John N.t. Shanahan

Shock-based Operations: New Wine in an Old Jar John N.t. Shanahan

The rapid pace of technological change demands equally frenetic efforts by our military to find more effective ways to deter and defeat our potential competitors and battlefield opponents. Over the past decade or so, we have been moving at an impressive pace in our attempts to advance military doctrine and improve joint military operations. Nevertheless, for the most part our changes to warfighting doctrine have been largely evolutionary. It is time to cross a new threshold. Apart from gaining a better understanding of technology's effects on our ability to fight and win wars, we need to implement revolutionary changes in both targeting and combat assessment doctrine at the strategic, operational, and tactical levels of war. We need a warfighting doctrine that places more emphasis on the ability to overwhelm our adversaries both physically and mentally. Specifically, the objective must be to induce mental and physical paralysis in our opponents-paralysis that will inject a false orientation, prevent our adversaries from adapting to their ever- changing surroundings, and cripple their ability to react to U. S. or coalition actions. I call this a doctrine of shock-based operations." Following a more detailed investigation of this doctrine I propose a new method of battlespace assessment, itself one of the most important aspects of shock-based operations.