progress in these operational directions may be in danger of faltering
if only old Cold War yardsticks are used to make future force
investments and to direct studies about future force structure and
associated infrastructure. As in any transition period, innovation
must be joined by a willingness to experiment. This means the
establishment and cultivation of an experimental apparatus to test and
evaluate new concepts are matters of importance both to foster
innovation and assess its application.

We build on the trends of rapidity and simultaneity and seek to
emphasize control and time. Control is necessary to force behavioral
change in adversaries to achieve strategic or political ends. Control
and then influence come from a range of threats and outcomes,
including putting at risk the targets an adversary holds dear, to
imposing a hierarchy of Shock and Awe, to affecting will, perception,
and understanding. Achieving control may now be theoretically possible
in even more compressed or shortened time periods because of the
potential superiority of enhanced U.S. military capability and further
training and education. To obtain this level of military superiority
that can affect the adversary's will and perception, or at least
achieve the practical military consequences, a great deal of thought,
debate, and experimentation over new concepts will be needed if only
to test and validate contemporary doctrine.

If the political objective is to achieve a level of Shock and Awe
beyond only temporary paralysis, then further actions must follow. The
end point will be to dominate the enemy in such a way as to achieve
the desired objectives. From this concept follows the need to shut
down either a state or an organized enemy through the rapid and
simultaneous application (or threat of application) of land, sea, air,