New Operational Dimensions

Abstract

It is tempting within the framework of the theme ‘the Atlantic Alliance: Realities and Prospects’ to discuss some new dimensions which have arisen in the fields of strategic study, such as the growth of Soviet sea power which threatens increasingly our lines of communications across the Atlantic, or the threat against the oilfields via the Indian Ocean. For me, as the planner responsible for the military security of Central Europe, neither of these threats warrants any weakening of the Alliance’s efforts to ensure the defence of what will be the enemy’s, and therefore our own, point of main effort, the Central Region. It might be tempting as well to speak about new dimensions of air operations in depth against the enemy’s follow-up forces, contributing thereby to the continuing discussion on how to afford the sophisticated weaponry needed to improve our capability for that purpose. That, however, is not so much an operational, let alone a strategic, problem, but rather one of cost or cost-effectiveness.