Centralized Control vs. Field Authority in Airpower C2

Introduction: Technology and Modern Airpower

In the contemporary world of the modern military, technological advances have moved both the strategic and tactical decision-making paradigms to a new level. Gone are the days when air strikes were ordered based on enigmatic coordinates hastily penciled down by harried personnel. GPS, advanced radar capabilities, and a network of communications have replaced those tried-and-true methods with something that is, for all intents and purposes, vastly superior in both practicability and safety. Furthermore, 21st-century capabilities require precision, information technology, intelligence, and command and control effectiveness in order to meet the goals of the modern warrior.

Much of this technology, however, has the tendency to cause centralized command to interpret warfare as an exercise to be fought at major command levels, rather than recognizing that it is still the operational and tactical commander who has the best chance of executing the appropriate response to a threat.

The Case for Decentralized Execution

While one can certainly acknowledge that a deeper understanding of broad battle plans exists more at the central level than at field operations — and clearly a balance must be established to preserve chain of command and structure — we may still argue that the various levels of ground command remain too numerous and bureaucratic to allow for the flexibility of trained combat pilots to do the jobs for which they have been trained. Despite the advances in their ability to "see" the battle through computer-aided systems, hierarchical layers can impede the responsiveness that modern air combat demands.

For example, as the Air Force entered the Afghan conflict in 2001 with Operation Enduring Freedom, a balance was struck between the JFACC and airmen. This relationship allowed a freer exchange of intelligence, as well as a connection between field and core command that more closely aligned with overall battle goals. One may think of centralized control as trying to manage not one or two horizontal priorities, but hundreds — and something will inevitably get lost in the shuffle. However, when clear and concise orders are given and individual airmen are then allowed to use their best judgment in carrying out those orders, both sides benefit from a far greater degree of accountability and operational acumen.

Limitations of Centralized Command in Combat

The goals of each mission and battle plan should certainly align. The issue is less one of command authority than it is of multitasking — of turning the Titanic when an iceberg suddenly appears. The CFACC and AOC are, by their very nature, located several hundred, sometimes thousands of miles from the air battle. As emphasized earlier, technology does grant command far more specific battlefield details than at any prior point in military history. That being said, no amount of technology can translate a blip on a screen into an actual threat and generate the appropriate response within milliseconds.

One would think, for instance, that given the thousands of dollars the service spends training its pilots — the number of scenarios rehearsed, the hours of air time required to operate a multimillion-dollar aircraft — command would acknowledge the need for a certain level of trust in pilot experience and assessment of high-stress situations. While it is certainly true that the individual pilot cannot always see the "big picture" and may need guidance from central command, individual decisions made in combat situations are clearly field-based in nature. Command and control doctrine must account for this irreducible reality of close-quarters aerial combat.

Conclusion: Philosophy of Command and Pilot Autonomy

Ultimately, we are engaged in a philosophical debate: do we apply utilitarianism or deontology to make command-based decisions? The answer to that question has profound implications for how authority is distributed between centralized command and the pilots who execute the mission in real time.