Tailoring the Tactical Air Control System for Contingencies
Abstract
Exploiting the characteristics of air power in this new world environment requires appropriate command and control (C2) and for most contingency situations C2 will be provided by Tactical Air Command's tactical air control system (TACS). However, the TACS is a product of a worldview that saw the likely threat as a theater-level war against a large-scale Soviet invasion of Europe or Southwest Asia. The TACS like other US military elements, was designed to be deployed as part of a large force, the type of deployment seen in Saudi Arabia in Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm. Yet as Gen John W. Foss, commander of the Army's Training and Doctrine Command, pointed out in a recent interview in Army Times, the future of military operations is in force tailoring, being able to respond with the right package in a relatively short period of time to meet the appropriate threat. Operation Just Cause (the US raid in Panama that ousted General Noriega) was, for General Foss, an excellent example of force tailoring to smaller-scale contingency requirements. What General Stiner THE JOINT TASK FORCE COMMANDER was able to do was package up the COMBAT force very quickly and put it together and it had just the right elements that he needed. The one element that Operation Just Cause lacked, however, was an appropriate TACS to run the air effort. This deficiency was in large part due to an inability to rapidly trim the TACS to an acceptable scale.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jun 01, 1992
- Accession Number
- ADA253594
Entities
People
- Robert J. Blunden Jr.
Organizations
- Air University