Modern warfare
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2008-06-25T03:38:03Z
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Reverted edits by [[Special:Contributions/72.27.159.171|72.27.159.171]] ([[User talk:72.27.159.171|talk]]) to last version by Filippof
{{history of war}}
{{Unreferenced|date=July 2006}}
'''Modern warfare''' involves the widespread use of highly advanced technology. As a term, it is generally associated with technologically advanced weaponry and tactics. However, this is not to say that [[third world]] countries do not also engage in modern warfare, although they are more prone to the use of low-tech weaponry and guerrilla tactics.
With the advent of [[nuclear weapon]]s, the concept of full-scale war carries the prospect of [[global annihilation]], and as such conflicts since WWII have by definition been "low intensity" conflicts, typically in the form of [[proxy war]]s fought within local regional confines, using what are now referred to as "[[conventional weapons]]," typically combined with the use of [[asymmetric warfare]] tactics and applied use of [[intelligence]].
==Types of Modern Warfare==
===Aerial Warfare===
{{main|Aerial warfare}}
Aerial warfare is the attempt to gain dominance of the skies. This dominance is important because it can be used to wear down the enemy tactically, strategically, physically and psychologically. This means that the enemy can be greatly weakened and demoralized from the relative safety of the skies.
While every side has [[Anti-Aircraft Guns]] and [[Surface-to-air missiles]] they are limited by their location on the ground. Computers and radar is used to target and destroy the enemy aircraft. However modern air forces fight back using a variety of [[electronic countermeasures]] such as [[chaff (radar countermeasure)|chaff]], [[flares]], decoys and [[radar jamming]]. Also used are physically destructive weapons such as [[AGM-88 HARM|HARM]]. The best way is ultimately to fight fire with fire, and jet fighters are the best defence.
There are three kinds of air control: [[air parity]], [[air superiority]] and [[air supremacy]]. Air parity is the lowest and it means that you only have control of the air above friendly troop positions. Air superiority is the second highest and it means that you are in a more favorable position than the opponent. Air supremacy is the highest and it means complete and total control of the skies. A historical example of air supremacy can been seen in WWII: in 1941, Britain had only air parity over England, while Germany had air superiority over most of Western Europe. By 1944, however, the allies would have air supremacy over Western Europe. During the Vietnam War, America had only air superiority over North Vietnam as the [[Vietnam People's Army|NVA]] mounted an effective resistance despite heavy bombing. During the Gulf War and subsequent conflicts, America had air supremacy thanks to training and airplanes, both of which the enemy lacked. American tactical doctrine calls for air power to protect ground forces from airborne threats. This explains why America only uses 2 main types of [[Surface-to-Air_Missile|SAM]]: the Stinger and the Patriot missile. By contrast, armies, such as that of Russia, have many types of long, medium, and short range SAM missiles.
Logistics aircraft are strategic and tactical transports, although they can only carry so much weight. In the first [[Gulf War]] most of the Abrams tanks were sent by ship instead of plane. Equally important are tanker aircraft such as the [[KC-135]] which extend the range of combat aircraft. Special support planes like the [[A-10 Warthog]] and [[AC-130]] Spectre Gunship provide close air support for troops.
Jet fighters have one big weakness. They can only land at airfields for fuel and ammo. These airfields are natural [[choke point|chokepoints]] and can easily be targeted for destruction. Therefore they must be defended and [[AEW]] and [[AWAC]] aircraft play a vital role in this. However this means that a successful bombing campaign can wipe out an air force in the air, before it has a chance to defend itself. Countermeasures such as armored hangers and underground airfields are successful depending in what situation they are used in. Precision guided munitions can defeat these but would mainly be used by the technological western powers. Eastern powers would normally focus on quantity over quality and may try to carpet bomb.
This weakness leads to the development of [[Vertical/Short Takeoff and Landing|V/STOL]] aircraft such as the British [[Harrier]]. This allows them to rearm and refuel anywhere but at a cost of maneuverability and speed. This generally limits them to close air support missions. Since jets are very costly, most of them are multi-role like the F/A-18 which can dogfight, bomb, reconnoiter and provide close air support. [[Electronic Warfare]] is used a lot in aerial warfare, mainly in [[dogfighting]]. However bombers use EW as a penetration aid to suppress and/or destroy enemy air defences. This is usually undertaken by specialized [[SEAD]] and [[Wild Weasel]] aircraft. Such airplanes offer themselves as bait so that the enemy turns on its radars to target and destroy them. The airplane can then [[jam]] that frequency or destroy the radar using anti-radiation missiles. The [[sam site|SAM site]] then can try shooting it down. Most of the time a silent duel is held between the EW officer on the plane and the enemy one on the ground as anti-radiation missiles are held until needed. As the enemy cycles through radio frequencies to counter jamming and chaff, friendlies jam those frequencies, and so on and so forth. For more info see [[Radar jamming and deception]]
Helicopters are a very important asset and while have been around since WWII, their full potential has not been realized until the [[Vietnam War]]. Their hovering ability eliminates the need for airfields. It also enables them to provide effective close air support. Modern armies use attack helicopters with maneuver units like tanks and [[armored personnel carriers]] to provide extra firepower. They also give a commander huge tactical flexibility as they can race to any weak spot under attack and reinforce it. Transport helicopters transport troops and supplies, often behind enemy lines. This leads to a maneuver called [[vertical envelopment]]. They can also be used for covert insertion of special forces and for reconnaissance. They played an important part in the asymmetrical and guerrilla style warfare in Vietnam. There the terrain helped the enemy but helicopters overcame this limitation. Since the war was asymmetrical helicopters roamed freely without aerial opposition. Without them resupply and movement have been all but impossible.
===Asymmetric warfare===
{{main|Asymmetric warfare}}
A military situation in which two belligerents of unequal strength interact and take advantage of their respective strengths and weaknesses. This interaction often involves strategies and tactics outside the bounds of conventional warfare, often referred to as terrorism.
===Battlespace===
{{Main|Battlespace}}
[[Battlespace]] is a unified strategy to integrate and combine [[armed forces]] for the [[military]] [[Theater (warfare)|theatre of operations]], including [[Aerial warfare|air]], [[Information warfare|information]], [[Ground warfare|land]], [[Naval warfare|sea]] and [[Space warfare|space]]. It includes the environment, factors and conditions that must be understood to successfully apply combat power, protect the force, or complete the mission. This includes [[Enemy (military)|enemy]] and friendly forces; facilities; weather; terrain; and the [[electromagnetic spectrum]] within the operational areas and areas of interest.
===Biological warfare===
{{main|Biological warfare}}
Biological warfare, also known as germ warfare, is the use of any organism (bacteria, virus or other disease-causing organism) or toxin found in nature, as a weapon of war. It is meant to incapacitate or kill an adversary. It may also be defined as the employment of biological agents to produce casualties in man or animals and damage to plants or material; or defense against such employment.
===Network-centric warfare===
{{main|Network-centric warfare}}
[[Network-centric warfare]] is essentially a new [[military doctrine]] made possible by the [[Information Age]]. [[Weapons platform]]s, [[sensor]]s and [[Command and Control (Military)|command and control]] centers are being connected through high-speed communication networks. The doctrine is related to the [[Revolution in Military Affairs]] debate.
The overall network which enables this strategy in the [[Military of the United States|United States military]] is called the [[Global Information Grid]].
===Chemical warfare===
{{main|Chemical warfare}}
Chemical warfare is warfare (and associated military operations) using the toxic properties of chemical substances to kill, injure or incapacitate an enemy.
===Electronic warfare ===
{{main|Electronic warfare}}
[[Electronic warfare]] refers to mainly non-violent practices used chiefly to support other areas of warfare. The term was originally coined to encompass the interception and [[decoding]] of enemy [[radio communications]], and the communications technologies and [[cryptography]] methods used to counter such interception, as well as [[jamming]], radio stealth and other related areas. Over the latter years of the [[20th Century|twentieth century]] and early years of the [[21st Century|twenty-first century]] this has expanded to cover a wide range of areas: the use of, detection of and avoidance of detection by [[Radar]] and [[Sonar]] systems, [[hack (technology slang)|computer hacking]], [[Space warfare]] etc.
===Fourth generation warfare===
{{main|Fourth generation warfare}}
[[Fourth generation warfare]] (4GW) is a concept defined by [[William S. Lind]] and expanded by [[Thomas X. Hammes]], used to describe the [[decentralized]] nature of modern warfare. The simplest definition includes any war in which one of the major participants is not a state but rather a violent ideological network. Fourth Generation wars are characterized by a blurring of the lines between war and politics, soldier and civilian, peace and conflict, battlefield and safety. While this term is similar to terrorism and asymmetric warfare, it is much narrower. Classical insurgencies and the Indian Wars are examples of Pre-Modern War, not 4GW. Fourth generation warfare usually has the insurgency group or non-state side trying to implement their own government or reestablish an old government over the one currently running the territory. The blurring of lines between state and non-state is further complicated in a democracy by the power of the media.
===Ground warfare===
{{main|Ground warfare}}
[[Ground warfare]] involves three distinct types of combat units, [[Infantry]], [[Armoured warfare|Armor]] and [[Artillery]].
[[Infantry]] in modern times would entail [[Mechanized infantry]] and [[Airborne forces]]. Usually wielding a type of rifle or sub-machine gun, an infantryman is the basic unit of an army.
[[Armored warfare]] in modern times involves a variety of [[Armored fighting vehicle]]s for the purpose of battle and support. Tanks or other armored vehicles (such as armored personal carriers or tank destroyers) are slower, yet stronger hunks of metal. They are invulnerable to enemy machine gun fire but prone to rocket infantry, mines, and aircraft so are usually accompanied by infantry. In urban areas, because of smaller space, an armored vehicle is exposed to hidden enemy infantry but can extinguish a large area or building so is effective in its ways. In rural areas, an armored vehicle does not have to worry about hidden units though rough terrain and long-distances have always been a factor of weakness for Armored tanks and vehicles. They are also still prone to mines and artillery as well
[[Artillery]] in contemporary times, is distinguished by its large calibre, firing an [[explosive]] [[shell (projectile)|shell]] or [[rocket]], and being of such a size and weight as to require a specialized mount for firing and transport. Weapons covered by this term include "tube" artillery such as the [[howitzer]], [[cannon]], [[mortar (weapon)|mortar]], and [[field gun]] and [[rocket artillery|"rocket" artillery]]. The term "artillery" has traditionally not been used for projectiles with internal [[guidance systems]], even though some artillery units employ surface-to-surface [[missile]]s. Recent advances in terminal guidance systems for small munitions has allowed large calibre shells to be fitted with precision guidance fuses, blurring this distinction.
===Guerrilla warfare===
{{main|Guerrilla warfare}}
[[Guerrilla warfare]] is defined as fighting by groups of [[irregular military|irregular]] troops (guerrillas) within areas occupied by the enemy. When guerrillas obey the laws of conventional warfare they are entitled, if captured, to be treated as ordinary prisoners of war; however, they are often executed by their captors. The tactics of guerrilla warfare stress deception and ambush, as opposed to mass confrontation, and succeed best in an irregular, rugged, terrain and with a sympathetic populace, whom guerrillas often seek to win over or dominate by propaganda, reform, and [[terrorism]]. Guerrilla warfare has played a significant role in modern history, especially when waged by Communist liberation movements in Southeast Asia and elsewhere. Guerrilla warfare was also the primary tactic of Americans in their revolutionary war.
Guerrilla fighters gravitate toward weapons which are easily accessible, low in technology and low in cost. A typical arsenal of the modern guerrilla would include the [[AK-47]], [[Rocket propelled grenade|RPG]]s and [[Improvised explosive device]]s. The guerrilla doctrines' main disadvantage is the inability to access more advanced equipment due to economic, influence, and accessibility issues. They must rely on small unit tactics involving hit and run. This situation leads to low intensity warfare and asymmetrical warfare.
===Information warfare===
{{main|Information warfare}}
[[Information warfare]] is a kind of warfare where [[information]] and attacks on information and its system are used as a tool of [[war]]fare. Some examples of this type of warfare are electronic "sniffers" which disrupt international fund-transfer networks as well as the signals of [[television]] and [[radio]] stations. Jamming such signals can allow participants in the war to use the stations for a misinformation [[Advertising campaign|campaign]].
===Naval warfare===
{{main|Naval warfare|Modern naval tactics}}
[[Naval warfare]] takes place on the high seas (blue water navy). Usually, only large, powerful nations have competent blue water or deep water navies. Modern navies primarily use [[aircraft carriers]], [[submarines]], [[frigates]], [[cruisers]], and [[destroyers]] for combat. This provides a versatile array of attacks, capable of hitting ground targets, air targets, or other seafaring vessels. Most modern navies also have a large air support contingent, deployed from [[aircraft carriers]]. In [[World War II]], small craft ([[motor torpedo boats]] variously called PT boats, MTBs, MGBs, ''Schnellbooten'', or MAS-boats) fought near shore. This developed in the [[Vietnam War]] into riverine warfare (brown water navy), in intertidal and river areas. Irregular warfare makes this sort of combat more likely in the future.
===Nuclear warfare===
{{main|Nuclear warfare}}
[[Nuclear warfare|Nuclear war]] is a type of warfare which relies on nuclear weapons. There are actually two types of warfare in this category. In a limited nuclear war, a small number of weapons are used in a tactical exchange aimed primarily at opposing military forces. In a full-scale nuclear war, large numbers of weapons are used in an attack aimed at entire countries. This type of warfare would target both military bases and civilians.
===Psychological warfare===
{{main|Psychological warfare}}
[[Psychological warfare]] is the planned use of [[propaganda]] and other [[psychological]] actions having the primary purpose of influencing the opinions, emotions, attitudes, and behavior of hostile foreign groups in such a way as to support the achievement of national objectives.
===Propaganda===
{{main|Propaganda}}
Propaganda is a concerted set of messages aimed at influencing the opinions or behavior of large numbers of people. Instead of impartially providing information, propaganda in its most basic sense presents information in order to influence its audience. The most effective propaganda is often completely truthful, but some propaganda presents facts selectively to encourage a particular synthesis, or gives loaded messages in order to produce an emotional rather than rational response to the information presented. The desired result is a change of the cognitive narrative of the subject in the target audience.
===Space warfare===
{{main|Space warfare}}
[[Space warfare]] is warfare that occurs outside the [[Earth's atmosphere]]. The weapons would include [[Orbital weaponry]] and [[Space weapon]]s. High value [[outer space]] targets would include [[satellite]]s and [[weapon platform]]s. Notably no real weapons exist in space yet.
===Total war===
{{main|Total war}}
[[Total war]] is a 20th century term to describe a war in which countries or nations use all of their resources to destroy another organized country's or nation's ability to engage in war. The practice of total war has been in use for centuries, but it was only in the middle to late nineteenth century that total war was recognized as a separate class of warfare.
The most identifiable consequence of total war in modern times has been the inclusion of [[civilian]]s and civilian infrastructure as targets in destroying a country's ability to engage in war. The targeting of civilians developed from two distinct [[theory|theories]]. The first theory was that if enough civilians were killed, factories could not function. The second theory was that if civilians were killed, the country would be so demoralized that it would have no ability to wage further war.
==Modern wars==
[[Image:2008-03 ongoing conflicts.png|thumb|right|450px|Geographic areas where armed conflict is currently ongoing as of May 2008.]]
===Lists===
{{main|List of wars}}
* [[List of wars 1945–1989]]
* [[List of wars 1990–2002]]
* [[List of wars 2003–current]]
* [[List of ongoing conflicts|List of ongoing conflicts in the modern-day world]]
===Major modern wars===
* [[1959]] [[Vietnam War]]
* [[1966]] [[South African Border War]]
* [[1967]] [[Six-Day War]]
* [[1970]] [[1970 War of Attrition|War of Attrition]]
* [[1971]] [[1971 Indo-Pak war|Indo-Pakistani War]]
* [[1973]] [[1973 Yom Kippur War|Yom Kippur War]]
* [[1979]] [[Soviet war in Afghanistan]]
* [[1980]] [[Iran-Iraq War]]
* [[1982]] [[1982 Lebanon War|Lebanon War]]
* [[1982]] [[Falklands War]]
* [[1987]] [[First Intifada|Palestinian Intifada]]
* [[1988]] [[Nagorno-Karabakh War]]
* [[1988]] [[Somali Civil War]]
* [[1990]] [[Gulf War]]
* [[1991]] [[Yugoslav Wars]]
* [[1994]] [[Rwandan Civil War]]
* [[1994]] [[First Chechen War]]
* [[1996]] [[First Congo War]]
* [[1998]] [[Kosovo War]]
* [[1998]] [[Second Congo War]]
* [[1999]] [[Second Chechen War]]
* [[2000]] [[Al-Aqsa Intifada]]
* [[2001]] [[War in Afghanistan (2001–present)]]
* [[2003]] [[Iraq War]]
* [[2006]] [[Israel-Lebanon conflict]]
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