Missile troops are a concept that comes from the Chinese Military.
These troops as part of the military would play a completely new and
defensive role in protecting our boarders and our interests abroad. So
let's discuss what they are and how it works.
Goals: Missile troops have a few primary goals.
The first is active defense for both air, land and sea (plus space in the
not so distant future). So their targets will be enemy satellites,
aircraft, ships, missile and stationary or moving land based targets. In being
able to strike these targets, they in their second goal must be able to do so
as far away as possible (as distance equals safety for them and those they
protect). Finally, as these troops are primarily defensive with some offensive
capability, their final goal is to control access to certain areas thus
corralling enemy action to specific areas and denying access to others.
How it works: This new arm, or additional
capability to a branch of service will integrate capabilities from all the
branches of the armed forces and their infrastructure optimized primarily for
stationary long term deployments. In this way the primary medium for
action will be forward deployed land bases insulated from attack by being
underground. Control stations will connect to missile silos via
fiber-optic cables (which prevents the enemy jamming the communication signals)
which are equipped with rotating magazines to shoot various types of missiles
to allow variety in meeting the various threats they may have to defeat. These
troops may also be equipped with energy weapons to allow for unlimited ammo
against their targets that are within line of sight.
In addition, mobile land based systems may
be created to further defense and allow for the protection of military bases abroad.
Naval versions of this system will be given to Cruisers or Destroyers to
act as the defenders of the fleet with the only disadvantages to these more
mobile systems being limited ammunition and power consumption.
Obstacles: The main obstacle is the Intermediate Range Nuclear Force
Treaty between the United States and Russia which limits the range of short
range to medium range missiles by prohibiting missiles with any range between
500 and 5500 kilometers. This treaty would have to be abolished to accommodate
this system to make it effective. Another obstacle is the Army's
organization. It consists of three primary groups, maneuver, strike and
supply. This new organization takes capabilities from maneuver and a lot
from the strike (artillery) portions of the Army which will cause resistance by
these groups. Other branches like the Air-force and Navy may also protest
as portions of their capabilities are taken to support the creation and
successful deployment of this new form of soldier. Outside of these
institutional blockages, this must all be budgeted for by Congress.
Solutions to the Problems: I hypothesis that the treaty can be
easily revoked by Russia if the United States asked. They have their own
strategic interests in revoking the treaty and it can be altered to simply
restrict nuclear warheads of that range rather than all missiles in general.
As to the institutional blockages by the
other members of the military. Most of the commands will be integrated
into the new structure, but rather than create a brand new group (in my
opinion), the Army's strike portion which governs the use of artillery can
integrate these new capabilities into themselves. By doing so, the
overarching members of the Army will overrule the maneuver portion, and thus
lessen the blockage by one of the most important groups in the defense of our
nation. In effect, all defensive and offensive land based systems will be
integrated into the strike component of the army which will include specialized
infantry equipped with specialized indirect munitions all the way through
intercontinental ballistic missiles.
To take care of the Navy and Air-Force, (I
believe) they each should get their own role in this new system. The Navy
will act as sea going versions of this system to defend bases and fleet
operations (though they already have this capability there is a chance it will
expand further to include newer more powerful systems). In the case of
the Air-Force, they (if developed) will have satellite based versions of this
system and also if feasible air based versions of this defensive system as
well. As this entire concept is supposed to work with area denial
technologies like mine-warfare, fighters to intercept enemy air craft and
missiles, subs and cyber warfare the Navy and Air-Force will gain or reorganize
existing capabilities to use these functions as part of their support of this
new group of soldiers.
Conclusion: This new form of defensive system
which obviously integrates many forms of new missile technology, newer energy
weapons and (if my opinion holds) older and proven classic artillery with
technological enhancements will streamline offensive and defensive options for
the military. It will streamline costs and logistics as a whole while
improving the defense of the nation. China has already created, adapted
and deployed this new form of soldier. So I ask, if this truly is a good
idea with respect to national defense and cost savings, why are we not doing
this too?
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