Modern warfare is warfare using the concepts, methods, and
military technology that have come into use during and after World War II and
the Korean War. The concepts and methods have assumed more complex forms of the
19th- and early-20th-century antecedents, largely due to the widespread use of
highly advanced information technology, and modern armies must modernize
constantly to preserve their battle worthiness. Although total war was thought
to be the form of international conflicts from the experience of the French
Revolutionary Wars to World War II, the term no longer describes warfare in
which countries or nations use all of their resources to destroy another
country's or nations organized ability to engage in war. The practice of total
war which had been in use for over a century, as a form of war policy, has been
changed dramatically with greater awareness of tactical, operational, and
strategic battle information.
War in modern times has been the inclusion of civilians and
civilian infrastructure as targets in destroying a country's ability to engage
in war. The targeting of civilians developed from two distinct theories. The
first theory was that if enough civilians were killed, factories could not
function. The second theory was that if civilians were killed, the country
would be so demoralized that it would have no ability to wage further war.
However, UNICEF reports that civilian fatalities are down from 20 percent prior
to 1900 AD to less than 5 percent of fatalities in the wars beginning in the 1990s.
With the invention of nuclear weapons, the concept of
full-scale war carries the prospect of global annihilation, and as such
conflicts since WWII have by definition been "low intensity"
conflicts, typically in the form of proxy wars fought within local regional
confines, using what are now referred to as "conventional weapons,"
typically combined with the use of asymmetric warfare tactics and applied use
of intelligence.
More recently, the US Department of Defense introduced a
concept of battle space as the integrated information management of all
significant factors that impact on combat operations by armed forces for the
military theatre of operations, including information, air, land, sea, and
space. It includes the environment, factors, and conditions that must be
understood to successfully apply combat power, protect the force, or complete
the mission. This includes enemy and friendly forces; facilities, weather and
terrain within the operational areas and areas of interest.
Types
Some argue that the changing forms of three-dimensional
warfare represents nothing more than an evolution of earlier technology.
Aerial
The use of military
aircraft and other flying machines in warfare, including military
airlift of cargo to further the national interests. Strategic air
power is the bombing of enemy resources (by bombers);
tactical air power is the battle for control of the air space (by
fighters); close air support is the direct support of
ground units; aviation refers especially to the use of aircraft
carriers.
Asymmetric
A military situation in which two belligerents of
unequal strength interact and take advantage of their respective strengths and
weaknesses. This interaction often involves strategies and tactics outside the
bounds of conventional warfare, often referred to
as terrorism.
Biological
Biological warfare, also known as germ warfare, is the use
of any organism (bacteria, virus or other disease-causing organism) or toxin
found in nature, as a weapon of war. It is meant to incapacitate or kill
enemy combatants.
It may also be defined as the employment of biological agents to produce
casualties in man or animals and damage to plants or material; or defense
against such employment.
Chemical
Chemical warfare is warfare (associated military operations)
using the toxic properties of chemical substances to incapacitate or kill enemy
combatants.
Electronic
Electronic warfare refers to mainly non-violent practices
used chiefly to support other areas of warfare. The term was originally coined
to encompass the interception and decoding of enemy radio communications, and the
communications technologies and cryptography methods
used to counter such interception, as well as jamming,
radio stealth, and other related areas. Over the later years of the 20th
century and early years of the 21st century, this has expanded to cover a wide
range of areas: the use of, detection of and avoidance of detection by radar and sonar systems, computer hacking, etc.
Fourth Generation
Fourth generation warfare (4GW) is a concept defined
by William S. Lind and expanded by Thomas X.
Hammes, used to describe the decentralized nature
of modern warfare. The simplest definition includes any war in which one of the
major participants is not a state but rather a violent ideological network.
Fourth Generation wars are characterized by a blurring of the lines between war
and politics, combatants and civilians, conflicts and peace, battlefields and
safety.
While this term is similar to terrorism and asymmetric
warfare, it is much narrower. Classical insurgencies and
the Indian Wars are
examples of pre-modern wars, not 4GW. Fourth generation warfare usually has the
insurgency group or non-state side trying to implement their own government or
reestablish an old government over the one currently running the territory. The
blurring of lines between state and non-state is further complicated in a
democracy by the power of the media.
Ground
Ground warfare involves three types of combat units: Infantry, Armor,
and Artillery.
Infantry in modern times would consist of Mechanized infantry and Airborne
forces. Usually having a type of rifle or sub-machine gun, an
infantryman is the basic unit of an army.
Armored warfare in modern times involves a variety of Armored fighting vehicles for the
purpose of battle and support. Tanks or other armored vehicles (such as armored
personnel carriers or tank destroyers) are slower, yet stronger hunks of metal.
They are invulnerable to enemy machine gun fire but prone to rocket infantry,
mines, and aircraft so are usually accompanied by infantry. In urban areas,
because of smaller space, an armored vehicle is exposed to hidden enemy
infantry but as the so-called "Thunder Run" at Baghdad in 2003
showed, armored vehicles can play a critical role in urban combat. In rural
areas, an armored vehicle does not have to worry about hidden units though
muddy and damp terrain have always been a factor of weakness for Armored tanks
and vehicles.
Artillery in contemporary times, is distinguished by its
large caliber, firing an explosive shell or rocket, and
being of such a size and weight as to require a specialized mount for firing
and transport. Weapons covered by this term include "tube" artillery
such as the howitzer, cannon, mortar, field gun, and rocket
artillery. The term "artillery" has traditionally not been
used for projectiles with internal guidance
systems, even though some artillery units employ
surface-to-surface missiles. Recent advances in terminal guidance systems
for small munitions has allowed large caliber shells to be fitted with
precision guidance fuses, blurring this distinction.
Guerrilla
Guerrilla warfare is defined as fighting by groups of irregular troops (guerrillas) within areas
occupied by the enemy. When guerrillas obey the laws and customs of war, they are
entitled, if captured, to be treated as ordinary prisoners of
war; however, they are often treated by their captors as unlawful combatants and executed. The
tactics of guerrilla warfare stress deception and ambush, as opposed to mass
confrontation, and succeed best in an irregular, rugged, terrain and with a
sympathetic populace, whom guerrillas often seek to win over or dominate by
propaganda, reform, and terrorism. Guerrilla warfare has played a significant
role in modern history, especially when waged by Communist liberation movements
in Southeast Asia (most notably in the Vietnam War)
and elsewhere.
Guerrilla fighters gravitate toward weapons which are easily
accessible, low in technology, and low in cost. A typical arsenal of the modern
guerrilla would include the AK-47, RPGs and Improvised explosive devices. The
guerrilla doctrines' main disadvantage is the inability to access more advanced
equipment due to economic, influence, and accessibility issues. They must rely
on small unit tactics involving hit and run. This situation leads to low
intensity warfare, asymmetrical warfare, and war amongst the people. The rules of
Guerrilla warfare are to fight a little and then to retreat.
Intelligence
Propaganda
Propaganda is an ancient form of disinformation concerted
with sending a set of messages aimed at influencing the opinions or behavior of
large numbers of people. Instead of impartially providing information,
propaganda in its most basic sense presents information in order to influence
its audience. The most effective propaganda is often completely truthful, but
some propaganda presents facts selectively to encourage a particular synthesis,
or gives loaded messages in order to produce an emotional rather than rational
response to the information presented. The desired result is a change of the
cognitive narrative of the subject in the target audience.
Psychological
Psychological warfare had its beginnings during the
campaigns of Genghis Khan through the allowance of
certain civilians of the nations, cities, and villages to flee said place,
spreading terror and fear to neighboring principalities. Psychological actions
have the primary purpose of influencing the opinions, emotions, attitudes, and
behavior of hostile foreign groups in such a way as to support the achievement
of national objectives.
Information
Made possible by the widespread use of the electronic media
during World War II, Information warfare is a kind of warfare
where information and attacks on information and
its system are used as a tool of warfare. Some examples of this type of warfare are electronic
"sniffers" which disrupt international fund-transfer networks as well
as the signals of television and radio stations.
Jamming such signals can allow participants in the war to use the stations for
a misinformation campaign.
Naval
Naval warfare takes place on the high seas (blue water
navy). Usually, only large, powerful nations have competent blue water or deep
water navies. Modern navies primarily use aircraft
carriers, submarines, frigates, cruisers,
and destroyers for
combat. This provides a versatile array of attacks, capable of hitting ground
targets, air targets, or other seafaring vessels. Most modern navies also have
a large air support contingent, deployed from aircraft
carriers. In World War II, small craft (motor torpedo boats variously called PT
boats, MTBs, MGBs, Schnellbooten, or MAS-boats) fought near shore. This
developed in the Vietnam War into riverine warfare (brown water
navy), in intertidal and river areas. Irregular
warfare makes this sort of combat more likely in the future.
Network-centric
Network-centric warfare is essentially a new military
doctrine made possible by the Information
Age. Weapons platforms, sensors,
and command and control centers
are being connected through high-speed communication networks. The doctrine is
related to the Revolution in Military Affairs debate.
The overall network which enables this strategy in the United States military is called
the Global Information Grid.
Nuclear
Nuclear war is a type of warfare which relies on nuclear
weapons. There are two types of warfare in this category. In a limited nuclear
war, a small number of weapons are used in a tactical exchange aimed primarily
at opposing military forces. In a full-scale nuclear war, large numbers of
weapons are used in an attack aimed at entire countries. This type of warfare
would target both military bases and civilians.
Space
Space warfare is warfare that occurs outside the Earth's atmosphere. No wars have been fought
here yet. The weapons would include orbital
weaponry and space weapons.
High value outer space targets would include satellites and weapon
platforms. Notably no real weapons exist in space yet, though
ground-to-space missiles have been successfully tested against target
satellites.
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