The United States is losing its monopoly on networked warfare, says a top military official.

"It is without a doubt that we are losing our monopoly in the guided weapons battle network regime," said Under Secretary of the Navy Bob Work while speaking August 4 at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington, D.C., think tank.

A digitally-fueled form of battle has been a key part of U.S. military dominance in recent years even as insurgencies in Iraq and Afghanistan have shown the limits of that approach. The topic of Work's address was a vision for a post-Afghanistan Marine Corps.

"We drank our own Kool-Aid, and we assumed we would have this monopoly forever. We started talking about ridiculous concepts like Rapid Decisive Operations," Work added.

As future enemies gain access to precision-guided weapons and command and control networks, Work said the Marine Corps will have to take a deliberate approach, at least within the context of amphibious assault on contested territory. The Marine Corps must retain a two-brigade amphibious launch capability, Work said. Arguments that amphibious assault is no longer a requirement--especially since the last major one was during the Korean War--don't take into account changing global circumstance, he said.

However, a speedy assault attack against a guided weapons battle networked enemy will kill only yourself, he added.

The future Marine Corps--and the Navy--will rely increasingly on unmanned systems, Work also said. Not just unmanned air vehicles, but unmanned ground systems as well, he added.

For more:
- listen to Work speak at CSIS
- read an article by Work in the September-October issue of The American Interest.

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