Aiming Airsea Battle: An Operational Concept To Counter China's Maritime Area Denial Capabilities

摘要

The development in recent years of Anti-Access/Area Denial strategies and capabilities by countries such as China specifically seeks to exploit current vulnerabilities of the U.S. military, and threatens the continued ability of the United States to project power worldwide in defense of allies and U.S. interests. An upward trend in the quality, quantity, and innovation of China's weapons systems is granting China the ability to conduct effective area denial in the maritime realm. Lines of strategic thought in China accompanying this trend contain several potentially destabilizing concepts. The U.S. military has responded by starting the development of an operational concept titled AirSea Battle, a multi-service effort between the Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps. The thesis of this paper is that developing AirSea Battle as a multi-service operational concept is a necessary and appropriate method to counter China's maritime area denial strategies and capabilities. Developing such a concept, however, entails risk, which must be recognized, accounted for, and mitigated.