Force Protection

<p>Force protection in the Air Force has taken on greater significance in the new but well overdue recognition of its contribution to air and space power. It now has higher priority than ever with senior leadership extensive research and development efforts are ongoing and a Force Protection Battlelab has been established--all focused on this one complex mission. Herculean efforts by the entire DoD particularly since the 1996 bombing of Khobar Towers have resulted in the publishing of literally thousands of pages on program guidance at all DoD levels. Unfortunately the terms Force Protection and Antiterrorism are now nearly synonymous. This limited program focus does not facilitate a structure designed to ensure a true force protection effort especially considering the challenges faced by today's Expeditionary Aerospace Force. The purpose of this study is to review existing force protection programs and ongoing initiatives and then attempt to contribute to further program development from a bottoms up perspective. The bottom in this case is the base level support group commander. The challenges facing support group commanders in today's Air Force are great perhaps too great. Managing support operations at permanent main operating bases with all its built-in support structure is one thing. Leading deployed support operations of which force protection is just one aspect is another. Simply stated current expectations of the support group commander are unrealistic and doomed to failure. This study reviews current USAF force protection documentation through a literature review and then proposes a systematic approach to program development designed to enhance synergy in force protection operations. It maintains throughout that the key to effective force protection operations is the role played by the combat support commander.</p><p>This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore you will see the original copyright references library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world) and other notations in the work.</p><p>This work is in the public domain in the United States of America and possibly other nations. Within the United States you may freely copy and distribute this work as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.</p><p>As a reproduction of a historical artifact this work may contain missing or blurred pages poor pictures errant marks etc. Scholars believe and we concur that this work is important enough to be preserved reproduced and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.</p><br>