Preface
For a long time, the U.S. military's ultra-long-range firepower strike tasks have been completed by the Air Force and Navy, while the Army is unable to play its role due to the lack of ultra-long-range strike firepower. During the Cold War, , the U.S. Army began to field tactical ballistic missiles with a range of up to 170 kilometers. This gave the U.S. Army a certain long-range strike capability for the first time. Today, although the range of tactical ballistic missiles equipped by the U.S. Army has increased to 300 kilometers, it is still too close compared with cruise missiles launched by fighter planes and warships that can easily travel thousands of kilometers. Now the US military has shifted its attention to great power confrontation, instead of the previous asymmetric warfare .
Theater Firepower Command
Because the opponent has a powerful long-range strike firepower system, both sides can launch large-scale long-range missile attacks at a distance of 2,000 kilometers. However, the US Army lacks such powerful ultra-long-range firepower, and ultra-long-range operations can only be left to the Air Force. and navy execution, which undoubtedly wasted the important strategic force of the army. Therefore, the U.S. Army is trying to make innovations and plans to install ultra-long-range strike firepower such as medium-range cruise missiles, long-range supersonic weapons, and strategic long-range artillery, so that the Army will have the same deep strike capabilities as the Navy and Air Force and achieve true multi-purpose capabilities. domain joint operations. However, it is not enough to simply equip these long-range strike weapons. It also requires coordinated operations with the Army's original short-range firepower and sea and air long-range strike firepower. Because the Army itself lacks a strong long-range reconnaissance force, it must integrate firepower with the Navy and Air Force. It means a lot. In order to effectively coordinate these ultra-long-range firepower, the U.S. Army plans to establish theater fires commands in European Command and Indo-Pacific Command.
According to the U.S. Army’s plan, the newly formed Theater Fires Command will have command and coordination authority over all ultra-long-range firepower of the Army in the theater, thereby achieving effective coordination with the Joint Forces Command and providing ultra-long-range ground forces to the Joint Command at any time. Firepower. After the U.S. Army's ultra-long-range firepower is integrated into the entire joint force combat system, it can be supported by the long-range intelligence and reconnaissance forces of the Navy and Air Force, thus making up for the weakness of its long-range intelligence and reconnaissance system. According to the concept of joint operations of the US military, no matter which service's reconnaissance system captures the target, the Joint Operations Command can assign the strike task to any one of the army, navy, and air force, while the Theater Fires Command is responsible for joint operations. The command coordinates the Army's ultra-long-range fire strike mission. At present, the European theater and the Indo-Pacific theater are most likely to break out in a large-scale war. Therefore, the US military plans to establish a theater fires command in the European Command and the Indo-Pacific Command.
European Command Theater Fires Command
In the European direction, the main opponent of the US military is Russia. The Russian army has powerful conventional long-range strike capabilities. Each of its combined army armies has an Iskander tactical missile brigade. The Iskander tactical missile can launch M-type ballistic missiles and K-type cruise missiles. The maximum range of the former is 500 kilometers, while the latter's maximum range can reach 2,000 kilometers, and it has precision strike capabilities and very powerful deep strike capabilities. At present, the U.S. Army in the European theater is only equipped with tactical missiles with a range of 300 kilometers. The long-range strike capability is far inferior to the Russian Army . This forces the U.S. Army to deploy these tactical missiles closer to the front. This also means All are within the striking range of Russian long-range firepower. If the U.S. Army can be equipped with ultra-long-range strike firepower with a longer range, then the U.S. Army can disperse and deploy its firepower in deep areas, ensuring firepower while greatly improving survivability.
In Europe, thanks to the existence of NATO military organizations, the U.S. Army has a large number of allied ground bases available and can deploy these ultra-long-range firepower extensively. And unlike the Air Force, which is highly dependent on a limited number of fixed-position air force bases, the Army's tactical missile systems, long-range cruise missile systems and other long-range firepower have field mobility capabilities and can implement deep and mobile deployments. Their survivability is higher than that of the Air Force and Navy. .In view of Russia's powerful long-range strike capabilities, the U.S. Army's long-range strike firepower will weaken Russia's effectiveness in implementing preemptive strikes. In addition, from an offensive point of view, these land forces' ultra-long-range firepower spread across deep areas of Europe can carry out super-saturated long-range firepower strikes against Russia, putting strong pressure on Russia's comprehensive air defense system. Coupled with the ultra-long-range firepower of the air and navy, it will greatly Enhanced defense penetration capabilities. Therefore, it is very necessary to establish a theater fires command in Europe, which can play an important role on both offense and defense.
Indo-Pacific Command Theater Fires Command
Compared with the European theater, which is mainly land, the Indo-Pacific theater is basically a vast ocean, and the U.S. Army can only be dispersed and deployed on relatively independent mainland islands and islands. Moreover, the war zone here is wider, and even tactical missiles with a range of several hundred kilometers are not far enough. The only effective ultra-long-range firepower that the U.S. Army can deploy in the Indo-Pacific theater is medium-range cruise missiles. However, since cruise missiles generally fly at subsonic speeds, they are easily intercepted by the opponent's integrated air defense system. In the Indo-Pacific region, the potential biggest opponent of the United States is our country, and our country has established a strong homeland defense system and ultra-long-range strike system. Since our country does not have the restrictions of the " Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty ", we have a powerful medium-range The ballistic missile power has a strike range of 1,500-6,000 kilometers, covering almost the entire Western Pacific, and its ultra-long-range strike capability is very powerful. In addition, our country has also established a powerful comprehensive air defense system, with a large number of fighter jets and long-range air defense missile systems. It has very strong anti-intervention capabilities and can resist large-scale missile raids, especially cruise missile attacks.
In addition, the U.S. Army’s ultra-long-range firepower in the Indo-Pacific region also faces severe political restrictions. Unlike the unified NATO military organization established in Europe, in the Indo-Pacific region the United States only cooperates with Japan, South Korea, Australia, Philippines , Singapore and other countries have signed bilateral security treaties respectively, rather than a unified alliance. Most of these countries may agree to the US military stationing only when their country is invaded, rather than joining a war with the US military. It is difficult for these countries to agree to the deployment of extremely offensive ultra-long-range firepower. Therefore, due to the lack of reliable geographical support, it is difficult for the US Army to widely deploy ultra-long-range firepower in the Indo-Pacific region, and the Indo-Pacific Theater Fires Command is not as effective as the European Theater.
The role of the U.S. Army in future warfare
Although there are various problems and challenges, one thing is certain, that is, the U.S. Army is determined to establish ultra-long-range strike firepower and corresponding firepower commands to bear more depth. Strike mission. Given that the Army has certain advantages in survivability compared to the Air Force and Navy, the path to developing the Army's ultra-long-range firepower is undoubtedly correct. At the same time, it also avoids that when launching a long-range decisive battle with a powerful opponent, the Army can only do nothing and wait for the result, which is undoubtedly a huge waste. We must also attach great importance to this major transformation of the U.S. Army and make appropriate preparations in advance. We must realize that the US military is preparing for one or even two all-out wars. Neither Russia nor our country can relax its vigilance!
