Air and Space Power Journal: Fall 2011
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Fall 2011 Volume XXV, No. 3 AFRP 10-1 From the Editor Personnel Recovery in Focus ❙ 6 Lt Col David H. Sanchez, Deputy Chief, Professional Journals Capt Wm. Howard, Editor Senior Leader Perspective Air Force Personnel Recovery as a Service Core Function ❙ 7 It’s Not “Your Father’s Combat Search and Rescue” Brig Gen Kenneth E. Todorov, USAF Col Glenn H. Hecht, USAF Features Air Force Rescue ❙ 16 A Multirole Force for a Complex World Col Jason L. Hanover, USAF Department of Defense (DOD) Directive 3002.01E, Personnel Recovery in the Department of Defense, highlights personnel recovery (PR) as one of the DOD’s highest priorities. As an Air Force core function, PR has experienced tremendous success, having performed 9,000 joint/multinational combat saves in the last two years and having flown a total of 15,750 sorties since 11 September 2001. Despite this admirable record, the author contends that the declining readiness of aircraft and equipment as well as chronic staffing shortages prevents Air Force rescue from meeting the requirements of combatant commanders around the globe. To halt rescue’s decline, a numbered Air Force must represent this core function, there- by ensuring strong advocacy and adequate resources for this lifesaving, DOD-mandated function. Strategic Rescue ❙ 26 Vectoring Airpower Advocates to Embrace the Real Value of Personnel Recovery Maj Chad Sterr, USAF The Air Force rescue community has expanded beyond its traditional image of rescuing downed air- crews to encompass a much larger set of capabilities and competencies that have strategic impact on US operations around the world. The author contends that “airpower advocates now have a strategic rescue capability . to counter our adversaries’ efforts to influence our way of life. It is up to these same advocates to maximize the emerging potential of what we might term ‘strategic PR.’ ” Air Force Fixed-Wing Rescue ❙ 37 A Multifaceted Approach for Full-Spectrum Personnel Recovery Capt Kyle J. Porter, USAF Currently, personnel recovery operations involve a broader range of scenarios than the current HC-130, HH-60, and Guardian Angel weapons systems can effectively support. Vast regions of the globe remain almost entirely inaccessible to the larger C-130 airframes, and refueling requirements prevent HH-60s from reaching them. Further compounding these geographic limitations is the complex support required by these systems. If the Air Force wishes to give its rescue operations truly global capability, it must adopt a blended-wing concept which includes smaller, commercially available aircraft that can land on practically any flat terrain and that do not depend upon intricate logistical support. How to Say “National Security” in 1,001 Languages ❙ 48 Lt Col D. J. Western, USAF The military must fully comprehend that maintaining global leadership and security demands a broader understanding of other cultures, thought processes, and, of course, languages. Toward that end, the author details how the Department of Defense can overcome institutional inertia and reduce the deficit in foreign language skills through practical incentives, such as implementing at each level of in-residence professional military education meaningful programs that recognize the attainment of pro- ficiency in foreign languages. Fiscally Sound Options for a Flawed Tanker Recapitalization Strategy ❙ 62 Lt Col Michael W. Grismer Jr., USAF The current process of replacing the KC-135 tanker with the KC-46, the Air Force’s top recapitalization priority, will not be complete until the last KC-135 is about 120 years old. Consequently, the author contends that Air Force leaders should consider innovative options, including fee-for-service refueling performed by commercially owned and operated KC-X and KC-135 aircraft. Doing so allows time for delivery of the new KC-46s while commercial providers support ongoing refueling needs in the interim, thus helping to ensure that airpower’s force multiplier—aerial refueling—doesn’t become its single point of failure. The United States Should Develop a Missile Defense System That Builds Confidence ❙ 74 Col Mike Corbett, USAF, Retired Paul Zarchan Over the past two decades, disappointing tests of experimental missile defense systems and the subse- quent criticism of those systems have reduced the United States’ commitment to develop a viable de- fense against ballistic missile threats. To restore confidence and foster continuing innovation in missile defense, the Department of Defense, in conjunction with the Air Force, should adapt the air sovereignty alert mission by including missile defense that uses air-launched hit-to-kill (ALHK) missiles fired from fighter aircraft. The author demonstrates how ALHK-equipped aircraft could effectively defeat incoming ballistic missiles from both near and distant launch sites. Departments 13 ❙ Ira C. Eaker Award Winners 14 ❙ Ricochets and Replies 91 ❙ Views & Analyses We Were Deans Once . and Young: Veteran PME Educators Look Back . 91 Dr. James W. Forsyth Jr. Dr. Richard R. Muller Alternative Futures Analysis as a Complement to Planning Processes for the Use of Military Land . 100 Lt Col John S. Thomas, PhD, USMCR, Retired Dr. David Mouat 110 ❙ Book Reviews Men at War: A Soldier’s-Eye View of the Most Important Battles in History . 110 Bill Fawcett, ed. Reviewer: Dr. David R. Mets Final Countdown: NASA and the End of the Space Shuttle Program . 110 Pat Duggins Reviewer: Maj Paul Niesen, USAF, Retired War and the Engineers: The Primacy of Politics over Technology . 111 Keir A. Lieber Reviewer: Dr. Damon Coletta The Intelligence Wars: Lessons from Baghdad . 112 Steven K. O’Hern Reviewer: Lt Col Stephen C. Price Jr., USAF The U.S. Citizen-Soldier at War: A Retrospective Look and the Road Ahead . 114 Malcolm Muir Jr., ed. Reviewer: Lt Col Michael C. Veneri, USAF America’s Defense Meltdown: Pentagon Reform for President Obama and the New Congress . 115 Winslow T. Wheeler, ed. Reviewer: 1st Lt Michael J. Arth, USAF Missile Contagion: Cruise Missile Proliferation and the Threat to International Security . 116 Dennis M. Gormley Reviewer: Dr. John H. Barnhill Information Strategy and Warfare: A Guide to Theory and Practice . 117 John Arquilla and Douglas A. Borer, eds. Reviewer: Dr. Clark Capshaw Vietnam: The History of an Unwinnable War, 1945–1975 . 118 John Prados Reviewer: Col Dennis M. Drew, USAF, Retired Night Fighters: Luftwaffe and RAF Air Combat over Europe, 1939–1945 . 119 Colin D. Heaton and Anne-Marie Lewis Reviewer: Col John S. Chilstrom, USAF, Retired Effects-Based Operations: Applying Network Centric Warfare in Peace, Crisis, and War . 120 Edward A. Smith Reviewer: Capt Albert C. Harris III, USAF Road to Mach 10: Lessons Learned from the X-43A Flight Research Program . 121 Curtis Peebles Reviewer: Kenneth P. Katz Robots in Space: Technology, Evolution, and Interplanetary Travel . 122 Roger D. Launius and Howard E. McCurdy Reviewer: Capt Bryce G. Poole, USAF Criminal-States and Criminal-Soldiers . 123 Robert J. Bunker, ed. Reviewer: David J. Schepp The Brenner Assignment: The Untold Story of the Most Daring Spy Mission of World War II . 124 Patrick K. O’Donnell Reviewer: Lt Col Thomas Swaim, USAF Gods of Tin: The Flying Years . 125 James Salter Jessica Benton and William Benton, eds. Reviewer: Lt Col Daniel J. Simonsen, USAF, Retired War Wings: Films of the First Air War: A Guide to the World War I Aviation Documentary Motion Pictures Held by the U.S. National Archives . 126 Phillip W. Stewart Reviewer: Capt Gregory W. Ball, PhD, USAFR 127 ❙ Mission Debrief Editorial Advisory Board Gen John A. Shaud, PhD, USAF, Retired, Air Force Research Institute Lt Gen Bradley C. Hosmer, USAF, Retired Dr. J. Douglas Beason (Senior Executive Service and Colonel, USAF, Retired), Air Force Space Command Dr. Alexander S. Cochran, Office of the Chief of Staff, US Army Prof. Thomas B. Grassey, US Naval Academy Lt Col Dave Mets, PhD, USAF, Retired, School of Advanced Air and Space Studies (professor emeritus) Board of Reviewers Lt Col Eric Braganca, USAF Col Merrick E. Krause, USAF, Retired Naval Air Station, Patuxent River, Maryland Department of Homeland Security Dr. Kendall K. Brown Col Chris J. Krisinger, USAF, Retired NASA Marshall Space Flight Center Burke, Virginia Dr. Clayton K. S. Chun Dr. Benjamin S. Lambeth US Army War College RAND Dr. Mark Clodfelter Mr. Douglas E. Lee National War College Air Force Space Command Dr. Conrad Crane Dr. Richard I. Lester Director, US Army Military History Institute Eaker Center for Professional Development Col Dennis M. Drew, USAF, Retired Mr. Brent Marley USAF School of Advanced Air and Space Studies Redstone Arsenal, Alabama (professor emeritus) Mr. Rémy M. Mauduit Maj Gen Charles J. Dunlap Jr., USAF, Retired Air Force Research Institute Duke University Col Phillip S. Meilinger, USAF, Retired Dr. Stephen Fought West Chicago, Illinois USAF Air War College (professor emeritus) Dr. Daniel Mortensen Col Richard L. Fullerton, USAF Air Force Research Institute USAF Academy Dr. Richard R. Muller Lt Col Derrill T. Goldizen, PhD, USAF, Retired USAF School of Advanced Air and Space Studies Westport Point, Massachusetts Dr. Bruce T. Murphy Col Mike Guillot, USAF, Retired Air University Editor, Strategic Studies Quarterly Col Robert Owen, USAF, Retired Air Force Research Institute Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Dr. John F. Guilmartin Jr. Lt Col Brian S. Pinkston, USAF, MC, SFS Ohio State University The Pentagon Dr. Amit Gupta Col Bob Potter, USAF, Retired USAF Air War College Pensacola, Florida Dr. Grant T. Hammond Dr. Steve Rothstein USAF Center for Strategy and Technology Colorado Springs Science Center Project Dr. Dale L. Hayden Lt Col Reagan E. Schaupp, USAF Air Force Research Institute Naval War College Mr. James Hoffman Dr. Barry Schneider Rome Research Corporation Director, USAF Counterproliferation Center Milton, Florida Professor, USAF Air War College Dr. Thomas Hughes Col Richard Szafranski, USAF, Retired USAF School of Advanced Air and Space Studies Toffler Associates Lt Col Jeffrey Hukill, USAF, Retired Lt Col Edward B.