Col. John Warden’s 5 Ring Model
The 5 Ring Model of Col. John Warden
Col. John Warden came up with the model of Warden’s Five Rings. It was first used in a real war in 1991, when it was part of the offensive strategy called “Operational Thunder.” It was the main idea behind Operation Thunder, the strategy that American Air Power used to beat the Iraqi Air Force. The five-ring model is based on five important areas that must be attacked and weakened enough before enemy forces can move in (Warden, 1995).
The five different levels are like rings of areas of influence that revolve around the core area, which is leadership. The model shows that the areas of influence have different values and that an enemy would have to attack them in different ways. In this model, the idea is that a military invasion into an enemy territory should start from the outside in (Warden, 1995). The goal is to take off the different layers that surround the core, which is the leadership, until the enemy is exposed and can be taken. Once the enemy’s leaders are taken, the enemy has lost and can be taken.
The top part of the enemy is called “Leadership,” which is in the middle of the model. The other areas are military on the field, infrastructure, population, and essentials for the system. The enemy has set up a military force in the field as the first level of defense. The first level, which is the enemy army, needs to be passed. The second outer level is the civilians of the enemy state, who also need to be controlled and brought under control. After the population is taken care of, the focus shifts to infrastructure, which will make it harder for the enemy to run smoothly. The system essential is the second-to-last level from the core. It refers to all the parts of the enemy state that support and drive it as a whole, such as the economy (Warden, 1995).
The five rings system theory is thought to be one of the best military ideas ever thought up. It is important because it can be used to plan a coordinated, systematic way to beat an enemy. It can be used to make a list of specific military targets in this way. Important enemy targets are chosen based on a set of rules, not on how good they might be (Warden, 1995). This is because when you define the levels of influence, it’s easy to see which sectors and areas go with them. More importantly, military strategists can use a system formula to map out important enemy targets (Warden, 1995).
The Cuban missile crisis is an important part of history and one of the few times when neither the Russians nor the Cubans could use the five-ring model as a military tactic. The Cuban missile crisis was bound to involve U.S. forces and more than one country, including both Russia and Cuba (Allison, Graham and Zelikow, 1999). The Cuban missile crisis was made even worse by the fact that both countries were thinking about using nuclear weapons.
In fact, any military offensive involving the US and Russia would have been like the Clash of the Titans. The situation started when U.S. satellites found proof that Russia was actively deploying nuclear-capable technology and secretly installing it in Cuba’s backyard (Allison et al, 1999). Earlier, the US grew its military presence in Europe, which Russia might have seen as a threat to its very existence. But diplomacy and a huge amount of restraint won out, and the nuclear missile crisis at the time was avoided.
What is clear, though, is that even The 5 Ring Model could not have been used in a military offensive where nuclear weapons were used. Even though both America and Russia have a lot of nuclear weapons, the military minds who came up with the 5 ring model never once thought that nuclear missiles would be used in modern military solutions. The five-ring model divides any military offensive into five different stages (Allison et al, 1999).
But it is a fact that even one nuclear missile is enough to completely control an enemy state. Also, this would have an effect on all five levels of any country, making it unable to function. In fact, this is why the U.S. didn’t launch a preemptive attack on Cuba at the height of the crisis. There was a small chance that one missile might survive the attack, which Cuba would then use against them. In addition to all of this, it would have meant that the United States would have to go to war with two hostile countries at the same time, which would have made it harder for them to respond with precision. So, the 5-ring model probably wouldn’t have been used during the Cuban crisis.
During the Vietnam War, however, the five-ring model could be used to help plan military offensives. During the Vietnam War, the United States helped South Vietnam fight against North Vietnam. But the U.S. was in a bad position because the North Vietnamese army was much bigger than the South Vietnamese army. Also, the communist allies in South Vietnam were strong and gave the offensive a lot of military support. So, the U.S. used the 5-ring model to stop their military offensive in Vietnam, which was a big part of their success in the war.
The 1991 Gulf War is another time when the 5 ring model was used to beat the Iraqi forces and win the war. Soon after Iraq invaded Kuwait, the UN suggested that a military solution would be best. This led to the formation of a coalition force that used both firepower and ground troops to move forward in Iraq. This military advance went after parts of Iraq that were important to the country and, when they were taken, led to the end of the fighting. When the 5 ring model was used in the war, sustained firepower was able to destroy an important part of Iraq’s economy (Bard and Mitchell, 2009).
During the Gulf War, a lot of allies, especially those with ties to the United States, helped attack Iraq. The United States decided to help Kuwait because it was in its own best interest to do so. One, Kuwait sent a lot of oil to the U.S., so the U.S. was worried that war would make the area less stable and lead to a lack of oil. Second, the U.S. had allies in the area, especially Saudi Arabia, which felt threatened by Iraq’s growing power and thought it should be stopped. Last but not least, it was important that Iraq didn’t get a big share of the oil reserves in the area or become a major force in the gulf peninsula, which would have happened if it had taken over Kuwait.
After the war, Saudi Arabia paid most of the cost of the military offensive, which was about $40 billion out of the total $60 billion cost of the war. Because of the different coalition forces that took part, there were only 295 American deaths. In conclusion, the Gulf War gave the U.S. military experience in the area and was a successful venture. That America keeps making money off of in more than one way right now.
References
Allison, Graham and Zelikow, P (1999). Essence of Decision: Explaining the Cuban Missile Crisis, Longman Publishers, New York.
Bard, Mitchell (2009). The war in the Gulf. Virtual Jewish Library. Found at http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/Gulf War.html on April 18, 2010.
William Blum. Lessons for the United States from the Vietnam War. 1995’s http://www.vietnam.ttu.edu/virtualarchive/html was taken down on April 18, 2010.
Warden, J., A. (1995). The 21st-century theory of air. Battlefield of the Future: Issues of Warfare in the 21st Century. Air Force of the United States. Power in the Air and Space, 343. Found at http://www.airpower.maxwell.af.mil/airchronicles/battle/chp4.html on April 18, 2010.
