Gen. Peter J. Schoomaker made clear Thursday that he believes airpower is a big key to future Army effectiveness. The Army Chief of Staff told reporters that the ground force wants to reduce as much as possible its reliance on “organic” firepower because of the difficulty of hauling big guns and heavy artillery shells around the modern battlefield. “Why in the world would we want to continue to build in that direction,” said the Army Chief, “when we have the ability to call on somebody [read, airpower] and put a single round on a target,” especially since “we don’t have to truck it, and it can be accurate?”
The Air Force’s Experimental Operations Unit hosted a change of command ceremony recently, another sign of how the CCA concept is maturing and becoming entrenched in the Air Force’s structure, to the point where exercises have generated multiple sorties in a single day to simulate high-tempo combat operations.