From the Air: Rediscovering Our Raison D'etre

Abstract

Given the daunting issues confronting the Air Force, Airmen would do well to look back at the service's reason for being and remember why the nation established an independent air arm. Admittedly, the Air Force will and should continue to support ground forces when appropriate, but Airmen should concentrate on those core functions that the service was created to perform. Current doctrine lists 12 such functions, but the Air Force could leverage its most fundamental purpose--attaining national security objectives--by prioritizing seven of them: (1) air superiority; (2) space superiority; (3) cyberspace superiority; power projection through (4) global precision attack and (5) rapid global mobility (including airlift and aerial refueling); (6) global integrated intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR); and (7) nuclear deterrence operations. The remainder of this article seeks to remind Airmen of what constitutes the Air Force's raison d'etre (at least in the minds of the authors).

Open PDF

Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Aug 01, 2012
Accession Number
ADA565021

Entities

People

  • Adam B. Lowther
  • John F. Farrell

Organizations

  • Air and Space Power Journal

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Air Platforms
  • Counter WMD
  • Cyber
  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Space
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Aerial Warfare
  • Air Force
  • Air Power
  • Aircrafts
  • Combat Areas
  • Contingency Operations (Military)
  • Cyber Warfare
  • Cyberspace
  • Fighter Aircraft
  • Geography
  • Military Aircraft
  • Military Aviation
  • Military Organizations
  • National Security
  • Tanker Aircraft
  • Warfare
  • Weapons Effects

Readers

  • Aerospace logistics and air mobility.
  • Military History of the United States in the 20th Century.
  • Strategic Security Studies

Technology Areas

  • Cyber
  • Space