articles by Maj. Mark Picton and Maj. Jim Flavell
HQ AIA/DOXC
Kelly Air Force Base, Texas
articles by Maj. Mark Picton and Maj. Jim Flavell HQ AIA/DOXC Kelly Air Force Base, Texas |
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The Air Force role as the air arm in a "Marine Expeditionary Force" led to the creation of an Air Expeditionary Force. In today's climate of many deployment commitments, we regularly practice the Air Expeditionary Force concept.
These opportunities have given the Air Expeditionary Force Battlelab, Mountain Home Air Force Base, Idaho, many ideas to test prior to being adopted on a large scale.
Col. Don Oukrop, AEFB commander and former 366th Wing Inspector General, is excited about the opportunity to work on issues that will ease the transition from normal operations to combat at a moments notice.
"Our primary objective will be to find innovative ideas and test them in a working scenario. Rapid response and fewer support structures will be the key," said Ourkop.
One project the AEFB will be working is trying to reduce the cargo load needed to support a typical deployment.
A lot of time and money is spent transporting excess or oversized equipment that could be replaced with something smaller and more efficient. More items could be pre-positioned to save transport time and equipment that could be made common across platforms would also reduce redundancy.
Currently, F-16CJs in the 366th are transitioning to the use of night vision goggles for night attacks. This device opens up the possibility of new target designation techniques that could be used in conjunction with the Army.
A primary project the AEFB has its sights set on is streamlining operations before, during and after deployment. One problem is the speed of the distribution of vital information gathered from intelligence.
This is one area that the Air Intelligence Agency will have the most impact. AIA's expertise in information operations will be used to support new initiatives in streamlining data to the AEF. In turn, the AEFB and the Information Warfare Battlelab could interact towards the same goal.
These initiatives are just the beginning. The best ideas for improving things usually come from the personnel who are performing the mission on a day-to-day basis.
More than 70 years ago, the airplane was beginning to demonstrate its value on the battlefield.
In 1957, we saw the birth of the space age and with it the beginning of a new medium to support military operations. Six years ago, the value of space support to the combat forces was realized in Operation Desert Storm. The use of satellite data resulted in significant improvements for navigation, warning of SCUD missile attacks, communications and weather services.
We faced the same challgence 70 years later identifying and demonstrating new ways of using assets to defend the United States. In April, Air Force Space Command activated the Air Force Space Battlelab, a direct reporting unit to the Space Warfare Center.
Col. Jeffrey Wenzel, commander Space Battlelab, will have a staff of 23 operations, logistics and support personnel to study using space in battle.
The mission of the Space Battlelab is to evaluate innovative space operations and logistics concepts and rapidly measure their potential to advance the Air Forces's Core Competencies.
"These ideas will come from all levels, from the console operator on crew, to the headquarters staff and contractor community.
"The battlelab staff is not a think tank that generates all of the initiatives. Each candidate initiative will receive a thorough review from my staff before any action is taken," said Wenzel.
The SB will use collected radiation data to determine impact to communication/navigation signals and input this data into mission planning; and use new algorithms to enhance the calculation of element sets.
We will depend more on space as our capabilities and technology advance. The SB will be instrumental in analyzing and developing new ways to exploit the newest military medium.
Retrun to July 97