Then, there was a change in technology and doctrine. 4 This type of warfare was often a stalemate that had high casualty rates. Then a change in technology, namely machine guns, sent armies into the trenches.Īccording to Nicholas Murray, author of The Rocky Road to the Great War, “trench warfare proliferated when a revolution in firepower was not matched by similar advances in mobility, resulting in a grueling form of warfare in which the defender held the advantage.” 3 Trench warfare became known as the symbol of the futility of war. When one side was decidedly smaller or less capable of fighting in this traditional manner, guerrilla warfare was a balancing maneuver with tactics that included ambushes, sabotage, and raids. One army would line up against another army and draw swords, spears, or muskets and fight until one army had won. This brief evolution of warfare will cover the main doctrines used throughout time and the technological developments that sparked changes in how we fight. When new technology is introduced to the battlefield, one must adopt the scheme of maneuver and update the tactics, techniques, and procedures and associated plans and orders. The main impetus for change in how a military conducts warfare is based largely on changes in technology and the scheme of maneuver. Additionally, the article provides a framework as a rudimentary way to understand basic MDO concepts that can be utilized to create offensive and defensive MDO objectives at the tactical and operational levels of war. What makes MDO different than fighting as a Joint force? This article will take a quick look at how warfare has evolved and why we have headed toward the MDO doctrine. Some have argued that the DOD has been doing MDO all along and that this is just a new Pentagon buzzword meant to elicit additional funding. We also must realize that the battlefield has extended back to the home front, and this presents new challenges that must be faced with new solutions. As Lt Gen Norman Seip, retired, the Air Force senior mentor for Multi-Domain Command and Control, stated, “the goal of MDO operations is to create complex, simultaneous dilemmas at once for the enemy.” 2 To do this, we must realize how our current operational environment has changed with the rise of space and cyber technologies and how that has changed our access to information and the participants we face. The National Defense Strategy states that to “compete in this complex and contested security environment, the US must be prepared to operate across a full spectrum of conflict, across multiple domains at once.” 1 The various branches of the military have taken this guidance and have started to implement various forms of MDO integration into their services. In recent years, the Department of Defense (DOD) has turned its attention to the growing need for MDO. AF Multi-Domain Operations (MDO) Implementation Plan 2018 The Air Force, in conjunction with fellow joint warfighters, must adapt our thinking and culture to be able to seamlessly shift between domains, components and regions to create high velocity, precision warfighting effects to satisfy the Joint Force Commander's mission needs.
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