To project force globally and implement policy from the Department of Defense, the U.S. Army’s maneuverable force is based around Brigade Combat Teams (BCT) consisting of infantry, armor, artillery and aviation units. These BCTs are staffed by around 4,500 soldiers that are tasked as infantry, Stryker, or armor based BCTs. There are around 32 BCTs today. Since World War II, U.S. divisions and their BCT equivalents were assigned Air Defense Artillery (ADA) batteries to supplement and protect their maneuvering forces from air threats. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the U.S. Army had around 16 Air Defense Battalions, one for each U.S. division, enabling air defense capabilities to defend maneuvering forces within the division. Stationed in Europe with NATO, these divisions-consisting of Air Defense Battalions-were purposed to deter and win conventional engagements against Soviet Union forces, acting as a pillar of U.S. deterrence against Soviet aggression and assuring our NATO allies; collectively helping with other strategic tools implemented by the U.S. to end and win the Cold War.
In 2003, with the costs of two major wars in Iraq and Afghanistan pressing the Army’s budget, along with air supremacy secured in these theaters, a major decision was made by the Department of Defense and the U.S. Army to eliminate ADA units from U.S. divisions, decommissioning 14 Air Defense battalions from the U.S. Army while assigning seven to the National Guard. The seven National Guard SHORAD (Short-Range Area Defense) battalions rotate 24/7 for deployment in the National Capital Region-using their Avenger systems as well as NASAMS (National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System) acquired from Norway. In addition, the NG SHORAD battalion are now deploying annually to engage in joint exercises with NATO allies in Europe. The two remaining U.S. Army ADA SHORAD battalions were repurposed as C-RAM (Counter Rocket and Mortar) units for point defense of forward operating bases in Afghanistan and Iraq. Only one U.S. Avenger battery from one of the SHORAD battalions remains active in Korea today deployed along the DMZ (Demilitarized Zone) to counter UAS (Unmanned Aerial Systems) flown by North Korea. The SHORAD system is based on Sentinel radars and Avenger mobile launch platforms that are equipped with stinger interceptors-using 1970s technology-and are becoming obsolete and unable to counter today’s aerial threats.
Today, an air defense capability gap has developed, and the U.S. Army’s BCTs are no longer able to properly defending themselves against aerial threats during maneuvers. This gap coincides with the reemergence and modernization of Russian military forces, which have invested significantly in air breathing capabilities. Russia has modernized its armed forces, employing new doctrine and advanced technology-including innovative use of cruise missiles and UAS-to establish an A2/AD (Anti-Access/Area Denial) zone in the Baltics and along the eastern border of the Balkans. Clearly demonstrated in combat in Ukraine in 2014, Russian military forces have deployed advanced and sophisticated UAS for surveillance and target acquisition for artillery units and conventional ground forces in their success of taking Ukraine. These Russian unmanned aerial drones have a proven ability in combat to identify targets and facilitate artillery and rocket barrages on opposing forces with a high degree of success on the battlefield. Today, U.S. Army and NATO maneuvering ground forces are vulnerable as a fighting force, and challenged to deter and win because they cannot counter and defend their units from swarms of Russian aerial drones integrated with Russian Fires.
The next Secretary of Defense and the next U.S. President will have to address this widening gap by adding additional force structure to the U.S. Army Air Defense Artillery branch, resourcing a near-term solution and investing in a long-term solution.
The very best technical solution to the gap is the rapid development and deployment of a mobile Electronic Attack (link to the DoD’s Electronic Warfare policy) that jams, redirects and nullifies swarms of drones with unlimited capability of propagating electronic beams produced by a transmitter and receiver that it is not limited by capacity of air breathing drone threats. For any remaining targets not neutralized by Electronic Attack, a variety of existing NATO SHORAD systems can be utilized in the short term along with existing overhead and land based sensors.
In the long term, light-weight, solid-state directed energy lasers on mobile vehicles and UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) should be invested in. Once these platforms have the increased power and reduced weight necessary to be effective on the battlefield, they can be used as a second and parallel layer defend against numerous aerial threats, including Russian UAS.
Adding to the UAS threat is Russia’s advanced cruise missile capability, which puts at risk European Divisional Commands, major logistical hubs, air power projection bases and command and control centers. In late-2015 and mid-2016, the Russian military combat-tested its modernized cruise missiles, launching numerous long-range salvos-consisting of tens of missiles each-against targets throughout Syria. Russian cruise missiles were launched from aircraft and submarines in and above the Mediterranean Sea and from surface vessels deployed in the Caspian Sea. In certain instances, the cruise missiles executed maneuvers while traveling over 1,000 km (approx. 620 mi) to reach their targets.
The very best as well as most proven integrated air and missile defense platform in the world today is the United States Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense destroyer. This sea based mobile platform has been perfected to defeat in multiple layers any and all air breathing and space threats 360 for the defense of the U.S. Aircraft Carrier Battle Group and itself. This capability has its own detection and firing control sensors as well as baseline 9 links through NIFC-CA (Naval Integrated Fire Control-Counter Air) to other U.S. Naval assets in the region to force multiply its capability in both sensors and interceptors. The Aegis platform can intercept in Space with its SM-3 (Standard Missile-3) interceptors, in Atmosphere against maneuvering missiles and at exceptional long distances (link to recent SM-6 test ) with its SM-6 (Standard Missile-6) interceptors, in lower atmosphere with its SM-2 (Standard Missile-2) interceptors and Sea Sparrows, short range perimeter defense of the ship with its CIWS (Close-In Weapon System) which the U.S. Army uses on land in its C-RAM and Aegis has a Solid State Directed Energy weapon deployed today on this sea based platform.
For an immediate short term solution consideration, operating U.S. Aegis BMD ships in the Baltic Sea with integrated air and missile defense capability linking them into the existing EPAA (European Phased Adaptive Approach) with two Aegis Ashore Sites in Poland (2018) and Romania and with the four current U.S. Aegis BMD Ships in the Med, there is inherent capability to engage and launch on remote sensors and interceptors for both air breathing and space missile threats to defend regions of Europe being contested today by Russian A2/AD deployed capability. Enabling the Aegis Ashore land sites in Romania and Poland to have air defense capability, duplicating the same system on the U.S. Aegis ships, provides NATO a surge of A2/AD capability in Poland, the Baltic States and Romania.
It is of clear national security interest of the United States to defend the U.S. Army’s Combat Brigade Teams from air breathing threats. It is of clear collective NATO security interest to defend its air space from the modernization of the Russian armed forces.
This week in Washington D.C. The United States Army is holding its annual conference AUSA (Association of the United States Army) and solutions to closing the air defense gap and bringing the ADA branch back into the maneuvering Army forces will be at the forefront of the Army community. Hooah! Fill the Gap!
