There’s a moment that seems to pop up in almost every depiction of a global, modern
war.
The calm and quiet of an American suburb is violently shattered when wave after wave of
foreign soldiers descend from the skies as part of the first wave in the invasion of
the United States.
The problem I have with this is while such an event is not impossible, it is very improbable
and the explanation given typically ranges from being mildly believable to ridiculous
to the level of self parody.
Let’s look at one of the most popular depictions.
In 2016 the massacre of Russian civilians in a Moscow Airport by suspected American
sponsored terrorists, provokes the Russian Federation into launching a surprise attack
on the East Coast of the United States.
The Russians are able to hack into American satellites giving the US Armed Forces no time
to respond until the invasion is already underway.
Ignoring for the moment that the United States has nothing to gain by murdering hundreds
of civilians in a Moscow airport, and that Russian Intelligence would figure out this
made no sense pretty much immediately, a number of things would need to happen for their invasion
to be successful.
Hacked satellites or no, the Russians Federation would have needed to conceal the largest military
mobilization in the past 70 years, deploy their fleet through the GIUK gap which has
been continually monitored by a chain of underwater listening posts and then sail this massive
force across some of the world's busiest seaways without ever being detected.
Once they arrived and the invasion commenced, the American Navy, combined with the rest
of NATO forces and other allies would almost certain win control of the Atlantic giving
the Russian Navy a limited window to support and resupply their ground forces before they
were completely cut off and destroyed.
While you can make an argument that the United States is losing influence in certain regions
of the world and that they might not win a major military conflict centered around Southeast
Asia or Eastern Europe, a successful invasion of the continental United States remains incredibly
unrealistic.
Seeing familiar locations reduced to battlefields can be shocking, but it’s hard to take seriously
when the outcome of the invasion was pretty much decided before it even begun.
While Russia remains the most popular choice when it comes to a foreign invaders, The Democratic
People’s Republic of Korea is also sometimes used, usually serving as a transparent analogue
for the People’s Republic of China.
Now we could spend all day talking about how completely ridiculous it is for North Korea
successfully to invade anyone, let alone the United States so instead I’ll just focus
on a specific incident.
In 2010 North Korea bombarded a South Korean Island with convention artillery.
During the incident, both sides scrambled aircraft, modern South Korean F-15Ks and KF-16s
produced in the early 2000s and North Korean MiG-23s which stopped being manufactured in
1985.
While most modern Air Forces aim to give their pilots 10 to 20 flight hours every month,
North Korea struggles to do the same in a year, and their pilots nearly crashed into
each other when attempting to scramble their aircraft.
That’s not to say that North Korea isn’t dangerous, but it’s capabilities are severely
limited and any explanation of how it might transform itself into a global superpower
remains absurd.
So how should a modern, global war be depicted?
Well the easy solution is to just not include an invasion of the United States as a major
plot point.
There are plenty of interesting locations across the world that would provide the same
level of spectacle.
If it’s a necessity that New York or San Francisco be invaded yet again, why not come
up with an alternate history scenario rather than the typical 20 Minutes into the Future
setting?
All the arguments I just made are completely invalid if a chain of events prevents the
United States from achieving the global hegemony it currently enjoys.
But the most creative solution to this problem comes from the world of Strangereal.
While it’s technology, culture and languages are nearly identical to our own, it’s history
and geography are completely different allowing for unrestricted storytelling.
While it’s unlikely Russia could ever mount an invasion across the Atlantic Ocean, the
Union of Yuktobanian Republics does not have that problem.
Strangereal is a perfectly believable blend of realism and experimental technology.
which is where other settings based in our own world tend to fall apart.
This approach is not without its problems however.
While witnessing an invasion of the United States, Russia, Germany, the UK, China or
any other country from our own world is sure to conjure up certain feelings and emotions,
if I were to tell you that the Republic of Emmeria had been invaded, for most people
their first question would be “wait, what’s Emmeria?”.
Modern global warfare has become almost a genre unto itself but there are very few examples
that have earned a sense of believability which should be the first step when creating
an alternate world.
But that of course is just my opinion, and even though I’m incapable of being wrong,
I’d like to hear your thoughts.
Is a Russian, Chinese, or North Korean invasion of the United States possible?
Does Ace Combat sacrifice too much relatability in favor of accomodating geopolitics?
Do you not care who is invading who so long as the guns and explosions are cool?
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So until next time, this has been Incoming.