Problem of Theater Ballistic Missiles: Unresolved Dilemma for the OperationalCommander

摘要

This essay analyzes ballistic missiles as warfighting tools that exponentiallycompound the planning efforts of operational military commanders. Despite an all out effort by the United States military during the war against Iraq, unsophisticated Iraqi mobile SCUDs managed to evade targeting, preemptive strikes, and airborne intercepts. Although no U.S. troops were exposed to nuclear, biological or chemical attack from ballistic missiles during the 1991 war, the growing proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missiles combined with the ghastly potential for massive casualties argues for renewed efforts to defend U.S. forces against this potent threat. Ballistic missiles as warfighting tools that compound the planning efforts of operational commanders.