Revolution in Military Affairs
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A Revolution in Military Affairs, or RMA, is a distinct change in military practices that may result from a number of changes in the state of military operations. At the core of any RMA is the challenging of the core competencies of a military competitor. One example of an RMA was the introduction of longbow warfare by the English in the Hundred Years War against the French. The bows were able to challenge the fundamental strength of the French knights by striking them from a distance, making their armor, swords and fast horses irrelevant.
RMAs can be brought about by a dominant power, but most often, they are created by a non-dominant force. This is due in part to the nature of large organizations: it is much more easy to be comfortable in the position of dominance rather than challenge one's own core competencies. It is important to note that, with the few exceptions of a dominant-initiated RMA, the group in power at the beginning of an RMA is not the one in power at the end of it.
An RMA may or may not be abrupt; in the example above, the longbow's use was perfected over a long period of civil war in England prior to its introduction against the French. On the contrary, the advent of the atomic bomb rendered the Japanese army helpless virtually overnight.
Some have suggested that the 9/11 strikes against the US by al-Qaida represent a revolution in military affairs, namely the use of civilian infrastructure as both a weapon and a target. This potential revolution is characterized further by the designation of civilians as combatants or targets by both the US and al-Qaida. Furthermore, the RMA attempt from al-Qaida challenges the US' core competencies of:
- aerial supremacy (rendered irrelevant)
- ability to engage on enemy soil (there are no longer any boundaries)
- overwhelming force (al-Qaida is integrated into societies both in the US and elsewhere)
By far the most important Revolution in Military Affairs is the new doctrine of Network-centric warfare, made possible by the Digital Revolution.