Lectures of Opportunity: "No Fly Zone? Assessing USAF Options for Countering China’s A2AD Capabilities"

No Fly Zone? Assessing USAF Options for Countering China’s A2AD Capabilities

For many years China has been building anti-access / area denial (A2AD) forces to undermineU.S. power projection capabilities into Maritime East Asia (MEA). The United States hasresponded by developing new operational concepts and weapons, designed to permit U.S. forcesto operate effectively in the region without excessive exposure to Chinese attacks. Where doesthis competition stand? This paper focuses on one of the core pillars of U.S. power projection —land-based theater air power — and asks: are the USAF’s efforts to reduce vulnerability throughdispersion, maneuver, missile defenses, base hardening, counter-ISR, and other steps likely tosucceed? We create a new, open-source, transparent model that allows the user to vary U.S.deployment strategies, operational concepts, and active and passive defenses, to explore theability of land-based air power to contribute to key US missions in MEA. The results haveimplications for both wartime outcomes and peacetime U.S. alliance strategy.

About this Lecture

Lectures of Opportunity offers U.S. Naval War College (NWC) students, faculty, and staff an opportunity to learn more about national and international socio-political subjects that may be of relevance to the NWC community.