The Balance of Military Forces: Hearing Before the Defense Burdensharing Panel of the Committee on Armed Services, House of Representatives, One Hundredth Congress, Second Session, Hearing Held March 3, 1988U.S. Government Printing Office, 1989 - 105 pages |
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Common terms and phrases
Ag(t aircraft allies Appendix armored arms Army assessments attacker balance in Europe battle bean counting budget burden Calculus of Conventional capabilities Casey Stengel close air COLLINS CONGRESS LIBRARY CONGRESS OF CONGRESS CONGRESS THE LIBRARY conventional balance conventional forces countries defender's attrition defense spending deterrence division equivalent dynamic economic effectiveness Epstein Eugene Rostow European example factors favorable feedback Force Planning force ratio Frederick William Lanchester fundamental going Gorbachev ground force ground lethality Harold Brown IRELAND Joshua Lanchester equations Lanchester linear Lanchester Models Lanchester theory Lanchester's leadership less LIBRARY LIBRARY LIBRARY OF CONGRESS military balance NATO NATO's Navy nuclear weapons offensive Operations Research Patricia Schroeder percent Persian Gulf posture problems prosecution rate question RATHJENS Reagan reduce Richard Perle SCHROEDER share side's sortie Soviet Union square law stalemate condition strategic suggest tactical tanks things Third World threat U.S.-Soviet United Warsaw Pact Western withdrawal rate
Popular passages
Page 12 - Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty.
Page 39 - It is the function of the Trustees to make possible the conduct of scientific research, and publication, under the most favorable conditions, and to safeguard the independence of the research staff in the pursuit of their studies and in the publication of the results of such studies. It is not a part of their function to determine, control, or influence the conduct of particular investigations or the conclusions reached.
Page 12 - America cannot — and will not — conceive all the plans, design all the programs, execute all the decisions, and undertake all the defense of the free nations of the world.
Page 28 - ... reliable than the Soviet Union's. Western active-duty units generally receive more training than Warsaw Pact units, and Western training is by and large much more realistic. It draws on more combat experience and the accumulated expertise of militarily skillful friends — Israel, for example. Finally, according to the Joint Chiefs of Staff, NATO enjoys a substantial technological lead in many critical military areas. Last June, for instance, General Charles A. Gabriel, as Air Force chief of...
Page 60 - ... it is ridiculous to pretend to calculate anything. The answer to this is simple: the direct numerical comparison of the forces engaging in conflict or available in the event of war is almost universal. It is a factor always carefully reckoned with by the various military authorities; it is discussed ad nauseam in the Press. Yet such direct counting of forces is in itself a tacit acceptance of the applicability of mathematical principles, but confined to a special case. To accept without reserve...
Page 39 - President is advised by the director of the appropriate research program and weighs the views of a panel of expert outside readers who report to him in confidence on the quality of the work. Publication of a work signifies that it is deemed a competent treatment worthy of public consideration but does not imply endorsement of conclusions or recommendations. The Institution maintains its position of neutrality on issues of public policy in order to safeguard the intellectual freedom of the staff.
Page 35 - Navy deploy its aircraft carrier battle groups (CVBGs) near the so-called GIUK (Greenland-Iceland-UK) gaps, and lie in wait for the Soviets, forcing them to run a series of defensive gauntlets before engaging the carriers and Europe-bound convoys. The alternative would be to assemble a large-scale offensive naval strike force and steam north of the GIUK, north of Norway, and around the North Cape to defeat Soviet forces in their home waters. This offensive campaign is a cornerstone of the Navy's...
Page 28 - Technological advantages and differences in pilot skill underlie these disparities. It would be imprudent to assume NATO-Pact ratios at the high end of the spectrum, but it is unduly pessimistic to assume that the Pact's modest numerical edge should somehow nullify NATO's superior, and far more extensive, training and its continuing technological...
Page 39 - Its principal purposes are to aid in the development of sound public policies and to promote public understanding of issues of national importance. The Institution was founded on December 8, 1927, to merge the activities of the Institute for Government Research, founded in 1916, the Institute of Economics, founded in 1922, and the Robert Brookings Graduate School of Economics and Government, founded in 1924. The Board of Trustees is responsible for the general administration of the Institution, while...
Page 31 - ... exemplar — will be pointless. In effect, the maritime strategy represents a massive diversion of resources from the immediate defense of Western Europe into offensive surface and subsurface naval actions that are inefficient in accomplishing essential naval tasks (for example, the defense of sea-lanes) and that could prove escalatory on the generous assumption that they are feasible. Under current budgetary constraints, it is high time to abandon this risky and expensive approach. The administration's...