Decentralized Control: an Evaluation of Close Air Support Effectiveness in Irregular Warfare
نویسنده
چکیده
The US has been engaged in irregular warfare (IW) for more than a decade, and faces the prospect of IW for years to come. To prepare for this eventuality and win its current wars, America’s military has modified its doctrine to account for IW. The joint force air component commander (JFACC) for US Central Command (USCENTCOM) has gone even further, and established a non-doctrinal, sub-theater command and control (C2) node with the 9th air expeditionary task force – Afghanistan (AETF-A). To date, little analysis exists on whether this level of decentralization is appropriate for airpower in IW. This paper focuses on the issue of decentralized control of air assets in IW by asking whether the AETF-A model permits effective close air support (CAS) in Afghanistan, or would a sub-theater JFACC model better serve this purpose. To answer this question, criteria required for effective CAS are applied to each model in an evaluation framework. Based on this analysis, the research reveals that, due to limitations in planning and depth of command, the AETF-A construct does not facilitate effective CAS in Afghanistan, but does maximize CAS effectiveness across multiple sub-theaters. The analysis also shows that the sub-theater JFACC construct provides more effective C2 for CAS in Afghanistan, but, based on limited unity of effort, flexibility, and span of control, cannot maximize CAS effectiveness across multiple sub-theaters.
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