Ray Alderman, VITA Standards Organization

• Shrinking the kill chain

  Ray Alderman, VITA Standards Organization

  WARFARE EVOLUTION BLOG: When I first started researching this topic, I thought writing this article would be straight-forward and easy. As with many other subjects in this series, that was not the case. Targeting models are integrated into kill chains, or vice-versa, and that creates some confusion. The available stream of information about this subject is both narrow and shallow. However, we are seeing a sequence of evolving kill chain models, at the strategic and tactical levels.

• And then there’s submarines

  Ray Alderman, VITA Standards Organization

  WARFARE EVOLUTION BLOG: Submarines were harder to count than aircraft carriers in my previous blog. According to scattered web information, there are about 533 submarines in the oceans today, operated by 40 countries. But that number moves around, mostly because (1) there are a number of new submarines coming into service and (2) it’s hard to say how many antiquated Russian, Chinese, Iranian, and North Korean submarines are still operational.

• Aircraft carriers are just big fat targets

  Ray Alderman, VITA Standards Organization

  WARFARE EVOLUTION BLOG: During World War II in the Pacific, aircraft carriers were primarily used to defeat enemy carriers and battleships at sea. The whole point of island-hopping was to gain airstrips on land, to launch bomber attacks on the enemy troops on other islands. That was the plan until the Doolittle Raid in 1942, where the USS Hornet launched sixteen long range B-25 bombers to hit Tokyo.

• Radar cross section: The measure of stealth

  Ray Alderman, VITA Standards Organization

  WARFARE EVOLUTION BLOG: The primary measure of stealth, or low observability (LO), is the radar cross section (RCS) of the target, whether it’s aircraft, missiles, or ships. The radar pulse goes out from the transmitter, hits the target, and bounces back. The radar receiver measures the energy in the return signal in decibel (db) units, but that’s a hard way for normal people to visualize the size of a target. So, we must convert db to square meters (m²) to get the picture.

• Generations of fighter aircraft and the F-35 vs F/A-18 arguments

  Ray Alderman, VITA Standards Organization

  WARFARE EVOLUTION BLOG: When some writer talks about 4th, 5th, or 6th generation fighter aircraft, what do they mean? Like the previous articles in this series on the generations of warfare, there are multiple definitions by multiple authors. For fighter aircraft generations, there’s Hallion (1990), Aerospaceweb (2004), Air Force Magazine (2009), Jim Winchester (2011), and Air Power Development Center (Royal Australian Air Force, 2012).

• Domains of warfare and strategic offsets

  Ray Alderman, VITA Standards Organization

  WARFARE EVOLUTION BLOG:It’s 2017, and I’m back. After enduring uncomfortably-deep probing and evaluation of my literary skills and technical analysis capabilities, along with a comprehensive DNA test, my masters here at OpenSystems Media have decided to keep me on as a writer, to ply you with another year of fascinating and intriguing next-generation warfare articles. For 2017 I will write with an emphasis on present capabilities of the U.S. and our enemies, as well as new platforms and strategies under development.

• War in space

  Ray Alderman, VITA Standards Organization

  WARFARE EVOLUTION BLOG: Speculating a war in space is a perplexing subject, so let’s wade into it with a heathy level of trepidation, looking at treaties, space courts, and potential battle scenarios.

• In a cyberwar

  Ray Alderman, VITA Standards Organization

  WARFARE EVOLUTION BLOG: This is another broad, sticky, and complex topic, much like the previous article on cryptology. So, let’s get started by offering some definitions.

• Cloud, fog, mist, fluid, blockchain, and other things that irritate me

  Ray Alderman, VITA Standards Organization

  We are being inundated with new computing and networking models for all the wrong reasons -- from cloud computing to blockchain. This is a topic that distorts my normally congenial and pleasant demeanor, so let’s take a look at what is really going on and clear the air.

• ARPA, DARPA, and Jason

  Ray Alderman, VITA Standards Organization

  WARFARE EVOLUTION BLOG: After the success of the Manhattan Project, that ended World War II in the Pacific, the Pentagon significantly reduced expenditures on research and development of weapons as the world enjoyed peace. That was a mistake considering the actions taken by the Russians in the following decade.

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