Force Planning for the Era of Great Power Competition

October 2, 2017 Mark Gunzinger, Bryan Clark, David E. Johnson, Jesse Sloman
Resources: Forces & Capabilities

In 2013, CSBA released a report that recommended priorities for a force shaped to operate in the contested environments of the Asia–Pacific and other regions. This follow-on report recommends DoD shift its future force planning toward developing new operating concepts and capability mixes needed to deter, and if necessary defeat, aggression by China and Russia. These concepts should explore how combinations of advanced military capabilities, such as manned and unmanned long-range, penetrating ISR and strike systems, networked and distributed EW systems, and future directed energy weapons could help sustain or in some cases regain the U.S. military’s overmatch against greater power competitors.

CSBA’s Gunzinger on the Future of US Military Force Planning

November 2, 2017 Defense & Aerospace Report

Mark “Gonzo” Gunzinger, senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, discusses “Force Planning for the Era of Great Power Competition,” a new CSBA report he co-authored with Bryan Clark, David Johnson and Jesse Sloman, during an October 2017 interview with the Defense & Aerospace Report. The interview was conducted at the think tank’s Washington headquarters.

Russia Matters, Russia Analytical Report

October 30, 2017 Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs

“Force Planning For The Era Of Great Power Competition,” Mark Gunzinger, Bryan Clark, David Johnson, Jesse Sloman, Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, 2017: The authors, researchers with the center, recommend that the U.S. Department of Defense, as part of a new National Defense Strategy, adopt force planning constructs (FPC) geared toward countering the changing military strategies of Russia and China. “DOD’s planning scenarios should address long-term competitions with China and Russia that include gray zone operations and other actions in peacetime that are intended to undermine U.S. influence in their regions,” the authors write.

Report: The U.S. Is Not Ready for a War with Russia or China

October 20, 2017 The National Defense

The report, entitled “Force Planning for the Era of Great Power Competition,” was published earlier this month by the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments (CSBA), which I have previously called a “think tank’s think tank.” Its main conclusion is that while the U.S. military has focused on preparing for high-end conventional conflicts like the First Gulf War, China and Russia have been crafting strategies to achieve their ends without fighting those wars.

Force Planning for the Era of Great Power Competition

October 4, 2017 RealClearDefense

From Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments: “ ... a “more of the same” planning approach will not create a future force that is capable of projecting power effectively into threat environments where “every operating domain— outer space, air, sea, undersea, land and cyberspace—is contested.””

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