Air power has come of age, says the recently retired head of the USAF's warfighting arm
Graham Warwick/WASHINGTON DC
Gen Richard Hawley (left), commander of the US Air Force Air Combat Command (ACC) during the recent conflicts in the Gulf and the Balkans, sees no technological development on the horizon that will produce a dramatic shift in the dominance of offensive air power over ground defences.
Hawley believes air power "has truly come of age and is no longer simply the supporting arm it has been viewed as throughout history". He credits PGMs for the transformation.
"The advent of PGMs has resulted in the dominance of the offence over the defence. The incredible ability of air power to dominate defences at will, to take control of enemy airspace, has changed the character of the air force to the extent that air power has become the preferred form of military power to achieve political ends," he says.
"Air power has achieved a new status which is likely to persist for a significant period. There does not appear to be a technical development on the horizon that will produce a dramatic shift."
Hawley says the reason for the imbalance in favour of offensive air power is air defence systems' dependence on radar. "Anti-radiation missiles put the defence at a severe disadvantage. Every radar is vulnerable, which reduces the ability of the defence to execute the kill chain. Also, intelligence gatherers have evolved to the point where they have the ability to precisely locate defences on the ground. PGMs can take advantage of that - even the wide footprint of cluster bombs dropped from altitude can be made to fit precisely if we have the ability to locate the emitter."
The recent and rapid emergence of air power as the preferred means of exerting influence to achieve political objectives is posing challenges to a command structure oriented towards ground forces, Hawley believes. "We need to better educate combined and joint commanders on the capabilities of modern air power." The willingness of Operation Allied Force commander Gen Wesley Clark to use the Northrop Grumman B-2 in Kosovo was due, "at least in part", Hawley believes, to ACC briefings he received on the capabilities of the USAF's bomber force and the precision of its GPS-aided munitions.
The US Air Force's Expeditionary Air Force concept is an effort to package a range of capabilities in a way that meets theatre commanders' needs, he says. But is the USAF being asked to do too much? Hawley says: "The demands placed on the air force by the spectrum of contingencies around the world is not too different to the Cold War. The world we face is one in which we get a large number of contingencies that we cannot get out of. [As a result], demand for surveillance and intelligence assets is at the same level as for a major contingency. We will have to make the heaviest investment in force structure in this area."
Hawley is a strong proponent of datalinks, which "have proven to be a tremendous force multiplier. The USAF has been tardy on datalinks. We feared they would be so expensive it would bankrupt us. Now that we have seen their power, there has been a rapid evolution of thinking in the air force." He believes that the USAF must move to provide real-time information directly into all cockpits. "We need to tighten the timeline between the acquisition of intelligence and the application of force."
Hawley is also an ardent advocate of air dominance and therefore a strong supporter of the Lockheed Martin/Boeing F-22. He, like Gen Michael Ryan, USAF Chief of Staff, and other senior air force officers, believes the stealthy air superiority fighter is essential if the USAF is to continue to meet political demands that air power be applied with minimum losses.
"The problem air power faces," Hawley warns, "is that we have set the bar so high, with the Gulf War and Kosovo, that any conflict where there are more balanced forces, and more losses, will not sit well with the public."
Source: Flight International
