The concept of asymmetrical warfare originally defined unconventional strategies and tactics used by terror cells and insurgents to strike against superior forces. Like the Oct. 7, 2023, invasion of Israel, when Hamas terrorists swarmed out of subterranean tunnels with motorcycles and all-terrain vehicles or swooped out of the sky in motorized paragliders to murder, rape, and kidnap thousands of innocent Israeli civilians. But as the 21st century emerges from its first quarter, major powers are eyeing novel and unconventional options of their own. Like Red China sending spy balloons through Alaska across Canada to America’s heartland (and strategic missile silos) and our Eastern Seaboard until shot down by U.S. Air Force fighters. Or Red China’s Communist Party purchasing “agricultural land” near U.S. national security sites and critical infrastructure.
This last week, while all eyes were focused on President Trump and the 80th United Nations General Assembly, the U.S. Secret Service stole the show, announcing raids on a massive clandestine telecom network scattered around greater New York City. A web of rental properties, warehouses, and “electronic safe houses” were stuffed with hundreds of thousands of cell phones, servers, and SIM cards capable of crippling 911 call centers and cell towers throughout the Eastern Seaboard. The cyber warfare centers were discovered and dismantled before they could be activated, and although no single country has been charged, the months of planning and millions of dollars invested in hardware and housing reek of foreign government sponsorship.
The concept behind the foiled New York City cyberattack evokes the series of unconventional high-tech Trojan Horse assaults that are rapidly redefining the nature of warfare in this 21st century.
In the wake of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terrorist attacks, and facing a three-front war, the Israeli Defense Force opted for unique and novel surgical strikes of their own. They inserted booby-trapped pagers and walkie-talkies within the Hezbollah supply channels (Operation Grim Beeper) and on command detonated the devices, taking out the enemy’s command and control. The IDF followed up with tactical strikes against Hamas leadership and Iran’s military chain of command, effectively neutering their offensive capabilities.
In May of this year, the IDF launched Operation Port City, precision missile and drone attacks against senior Houthi military and political leadership within the Yemeni presidential palace complex in Sanaa.
In June, Ukraine launched a covert strike deep within Mother Russia. Eighteen months in the planning, Operation Spiderweb involved sequentially placing 120 “suicide drones” in “Pez dispenser” stacks inside portable sheds outside of the airbase. On command, the roofs opened, and the drones deployed, destroying one-third of Russia’s strategic bomber fleet.
On Sept. 3, Chinese President Xi Jinping “invited” Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean President Kim Jong Un to Beijing to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II. In what was likely one of the largest military parades in history, Xi unveiled four new weapon systems — tanks, hypersonic stealth drones, truck-mounted laser cannons, and a “super-sized” fully autonomous submarine drone. For good measure, he tossed into the mix a new version of the silo-launched nuclear-capable Dongfeng-5 intercontinental ballistic missile and four-legged anti-mine, anti-personnel robot “wolves.”
Anti-mine, anti-personnel robot wolves?
On Sept. 5, President Trump renamed the Department of Defense the “War Department.” Declaring war on narco-terrorism, and labeling Venezuela as a narco-state, President Trump deployed the missile cruiser USS Erie and fast-attack nuclear submarine USS Newport News, along with assorted destroyers, 10 F-35 fighter jets, and 5,000 U.S. Marines and sailors into southern Caribbean waters to combat Latin American drug cartels. To date, U.S. assets have sunk three cartel drug boats and are poised to destroy more.
As the 21st century exits its first quarter, potential battlefields are taking on a definite Buck Rogers/Flash Gordon/Star Wars vibe. Exploding pagers, laser weapons, spy balloons, space forces, hypersonic drones, unmanned stealth submarines, and hunter-killer wolf robots seem to be all the rage.
But however goofy, “novel,” or Buck Rogers the current flavor of the month operations being adopted and promoted by once-conventional major power armed forces as “asymmetric warfare,” it’s still warfare. Warfare that can escalate to full-out war.
Whoever — or whatever — was behind the SIM warfare plot in New York City should take note.
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