Precision Strike in 21st-Century Multidomain Operations Conference Report

On 13 and 14 May 2021, RUSI held its inaugural precision strike conference, a successor to the annual missile defence conference it held for two decades. The purpose of this reframing was to emphasise the erosion of the line between offence and defence in efforts to counter adversary concepts of operations that have long-range strike assets at their core. Discussions examined the role of strike assets in the context of multidomain operations and the evolutionary steps that the arrival of strike assets ranging from expensive hypersonics to lower-cost UAVs and cruise missiles will compel.

Several core themes emerged, including: the centrality of long-range precision strike to peer competitor effects to dislocate the preferred Western model of operations; the critical importance of delivering deep effects to create the windows of opportunity needed for the successful conduct of contemporary operations in contested environments; and the resulting importance of offence–defence integration to achieve these effects and deny them to an opponent.