The Relevance of Air Force Combat Support in Asymmetric Conflict

<p>The military has a long history of involvement in asymmetric conflicts but has had only limited success in securing the overarching political goals that drove the conflict in the first place. These conflicts can be long-term events that become resource sinkholes - possibly for decades - and hamper the military's ability fight the next fight. Victory in asymmetric conflict is not kinetic destruction of the enemy which puts the surrounding populace at risk of collateral damage. Furthermore the enemy will adapt his mission in order to survive. Lastly kinetic strikes cannot mitigate underlying disenfranchisement that is the center of gravity of terrorist and radical ideology. Victory is won through the hearts and minds of the enemy's popular support base. The Air Force (AF) can contribute to the fight by maximizing the utility of its Agile Combat Support (ACS) capability in direct tasks in support of the Joint Force Commander. ACS and its expeditionary subset - Expeditionary Combat Support (ECS) - are supporting such efforts in US Central Command.</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>