The Russians Doing Joint Ops Right

Posted by Paul McLeary at 8/19/2008 11:32 AM CDT
The name of the game in modern warfare is “jointness,” or joint operations that combine elements of land, air and sea power with an effective media campaign to try, at best, to sway public opinion to your side, or failing that at least get your side of the story to the public before the enemy does.

While American and NATO forces have been making huge strides in this regard in Iraq and Afghanistan, it looks like in its operations in Georgia, the Russians just might have, in some respects at least, one-upped us. An unnamed Pentagon official recently told the International Herald Tribune’s Thom Shanker that in Georgia, the Russians

“seem to have harnessed all their instruments of national power — military, diplomatic, information — in a very disciplined way… It appears this was well thought out and planned in advance, and suggests a level of coordination in the Russian government between the military and the other civilian agencies and departments that we are striving for today.”

Shanker points out that

So along with the old-school onslaught of infantry, armor and artillery, Russia mounted joint air and naval operations, appeared to launch simultaneous cyberattacks on Georgian government Web sites and had its best English speakers at the ready to make Moscow's case in television appearances.

(I’d suggest reading the entire Shanker piece. He outlines the weaknesses of Russian air assets, and the way in which American counterinsurgency training might have in some way actually hindered the Georgian response.)

But back to joint ops. Last week, during a conference call with military bloggers, I had the chance to ask Thomas Mahnken, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Policy Planning, about the National Defense Strategy 2008 document released on July 31 by the DoD—which is the first update of the Strategy since 2005—and how joint operations fit into future plans.

“You know, one of the things that the strategy talks about is the need for an expanded conception of what jointness is all about,” he said, adding that this should encompass “not only the armed services but civilian capabilities within the Defense Department, other departments and agencies, and our friends and allies. And it's really that integration of all the elements of national power and being able to bring them to bear on the security challenges we face that's an imperative.”

Obviously, this kind of thinking is critical for waging successful counterinsurgency campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan, but as the Russians have just shown us, it’s pretty effective in conventional operations, too. Mahnken agrees, saying that “it is equally applicable to other security challenges that we face now and will face in the future. It's one of the reasons why Secretary Gates has been such a vocal proponent of greater funding for, you know, the nonmilitary instruments of national security, if you will, particularly the State Department, USAID and others.”

Now, no one is suggesting that the Russians are doing anything like bringing in a USAID-type organization, but the point stands.