Bolstering Arctic Domain Awareness to Deter Air & Missile Threats to the Homeland

The Arctic has remained an attractive attack vector for both U.S. and Russian long-range aviation and missiles since the earliest days of the Cold War. The growing Arctic presence of China reinforces the region’s significance as a staging ground for air and cruise missile attacks.

更多

The U.S. Department of Defense continues to invest billions to defend against limited ballistic missile attacks, but the U.S. military’s ability to detect, track, and defeat a cruise missile strike emanating from the Arctic has degraded significantly over the past 30 years. China or Russia could exploit this shortfall using conventional cruise missile attacks, to deal a quick blow that keeps U.S. military forces at distance and avoid a nuclear response.

Bolstering deterrence against conventional air and cruise missile threats in the Arctic starts by improving U.S., ally, and partner domain awareness and information dominance capabilities. Together, domain awareness and information dominance can underwrite a comprehensive “missile defeat” strategy, left and right of launch, that gives U.S. leaders more options to deter an attack on the U.S. homeland.

收起

Understanding the B-21 Raider: America’s Deterrence Bomber

了解B-21突袭者：美国的威慑轰炸机

MARCH 16, 2023

更多

The Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies is pleased to announce a new entry in its Research Studies series, Understanding the B-21 Raider: America’s Deterrence Bomber by Mark Gunzinger, Director of Future Concepts and Capability Assessments at the Mitchell Institute.

收起

C2 Series: Clearing the Fog and Friction of Command and Control

The Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies is proud to announce three new Forum Papers in a series on command and control (C2) by Col Frederick “Trey” Coleman, the commander of the 505th Command and Control Wing.

不可替代的空间：太空在JADC2的关键角色

冷战结束后，美军拥有了在其选择的时间和地点主导全球军事行动的能力。由于30年以来预算驱动的部队结构性调整，情况已不再如此，美国的军事能力根本没有跟上日益增长的对等对手威胁。此外，优先考虑信息和决策优势的对手战略表明，未来战争的成功将归于拥有更好的战场知识、做出更好的决策、更有效地指挥其部队并更快地实施杀伤链的一方。

太空将赋予所有这些关键行动能力。这是联合全域指挥与控制(JADC2)的愿景。JADC2将从任何传感器和任何域收集信息，在巨大的物理距离上快速传输大量数据，处理信息以支持动态战斗管理和指挥官决策，然后确保正确的信息在正确的时间传递给正确的作战人员以达到预期的效果，所有这些都在全球范围内进行。

更多

这只能通过基础的天基能力来实现。只有太空域才能以有效JADC2架构所需的速度、大小和范围移动信息。如果美国希望在对等冲突中获胜，美国国防部和太空部队必须优先考虑强大的太空传输层、传感器和太空优势，以保护这些能力。

JADC2将从根本上依赖其天基元素，因此其太空架构必须具有弹性和可防御性。这需要同时追求被动和主动防御功能，包括快速加速进攻性和防御性太空作战概念和能力。如果不及时了解和提供资源，面对中国和其他国家在美国及其盟国之前寻求在太空中的军事优势，美国国防部的部队设计将变得脆弱。

收起

Understanding the Promise of Skyborg and Low-Cost Attritable Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

By Mark Gunzinger

Director, Future Concepts and Capability Assessments, The Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies

更多

Lukas Autenried

Senior Analyst, The Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies

The Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies is pleased to announce a new entry in its Policy Paper series, Understanding the Promise of Skyborg and Low-Cost Attritable Unmanned Aerial Vehicles by Mark Gunzinger, Director of Future Concepts and Capability Assessments at the Mitchell Institute, and Lukas Autenried, Senior Analyst at the Mitchell Institute.

In the face of rising great power threats and a potential defense budget downturn, the U.S. Air Force must maintain high readiness and modernize an aircraft inventory that is both old and small. Procuring low-cost “attritable/reusable” UAVs with AI-enabled autonomy—in addition to high-end capabilities such as F-35As and B-21s—is an effective and sustainable pathway to grow the USAF’s combat capacity and meet power projection requirements. This is also vital in helping the Air Force remain an “inside force,” which yields important options at the strategic, operational, and tactical levels. This Mitchell Institute Policy Paper explores the promise of A/R UAVs for the future battlespace.

At the virtual rollout, panelists Col Stryker Haley, Deputy Division Chief, Air Force Warfighting Integration Capability Futures & Concepts Division; Dr. Douglas Meador, Deputy Program Manager, Air Force Research Laboratory Low Cost Attritable Aircraft Technology (LCAAT) program; and Mark Gunzinger, the report’s author, discuss the underlying technologies that enable low-cost “attritable/reusable” unmanned aerial vehicles, their warfighting potential to conduct different operations, and how they might fit into the future force design. Watch video now at link below!

The Mitchell Institute Policy Papers is a series presenting new thinking and policy proposals to respond to the emerging security and aerospace power challenges of the 21st century. These papers are written for lawmakers and their staffs, policy professionals, business and industry, academics, journalists, and the informed public.

收起