Concentrating on Dispersed Operations

Download or read book Concentrating on Dispersed Operations written by and published by . This book was released on 2003 with total page 141 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Potential adversaries recognize that the US' ability to project combat power across the globe is essential to the maintenance of US military dominance. Consequently, degrading US combat power projection requires a strategy of access denial, which consists of geopolitical and military measures. In the Pacific Rim, the development of anti-access capabilities is accelerating. Specifically, China has increased its procurement of ballistic, cruise, and anti-ship missiles, sea mines, and diesel submarines with a special focus on anti-carrier operations. The anti-access challenge affects all the services. As the Pacific Rim continues to emerge as a global region of importance, the US must implement access-enhancing measures now to optimize its power projection capability later. The central question for the Air Force centers around how land-based airpower can assist in answering the emerging anti-access challenge in the Pacific Rim. This is not the first time the US has answered a significant anti-access challenge. The US encountered a severe anti-access challenge from the Soviet Union during the Cold War. In the 1950s and 1960s, the Soviet Union confronted the US with multiple nuclear delivery means that threatened US military forces overseas and stateside. The US answered this anti-access challenge in a multi-faceted approach that should inform our efforts in the Pacific Rim today. First, US Air Forces, Europe (USAFE) implemented dispersal plans for US tactical forces in Europe. Second, Strategic Air Command (SAC) put in place an operational concept called REFLEX ACTION. REFLEX ACTION enhanced the survivability of the US' long-range bomber force through dispersal and forward-deployed alert operations supported by an early warning system. Third, the US' successful pursuit of a strategic triad allowed the US to retain the strategic advantage throughout the Cold War. The insights gained from implementing these countermeasures to the Soviet threat apply directly to the US as it deals with a growing Pacific Rim anti-access challenge. The Pacific Rim dispersed operational concept enhances the survivability and sustainability of US military forces against a robust and growing anti-access threat. The concept incorporates the most significant lessons derived from US actions to counter the Soviet threat during the Cold War. The concept revolves around a three-tier system, which allows for the maximum dispersion of air assets while retaining operational cohesion, even as it lends diplomatic strength to US ties with nations in the region. The Pacific Rim dispersed operational concept complements existing US force structure and is congruent with Air Force operational concepts and planned procurement programs. The operational concept supports integrated joint operations, the Air Force's Global Strike CONOPS, the procurement of F/A-22, F-35A, and UCAV weapon systems. The genesis of this concept is rooted in the expeditionary efforts of SAC and USAFE to meet and defeat the Soviet Union anti-access challenge. The Pacific Rim dispersed operational concept provides a comprehensive, survivable basing framework, which enables a balance of inter- and intra-theater air assets in conjunction with joint and coalition forces to most effectively and efficiently achieve decisive results. The Pacific Rim dispersed operational concept is a key enabler in continuing the US tradition of exploiting its asymmetric advantages. The Air Force must continue to develop operational concepts, strengthen organizational constructs, exploit emerging technologies, and establish doctrine to guarantee the capability of land-based air forces to fight from inside and outside enemy threat rings. Long-range strikes from outside the threat ring will not suffice against a resilient and defiant adversary. US forces need to penetrate an adversary's territory in depth, with persistence and substantial power. The US must pursue those operational concepts that allow an increase in the effects desired, while decreasing US vulnerabilities, even as our adversaries attempt to diminish that capability. The Pacific Rim dispersed operational concept answers the emerging anti-access challenge and ensures America's indispensable asymmetric advantage -- air dominance -- in that vital and increasingly important region.