ABSTRACT
The surface land attack disruptive innovation is a study in how two sustaining technical innovations – Aegis radar and the conventional Tomahawk land attack cruise missiles – triggered a novel linkage of platforms and a new way of warfighting.1 Surface land attack was a major shift away from carrier battle group operations to small task groups operating independent of the carrier to conduct strike warfare against land targets. Previously, strike warfare was the exclusive mission of the aviation community. With the capabilities of Aegis radar and Tomahawk missiles, however, small groups of ships, maritime action groups, could perform strike warfare in a much different way.2 In contrast to the Cold War years when the inviolability of the carrier battle group structure prevailed as the Navy’s operating doctrine, the post-Desert Storm years saw Aegis and Tomahawk surface ships departing ahead of and separate from their associated carrier.3 This new way of war fighting was disruptive in nature not only because surface ships did not have to remain with the carrier and could operate in packs, but also because surface ships could now hit targets with greater precision and at longer ranges than could strike aircraft launched from carriers.4
