National character and military
The United States is a state that was created by the descendants of the freedom-loving and enterprising European pilgrims who brought to America the peculiarities of the national character of the Anglo-Saxons and the Romance peoples and formed their social consciousness. A national character is a combination of the main distinctive features of the character (mental properties) of the majority of citizens of a state, which are manifested in the peculiarities of behavior and in relation to the surrounding reality and affect all actions of a given state. The public consciousness of people in the state reflects the national character and is currently the fusion of ideas, beliefs and attitudes of the majority of citizens of the country (regarding common desires and aspirations, lifestyle and behavior, family and morality, science and prejudice, customs and prejudices, religion and security of their home and their state, regarding their place in society and the place of their state in the world).
COMMUNITY OF INDIVIDUALITY
National character and public consciousness are involved in shaping the will of the nation, defining the goals that the state sets for itself, and the means it uses to achieve these goals.
Knowledge of the main features of the American national character and the peculiarities of the public consciousness of the United States can help to understand the way and direction of thinking in this country and to anticipate possible actions in the field of building and using the armed forces of this country to achieve national goals. Americans themselves have about a dozen "main features of the national character of the United States." Of course, they are all positive. They include patriotism, optimism, pragmatism, energy, faith in their abilities, confidence in their ability to transform the world, a sense of the new. Russian people were struck by such traits of US citizens as lack of laxity, hope "perhaps I suppose," high level of organization and work culture of Americans; thoroughness of theoretical study of any practical issues; consistency in the outlines and implementation of various plans and programs, the ability to think through, anticipate and solve all major issues and all minor details in long-term planning; strict adherence to the “cost – effectiveness” criterion; skill and passion to make money. Germans were surprised by such a feature of Americans as a scientific approach to everything, from football to war.
The basis of social consciousness in military affairs is the following. The Americans believe that the Divine Providence itself defined an exceptional fate for the United States - always go ahead of all countries and lead the whole world along the path they had laid (in other words, the highest power authorized the United States to be the world hegemon and rise above all). As a means to achieve this goal and in the process of securing peace for the United States, Americans consider force in all its forms and the threat of its use (hence the thesis of reliance on force). The guarantee of avoiding war and victory in the war in the United States considers maintaining a qualitative and quantitative advantage in military equipment over any likely adversary (that is, relying on military-technical superiority). They consider the most reliable way to keep a potential enemy from attacking the United States and acting against their interests as deterring the enemy with intimidation based on the strength and undeniable military superiority of the United States. Imposing on the probable opponent his own terms on the use of force, entry into battle, and rules of warfare provides the United States with a choice weapons, place and time of its application. Americans consider coalition war to be the most economical way to fight a probable adversary. It is easier to prevent war in the bud than to wage it. The profit of victory must be significantly higher than the cost of achieving it. The war should be fought away from the United States, on the territory and in the air and sea of the enemy. It should be short, anemic (for Americans) and only victorious, demonstrating the power of the United States.
Let us dwell on several features of the American character, directly or indirectly affecting the construction and use of the armed forces (AF).
DEMOCRATS OWN PRIDE
Patriotism. North Americans are proud to have created a democratic state first in the modern world, proclaiming equality of citizens, rejection of class privileges in their “Declaration of Independence” in 1776, and approving freedom of personality, speech, assembly and religion in 1791 in the “Bill of Rights” . They believe in the superiority of their social system and in the ability of the United States to be a leader in the restructuring of the world, making a bet on the indisputable military power of the country.
Productivity American efficiency is faith in your abilities, wit, enterprise, hard work, assertiveness in work, thoroughness, confidence in the final desired result of the work (the slogan "You can - do it") of those who made their country the richest, strongest and most attractive know how to keep this word and trust the word compatriots. “American efficiency,” Stalin said in the year 1924, “is an indomitable force that does not know and does not recognize obstacles, which erodes all business and all obstacles with its businesslike persistence ...”
And if the Americans managed to win the Cold War against the USSR, whose very existence as an “evil empire” frightened the United States, then there is no need to doubt that this country will build an almost global or global missile defense system (missile defense) against ballistic missiles ( BR). The Americans intended this “umbrella” to cover their “glass house” and the houses of their allies and friends from the “stones” of their opponents. The creation of such a global missile defense system from the BR will be the first step towards the fulfillment of the task of constructing an anti-space defense (PKO) of the planet Earth from asteroid-comet hazard (ASD). A further increase in the level of development of science and technology in the United States (based on the progress achieved in missile defense development) will enable them, in the future, independently or in cooperation with other countries, to begin solving the tasks of OTP from AKO and to do so before the time comes a real threat to humanity.
As for ensuring national security against "earthly" threats, there exists the logic of winning military-technical superiority over potential opponents. To know the capabilities and intentions of the enemy and to carry out target designation, intelligence is needed. In order to make the most correct decisions based on the awareness of the situation and at the same time to preempt the enemy in speed of both decision making and organization of their implementation, a modern information and control system is necessary. To get to selected objects, platforms are required - carriers of delivery vehicles and delivery vehicles (with means of kinetic and non-kinetic destruction). In order to destroy or neutralize enemy objects with the least losses and with the lowest level of expenditure of their material assets as quickly as possible, the weapon must be high-precision (WTO) with the level of its power required to perform tasks.
Improving all these four components with maximum automation and robotization is the business of the US scientific, technical, and military-industrial complex. There is also the logic of the use of military force, based on the basic principles of warfare. These are unity of purpose in the form of solving major tasks, unity of command, simplicity of plans for waging war, massing power, saving forces, solving problems of war with offensive actions, maneuver, surprise, ensuring security, maintaining high morale. To them, the Americans added consistency — simultaneous and mutually complementary joint actions of all types and genera of the Armed Forces, providing not addition, but multiplication of forces — the so-called synergy.
In accordance with the spirit of the times, the business approach to the use of military force now also consists in blinding, stunning, decapitating and disarming the enemy in any operations. Spread forces in the areas to inflict quick, advanced and coordinated in place, time and purpose strikes against the enemy’s centers of gravity to break his ability and will to resist by achieving maximum impact with the smallest scale of use of weapons with the most advantageous choice of targets. But, as President Ronald Reagan quoted the Chinese classic, “to win a hundred victories in a hundred battles is not the height of art. The top of the art is to subdue the enemy without a fight. ”
MONEY ACCOUNT LOVE
Pragmatism (in the sense of prudence) is both the desire of Americans always and in everything to get real benefits, advantages, profits, and the desire to reduce forced costs. They do not want a repetition of Pearl Harbor and the September 2001 events of the year. They do not want war on their territory. They do not want to be cannon fodder in the overseas wars. Therefore, the prevention of undesirable wars is just as important as winning a victory in advance of wars that are beneficial to them. Moreover, the cost of preventing a war on one’s own territory by intimidation is significantly lower than the total cost of such a war.
Calculation is a strong quality and legislator. The committees and subcommittees of both chambers of Congress discuss in detail the draft annually submitted by the Ministry of Defense of the military budget and cost submissions submitted by the Armed Forces of the Air Force up to one person, up to one vehicle unit, up to one flight / running hour. Congress cuts off attempts to push through the new models, when the resources of the well-established existing military equipment are not developed, or when the costs of these new models go beyond the boundaries of the established levels of their excess. Americans rely on the number, range, accuracy, speed of weapons.
According to the calculations of the 90s and the experience of the first years of the new century, to defeat a country with a population of 10–25 million people, it is necessary to destroy or neutralize 15–20 thousand targets. If in the war against Iraq in 1991 this required the use of 226 thousand bombs and missiles (of which 7% are high-precision), then in 2003 this number was reduced to 29 thousand (of which 68% are high-precision). It is noteworthy that in the 2003 war against Iraq, an average of one and a half ammunition in the form of an air bomb was spent to destroy or neutralize one target (and there were about 20 thousand of them), aviation or ship missiles with a total mass of 750 kg (excluding the consumption of artillery shells by ground forces and aircraft).
By the criterion of “cost-effectiveness” it is more profitable to purchase large quantities of military equipment. Therefore, Americans are building large series of platforms - carriers of high-precision weapons: over 2400 F-35 fighter jets, around 500 F / A-18E / F fighter-attack aircraft, no less than 70 Berck-class missile destroyers, up to 30 multi-purpose nuclear-powered submarines of the "Virginia" type ". The same applies to guided bombs (UAB), guided missiles (SD), cruise missiles, air and sea-based (ALCM and SLCM). The series of laser-assisted or satellite-guided UABs is in the hundreds of thousands (by the year 2013, 225, thousand JDAM UABs with satellite guidance system were produced). Depending on their mission and distance, thousands of missiles (for 2020, the US Navy will receive a 9,000 Tomahawk SLCM), tens of thousands of missiles (Maverick), hundreds of thousands of missiles (SD APKWS ). The relatively low cost of a guided bombs (several tens of thousands of dollars for turning a conventional unguided bomb into a managed planner), combined with the low cost of one flight hour of a manned aircraft (less than 10 thousand dollars) or unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) makes this weapon combination and platforms most attractive to taxpayers.
A consistent and targeted saturation of various types of conventional high-precision weapons (autonomous and remote control, subsonic and supersonic, aviation and ship) of its range of use (5 – 2500 km now with the possibility of increasing the range from 2500 to 3700 – 4600 km and more) is carried out. The US Armed Forces have always sought to increase the range of high-precision weapons (the WTO provides target destruction with a single ammunition with a probability of 50% or better) to 1000 – 2500 km and the deployment of such long-range weapons on as many ships and airplanes as possible. relics on any object on land, wherever it is. It is known that 370 and 925% of the world's population live respectively at a distance from the sea in 75 and 95 km. And the sea is the possibility of maneuver and access to influence the enemy. Already in the first decade of our century, the carrier-based aviation of each of the 10 – 11 US aircraft carriers was capable of striking daily up to 1080 targets at a distance of up to 370 km, and for 125 – 140 cruisers, destroyers and multi-purpose nuclear submarines there was 1500 – 4000 KMM KMM XRNM XRMM KPM. –1500 km. Air Force bombers had a limited supply of ALCMs with a range of up to 2500 km (there are now less than 1500 AGM-200C), and fighter aircraft did not have such missiles at all. But the Air Force (and later, possibly, the Navy fighter-attack aircraft) is coming into service with the bomber and fighter aircraft of the Air Force - AGM-86: 158 missiles with 2400 km range and 370 2013 missiles with 2500 km range from the year. Armament of fighter aircraft with this rocket dramatically increases its ability to deliver deep strikes without entering the enemy’s air defense system. The accuracy of the guided weapon (with a QUO in 900 – 1 m) is already quite high. As regards the entry into service of supersonic and hypersonic KRs with a range over 10 – 900 km and hypersonic guided artillery shells with a range of up to 3700 km for ground and sea targets, this is only a matter of time.
American troops can land anywhere in the worldINNOVATION NOT IN WORD, AND IN DEEDS
The innovation of the American nation is manifested in the continuous search for new ideas, in constant readiness for experimentation, in the speed of translating ideas into reality. Americans are proud of the fact that leadership in building ships, aircraft, computers, in mastering nuclear and thermonuclear energy, in introducing satellite communications and navigation, in landing the first people on the moon, in inventing the Internet and in many other things belongs to them, and they are sure that and will continue to implement landmark discoveries and inventions. Americans are able to quickly implement not only their own, but also other people's ideas, developing them and complementing them with scale.
The excision of the brain of the German nation after the Second World War, expressed in the transfer of thousands of scientists and designers to the United States, capturing over a million inventions like trophies and over 340 thousand patents, allowed the United States to outperform its competitors in all areas of science and technology. German ideas and developments on ICBMs and BRs of a shorter range, on a submarine with a nuclear power plant and with ballistic missiles, on rocket and jet engines, on guided weapons were used in full. And now, for example, when preparing for the creation of a new ICBM, which should be in service with 2025 to 2075 a year, Americans are studying and, if necessary, will take over the experience of operating ground-based ICBMs in the USSR / RF (on mobile ground and railway launchers) and tunnel-based in the PRC.
The United States is ahead of other countries in creating instant weapons (EMI weapons, microwave weapons, laser weapons, computer anti-computers), remote-controlled and robotic weapons, combat space platforms (recall the prototype X-37B fighter interceptor inspector). The Americans were the first to realize that in the urbanized world by more than 50%, cities became the main place of application of military force, and prepared for combat operations in human settlements in theory and in practice. The "humanization" of hostilities in cities led, for example, to the creation of both non-lethal means of combat and ammunition of "focused lethality" and "reducing collateral damage."
The “revolution in military affairs” that began in the USA at the end of the twentieth century had one of its achievements the creation of unmanned aircraft, which are already crowding manned aircraft in all types of aircraft. Soon, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) will be in every platoon of ground forces, on every Navy ship. By 2020, the Americans planned to launch the BAMS system from 68 long-range UAVs RQ-8, which will conduct continuous aerial reconnaissance in the ocean and sea areas (with one or more UAVs simultaneously in each area at a distance of 3700 km from the bases of departure).
For the first time in the world, the Americans created the Joint Command of Special Operations Forces (OC SSO), sharply increasing the number of special forces in the Armed Forces and organizing a systematic retraining of its personnel and special forces of allied and friendly countries at the newly established OC SSO University. Events in Libya and Syria showed the correctness of this foresight.
In the USA, military science quickly responds to changes in the military-political situation and promptly dictates changes in the military-technical sphere. The strategy of “regional defense” of George W. Bush was replaced by the strategy of “preemptive actions” of George W. Bush. The concept of "air-land battle" 1980-s gave way to the concept of "joint air-sea battle" 2010-s. The concepts of “global strike” and “joint operational access” are designed to ensure “knocking out the door” on the theater and the freedom to use the military power of the United States on theater, both by forces introduced there and by forces from outside. Evidence of American innovation in the art of war and in military technology is waging war with a little blood of US citizens. The irretrievable losses in the US colonial wars against the DPRK and Vietnam were estimated at tens of thousands, and against Iraq and Afghanistan - by only a few thousand American servicemen. It is characteristic that during the conduct of military operations in Afghanistan, the losses of those killed in battle by the US Armed Forces in comparable time were an order of magnitude less than that of the USSR Armed Forces.
SYSTEM AND MOBILITY
Simplicity (in the sense of convenience and consistency). This American feature of common sense is manifested in clothing, in food, in relations with each other, in the orderliness of structures, in rationality of decisions and in the organization of their implementation. In the US Armed Forces, there is a simple and harmonious procedure for designating materiel and documents. For example, a single aircraft designation system is used. If we meet the designation B-2A, then we know that this is a bomber (B) of the second model (2) of the first modification (A). Similarly, we know that the F-35C is a fighter (F), the C-17 is a transport plane (C), and the KS-135 is a tanker (K) based on a transport plane. There is an order of designation of documents in the Ministry of Defense. An interesting system of designation (numbering) of operational connections and associations. A system of permanent and temporary military ranks operating in the Armed Forces is convenient. Permanent ranks (eight) are assigned to officers in accordance with the performance appraisal and seniority in the previous rank, vacancies, and in the order of a strict queue. Temporary titles (their 11) are assigned simultaneously with the appointment to posts that must be replaced, as a rule, by officers in a higher rank than their permanent title. And this contributes to the speed of promotion of promising officers and the establishment of their authority without compromising subordination. Dwight Eisenhower, who had the permanent rank of captain in 1918, was temporarily reduced to two ranks (from lieutenant colonel to captain), and in 1936 – 1944 he passed through seven temporary ranks (from lieutenant colonel to army general), ending military service with the highest permanent rank of major general.
The restlessness (mobility) of Americans is well known to everyone. It is the most “motorized” nation in the world with hundreds of millions of cars and motorcycles, millions of watercrafts, with over half a million over the number of aircraft meeting the needs and ambitions of its inhabitants. The Americans are closely in the US, they have entangled the whole world with the tentacles of their economy, making it the sphere of their global life interests. To protect these interests, they created such military power, about which they themselves say: “There is no power in the world equal to us!”
The country's aircraft fleet has as many aircraft as the five leading aviation countries of the world; Aviators' motto “Global Power - Global Reach”. The air force is ready for a "global strike" and a "fast global strike."
Navy countries have on surface ships such a number of rocket launchers, which the surface ships 20 do not have the strongest fleets in the world. Sailors are guided by the concept of "strike from the sea" and "cooperative power strategy in the twenty-first century" with its ideas of "global naval presence", "global distribution of naval power", "global reach."
POWER CONCENTRATION
The inherent mobility of Americans is most clearly expressed in the capabilities of aviation and fleet. In aviation, the introduction of a constantly operating system for refueling airplanes with airborne fuel by “flying tankers” - refueling aircraft (by means of meeting at a designated place, escorting in flight, round-the-clock waiting in certain areas) has led to an increase in the duration of flights and the range of non-stop flights of combat and transport aircraft expanding the combat range of not only bomber, but also fighter and attack aircraft. The United States has created such a fleet of tanker aircraft, which is 2–2,5 times larger than the fleet of similar aircraft in all countries of the world. The Air Force is based on approximately 450 KS-135 and KS-10 tankers. In the Marine Corps, there are about fifty transport and refueling aircraft KS-130. In the Navy, F / A-18E / F attack fighters have the ability to quickly turn into tankers (and vice versa). This fleet of tanker aircraft provides, if necessary, rapid transoceanic transfer of hundreds and thousands of combat aircraft from the continental United States to the advanced regions of Asia and Europe. For example, a non-stop flight from the USA to Europe or the Middle East of one fighter squadron with several refueling in the air takes 10-14 hours. During the Cold War, across the Atlantic to Europe, it was planned, if necessary, to transfer 60 squadrons of tactical aircraft in the first 10 days.
Refueling in the air allows the enemy to penetrate deeper into the airspace and act there longer. This was demonstrated by the practice of striking bomber, fighter and assault aircraft of the United States from airfields in the countries of the Persian Gulf and from aircraft carriers in the Arabian Sea at targets in Afghanistan.
Equally mobile and carrier strike groups (AUG) of the US Navy. During the Cold War, they could make the transition from the bases of the mainland to Kamchatka and the Norwegian Sea in a week. Each AUG, consisting of one aircraft carrier, several missile cruisers and destroyers, and having ammunition for hitting several thousand targets, makes a transition to a given area and can maneuver around combat use at a speed of about 900 km per day.
The mobility of the ground forces (SV) and marines (MP) guarantee the ability of military transport aviation to transfer personnel and part of the SV, MP and Air Force equipment from the United States to advanced areas at a rate of 20 – 40 million ton-kilometers per day. As you can see, mobility is the key to maneuver, massing of forces and seizing the initiative.
Concluding the conversation about businesslike and prudent, systematic and innovative North Americans, we should not forget about their balanced and realistic approach to assessing the situation that will develop in the next 10 – 30 years. It is unlikely that the national establishment would allow itself to keep the country’s clearly excessive military power without understanding that internal difficulties, natural changes, expanding globalism, toughening competition, the assertion of multipolarity in the world foreshadow the struggle for survival for the United States.
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