Foundation Forum
General Michael E. Ryan
Air Force Chief of Staff
AFA National Symposium in Orlando
February 27, 1998
Building an Expeditionary Aerospace Force
It is a pleasure for me to be here today with many old friends in the
Air Force Association who have contributed so much to the Air Force and
to our nation through the years. I always enjoy coming to these AFA
symposiums. You do such a superb job in putting this on.
It allows us to combine our Corona meeting of the Air Force
leadership to discuss and plan how our Air Force can tackle the
challenges of today and into the 21st Century, and at the same time
interface with our great supporters in the AFA and industry. We also use
the occasion to meet with the leadership of the Canadian Air Force to
discuss areas of mutual concern and exchange solutions to challenges for
both our air forces.
The Air Force has faced many challenges during the past eight year
period of downsizing the force. But, what has not downsized during the
past eight years has been the incredible commitment and performance of
our Air Force people as they meet the challenges of this unstable world.
It has grown. During this period our aircraft have landed in every
country in the world except five. Those either didn't have real runways
or they had a dispute with the U.S. that perhaps generated a visit in
other ways.
Despite an active duty force size which has decreased 36% since the
end of the cold war, our deployments have increased four fold. Today as
I speak we have over 14,000 personnel deployed overseas to support
operations in all parts of the world. In Saudia Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain,
Diego Garcia, Vicenzia, Tuzla, Tazar, Korea, and many others. Always
alert, ever ready to respond, to the tickle of a search radar, the
rattle of a SAM, or the wrenching turn to intercept an unknown,
vectoring their way.
It's a team effort: airborne and on the ground Transports,
Tankers, AWACS, JSTARS, CAP, Bombers, SEAD, Space, Recce, Command and
Control, maintenance, and support -- active duty, guard, reserve and
civilians. A collage of airmen and machines in an integrated force,
performing in a profession that can turn deadly in the blink of an eye.
It's your Expeditionary Aerospace Force doing its job. Air Force
professionals at their peak of preparedness.
I've just returned from Southwest Asia where we have almost 9000 of
our men and women deployed. You would be so proud of their
professionalism and unsung sacrifice.
For the most part they are living in austere conditions, the majority
in tent cities they themselves erected and maintain. Many are on their
third or fourth tour and are just a portion of the many Air Force
members who will spend one out of the next three years away from home.
The bed-down location I visited in the Gulf region is typical. On the
ramp are several C-5s off-loading the needed equipment and spares for
sustained operations. There are KC-135 Tankers from Grand Forks . . .
F-16s from Moody . . . F-15s from Eglin . . . and B-1s from Ellsworth.
Together, they form the 347th Air Expeditionary Wing, an
Air Expeditionary Force we deployed there in November of last year.
They're still there, monitoring the no-fly zone in Iraq, and ready for
any contingency you can throw at them. Flying their aircraft hard and
fixing them when they break.
The first thing you notice when you approach the base is that force
protection is of the highest order. You can't get to the compound
without passing a checkpoint five kilometers from the gate, which itself
sits hundreds of yards from the perimeter of the living area, and is
protected by the latest intrusion sensors developed by our Force
Protection Battle Lab in San Antonio. To gain entry, not only are your
credentials double checked, but your car is subjected to multiple
searches including the most reliable device for finding explosives yet
devised -- our K-9 corps.
You then cross a no-man's land that ends in a tent city, where
streets are cleverly named and signs read "keep off the sand."
Sleeping 8 to 10 to a tent, privacy is minimal and trust is essential.
The hardships shared are the foundation of enduring relationships. What
holds it all together is leadership. From the Commander, who in this
case is Brig Gen L. D. Johnston from Moody, right down to the flight
line supervisors, teamwork is essential.
Each morning brings the hope of discovering new ways to make things
better for the young men and women who live there. Each day brings new
operational challenges and successes. Each night brings the realization
that the next day could bring combat to bases across Southwest Asia.
They do their job, patrolling the skies of Iraq, as fellow airmen do
likewise from Turkey in the North. And others do their jobs in Bosnia,
or Korea. Ever vigilant -- Ever prepared.
Our Air Force is naturally suited for the expeditionary role. As John
Jumper showed, we have a strong expeditionary heritage in Mexico in
1916, in France during World War I, in North Africa, China and Burma
during World War II, and during the Cold War, with bomber and fighter
reflex operations into Europe and Africa.
Each time the Air Force has shown its unique ability to overcome
difficulties and adapt. We did well, given the times. We displayed
Herculean efforts to overcome the challenges of terrain and distance.
The threats of the next century require us to overcome the next
challenges -- the challenges of time and tempo.
We must focus our efforts on developing the process, the structure,
the procedures, and most importantly the mindset to be expeditionary.
What does it mean to be an expeditionary Aerospace Force? It means
having a force that is fully capable of utilizing the unique aspects of
air and space power range, speed, flexibility, and precision to their
fullest capacity. Not where we live, but where we are needed. Not
when we can, but when we must.
It means having a force which is light, lean, and lethal. Light - so
that it can move rapidly and efficiently to where we are required, as
Walt Kross discussed. Lean - so that we can move with fewer airlift
resources. It means operating out of any location with a smaller
footprint which requires less support and fewer lives put in danger.
Lethal - to accomplish the mission, whatever it is, effectively, with
minimum resources, as Dick Hawley discussed.
Most importantly, being expeditionary means having a force which is
mentally prepared, procedurally sound, technologically advanced,
appropriately organized, adequately supported and competently led.
You'll also notice the growing use of the word Aerospace. I prefer
the Aerospace Force to Air and Space Force because it captures the
seamless nature of the vertical dimension and highlights that it is one
environment. Because of our commitment to integrate all the elements of
aerospace power, I am not satisfied that the only thing which holds air
and space together is a conjunction. As the young sergeant said in the
film earlier, "Space is just a little higher."
Being an efficient expeditionary Aerospace Force is more than just a
vision. We are already so depended on both atmospheric and orbital
capabilities that they cannot be artificially separated. They are both
part of the package that our service brings to national security.
Being an expeditionary aerospace force is what our nation needs our
Air Force to do. And, over the last eight years, we've adjusted to
meeting that need within the margins that we can control.
Let me recount what Air Force leadership, with the unwavering support
of this organization and our partnership with industry has done.
We've restructured into an objective combat structure for global
reach and global power.
We've arranged our command structure to align with our joint
responsibilities, assuring that every CINC has an air commander to
command aerospace forces.
We've provided those regional air commanders with the situational
awareness and air and space expertise to execute their missions.
We've provided our air commanders with the aerospace operations
centers, both fixed and deployable, that are capable of planning and
executing aerospace operations, both as air components and as JFACCs.
We've written the doctrine that describes the relationships and
responsibilities of commanders, charged with the deployment and
employment of aerospace power.
We've trained our air commanders to command at the operational level
of war and peace.
We're equipped the force with the most potent arsenal of equipment
and weapons the world has ever seen.
And we've produced an enduring vision of our gateway into the 21st
century -- Global Engagement which lays out our core values,
competencies for the decades ahead, and charges our people to apply
their innovative powers for real progress.
In short, we've made great strides in melding our mobility, combat,
space, and support forces into a unified whole an aerospace
force an expeditionary aerospace force. And we've executed every
mission we've been given from the Persian Gulf to Bosnia to Haiti to
Korea to Africa.
We were not able to do this without a price, a price partially paid
by our most precious asset, our people. They suffer the strain of being
an aerospace expeditionary force. A strain felt in equal measure by our
support forces both deployed and at home.
Our cold war concept transitioning to our two regional war scenario
has ill- prepared us for the expeditionary demands of these lesser
regional contingencies. Our 36% drawdown of forces has not been matched
by a commensurate drawdown in base structure leaving our forces spread
thinly across multiple bases.
For instance, we have 12 TAC Fighter Wings in the active forces but
they are spread over almost twice that many bases. That leaves us with
operational units that lack depth for the demands of deployment and the
reserve for home base operations. We need to consolidate our forces into
viable larger units for expeditionary sustainment. And our support
forces are meeting themselves coming and going, literally.
We have been stuck in a cold war basing paradigm that had, as its
basis, that if we need to fight a theater war we would deploy the forces
and support, win the conflict, and return victorious. Meanwhile the
bases we stripped of support for our deployed forces would just have to
make do. But the security demands of the world we live in are not
cooperating with the paradigm and will not in the foreseeable future.
We've opened multiple expeditionary bases in areas of vital interest
to our nation. By taking the support from our fixed home bases, we've
opened expeditionary bases in Bosnia. We've bedded down forces in
Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman, UAE and Diego Garcia for
Southwest Asia. We are executing similar, but smaller, support
operations in Korea and Latin America. All of these come from a support
base we have never sized for expeditionary contingencies.
We have been taking it out of our hide. So our people have had to
manage continued operations shorthanded at home bases while supporting
deployed operations. Home bases must still be guarded, the remaining
aircraft maintained and flown. The families still need medical attention
and the remaining forces must still train. In short, we've been
over-extended for eight years and that must change. How do we change to
meet that challenge? The operational answer is we must regroup our
forces and their support into robust bases bases where we can have
the depth and breadth of both operational and support forces to deploy
and still retain viable operations and support.
The bottom line is that we need a BRAC a Base Closure and
Realignment -- that will allow our nation's aerospace force to arrange
itself into a strong, light, lean and lethal expeditionary force. It
won't be easy, it won't be politically pleasant and it won't be popular.
Bur for the national need, it is a necessity. We need it not just for
the money it saves, but as an operational necessity for our forces and
to lessen the hardships on our people.
As we move into the 21st century it will take leadership
and cooperation at all levels of government and industry to mold our air
force for the national security demands of the future. We have the
finest people and the greatest potential to be a dominant power for our
nation's peace and prosperity both for this generation and those to
come.
I challenge each of you in this room to help us move toward that
vision. A unified expeditionary aerospace power one team one force
one family our great air force.
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