Year: 1995
Type: article
Abstract: : The latest techno-thriller from master of trade [Tom Clancy] portrays a United States vulnerable to an attack aimed not at its key military installations, but rather at its Wall Street economic brain. The target is information, and by manipulating data fed into vast computer network of American stock market, a foreign businessman triggers financial chaos and threatens economic ruin. As usual, Tom Clancy's work focuses on a current national security concern. Debt of Honor highlights warfare, a central feature of the Revolution in Military Affairs, or RMA, that many defense analysts and military officers associate with 1991 Persian Gulf War. Those who acknowledge that Desert Storm marked a military revolution do not, however, agree on a standard interpretation of how warfare has changed. Indeed, shade of one's uniform may color view expressed. Most concur that importance of information systems is a fundamental tenet of RMA, and that ability to control information gives a belligerent an inherent advantage over an adversary. The believers also tend to agree that technology provides means to control information, which may then render current military systems, operations, and organizations obsolete. Yet a key question remains unanswered: Will acknowledging RMA--and taking steps to exploit it--increase likelihood of victory in next conflict? From perspective of United States Air Force, answer is unclear. Indications are that an Air Force geared to perceived RMA may, in certain situations, be ill-suited to accomplish basic air power roles and missions, which could in turn hamper its ability to achieve fundamental mission of defending United States through control and exploitation of air and space.
Authors: Mark Clodfelter, John M. Fawcett
Language: English
Subfield: Aerospace Engineering
Field: Engineering
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W228020046