Achilles' Heel - over-Reliance on Technology as a Weak Point of the U.S. Army
“Achilles ' heel”
Over-reliance on Technology as a Weak Point of the U.S. Army
The information revolution – an incredible growth in possibilities of receiving and passing on information, changed the way how the world is functioning so significantly that we are able to say that we are now living in the midst of the information age. Digital technology opened new possibilities to economy and had also big impact on most other areas of human life. Among them, conflicts and wars have always occupying important place. Through last decades the U.S. military were not only a beneficent but even a founder of the technological progress.[1] Demand for the technological superiority, the decisive factor in prospective war, were forcing successive American governments to spent large sums on research and development (R&D) centers during the Cold War, but didn 't expend with the decay of the Soviet Union. Nowadays the USA are spending approximately 12% of their defense budget (75 of $623 billion in 2008) on “research, development, testing and evaluations” (to compare, in 2004 combined spending of China, Russia, France, Israel and the United Kingdom for R&D didn 't exceed $17 billion).[2] In 1991, the first Gulf War showed the superiority of the American military technology over their Cold War 's adversaries equipment. This war were also an impulse for so called Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA) which is so far shaping the strategy of the American army. The point of this essay is the explanation where the American military supremacy is coming from and then, by referring to historical case studies, an analyze of possible weaknesses in the U.S. strategy. At the end maybe it will be possible to answer the question: could the faith in technology became the American “Maginot line”[3] of even “Achilles heel” of the 21st century? Before the RMA became main goal of the U.S. Military during Donald Rumsfeld term of office as a Secretary of Defense, as early as in the middle 90s
Over-reliance on Technology as a Weak Point of the U.S. Army
The information revolution – an incredible growth in possibilities of receiving and passing on information, changed the way how the world is functioning so significantly that we are able to say that we are now living in the midst of the information age. Digital technology opened new possibilities to economy and had also big impact on most other areas of human life. Among them, conflicts and wars have always occupying important place. Through last decades the U.S. military were not only a beneficent but even a founder of the technological progress.[1] Demand for the technological superiority, the decisive factor in prospective war, were forcing successive American governments to spent large sums on research and development (R&D) centers during the Cold War, but didn 't expend with the decay of the Soviet Union. Nowadays the USA are spending approximately 12% of their defense budget (75 of $623 billion in 2008) on “research, development, testing and evaluations” (to compare, in 2004 combined spending of China, Russia, France, Israel and the United Kingdom for R&D didn 't exceed $17 billion).[2] In 1991, the first Gulf War showed the superiority of the American military technology over their Cold War 's adversaries equipment. This war were also an impulse for so called Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA) which is so far shaping the strategy of the American army. The point of this essay is the explanation where the American military supremacy is coming from and then, by referring to historical case studies, an analyze of possible weaknesses in the U.S. strategy. At the end maybe it will be possible to answer the question: could the faith in technology became the American “Maginot line”[3] of even “Achilles heel” of the 21st century? Before the RMA became main goal of the U.S. Military during Donald Rumsfeld term of office as a Secretary of Defense, as early as in the middle 90s
Bibliography: Brzezinski, Richard, “Polish Armies 1569–1696 (1)”, Men-at-Arms Series. Oxford: Osprey Publishing Ltd., 1987 Brzezinski, Richard, “Polish Winged Hussar 1576-1775,” Warrior Series Internet sources: Military R&D: Hits and Misses, http://executiveeducation.wharton.upenn.edu/wharton-aerospace-defense-report/Military-Hits-and-Misses-1008.cfm (accessed 27.02.2010) http://www.opinionjournal.com/forms/printThis.html?id=110004289 (accessed 27.02.2010) [5] US Department of Defense, Joint Vision 2010, p [6] Kagan, Frederic W., “A Dangerous Transformation”, The Wall Street Journal, 12.11.2003 http://www.opinionjournal.com/forms/printThis.html?id=110004289 (accessed 27.02.2010) [12] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Kircholm (accessed 27.02.2010) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winged_Hussars (accessed 27.02.2010) [15] Davies, Joshua, "If We Run Out of Batteries, This War is Screwed.", Wired Magazine, 11.06.2003, http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.06/battlefield_pr.html (accessed 27.02.2010) [16] Gentry, John A