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Pentagon envisions cyber-warfare rise
By Bill Gertz
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
The U.S. military by 2020 will develop the capability to conduct attacks
on foreign computers and networks while defending its systems against
strategic information warfare strikes, a Pentagon report on future war
fighting made public yesterday says.
Additionally, the military will seek to improve weaknesses uncovered
during the Kosovo conflict last year to better conduct operations with allies
in combat, the Joint Staff report "Joint Vision 2020" says:
"We have superior conventional warfighting capabilities and effective
nuclear deterrence today, but this favorable military balance is not static,"
the report stated. "In the face of such strong capabilities, the appeal of
asymmetric approaches and the focus on the development of niche capabilities
will increase."
The report makes no mention of which nations will threaten the United
States two decades from now. Several references to "asymmetric" threats,
however, hinted that China will be the military's main adversary in the
future.
China's military has announced it too plans to make information warfare
a military capability equal in stature to its army, navy and air forces.
In official writings China also has stated it intends to confront a
technologically superior United States in the future using asymmetrical
warfare means.
"In 2020, the nation will face a wide range of interests, opportunities,
and challenges and will require a military that can both win wars and
contribute to peace," the report says.
"The global interests and responsibilities of the United States will
endure, and there is no indication that threats to those interests and
responsibilities, or to our allies, will disappear."
The report outlined future concepts as winning wars through decisive
force, power projection, overseas presence and strategic agility.
Key war-fighting goals are to dominate conflicts through advanced
communications and intelligence, rapid-maneuver forces, focused logistics
support and precision attack.
"The overall goal of the transformation described in this document is
the creation of a force that is dominant across the full spectrum of military
operations ‚Çö persuasive in peace, decisive in war, preeminent in any form of
conflict."
On information warfare, the report states that the military "must be
capable of conducting information operations" aimed at protecting U.S.
decision makers and "in a conflict degrade those of an adversary."
"The United States itself and U.S. forces around the world are subject
to information attacks on a continuous basis regardless of the level and
degree of engagement in other domains of operation," the report says.
"The perpetrators of such attacks are not limited to the traditional
concept of a uniformed military adversary. Additionally, the actions
associated with information operations are wide-ranging from physical
destruction to psychological operations to computer network defense."
Computer and other electronic strikes will be used against adversaries'
networks and include using deception to "defend decision-making processes by
neutralizing an adversaries' perception management and intelligence
collection efforts."
The report concludes that information warfare operations "will become as
important as those conducted in the domains of sea, land, air, and space."
"Such operations will be inextricably linked to focused logistics, full
dimensional protection, precision engagement, and dominant maneuver, as well
as joint command and control," the report says. "At the same time,
information operations may evolve into a separate mission area requiring the
services to maintain appropriately designed organizations and trained
specialists."
Navy Capt. Steve Pietropaoli, a spokesman for the chairman of the Joint
Chiefs of Staff, said the document outlines the "core requirements for the
warfighter" in 2020.
--
I know, let's just email everyone a copy of Quake 3, and then instead of
wars we could have virtual wars and no-one could get killed.
Not much chance of that happening though, the US might lose.
Steve.
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