USAF Vulnerability to Limited Ground Attacks
Abstract
During Desert Storm, the United States Air Force demonstrated the lethality of airpower to its potential enemies. Virtually unstoppable in the air, airpower's vulnerability lies on the ground. The threat of limited ground attacks on parked aircraft will increase as the enemy learns that, with a limited investment in manpower and standoff weapons, they can easily destroy part of the shrinking inventory of USAF aircraft, worth billions of dollars. This paper reviews the capabilities of the current AF Air Base Defense (ABD) Program to match the increased threat. It looks at the threat, the history of air base defense, current ABD procedures and program shortfalls. What was found was that the current ABD program needs attention. The root cause of the problem is a lack of support between services, within the Air Force and even within the tasked unit -- the Security Police (SP) career field. The shortfall comes from deep within the Air Force psyche -- flying operations get more attention than ground operations. Because of limited AF support, the security police have developed a part-time ABD program. A third of the security police force practice ABD, only a small portion of their time, and look to reserves and other base personnel to augment their operations in war. The SP focus is on peacetime requirements, not wartime mission accomplishment. Major ABD program problems exist in organization, training, leadership, force integration and deployment planning. Shortfalls in these areas seriously degrade the abilities of defenders to carry out their mission. Minor problems also exist in command and control, communications,combat intelligence, the use of reservists and host nation support.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jun 01, 1994
- Accession Number
- ADA425507
Entities
People
- Gail E. Wojtowicz
Organizations
- Air University Press