Fighting DMO Part 4: Weapons Depletion and the Last-Ditch Salvo Dynamic

CIMSEC – The concentration and distribution of a force will flex and evolve as its platforms suffer depletion. As commanders look to employ mass fires, they must be mindful of how to spread depletion across the force, how to interpret the adversary’s expenditures, and how inventory pressures can be manipulated through the last-ditch salvo dynamic.

Unseen but vital: Britain and undersea security

Council on Geostrategy – While the fight to repel Russia’s territorial ambitions takes place in Ukraine, this war has also proved that a critical component of the centre of gravity of European economic security rests on the vulnerability of an invisible network of undersea connectors. More broadly, undersea spaces matter to Euro-Atlantic security, and not least to the United Kingdom (UK) as an insular nation. 

China Maritime Report No. 26: Beyond the First Battle: Overcoming a Protracted Blockade of Taiwan

China Maritime Studies Institute – If there is a war over Taiwan, an extended Chinese blockade is likely to determine the outcome. While a blockade might include intercepting ships at sea, the primary focus would be on sealing airfields and ports, particularly on the west coast of Taiwan. China could sustain that type of blockade indefinitely. Penetrating a prolonged blockade and keeping Taiwan alive would require a serious U.S. investment in systems and operational concepts that we currently do not have. Unless we make that investment, we may win the first battle, defeating an attempted landing. But we cannot win the war.

War Studies Primer

We invite you to try War Studies Primer – an introductory course on the study of war and military history. Its purpose is to provide an introduction to the study of war.

War Studies Primer is presented as a lecture curriculum at the university level. It is a free, non-credit, self-study course that consists of 28 topics and over 1,900 slides and is updated on a yearly basis.

Look at slides 2 and 3 in the War Studies Primer for its Table of Contents, and then choose a lecture to read and enjoy.

Bigger Than a Balloon: The Chinese C4ISRT Complex as Hyperobject

CIMSEC – Decades of Chinese investment in sensors, networks and data management means that Allied operations in the Western Pacific are now occurring within a dynamic, complex, shifting, and expanding Chinese C4ISRT ecosystem. The national security community should heed Morton’s hyperobjects and how they provide a better framework for understanding the reality-altering nature of the Chinese C4ISRT complex as a hyperobject. The exact extent and scale of the hyperobject is difficult to ascertain, thereby making it hard to say definitively whether one is being tracked by it at any given time, particularly during this uneasy period of great power competition. Through decades of hard work and investment, China created this hyperobject, and by doing so, it has changed the long-range surveillance and targeting game.

Managing ocean sustainability from above: leveraging space capabilities to combat illegal fishing

The Space Review – The oceans are integral to our global ecosystem. As a source of nutrition and livelihood for much of the world’s population, ocean health is critical for UN development goals. Activities that jeopardize the sustainability of marine resources, particularly illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing, are therefore a major international issue. Fortunately, space capabilities such as satellite radar and multispectral imaging are making it easier for the international community to track, characterize, and combat illegal fishing.

More Than “Wet Gap Crossings:” Rivervine Capabilities are Needed For Irregular Warfare and Beyond

CIMSEC – From the Seminole Wars to Vietnam and Iraq, American riverine capability has been critical for irregular warfare and beyond, but assembling the brown-water navy has always been an ad hoc process. The ongoing conflict in Ukraine has demonstrated how important rivers and the riverine environment are to larger, more conventional conflicts in today’s era, characterized by strategic competition as well as irregular conflict.