Targeting
Norway's acquisition of the F-35 alongside long-range precision-guided weapons, such as the Joint Strike Missile, come with military opportunities that challenge the traditional Norwegian conceptual approach to the use of force to achieve political objectives. Norwegian corvettes and frigates are equipped with long-range precision weapons (Naval Strike Missile (NSM)), and the Army are planning to purchase long-range artillery. New concepts for special operations forces and cyber operations are being developed. How should we organize and conceptually use our military resources to achieve the political and military effects we desire?
Joint targeting connects the political, strategic, operational and tactical levels of war, and includes a process that enables a holistic approach to the use of military means and what they are to achieve. Targeting is defined by Ducheine, Schmitt and Osinga in Targeting: The Challenges of Modern Warfare (2016) as
[t]he deliberate application of capabilities against targets to generate effects in order to achieve specific objectives. It is about the application of means (weapons) of warfare to affect addressees (people or objects) using a variety of methods (tactics) that create effects contributing to designated goals. Targeting, accordingly, represents the bridge between the ends and means of warfare».
To make sound choices within the categories of competence, organization, technology and conceptual development, the Norwegian Armed Forces must develop new knowledge in the years ahead. Furthermore, to utilize various military systems such as F-35, frigates, corvettes, submarines, new long-range artillery, special forces, cyber, etc., Norway also needs to develop joint operational expertise. This project seeks to unite operational and academic perspectives to develop knowledge that can strengthen Norwegian fighting power.
On 1 January 2023, a research fellow joined the Royal Norwegian Air Force Academy to produce a PhD thesis (Norwegian University of Science and Technology) on Norway’s approach to targeting from the end of the Cold War in 1991 to Russia’s attack on Ukraine in 2022.On 1 August 2023, two officers – an F-35 pilot, and a helicopter pilot – will start a two-year project financed by the Norwegian Ministry of Defense (MoD) (4,5 million NOK) to develop more comprehensive knowledge on how Norway should approach the complexity of long-range precision weapons, Multi-domain Operations (MDO), and which joint systems we need in order to support joint objectives. Targeting is a common denominator for how we approach the three topics we are asked to study. The project is supported by an experienced officer from the Navy (corvette) (20%) and the Army (artillery) (20%).
On 10 August 2023, the book «Autonomy in Military Operations» (Cappelen Damm) will be published as part of the targeting-project.
This is a comprehensive project that focuses on
- how we can achieve military and political effect with the use of military (and preferably in combination with other) instruments
- what is needed (technologically, organizationally, competence-wise, etc.) to make this happen.