History's Role in Operational Design and Planning: How Germany's Failed Invasion Provides Insight into U.S. and Chinese Perspectives on Anti-Access Area Denial A2AD - China's Strategy and Capabilities

This excellent report has been professionally converted for accurate flowing-text e-book format reproduction. The 1940 battle space between Germany and Great Britain provides a different design perspective for the US A2AD problem. Germany's struggles during Operation SEALION provide insight into China's attitude towards strategy, unrestricted warfare, PLAAF and PLAAN A2AD challenges, and ethnic ties with Taiwan. These insights offer warfighters a different context to understand Air Sea Battle's focus on defeating China's A2AD umbrella from within, not penetrating into it from the outside.

Discussion: The 1940 battle space between Germany and Britain provides the most accurate case study to understand the design behind the Air Sea Battle Operational Concept and Chinese perspectives on strategy, unrestricted warfare, A2AD challenges, and ethnic brotherhood. Germany used air power to wage unrestricted warfare against Britain using strategic isolation, economic warfare, network warfare, and terrorism. Second, it tried to solve an A2AD problem with air power to make up for a lack of air and naval supremacy. Third, German leaders grappled with conflicts between ethnic brotherhood and strategic end states. While technology has changed many of the methods of attack, China will wage a remarkably similar existential war against the US. Additionally, China maintains a current A2AD problem almost identical to that of Germany in 1940.

Conclusion: This examination reinforces just how significant a role history plays in operational design and planning. Case studies not only start the creative process to understand the problem. Additionally, case studies provide a frame of reference for outsiders to understand a finished operational plan. Designers and planners must pick case studies carefully in each instance. This examination shows that while War Plan Orange helped start the design process, Germany's failed invasion provides the best case study to communicate the final plan.

Dettagli