From Redlegs to Airmen

<p>The Department of Defense is transforming to enable the US Army to deploy faster into non-linear battlefields without fully addressing the costs of such a change. To facilitate this agility the Army will be more reliant on fires in general and fixed-wing fires in particular. Departmental and service doctrine and discussion underemphasize major lessons about conducting ground operations reliant on fixed-wing firepower demonstrated in Dien Bien Phu Operation Anaconda and Operation Iraqi Freedom. These lessons include the need for air superiority the ability to target and prioritize fires at all ground command echelons and the need to accommodate qualitatively different effects from aircraft than from traditional ground fires. Before leaping into an interdependent future department strategists must first contend with the implications of such a future. Leaders must address the fact that the costs of distributed battlespace operations go beyond increased close air support sortie allocation and an expanded pool of joint terminal attack controllers. Air superiority over and around the battlespace must provide security for not only close fires platforms but also enable shaping fires airlift and intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance missions. The services must define the requirements for modular air support operations centers across a distributed battlefield. Airmen must be realistic advocates educating ground commanders about the effects aircraft can reasonably generate to facilitate maneuver. The commanders of tomorrow's distributed battlespace operations depend on current doctrine writers to include the lessons from the past in order to ensure their success.</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>