Fall 2006 - Air & Space Power Chronicle - Air Force Link

THE AIR FORCE’S NEW GROUND WAR 51sition to operations while ensuring that theseizure force can rapidly advance to follow-onobjectives without waiting to link up with aseparate follow-on force. Establishing thetasks, conditions, and standards for theAECTU in the mission statements of theCRGs, 720th Special Tactics Group, and820th Security Forces Group would go farin closing this joint seam.OpportunitiesAs the Air Force continues to retool itscapabilities to fight effectively on the battlefieldsof The Pentagon’s New Map, the expeditionaryair base is becoming more than justan airpower-projection platform. 19 With theadded ground-combat mission in the BSZ,newly focused FPI, and a more-capable forceof expeditionary Airmen trained in groundcombat, the future air base may become moreof a platform for air and ground combat. Notonly would air assets strike joint-force targetsacross the theater but also base-defense forcescould strike theater targets in their respectiveBSZs—just as Task Force 1041 did in Iraq.Multiplying this capability across a geographiccombatant command covers a significant partof the air-and-ground battlespace with coordinatedair and ground forces.One can easily imagine projecting that influenceeven farther into the combat zone bypushing logistics, civil engineering, communications,and other capabilities out from theair base to other joint forces in the area of responsibility.This proposal—not a roles-andmissionsargument and not one that wouldrequire large, new forces—would simply harnessand focus the potential combat power ofcurrently deployed base-defense as well as“support” personnel and project that poweroutward. Establishing the future air base as apower-projection platform would give thejoint force commander another formidabletool for the joint fight.The Way AheadThe shift from garrison security and law enforcementto security operations has alreadybegun. In order to ensure that these changesare in step with the Air Force’s vision andgoals, we must pursue a systematic program toshepherd such alterations. This effort beganwith the Air Force Requirements and OperationalCapability Council tasking HeadquartersAir Force Security Forces to draft a recommendationthat addressed capability gaps inintegrated defense. This process will culminatewith approval of a program action directiveto enact these changes through the service’scorporate structure.These changes will need support and understandingat all levels of Air Force leadership aswe continue to realize the desired capabilitiesof our expeditionary Air Force in the futurebattlespace. Many of the changes will provedifficult; however, they are vital to success inthe long war against terror. Land-componentmaneuver forces will be stretched thin for theforeseeable future, so the Air Force must investin its capabilities to securely project combatair and—now—ground power. Becausethe uncertainty and asymmetry of noncontiguous,nonlinear battles will create dangerouslocations for air bases, expeditionary Airmenmust ready themselves for the fight. qNotes1. Thomas P. M. Barnett, The Pentagon’s New Map: Warand Peace in the Twenty-first Century (New York: G. P. Putnam’sSons, 2004), 156.2. Rebecca Grant, briefing to Brig Gen Robert H. Holmeset al., subject: Securing Airpower Projection in Noncontiguousand Nonlinear Battlespace Operations, April 2006.3. David A. Shlapak and Alan Vick, “Check Six Begins onthe Ground”: Responding to the Evolving Ground Threat to U.S.Air Force Bases (Santa Monica, CA: RAND, 1995), 13.4. Roger P. Fox, Air Base Defense in the Republic of Vietnam,1961–1973 (Washington, DC: Office of Air ForceHistory, 1979), 207.5. Lt Gen William W. Momyer, Operation Safe Side FinalReport, Seventh Air Force, 1 October 1967.6. Shlapak and Vick, “Check Six Begins,” 50.7. Richard G. Davis, The 31 Initiatives: A Study in AirForce–Army Cooperation (Washington, DC: Office of AirForce History, 1987), 125.