The Composite Wing: Back to the Future
Abstract
In the Fall 1990 issue of Air Power Journal, General Merrill A. McPeak, Air Force Chief of Staff, pointed out what he believed to be a significant shortfall in the way US Air Force assets would be employed in any future conflict. His article, For the Composite Wing, identified the central problem as one of organization and communication. In short, on the eve of combat, the Air Force would deploy critical air assets into a theater and distribute them on different and perhaps widely scattered airfields. To integrate and mass these far flung air assets into a cohesive fighting force, the Air Component Commander would then be forced to rely on a sophisticated, delicate, often cumbersome command and control (C2) net. Over this fragile yet vital link pass hundreds of critical pieces of information--up-channel readiness reports and down- channel multi-page, highly complex Air Tasking Orders (ATO). General McPeak s solution to this problem is the composite wing. Basically, the concept would create a fighting unit that possesses at one base, under one commander, all the assets needed to execute a highly complex combat task independently.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- May 12, 1992
- Accession Number
- ADA425511
Entities
People
- James E. Moschgat
Organizations
- Air University Press