U.S., U.K. Struggle With Force Balance for “Hybrid War”

Reaper MQ-9

From War Is Boring:

The American and British militaries tend to fight wars together, as in Iraq and Afghanistan. That means both organizations struggle with the same problems — and usually propose the same answers. The U.S. and the U.K. are both trying to balance today’s, surprisingly lethal, counter-insurgency fights with the distant prospect of major, state-on-state warfare, all in a context of rising costs and shrinking budgets.

In the U.S., Secretary of Defense Robert Gates is pushing hard to shrink conventional forces, tailored for big wars, in favor of forces optimized for today’s, small wars. But he’s mindful that it’s not an either-or question. We need “big” and “small” forces, Gates said. Increasingly, we’ll even need them, at the same time, for the same, unpredictable conflicts. The balance is the question.

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My Comment: The key is to find that balance between having the resources to fight the big war, and the small wars .... if that is possible.