US Air Force Airlift and the Army's Relevance

Abstract

ABSTRACT: This article advises Army leaders to return to previously successful strategies of influence to articulate a collaborative vision for future of air mobility. By underscoring requirement for multiservice capabilities to deliver personnel and materiel wherever they are needed, US air mobility can once again become a strategic force multiplier. The capability of transporting materiel and personnel remains essential to US Army's effectiveness. (1) Likewise, momentum--mass x speed--remains a relevant element of national defense as Army operators and defense planners make necessary provisions to get land forces where they need to go, when they need to go there, and with necessary momentum. Accordingly, this article addresses two questions regarding American air-mobility forces. First, can present and future US Air Force airlift force structure support existing and emerging US Army movement and requirements? Second, should Army address its mobility concerns passively, by declaring its requirements and hoping Air Force will come up with appropriate forces, or assertively, by involving itself more deeply in all details of airlift force structure planning? The importance of these two questions is obvious given integral role of inter- and intratheater air mobility in most Army warfighting concepts. Ultimately, Army's vision of itself as a global response force, able to conduct rapid and agile expeditionary over strategic and theater distances, is compromised by shortfalls in our nation's airlift program; but Army can do something about that vulnerability. (2) The Army and Airlift Relevance An airlift planning adage states the Army does not have light units; it has heavy and incredibly heavy units. This adage will remain painfully relevant to current global environment of burgeoning strategic complexity, insufficient budgets, continuous (and probably expanding) overseas commitments, a predominantly homeland-based force structure, and diverse enemies employing traditional, unconventional, and hybrid strategies. (3) Enemies such as international criminal gangs, transnational terrorists, and insurgents are growing stronger. Some are approaching point of near-peer status in local areas and in certain realms of combat, gaining a capacity for coordinated or concurrent attacks on United States and its interests. Nuclear proliferation and inexpensive communication networks also increase possible danger, velocity, and complexity of future crises and conflicts. (4) In response, Army leaders and planners are exploring numerous doctrine, training, force structure, and equipment innovations to preserve future readiness. The recently released Army movement and concept, for example, calls for task-organized forces moving in unpredictable ways and maneuvering throughout depth of future battlefields to defeat enemies by forcing them to fight against multiple types of attacks from multiple directions and domains. (5) To survive and fight decisively, these task-organized forces will need to be capable of semi-independent--but mutually supporting--cross-domain land, air, space and cyber operations for at least one week before pausing to rest and refit. (6) In many circumstances, these operations will enable sea and air forces to achieve their missions and support in-theater preparation activities by Joint commands. Agile strategic and logistical support by air and sea will be essential to achieving these effects. (7) The success of these emerging lines of development will depend on support of robust air mobility. Future combat scenarios often will require Army to maneuver over strategic distances along multiple axes of advance by air and sea, without stopping at intermediate staging bases. (8) If enemy anti-access/area denial operations block arrival of sea and air forces in early phases of future campaigns, Army forcible entry operations likely will involve airlifts of assault and then follow-on forces to seize terrain in unpredictable locations and to transition quickly to offensive operations. …