Fire and Thunder: Shaping the Battlespace with Operational Fires

摘要

In the last twenty years America has adopted a more maneuver-oriented style ofwarfare that emphasizes joint operations. In a conventional, regional conflict, it is imperative that U.S. forces have the capability to apply joint firepower at the operational level of war to attain operational and strategic objectives. With smaller forces, the U.S. will have to apply decisive force with maximum efficiency and minimum expenditure of resources. Unfortunately, the armed services of the United States lack a truly joint perspective on how to apply joint firepower at the operational level of war. The success of Operation Desert Storm masked the weakness of American jointness. In reality, joint doctrine was extremely fragile in 1991, and crumbled under the pressures of war. Varying service perspectives on how to fight with fires survived the war and threaten to carry a lack of trust and true jointness into the next war. This paper concludes with some implications of this lack of jointness, and offers some recommendations on doctrinal changes that could help form a more truly joint perspective on shaping the battlespace with operational fires.