Non-kinetics are being plugged into combat operations. This will help achieve the Black Box of Effects that I've long wanted.
A new “non-kinetic effects cell” has helped push cyber operations to the forefront of specialized U.S. military missions such as the capture of Venezuela's leader in the capital of Caracas, a top official told lawmakers Wednesday.
The cell is “designed to integrate, coordinate and synchronize all of our non-kinetics into the planning, and then, of course, the execution of any operation globally,” Joint Staff Deputy Director for Global Operations Brig. Gen. R. Ryan Messer told the Senate Armed Services Committee’s cybersecurity panel.
Non-kinetic effects are military actions—think cyber operations, electronic warfare and influence campaigns—that influence or disrupt an adversary’s systems without using physical force or causing direct destruction. The operation that apprehended Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro included cyber effects that targeted radar, internet, and the city’s power grid, causing a temporary blackout.
This was integrated into the special forces mission in the mission into Caracas.
This author wonders if air plus cyber is a new strategic model. No. We needed boots on the ground in that special forces mission in Venezuela. We do not have Victory Through Air Power+ now.
In time this capability could be expanded to all conventional forces with a Black Box of Effects that determines what type of kinetic (like this future Army artillery system) or non-kinetic effect will best support the unit in contact calling for help in a combined arms fight.
And if these authors who may also have read Hammer's Slammers get their way for a Black Box of Effects integrated fires complex, air defense assets would be part of it.
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NOTE: I made the image with Bing.
