By Alastair Cooper
If you missed Ben Schreer’s excellent presentation on China, A2AD and Air-Sea Battle at the Australian Naval Institute’s recent Goldrick seminar, a copy of his powerpoint slides are here.
The question the presentation raised for me is not so much an operational/tactical issue – because Air-Sea Battle and A2AD really sit at that level – but more a strategic one. In what circumstances would these two operational/tactical concepts actually be employed against each other? Over what would China and the US actually choose to use force?
For Australia, these are important questions. And once we’ve formed our own views on them, in what circumstances would Australia judge that it should also employ force?
All of these questions – strategic, operational and tactical – must be considered and answered together. Australia needs to have tactical and operational options for the strategic circumstances it does and will face.
