Sea Power and Maritime
Affairs
Lesson 22: The Navy at War in the 1990s, 19912000
Learning Objectives

The student will understand the history and buildup to NATO involvement in Bosnia and Kosovo.
 The student will understand the Navy’s role in
those wars, especially in terms of increasingly
integrated joint concepts of operations.
 The student will understand how the wars in
Bosnia and Kosovo have tested and developed the
practice of network-centric warfare.
 The student will understand relevant historical
milestones in U.S. Naval history in the 1990s and
their implication for the post-September 11 reality.
Strategic Implications
Post-Cold War

July 31, 1991, START I.
 September 27,1991, President Bush
announced Soviets no longer pose
creditable threat to the U.S.
– SAC bombers off 24-hour alert.
– Removed all tactical nukes from Navy surface,
sub and aircraft.
Soviet Collapse
December 8, 1991

Boris Yelstin elected President after Soviet
collapse. He was re-elected in 1996 and resigned
in December of 1999, due to health.
 Successor of states: Russia, Kazakhstan, Ukraine,
and Belarus. Ukraine and Kazakhstan became the
third and fourth largest nuclear states.
– Russia joined U.S. in NPT
– U.S. and Russia found themselves “comrades in
arms” to prevent uncontrolled nuclear weapons
in former Soviet Union, North Korea, Pakistan,
and India.
Boris Yeltsin, President of the Russian Republic,
George and Barbara Bush, and the Bush dogs on
the White House lawn. Bush supported Yeltsin's
efforts to transform Russia into a post-communist
regime
William Clinton defeats President Bush, Sr. in 1992 Election
The Balkan Conflicts of the
1990s
 Bosnia
 Kosovo
Bosnia

Post-Soviet Union collapse; four
of the six Yugoslavian republics
want independence.
 Serbian President Milosevic uses
force to oppose these states.
 This situation will require the
assistance of U.S. and U.N.
troops for over a decade.
BOSNIA
1991

June 27. Fighting starts in Slovenia, spreading to
Croatia.
 November 8. Europe places economic blockade on
Yugoslavia.
1992
U.N. Security Council directive to use “all
measures necessary” to end hunger and
atrocities in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
 January. U.N. protection force sent.
 May 22. U.N. recognizes Croatia,
Slovenia, and Bosnia as independent states.
 March 30. U.N. called for humanitarian
aid, economic embargos, and ban on air
traffic.


July 1. Washington called for relief flights
that would be multinational and be
supported until OPERATION DENY
FLIGHT in April 1993.
 September 22. Yugoslavia expelled from
U.N. in response to Milosevic’s atrocities.
 NATO leaders reluctant to act, for fear that
they would be dragged into a costly and
unwinnable war.
1993
NATO military operations largely limited to enforcing
U.N. no fly zone. Becomes largest ongoing military
operation over Europe since WWII.
 April 12. OPERATION DENY FLIGHT. NFZ over
Bosnia.
 June 15. OPERATION SHARP GUARD. Adriatic
blockade.
Toward a Network-Centric
Battlespace

For the first time it was clear that virtually all
targets were moveable.
 Joint Combined Air Operations Center (CAOC)
established in Aviano, Italy.
Key U.S. Sensor Assets

UAV (Predators and Gnat-750s)
 P-3C Orion
 E-2C Hawkeye, AWACS (E-3)
 JSTARS (E-8A)

EC-130E (ABCCC)
Air Doctrine

Bosnian mission seemed to be classic Close
Air Support (CAS)
HOWEVER,
The point of NATO air power was to coerce
Serbs without engaging a ground force. How
could targets be effectively identified in future
wars with similar missions without ground
element support?
Anticipates RTIC.
RTIC- “Real Time in the Cockpit”

CAOC receives targeting intelligence (e.g., via
UAV)
 Target is fused with stored area imagery and sent
to strike aircraft via data link.
 Cockpit display shows imagery as well as CAS
nine-line targeting brief.
 An important step toward network-centric reality,
RTIC was a reality by 1996. F-16s were outfitted
with data modems for RTIC imagery.
1994

Standoff between NATO aircraft and
Bosnian Serb air defenses continued
through the year.
 U.N. mounted a ground force “protection
force,” UNPROFOR, intended to deter
“ethnic cleansing” by Serbian Army.
 Generally Serbs called UNPROFOR’s bluff
only to receive retaliation via air attack.
Evolution of network-centric
strike concepts

August-September NATO strikes were similar
in concept to Gulf War: pre-planned against
fixed targets (vice mobile ones).
 However, strikes
involved a valuable
new precision weapon:
the GPS-guided
Tomahawk missile.
1995

August 30- September 21. OPERATION
DELIBERATE FORCE. NATO bombing
offensive.
 December 14. Dayton Accords. Ended war
in Bosnia. Milosevic still in power.
 Politically, contributed to Muslim
fundamentalism.
- Reported in Muslim world as a
“holocaust”
Kosovo
1998

June 14. OPERATION DETERMINED FALCON.
1999

March 24- June 10. War breaks in Kosovo,
former Yugoslav republic at least under nominal
Serbian control. OPERATION DENY FORCE.
OPERATION DENY FORCE
Response to “ethic cleansing” started shortly
after Dayton Accords
 Planned as a 48 hour campaign, it would last
78 days.
 This time no UNPROFOR (organic ground
element)

OPERATION DENY FORCE (cont.)

As in Bosnia, Serbs used mobility to protect air
defense system
- No ground observers to direct targeting
- U.S./NATO policy barring all troops might
be blamed for tactical failure of air attacks (a
mistake NOT repeated in Afghanistan)
 The political-strategic strikes seemed not to have
been terribly effective.
- Center of gravity attacks?
- Was there a way to force the enemy to
move in a way to produce lucrative targets?
After 78 days of bombing,
Serbian Army collapsed and
evacuated; refugees returned
to their province.
Why?
Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA)

KLA began operating against Serbian units
toward the end of the war.
 To counter the KLA, Serbian units had to
mass, CREATING TARGETS.
Interpretation:

Precision bombing became effective only
when linked to a force on the ground—and
that force did not have to be a NATO army.
-Here the KLA functions as a coalition
force.
-Neither NATO nor KLA had much
chance of winning without the other.
This suggested a model for future
wars (i.e., Afghanistan)

Always seek a local coalition partner
sufficiently interested in the outcome to
fight as needed, in order to get “boots on the
ground.”
 Caveat: coalition partners are not proxies;
they are animated by their own interests.
“Other” 1990s Naval Events
1. September 1991. Tailhook
2. April 1993. SECDEF announces that women
will fly combat aircraft missions and serve on
combat vessels.
3. July 1993. “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” – Clinton
policy for homosexuals in the military.
4. February 1994. LT Shannon Workman
becomes first female carrier qualified fighter
pilot.
5. February 1998. A Marine Corps EA-6B,
based in Aviano, Italy, flies below low level
training route altitude and severs gondola
cables killing civilians.
6. October 1994. LT Kara Hultgreen, first
woman carrier qualified in the F-14 Tomcat,
is killed during landing operations.
7. March 1995. LCDR Wendy Lawrence,
daughter of Admiral Lawrence (Vietnam
POW), becomes first female naval aviator in
space on board STS 60, The Endeavor.
Gondola wreckage from EA-6B
Lt. Kara Spears 'Revlon' Hultgreen (1965-1994)
8. May 1996. Death of Admiral Michael
Boorda. Chief of Naval Operations shoots
himself in response to journalistic
investigations of his entitlement to wear
combat “V” for service in waters off
Vietnam.
9. October 2000. Attack on the USS Cole.
10. February 2001. Greenville incident.
11. April 2001. EP-3 incident.
CDR Wendy Lawrence, U.S. Navy
Admiral Jeremy M. Boorda, U.S. Navy
USS Cole damage
EP-3
crewmembers
stand at ease
during the
ceremony
welcoming
them to Hawaii
following their
release from
China
Policy
New Technology
September 1992. “…From the Sea.” The Navy adopts new
mission as consequence to the end of the Cold War.
 September 1993. “Bottom Up Review” 346-ship navy with
11 carrier battle groups. Goal: Ability to fight 2 major
regional conflicts and one low intensity conflict at the same
time.
 May 1997. As result of first “Quadrennial Defense
Reviews,” force levels to be able to deal with two
simultaneous regional conflicts call for 12 carriers groups
and 12 amphibious ready groups.


June 1997. Navy signs preliminary agreement
for construction of the DD-21 Zumwalt class.
 May 1999. Osprey, MV-22, first of four
production models approved.
 September 1999. New attack sub (NSSN)
“Virginia” class to be built.
 April 2000. MV-22 crashes in Arizona; 19 lost.

December 2000. MV-22 crashes in
Jacksonville, killing all four crewmen.
 December 2000. JSF X-35C, carrier
version, makes first flight.
 March 2000. Mrs. Reagan christens USS
Ronald Reagan, CVN 76.
 June 2001. Secretary of Defense Donald
Rumsfeld reports that DD21 land-attack
destroyer would not be a substantial
improvement over existing platforms.
MV-22 OSPREY
X-35 JSF
Significance of the 1990s for
the Navy of the Future

Comprehend the transitional nature of the naval
strategy and policy in the 1990s when judged
against the post “9-11” events and the War on
Terrorism.
 Understand that many of the guiding assumptions
of the 1990s were made obsolete by 9-11 and the
War on Terrorism.
 Assess what aspects of the naval policy and
strategy of the 1990s remain valid for the early
2000s.

Given the events of the last decade (ESGs,
sea-basing, etc.), was the planning of the
1990s short-sighted? Is “From the Sea”
relevant in 2001 when we are fighting a war
hundreds of miles inland in Afghanistan? Is
the CVBG a relic of the cold war in the age
of network-centric dispersion?
Learning Objectives

Comprehend the national strategic implications of
the Post Cold War and its effects on policy and the
Navy.
 Comprehend the role of the Navy in regional
conflicts, including Post-Gulf War Iraq,
Yugoslavia, Somalia, and Afghanistan.
 Comprehend the changes in Naval policy and
technology, as well as historical 1990s milestones.
Next time: The Navy at War in Afghanistan,
Operation Enduring Freedom
2000-2003