AirSea Battle Imperatives

In order for the AirSea Battle scheme to reach its maximum potential, each of the services will have to put aside their “moderated parochial tendencies” and significantly enhance cooperative efforts, said Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz May 16. That will mean utilizing complementary and cross-domain capabilities with common data links so that, for example, Navy submarines may communicate with Air Force remotely piloted aircraft, or an F-22 can retarget a Tomahawk cruise missile launched from a submarine, as has already been tested, said Schwartz during a discussion with Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Jonathan Greenert at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C. “The ultimate goal is interoperable air and naval forces that can execute networked, integrated attacks in-depth to disrupt, destroy, and defeat an adversary’s [anti-access, area-denial] capabilities,” said Schwartz. This will, in turn, sustain “the deployment of US joint forces . . . wherever and whenever they are needed to help counter potential aggression or hostile actions against US and partner-nation interests,” he added. (Schwartz’s prepared remarks) (Brookings webpage with event audio)