全球智库信息集成服务系统

The authors report four key findings related to decisionmaking

• Combat support has no unified command and control mechanisms at the operational level.
• The need for the coordinated actions of many actors hinders the speed of combat support for maneuver.
• When issuing joint orders for maneuver of forces, the U.S. Air Force is hampered by its reliance on the air tasking order for issuing orders.
• The ability to adjust command and control of logistics when under persistent multi-domain attack is impeded by the lack of doctrine, policy, planning, and procedures for distributed command and control and push logistics.

The authors report two key findings related to situational awareness

• The U.S. Air Force has not clearly defined the minimal information needed to maintain situational awareness for maneuver.
• The U.S. Air Force lacks a common operating picture for combat support.

The authors report three key findings related to coordination between operations and combat support

• The reliance on staff rather than operational units to control logistics hinders execution.
• The combat support teams in Air Operations Centers are understaffed.
• The classification of some war plans impedes planning by the logistics community.

The authors report four key findings related to the robustness and resiliency of systems and processes

• Functional fragmentation provides some robustness and resiliency to combat support operations.
• The U.S. Air Force has limited deployable communications capabilities and capacity.
• The reliance on enterprise coordination makes operations fragile in a communications-degraded environment.
• The U.S. Air Force lacks policy for the prioritization of combat support information in a degraded data rate environment.

Faced with a renewed emphasis on a near-peer fight, and after decades of post–Cold War military operations that barely threatened combat support, the United States is refocusing its attention on the stresses presented by a high-end fight, specifically moving the location of the ground support for air operations to a secure positional advantage against an adversary, referred to in this report as maneuver, and operations while under persistent multi-domain attack.

In this report, the authors propose robust and resilient concepts for combat support command and control under this situation. The main challenges they address are the U.S. Air Force's ability to maneuver its ground posture in response to adversary threats and ability to maintain an acceptable level of combat support when communications capabilities are degraded or denied.

The discussion and recommendations in this report encompass an enterprisewide scope (not catered to specific geographic combatant commands) but are sensitive to the unique circumstances of each theater. Within the range of combat support, the authors concentrate on issues of fueling and arming aircraft, and maintenance and civil engineering support. Solutions focus on the near-term time horizon for supporting the current force structure, not potential next-generation weapon systems or novel concepts of operations. This near-term focus does not preclude prudently rethinking maintenance and civil engineering requirements for future combat systems and supporting equipment where appropriate.

• Chapter One

  Challenges to Combat Support

• Chapter Two

  Status Quo of Combat Support Command and Control

• Chapter Three

  Combat Support Command and Control for a High-End Fight