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The GSS network would have a significant amount of redundancy with respect to core, high-demand missions such as wide-area ISR, communications, and basic precision attack. For other missions, however, there would be more specialization. The missions to defeat deep HDBTs, for example, would reside primarily with the B-2, the LRS-B, and submarine-launched ballistic/boost-glide weapons. Similarly, while myriad platforms could engage mobile-relocatable vehicles as targets of opportunity, finding and neutralizing them would be the principal mission for proliferated fleets of MQ-9 Reaper and MQ-1C Grey Eagle UCAS, in low-medium threat environments, and for stealthy land- and carrierbased UCAS, in medium-high threat environments. While not reflected in Table 1, ground forces could conduct small-scale, highly dispersed raids to seize and set up friendly bases for land-based ISR and strike systems, as well as to neutralize those of future adversaries. Ground forces could also support an increased strategic emphasis on Author: 玄史生, http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Avenger_Air_Defense_ deterrence through denial System_in_Songshan_Air_Force_Base_20110813a.jpg by establishing and operating land-based, local-area A2/AD networks in peacetime within the territory of threatened partners or allies linked into the broader GSS network. The division of labor for this effort might vary from technical assistance and advanced training, to combined operations, to U.S.-led operations with deep security force assistance. In the event that deterrence failed, these A2/AD networks could improve the self-defense capability of U.S. allies (complicating the offensive planning of prospective adversaries), interdict adversary sea and air lines of communication, provide a virtual “escort” for friendly maritime traffic in the region, and facilitate logistics operations (e.g., U.S. tankers could operate in air space defended by allies).85 These A2/AD ground task forces might comprise, for example: coastal defense cruise missile systems linked to aerostat-borne radars; “smart” coastal mine networks; ground-launched, long-range ASW weapons linked to offshore active-passive acoustic arrays; short- to mediumrange air defenses with associated sensor systems; and where appropriate,
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For an assessment of how relatively inexpensive, commercially available, and mobile land-based anti-ship missiles might be effectively employed to interdict Chinese SLOCs in the Pacific, see: Terrence Kelly et al., Employing Land-Based Anti-Ship Missiles in the Western Pacific (Santa Monica, CA: RAND, 2013).
Ground forces could also support an increased strategic emphasis on deterrence through denial by establishing and operating landbased, local-area A2/AD networks in peacetime within the territory of threatened partners or allies.