The nation state & conventional defence

The birth of the nation state

• Empires were too busy with coercion to provide a sound economic base
• City-states were too busy focusing on economic gain to provide adequate protection.
• Nation states carried the field by balancing the twin tasks of coercion and capital accumulation.

State actors & their monopoly on violence

• For 500 years nation states have reserved to themselves the right to carry out large scale public violence
• Private actors rarely possessed significant military means.
• The privileged position of the state as the key purveyor of violence.
• The nation state is justified as the unit of political organization that achieves the most efficient economy of scale for generating violence.
• The logic of mutual deterrence moved the locus of conflict below the nuclear level.

State actors & their economic capacity

• Economic capacity has been treated as a necessary condition for the ability to inflict significant harm, since the advent of the industrial age.
• Robust economies are to be preferred to weak ones.
• A healthy economy is a source of power, and is therefore also a target.
• States survive by waging wars, and wars are expensive.
• States generate revenue by
  • Taxing their subjects
  • Borrowing
• Tangible economic assets – partial understanding of a state’s military capacity
  • Volume of GNP
  • Size of defense industry
• Intangible economic assets
  • State’s organizational ability.
  • Administrative competence to efficiently employ the resources at its disposal.
  • Superior training and morale, often compensate for inferior weaponry.
  • Countries also differ in their will to achieve military strength.
  • In the ability of leaders to impose costs on society.
  • The strategic environments of countries place different demands on armed forces.

• Conventional warfare
  • Conventional warfare involves the use of traditional military forces in direct combat, using well-defined tactics and weaponry. This includes battles using infantry, tanks, artillery, and naval and air forces operating in a structured military setting.
  • In ancient times, the outcome of a war was often determined by the size of the army, as larger forces could overwhelm smaller ones through sheer numbers. However, in modern times, the focus has shifted to superior firepower and technology.  Advanced weapons, intelligence capabilities, and strategic planning often play a more decisive role than the number of troops.
  • Offensively, air superiority allows an actor to employ attack-, surveillance-, bomber-, and other aircraft without significant losses. Air superiority also facilitates air/ground combined arms operations.
  • Defensively, an actor with air superiority does not have to fear that the adversary will attack their ground troops from the air and can more easily shift resources to stop enemy advances or quickly maneuver ground forces to capitalize on weak points in the enemy battle line. More generally, air superiority facilitates the concentration of forces on a particular area, increasing the probability of a battlefield breakthrough or stopping an adversary’s attempted breakthrough. If one side has air superiority, it is more likely to have a combat power advantage and is more likely to win the battle.
• Combined arms warfare – Overwhelming power
  • A few stealth aircraft – Combined arms warfare gives one an advantage of 10 to 1.
  • Navy or Air Force to bombard an area, then send the army in.  If the initial attack fails, the army is doomed to fail.
  • 500 Russian mercenaries vs 40 US Special Forces troops and a small number of Syrian Democratic Force.  US combined arms using jets and bombers, led to a victory with over 100 killed and all the artillery destroyed.
• Air Superiority
  • Approximately 79% of all decisive battle winners had air superiority. Only twice did a country with air superiority lose the decisive battle.
  • Battlefield victory is primarily a function of combat power. While a number of factors affect combat power, we demonstrated that air superiority is an especially important one. Air superiority increases the maneuverability and concentration of one’s forces.
  • This increases the success of battlefield breakthrough and reduces the odds of breakthrough by the other side. To test the relationship between air superiority and battlefield victory, we created a new variable that identifies which side, if any, achieved air superiority in the decisive battle of conventional wars between 1932 and 2003. We found that air superiority was a better predictor of victory than other well-known factors such as adoption of the modern system, regime type, civil–military relations, and general measures of military power.
    This research improved our understanding of military effectiveness. The most effective militaries were those that controlled the skies. From a force structure perspective, our research suggested that investments in air power as well as anti-air defenses were vital for countries that might enter into conventional wars.
• Weapons
  • Army
    • Infantry
      • Missile Launchers
        • These are used for launching Ballistic Missiles to strike far-off enemy targets
        • American Javelin Anti Tank Missiles
      • Anti Tanks
        • These are often used for defeating tanks
      • Anti Missile SAM Batteries
        • The ground forces need protection from missiles. These work well for that as no SAM has 100% accuracy
          • S-400 Anti Missile Defense System
    • Armored Fighting Vehicles
      • These act as support for tanks and infantry
    • Tanks
      • The main strength of any land force is based on performance of the tanks.
      • They are equipped with tough armors, etc
      • They are extremely capable and very strong
        • American Abrams with a top speed of 70kmph
        • German Leopard 2A7
  • Air Force
    • These often become a changing factors in wars as they provide deep strike capabilities, recon and asset defense.  They can also launch missiles.
    • Strike Aircrafts
      • These are the most lethal ones with capability to establish air superiority and also defeat enemy installations
      • Indian Su 30 MKI
    • Helicopters
      • These complex pieces of machinery are useful for low altitude and infantry support purposes.
  • Navy
    • Aircraft Carriers
      • These carry air crafts over seas
      • Useful for power projection
      • USS Nimitz
    • Destroyers and Cruisers
      • Frigates
      • Corvettes
      • Submarines
        • Anti air and protection for Aircraft Carriers
        • Subs are also used for recon
        • They also can launch missiles.
        • Indian Kolkata Class Destroyer
  • Modern Warfare
    • Electronic Warfare
      • Can be used for jamming enemy communications and weapons.
      • American Growler Jamming Aircraft
    • Digital Warfare
      • This constant war is going to establish dominance of communications, info, etc
      • It is being used for spying by collecting user data
      • It is being used to hack other countries system and spoil, damage and access their systems. examples are cyber attacks.
      • The cyber attacks and digital damages cost the world around 600Billion$ per year, and this is just the beginning.
    • Nukes
      • These humanity killer bombs are capable of leveling entire cities and sending the world into death.