text: Chapter 1
  prevent counterattack. Targeting a critical retransmission asset has a more significant effect than destroying
  a typical single node in the network. Loss of the retransmission capability disrupts communications for many
  radios across a wide section of the area of operations. Refer to TC 7-100.2 for an in-depth discussion of
  systems warfare.
  HYBRID THREAT
  1-65. A hybrid threat is the diverse and dynamic combination of regular forces, irregular forces, terrorists,
  or criminal elements acting in concert to achieve mutually benefitting effects (ADP 3-0). Some aspects of
  the hybrid threat, such as criminal or terrorist organizations, do not abide by the law of war. Hybrid threats
  seek to exploit asymmetric advantages over an adversary to avoid engaging in direct combat.
  1-66. In many ways, hybrid threat is not a new way of fighting a war; it is simply a new way of framing the
  operational environment. The Colonials in the American Revolution employed a hybrid strategy with a
  mixture of regular Continental troops, state militias, irregular partisans, and supportive local populations,
  along with publishers and pamphleteers sympathetic to the revolutionary cause. What has changed is the
  tools available to threat actors and the ability of some of these tools to create far-reaching effects outside the
  operational area. Enemies may employ cyberspace attack and exploitation, battlefield jammers, and space-
  based capabilities, such as anti-satellite weapons, to disrupt U.S. communications; positioning, navigation,
  and timing; synchronization; and freedom of maneuver. A peer threat’s ability to combine regular and
  irregular forces, robust information warfare capabilities, long-range precision fires, and massed lethal fires
  with the capacity to contest or achieve air superiority presents a formidable challenge.
  1-67. The hybrid threat understands that the most challenging environment for U.S. forces is one where
  conventional military operations occur in concert with irregular warfare. The hybrid threat concept is not
  simply making do with what is available, but deliberately taking advantage of all tools at hand to create a
  complex operational environment.
  1-68. Hybrid threats employ a wide variety of military, paramilitary, insurgent, criminal, and information
  warfare capabilities in concert with a robust antiaccess and area denial strategy and long-range precision fires
  to support their strategic and tactical objectives. Each component of the hybrid threat brings additional
  capabilities to bear. Commanders should not underestimate the synergy of these capabilities. Operational
  environments are inherently complex due to the operational variables. The hybrid threat seeks to introduce
  additional complexity using an ever-shifting array of forces, technologies, and techniques. The hybrid threat
  may conduct a conventional military attack while simultaneously creating economic instability, fostering
  lack of trust in existing governance, attacking information networks, and conducting a propaganda campaign,
  perhaps while causing a humanitarian crisis.
  1-69. Commanders facing a hybrid threat will have difficulty identifying and responding to specific
  challenges. If they faced them individually, U.S. forces could readily isolate and defeat each aspect of the
  hybrid threat. However, because hybrid threat actors integrate these capabilities across the operational area,
  they can continue to shift effort and emphasis to make all U.S. choices seem poor ones. Enemies can learn
  and adapt quickly, often unrestricted by rules or bureaucracy. The hybrid threat’s continually shifting efforts
  may cause haphazard and incomplete change, but such rapid adaptation is difficult to counter. Ultimately,
  success goes to those who can act, react, and adapt their tactics quickly and creatively.
  INFORMATION WARFARE
  1-70. Information warfare refers to a threat’s use of information activities, such as cyberspace attack and
  EW, to gain an advantage in the information environment. The threat construct of information warfare merges
  the disciplines of EW, deception, lethal fires, information protection, perception management, and
  cyberspace operations into a mutually supporting, integrated capability. Threat information warfare consists
  of—
  * EW. Measures conducted to control or deny an enemy’s use of the electromagnetic spectrum,
  while ensuring its use by the hybrid threat.
  * Deception. Measures designed to mislead an enemy by manipulation, distortion, or falsification
  of information to induce the enemy to act in a manner prejudicial to their interests.
  * Physical destruction. Measures to destroy critical components of communications infrastructure.