How the US Air Force can maintain air superiority

Main topic Maintain Air Superiority Logistics.

Military operations have become a contentious and polarizing issue of late. The primary reason for this is due to globalization. Many countries are now more interconnected than even. One element that impacts Japan for example, will have reverberations for the United States and vice versa. Military operations are no different in this regard. Many countries have a particular sovereign territory that should not be infringed upon by others. However, we constantly see instances where countries attempt to exert control and military might within a particular area. We saw this with Russia as it attempted to exert control over Ukraine. It placed a number military equipment include plane, jets, tanks and troops near the border of Ukraine in attempt to exert military power and influence. This was also an attempt to intimidate the Ukrainians as Russia is much larger and therefore a much powerful military force. If it were for the intervention of the United States, much of this territory could have potentially been in conflict or in the worst-case scenario, in war. North Korea is yet another example of a country attempted to exert power and control over another country. Here, North Korea had developed nuclear weapons that are often designed to attack the United States. These intercontinental missiles have been developed over many years and have the sole purpose of damaging the United States and its standing within the world. Here again, the country is attempting, through military might, to exert, power control and influence over another country. To mitigate these impacts, the United States along with its allies must maintain air superiority and the corresponding logistics that go along with it (Herbert, 1999).

Simply put, air superiority is a condition on the spectrum of air control, which ranges from adversary air supremacy, to air parity, to friendly air supremacy. Air superiority is therefore achieved when friendly operations are able to proceed without prohibitive interference from opposing forces. As it relates to modern warfare air superiority it critical to success. This is primary due to the potential consequences of not having air superiority and its detriment to the corresponding society. For example, as we have seen with COVID-19, devastating diseases are often spread through the air. One element of warfare is chemical warfare which attempts to spread diseases or other adverse conditions through the air. These conditions can include diseases such as COVID-19 or other degradation material that ultimately result in the death of human beings. Nuclear bombs for example, not only those in the immediate blast radius, but the nuclear chemicals also harm those in the surrounding communities often for years to come. Once inhaled these chemicals have been known to burn people form the inside of their bodies outwardly. Essentially organs are incinerated while the person is still alive. Nuclear bombs have also caused birth defect and other negative effects in people who have inhaled the resulting chemical residue. By maintaining air superiority, these impacts can be properly mitigated (Michael, 2000).

Air superiority is only needed for the time and over the geographic area required to enable joint operations. The specific amount of time and space required varies significantly across scenarios, mission objectives, and phases of conflict. Accordingly, capability development for air superiority must provide options for commanders to array their forces across a range of durations and geographies. Due to the immergence of integrated networks, it is often difficult for the United States to maintain air superiority at all times. Due to the this the United States needs a much more collaborative process as it relates to air superiority. Allies such as Europe and Japan will need to provide assistance in making sure that systems and processes are both agile and innovative as it relates to air superiority. This will often include collaborative efforts related to modeling, simulation, and wargaming that will provide insights in to how to properly maintain air superiority along with international allies (John, 1988). In addition, the United States must look to develop protective element in the air, space, and cyber space domains to properly protect its constituents from attacks. This is a very daunting task due to the sheer size and scall of both space and cyber space. In addition, due to technological advancement, the ability for the United States to maintain air superiority is also much more complex. New developments can make existing technology obsolete and inefficient. In addition, the military must continually invest in next-generation technologies to stay ahead of rivals in the field of air superiority. This requires government and societal commitment to properly maintain and leverage technologies to better enable superiority for the Untied States. As the pace of technological advancements continue to increase the Air Force must leverage experimentation and prototyping to more rapidly infuse advanced technologies into the force. The ability to deploy and operate forces in non-permissive environments is essential to air superiority. The Air Force must pursue appropriate capability development efforts in concert with the joint force in order to project, defend, and sustain forces that are able to generate the combat power needed to conduct operations in non-permissive environments. This will include, as noted in the introduction, active and passive strategies designed to mitigate the influence of ballistic missiles on the United States. Logistics will need to be developed in cooperation of allies to make procedures and response efforts much more agile. This will ultimately rely on large amounts and sharing of data within a confined environment with allies.