AirSea battle
Subtitle: a point-of-departure operational concept
By: Jan van Tol ; with Mark Gunzinger, Andrew Krepinevich, and Jim Thomas
Contributors: Gunzinger, Mark Alan; Krepinevich, Andrew F.; Thomas, Jim; Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments (Washington, D.C.)
Publisher: Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments
Published: 2010
Place of publication: Washington, DC
Language: eng
Number of pages: 123
Copyright date: 2010
Subjects: Air power; Sea-power; Access denial (Military science); Strategic aspects; Military policy
Description: "The US military today faces an emerging major operational challenge, particularly in the Western Pacific Theater of Operations (WPTO). The Chinese People's Liberation Army's (PLA) ongoing efforts to field robust anti-access/area-denial (A2/AD) capabilities are threatening to make US power projection increasingly risky and, in some cases and contexts, prohibitively costly. If this occurs, the United States will find itself effectively locked out of a region that has been declared a vital security interest by every administration in the last sixty years. It will also leave longstanding US allies and partners vulnerable to aggression or, more likely, subtle forms of coercion. Consequently, the United States confronts a strategic choice: either accept this ongoing negative shift in the military balance, or explore options for offsetting it. This paper does just that. It offers a point-of-departure concept designed to maintain a stable military balance in the WPTO, one that offsets the PLA's rapidly improving A2/AD capabilities. We have titled this concept 'AirSea Battle,' in recognition that this theater of operations is dominated by naval and air forces, and the domains of space and cyberspace."--P. [iv].
Notes: Title from PDF title page (viewed on May 19, 2010).

Includes bibliographical references.

System requirements: Adobe Acrobat reader.

Mode of access: Internet from Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments web site.
Table of contents: title: Introduction; title: What should an AirSea battle concept do?; title: Operational problems posed by robust A2/AD systems; title: The substance of an AirSea battle concept; title: Candidate AirSea battle "piece-parts"; title: A point-of-departure concept.