As with so many other nodes, this one seems a little quaint in light of the attacks on the world trade center on September 11, 2001. A proper question now might be: what is the proper configuration for an anti-terrorism fighting force?
Contrary to many people's earlier opinon, events in Afghanistan have shown that planes, aircraft carriers and cruise missiles do have their place. Cluster bombing from B-52s sometimes has a place. It's clear, however, that an anti-terrorism fighting force has different needs from a WWII-style fighting force.
I'm no expert, here are some things that seem apparent in light of recent events:
- Intelligence - it all starts with intelligence. Both high-tech surveilence and spies on the ground. The US ignored this for a couple of decades and it hurt us quite a lot.
- Precision Strike Capability - it's essential to be able to strike a terrorist base without killing the shepherd that lives next door. For this you want weapons of many varying degrees of power, from little bombs that blow up a shack to big bunker busters that can take out hardened underground hideouts.
- Special Forces - there are a lot of jobs where you don't want to kill indiscriminately or even at all. It's vital to have highly trained units that can infiltrate, capture individuals, collect intelligence, work with native populations, strike at infrastructure and so on.
- Peacekeeping Forces - these troops are trained as soldiers, but also as police. They are generally used to keep warring factions apart while political negotiations are underway to stablize a city or small state. These troops must also be able to integrate with troops from other peacekeeping nations.
- Command and Control - to integrate these diverse forces, better command and control structures must be in place than have traditionally been used. Intelligence must be exchanged between elements and when decisions are made at high levels that require tight integration between disparate elements lower down (eg, you don't bomb an area where your special forces are operating), the necessary information must be exchanged.
- Biological and Chemical Weapons Research - while these weapons can no longer be used by first world nations, research must continue into the actual agents enemies are likely to use and ways to defend or innoculate against them.
- The Poor Bloody Infantry - most successful military operations will at some point require that some poor guys in soldier suits go in and occupy some ground. These forces need not be huge, as they were in WWII, but they do need to be well-trained in the high tech aspects of modern warfare.
It's also useful to notice some things that don't seem as important as they once did:
- Nukes - no longer the "in" weapon. Practically unusable. It's obvious that our leaders don't value them much any more, as they are planning to reduce their numbers drastically
- Artillery - while some high-tech artillery will no doubt survive, the 21st century isn't likely to see a lot of tank duels or cities under artillery siege. This includes ships whose main weapons are big guns.
- Chemical and Biological agents - absolutely taboo. while defending against these agents justifies considerable research (see above), there's no point at all in possessing them.
So, it's more important, I think, to talk about the structure of our military, rather than harp on cost. In 2001, the US will spend about 3% of GDP on the military (about 16% of all government spending). This doesn't seem like a bloated budget, but it must be well spent to be effective.
Post Gulf War II comment: all of the above seems to have been fairly accurate, but a couple of things were left out:
- Coordination between forces and command and control in general. With so many different forces in the field, it's vital to have good communications and control between them. If you don't have this, friendly fire will eat your lunch.
- Armor. For a while it seemed like armor was a lost cause. Smart bombs can just shred it from 20,000 feet. All battles aren't symetrical, however, and tanks and Bradley Fighting Vehicles are more important than ever for those times where you have air superiority, but not superiority in numbers or have to fight an enemy that is dispersed in the population.