Air Mobility Plan, 2008 - The Black Vault

Air Mobility Operating Environment
Chapter 1—Air Mobility
Operating Environment
“America is at war. This is a wartime national security strategy required by
the grave challenges we face—the rise of terrorism fueled by an aggressive
ideology of hatred and murder, fully revealed to the American people on
September 11, 2001. The strategy reflects our most solemn obligation: to
protect the security of the American people.
The challenges America faces are great, yet we have enormous power and
influence to address those challenges. The times require an ambitious
national security strategy, yet one recognizing the limits to what even a nation
as powerful as the United States can achieve by itself. Our national security
strategy is idealistic about goals, and realistic about means.
There was a time when two oceans seemed to provide protection from problems
in other lands, leaving America to lead by example alone. That time has long
since passed. America cannot know peace, security, and prosperity by retreating
from the world. America must lead by deed as well as by example.”
President Bush, National Security Strategy, March 2006
Air mobility operations have been significantly improved over time in order to meet the changing
needs of the warfighters. We have witnessed the fielding of aircraft with increased range and the
ability to carry outsized cargo over strategic distances…or conduct airdrop operations in adverse
weather…or conduct long-range strike missions against targets anywhere on the globe through the
use of air refueling.
These capability improvements were not random, or even transformational, events. In fact, these
improvements were rather evolutionary and directly driven by the environment in which the Mobility
Air Forces (MAF) operate. Predicting the future is a complex and difficult task, but strategic planning
requires an objective look at the characteristics or attributes that we can expect the future operating
environment to possess. This chapter looks at those characteristics; it first reviews the National, Joint,
and Service guidance we must follow; next, it explores the challenges we can expect to face over
the near and far terms; lastly, it reviews the planning process used to field tomorrow’s air mobility
forces.
The Guidance
National Security Strategy
The terrorist attacks against America and around the globe, during the early
years of this century, had a profound effect on the international security
environment and forever changed our world. For decades to come, this
Nation will confront an environment characterized by an array of adversaries
who will employ any means of attack to exploit our weaknesses. We can
expect that failed states, terrorist organizations, and coalitions hostile to the
United States (US) will exploit widely available technologies to develop
dangerous capabilities to use against us. The March 2006 National Security
Strategy (NSS) is clear: “It is the policy of the United States to seek and
support democratic movements and institutions in every nation and culture,
with the ultimate goal of ending tyranny in our world. In the world today,
the fundamental character of regimes matters as much as the distribution
of power among them. The goal of our statecraft is to help create a world
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OCT 07