It’s important that the United States prepares to deal with anti-access, area-denial threats as the Pentagon scrubs its budgets and programs, say Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Welsh and Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Jonathan Greenert. “Less funding will compel us to reprioritize our efforts and make some hard choices with respect to the size and shape of our forces,” they write in a Foreign Policy Magazine article published on May 16. Accordingly, the United States should focus “our investments and operations on our most important interests,” they state. AirSea Battle is a concept for defeating A2/AD threats and enabling follow-on operations ranging from military to humanitarian-assistance operations, they state. Normally, commanders develop operational concepts to carry out a set of actions in their region, they write. In contrast, the services are using the Joint Operational Access Concept to guide their efforts to organize, train, and equip the forces that they provide to commanders. This will require new thinking about old capabilities, write the two service Chiefs. ASB involves ideas such as defeating missiles with electronic warfare, disrupting surveillance with cyber attacks, and defeating air threats with submarines, in what is dubbed “networked integrated attack,” they state. It will require a force that is designed for, and practices, these operations regularly, they write. (See also AirSea Battle’s Battle from Air Force Magazine’s 2013 archive.)
U.S. Air Force F-15C Eagles have roared out of Barnes Air National Guard Base, Mass., for the last time. The 104th Fighter Wing’s last three F-15Cs departed the base Oct. 23 for the “Boneyard” at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Ariz., ending the aircraft's era on the frontlines of homeland defense.
