The Pentagon has identified Kaliningrad as one of its priority goals
US forces continue to develop the concept of the so-called multi-domain war. The strategy presented in the 2016 year involves the accurate and coordinated work of all the armed forces. The objects of application of the new tactics may be territories and points of greatest concern to the Pentagon.
- said Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Harrigan, commander of the US Air Force in Europe, at the Air, Space & Cyber (ASC) conference of the Air Force Association.
Harrigan notes that Kaliningrad is in the spotlight of the United States as an enclave from which Moscow could attack neighboring countries. He argues that if Russia's "aggression" from this strategically located point requires a US response, "it will be multi-domain, timely and effective."
The publication considers the Russian missile defense and air defense, as well as missile strike units located in the Kaliningrad region, as forces capable of threatening a significant part of NATO, which forces the U.S. Air Force, in particular, to study various ways of protecting its bases and air forces.
In turn, Russian launchers are also within reach of NATO warships in the Baltic Sea and NATO artillery installations onshore: and, potentially, are within reach and tanks NATO.
Attack on Kaliningrad will be multi-domain
The general did not provide details of a possible attack plan. However, it is clear that the mission, previously considered as a purely air operation, relies on mixed and coordinated actions of various military branches.
At the same time, the United States is not yet ready for a multi-domain war. It is noted that the previous place of work of Harrigan was the Central Command of the Air Force, where he acted as commander aviation in the Middle East: it was there that the Pentagon first tried to coordinate the actions of its disparate units according to the canon of multi-domain operations.
The problem is that one such operation takes days, weeks, or even months of painstaking preparation, since it is necessary to bring together different departments, doctrines and legal bodies. The military notes that this is too slow a pace for a big war against such an adversary as Russia or China. The Pentagon is now considering ways to remedy this situation, especially in the context of NATO.
Information