Luftkrieg im 21. Jahrhundert

[Quintus Fabius]

Über die Vorstellungen der US Air Force zum Thema:

https://www.acc.af.mil/News/Article/2936...ure-fight/

Garrison Wing Organization: A-Staff and Groups

The most visible change to Airmen joining ACC will be that their Wing now has a fulltime A-Staff working alongside existing Groups. Instead of the ad hoc battle staff that stands up in response to an issue or crisis, the A-Staff will permanently exist to support wing and group commanders before a crisis emerges. Airmen will have the structures and tools to operate in a joint model and learn what it means to execute the joint planning process, generate orders, and execute the commander’s intent just like their sister service counterparts.

Several Wings, to include those at Moody, Mountain Home, Seymour Johnson and Beale AFBs, developed and tested this new A-Staff structure. What they found is it enables the commander to have the big picture needed for the Wing to execute cross-functional decision making with speed and agility as the Groups focus on executing their functions.

4-Phase Force Generation

In addition to structurally changing the Wings, Airmen across the Air Force are now aligned in a four-phase force generation model. Moving away from the current AEF process structured for supporting counterinsurgency operations, the new model ensures forces are no longer consumed faster than they can regenerate. The new AF Force Generation model enables units to build sustainable, high-end readiness. Restructured into four phases – Available, Reset, Prepare, and Ready – that span a 24-month cycle, AFFORGEN balances deployments against building readiness. It also gives Airmen time and space to strengthen cohesion with the same teammates that they will deploy with.

Combat Oriented Maintenance Organization

Closer to the flight line, Airmen in ACC’s aircraft maintenance squadrons are re-organized into the Combat Oriented Maintenance Organization. New Mission Generation Squadrons align maintenance efforts with operations. This concept first implemented at Shaw AFB’s 20th Fighter Wing, pairs maintainers in a squadron responsible for aircraft health and sortie generation alongside a flying squadron. The two units will work collaboratively at home – training the way they will fight – so there is unity of effort before deploying.

Lead Wings

Finally, to ensure its Airmen are ready to respond to any global crisis, ACC built Lead Wings that can rapidly deploy and provide a cohesive fighting force ready to execute as a high-performing team from the start. Now, Airmen will train together in garrison during the AFFORGEN Prepare and Ready phases, becoming a high performing task-organized team that is ready to deploy in the Available phase. Lead Wings are an aggregated force package comprised of an expeditionary A-Staff for command and control, Operations Squadrons and their partner Mission Generations Squadrons, and an Air Base Squadron.

Lead Wings with their A-Staff are optimized to aggregate and disaggregate capabilities with close linkage to Numbered Air Force, Major Command, and Joint Task Force command and control structures. Back at home station, the Group staff will continue to perform garrison missions while the Lead Wing conducts expeditionary operations. ACC will have five Lead Wings tasked and scheduled to deploy within the AFFORGEN cycle by October 2022.

Air Base Squadrons

A major portion of the Lead Wing is the formation of an Air Base Squadron. Some Airmen who perform Agile Combat Support roles like security forces, civil engineers, logistics, communications, medical and others will be task-organized into an Air Base Squadron assigned to a deploying Lead Wing.

These functions were traditionally crowd sourced from across the Air Force, with teams often meeting for the first time after stepping off the deployment rotator. Building cohesive teams before deploying will enable Air Base Squadrons to move and generate combat power faster from forward operating bases.

Multi-Capable Airmen and Agile Combat Employment

Mission generation Airmen performed specialized tasks and duties at established air bases in the past. In the future, teams of trained Multi-Capable Airmen will recover, refuel, reload and launch aircraft both at fixed bases and austere, temporary locations. This enables Agile Combat Employment by maintaining a nimble and reduced footprint that can project combat power while mitigating logistics under attack and thwarting other adversary threats.

What’s next?

ACC plans to implement this new Wing A-Staff structure in all its Wings by December 2022 through focusing on staff training, standardizing techniques, tactics, and procedures, and Wing readiness exercises. This is just the beginning of the immense culture shift that ACC is undertaking to prepare for the future.

“We live in an increasingly complex global security environment characterized by overt challenges to a free and open international order and the re-emergence of strategic competition where we no longer control the rheostat of time,” said Kelly. “Our Airmen, organizational constructs, warfighting concepts, force generation, and our Air Force, must change to meet the challenge, before the shooting starts.”