President's Commentary: Air Operations Are at a Crucial Crossroads

The long period of air supremacy enjoyed by the United States and its allies may be coming to an end. Advances in capabilities by potential adversaries place our air forces at a crucial point in their existence. Increased investments in acquisition and innovation are necessary to once again widen what now is a contracting gap in air power.

Air operations always will be important to combined military activities. They involve a broad spectrum of capabilities that the Air Force, Army, Navy and Marine Corps bring to the fight. Ground, maritime, cyber or space operations seldom engage adversaries without the cover and operational shaping of the battlespace provided by air forces. Air operations often dictate what happens on the ground, at sea and even in space and cyberspace. They can be the decisive factor in military operations. This has been illustrated repeatedly by activities in Southwest Asia—particularly in the fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and in Iraq. A commander must be able to choose from among a variety of air capabilities and integrate them into the fight.

Many factors threaten our long-enjoyed air supremacy. One foremost challenge is internal—the defense budget. The Budget Control Act needs to be reformed or eliminated. It is too restrictive, and it hinders efforts to modernize air capabilities in all the services. This has a ripple effect, from acquisition to training and maintenance.

The United States must continue to invest in the development of future air capabilities through innovation, education and technology. Many potential adversaries have made significant strides in these areas in recent years. We never want any of our adversaries to be a close second to the capabilities we provide. As a nation, our air forces never should approach the point where an adversary considers challenging us in the air because we have not given our airmen, sailors, soldiers or Marines the air capabilities to conduct operations successfully. This is a fundamental tenet: We never should have a fair fight. 

Innovation in support of air operations must be encouraged to go beyond evolutionary advances to revolutionary advances—not just leading edge, but bleeding edge in some cases. A highly technical, continuously trained and agile work force is needed to support the current and future force. This requires a fresh look at recruiting, retention, the role of outside support such as contractors and a recommitment to appropriate resourcing. Technological change is not waiting for us—it is moving ahead by exponential leaps and bounds. The challenge lies in integrating technology in a timely manner along with continually developing and evolving the work force.

An important aspect of innovative aviation research and development is protecting sensitive information from foreign espionage. It will do the Free World no good if a U.S. or European multibillion-dollar aircraft program appears in near real time in China or Russia. Furthermore, we must secure and protect the supply chain—but we are not there yet. 

Many technologies hold promise for integrated air operations. Improved stealth capabilities will allow aircraft to penetrate and take out their air defenses as well as attack and interdict ground adversaries that pose a barrier to allied ground forces. Over-the-horizon air defenses would protect air, ground and maritime forces. Airborne intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance must continue to improve in support of air, space, cyber, ground and maritime forces. 

Air forces must operate in an electronic warfare (EW) environment in which sensor or cyber capabilities are degraded. This includes being effective in both defensive and offensive cyber and EW operations. The United States and its allies largely have controlled this agenda over the past few decades, but that advantage no longer can be taken for granted amid significant advances in electronic attack by adversaries. An enemy can jam satellites or missile radars and deploy expendable jammers fired out of artillery tubes that would lay across the battlefield and deny communications and data flow. The nation that has the most to gain from technology has the most to lose if that technology is denied or degraded.

An area that requires increased emphasis is the nuclear force mission. The ability to operate in a nuclear environment provides Free World forces with a strategic insurance policy that deters would-be conquerors. Yet, the U.S. airborne nuclear deterrent is aging, and potential adversaries are expanding and modernizing their nuclear forces. The post-Cold War era does not give us the luxury of dropping our guard in strategic deterrence, and this force must be modernized to remain on solid footing.

In the end, air operations are not just about aircraft flying over the battlespace. We must focus on the mission and its threats and determine how to mitigate vulnerabilities without inhibiting capabilities.