Force Protection and Its Trade-offs

This chapter describes the evolution of force protection over time, with an emphasis on its role in war in recent decades. The chapter’s central contribution is to develop the first set of arguments comprehensively assessing the connections between force protection and military effectiveness. Specifically, it describes three modes of force protection (and their accompanying tradeoffs), airpower, deployment without employment, and ground warfare force protection. The chapter uses several historical episodes, especially from contemporary conflicts, to demonstrate these concepts.