America's Air Force: the nation's guardian

Joint Force Quarterly, April, 2008 by T. Michael Moseley

* large numbers of "generation 4-plus" fighter aircraft that challenge America's existing "4th-generation" inventory--and thus, air superiority with overwhelming numbers and advanced weaponry; sophisticated integration of electronic attack and advanced avionics; low-observable technologies; and progressive, realistic networked training

* increasingly lethal, integrated air defense systems that threaten both the aircraft and the weapons used to suppress or destroy them

* proliferation of surface-to-surface missile systems with growing range, precision, mobility, and maneuverability capable of delivering both conventional and nonconventional warheads

* proliferation of unmanned aerial systems capable of conducting low-observable, persistent, intrusive missions in both lethal and nonlethal modes

* resurgence of offensive counterspace capabilities--as evidenced by China's early 2007 antisatellite test

* cyberspace attacks creating operational and strategic effects at low cost and with relative impunity

* increasing ability of even marginal actors to surveil the disposition of U.S. and allied assets through commercially available and widely accessible means.

Even if we continue to dissuade and deter major competitors, their advanced equipment is proliferating worldwide. We are bound to confront these weapons systems wherever America engages to promote and defend its interests. All Services must be vigilant to adversary breakthroughs in fields such as cybernetics, nanotechnology, biotechnology, electromagnetic spectrum physics, robotics, advanced propulsion, and so forth. We cannot assume that the next military revolution will originate in the West. Indeed, the center of gravity in science and engineering education has shifted eastward. Therefore, we must discern and counter innovative combinations of traditional and new concepts, doctrines, weapons systems, and disruptive technologies.

A Strategic Crossroads

As a consequence of these global dynamics and shifts in the character of 21st-century warfare, we are at a strategic crossroads. The Air Force has aggressively pursued air dominance through focused, sizable investment in Airmen, aircraft, weapons, training, and essential support structure to include fundamental and applied research. It has also harnessed space and cyber capabilities as the catalysts of precision, stealth, speed, reach, and persistence that became the hallmarks of late 20th-century warfare. In the process, we became increasingly dependent on space and the electromagnetic spectrum as the indispensable pillars of our ability to deliver desired effects. Airpower in the 21st century is no longer the sum but the product of air, space, and cyberspace superiority. Consequently, loss of dominance in any one of these domains risks across-the-board degradation, if not outright failure. Our freedom of action, let alone superiority, is not assured.

From this point forward, the joint team should expect to be challenged in all warfighting domains. In January 2007, China demonstrated the ability to hold satellites at risk and the willingness to contest the space domain. State and nonstate actors are already exploiting cyberspace to gain asymmetric advantage. In April 2007, Estonia was the victim of a well-coordinated cyber attack that brought its technologically sophisticated government to a virtual standstill. Insurgents in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere exploit the electromagnetic spectrum to kill and maim through improvised explosive devices, while propagating their message of hate to the world. Thus, perhaps for the first time in the history of warfare, the ability to inflict damage and cause strategic dislocation is no longer directly proportional to capital investment, superior training, or technological prowess.