.army.mil/18abn) operatives skilled in counterterrorism.
The review calls for a one-third increase in Army Special Forces battalions, whose
troops are trained in languages and to work with indigenous fighters; an increase in
Navy SEAL (www.seal.navy.mil) teams; and the creation of a new SOF squadron of
unmanned aerial vehicles to "locate and target enemy capabilities" in countries where
access is difficult.
In addition, civil affairs and psychological operations units
(http://tinyurl.com/ag96u) or PSYOPS (www.iwar.org.uk/psyops) will gain 3500
personnel, a 33% increase, while the Marine Corps (www.usmc.mil) will establish a
2600-strong Special Operations Force (SOF) for training foreign militaries,
conducting reconnaissance and carrying out strikes.
"SOF will increase their capacity to perform more demanding and specialized tasks,
especially long-duration, indirect and clandestine operations in politically
sensitive environments and denied areas", the report says.
By 2007, Special Operations Forces (SOF) will have newly modified Navy submarines
(http://tinyurl.com/8ua2l), each armed with 150 Tomahawk missiles
(http://tinyurl.com/8popc), for reaching "denied areas" and striking individuals or
other targets.
"SOF will have the capacity to operate in dozens of countries simultaneously" and
will deploy for longer periods to build relationships with "foreign military and
security forces", it says.
To conduct strikes against terrorists and other enemies -- work typically assigned to
Delta Force members and SEAL teams -- these forces will gain "an expanded organic
ability to locate, tag and track dangerous individuals and other high-value targets
globally", the report says.
The growth will also allow for the creation of small teams of operatives assigned to
"detect, locate, and render safe" nuclear, chemical and biological weapons -- as well
as to prevent their transfer from states such as North Korea to terrorist groups.
To strengthen homeland defense, the report calls for improving communications and
command systems so that military efforts can be better coordinated with state and
local governments.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/03/AR2006020301853_pf.html