Peer

Description: A peer adversary is a state competitor whose military, technological, industrial, and economic capacity approximates that of the leading global power across all warfighting domains and at global scale. The 2022 National Defense Strategy frames the highest tier of strategic competition in terms of a pacing challenge from a major power with the capability and will to reshape the international order, and the foundational RAND framework on peer competitors describes the emergence of such an actor as among the most consequential long-term defence planning challenges. Peer status implies the ability to contest, deny, or shape outcomes in any theatre of significance.
Tier Level: 1
Typical Capabilities: Full-spectrum joint forces with mature combined-arms, joint, and multi-domain doctrine; large inventories of current-generation manned and unmanned platforms across land, sea, air, space, and cyber domains; survivable strategic nuclear forces and credible second-strike capacity; integrated long-range precision strike; sophisticated integrated air and missile defence; advanced intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance and command-and-control networks; and global power-projection enablers including strategic lift, forward basing or access, and sustained expeditionary logistics. Backed by a deep defence-industrial base capable of high-intensity protracted conflict and broad-spectrum military research and development.

Details