Air Force Doctrine Publication 1

Airpower Studies
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Airpower Studies
CSAF PERSPECTIVE ON DOCTRINE
XX MONTH YEAR
Our Nation needs an Air Force that can fly, fight, and win as part of the joint team. Commanders must articulate intent and prepare to take the initiative in dynamic, contested environments. Doctrine offers an agreed upon, operationally relevant body of best practices and principles that articulates how we fight, captures our airpower experience, and guides how we operate within a joint force. It provides a starting point, so we don’t reinvent the wheel with every operation and allows us to continue to be the world’s most capable Air Force.
In today's complex global security environment, victory goes to the rapid integrator of ideas. These ideas are driven by training and the distilled knowledge all Airmen bring to the fight. I’m relying on every Airman to innovate and incorporate concepts and technologies that will develop new best practices to shape future doctrine. We must prioritize and make difficult choices as we field a lethal, resilient, and rapidly adapting joint force. Leaders must push decisions to the lowest competent, capable level using doctrine as a foundation for sound choices.
Doctrine is an opportunity to educate, empower, and prepare for the future fight. It guides us, but does not bind us. I’m relying on every Airman to understand the lessons of doctrine, and then draw on them to innovate and incorporate concepts and technologies that will develop new best practices to shape future doctrine. This is how we solve difficult problems, make necessary changes, and how we accelerate change in our Air Force.
The tools in doctrine provide an excellent opportunity to build our foundation for future Airmen and forge unbeatable airpower for our Nation. Airmen should read, understand, contemplate, and prepare for the full spectrum of operations, from competition to armed conflict. Never forget General LeMay’s words: “At the very heart of warfare lies doctrine.”
CHARLES Q. BROWN, JR.
General, USAF
Chief of Staff, United States Air Force
PREFACE
Air Force doctrine is the extant and emerging best practices in the application of airpower. Doctrine describes the operations and activities that create convergence of effects across the competition continuum. Doctrine is organized as basic, operational, and tactical level doctrine. Basic doctrine states the most fundamental and enduring beliefs describing airpower and the Airman’s perspective. Operational doctrine describes more detailed organization of forces and applies the principles of basic doctrine to military actions. Tactical doctrine is contained in Air Force and Multi-Service Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures publications.
Blue underlined text denotes a hyperlink to another source document, normally Air Force or joint operational doctrine, for additional discussion.
Air Force Doctrine Publication (AFDP) 1, The Air Force, forms the basis of our Service culture. It defines airpower, as the ability to project military power through control and exploitation in, from and through the air. Airpower is employed to achieve joint force commander (JFC) objectives in support of the National Defense Strategy (NDS).
AFDP 1 addresses four fundamental topics:
Why We Fight - War: our foundational purpose as a Service.
Who We Are - Airmen: our values.
What We Do - Airpower: airpower fundamentals and perspective.
How We Do It - Tenets of Airpower: airpower employment considerations.
Ideas presented here enable Airmen to describe what the Air Force provides to joint all-domain operations (JADO).
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Chapter 1 – WHY WE FIGHT: WAR
In our victory over Japan, airpower was unquestionably decisive. That the planned invasion of the Japanese Home islands was unnecessary is clear evidence that airpower has evolved into a force in war co-equal with land and sea power, decisive in its own right and worthy of the faith of its prophets.
General Carl A. Spaatz, 1st Chief of Staff,
United States Air Force
NATURE OF WAR
War is one of the means used by nation-states, sub-national groups, or supranational groups to achieve their objectives. Conducting war from the air underpins the reason for the Air Force’s existence. Airpower is an instrument of national power and can be employed in warfare. There are three basic truths that the Air Force believes are fundamental to warfare:
War is an extension of politics by other means. War has been described as a violent clash of interests characterized by the use of force. The Air Force conducts warfare as an extension of our national policy.
War is a complex and chaotic human endeavor. Uncertainty and unpredictability, sometimes called the “fog of war”, combine to create what Clausewitz called “friction” which makes simple operations unexpectedly, and sometimes even insurmountably, difficult. The tenets of airpower help Airmen apply airpower effectively within this environment.
War is a clash of opposing wills. War is a collision of two or more forces, producing a dynamic interplay of action and reaction. The will of the people and the character of their leaders are critical components of warfare.
Sound doctrine, good leadership, effective organization, moral values, and realistic training can reduce the effects of uncertainty, unpredictability, and unreliability present in war.
LEVELS OF WARFARE
Airpower creates effects across all three levels of warfare: strategic, operational, and tactical. The strategic level of war defines why and with what the conflict occurs. The operational level of war determines what courses of action, in what order, and for what
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duration forces are employed in the conflict. Finally, the tactical level of war defines how we create the operational effects. Actions in war occur at the tactical level, but an understanding of the operational and strategic implications of those actions is key to the employment of airpower in pursuit of our national objectives.
AIRPOWER IN THE COMPETITION CONTINUUM
The Air Force employs forces in pursuit of our national objectives across the competition continuum. Rather than the traditional binary classifications of peace and war, the competition continuum describes a world of enduring competition conducted through a mixture of cooperation, competition below armed conflict, and armed conflict. The Air Force creates effects across the continuum through the conduct of operations, military engagement, security cooperation, deterrence, and other activities.
For detailed discussion on the competition continuum, see Joint Doctrine Note 1-19, Competition Continuum, 3 June 2019.
NATIONAL DEFENSE STRATEGY & OBJECTIVES
The National Defense Strategy sets the context in which Airmen must anticipate and plan across the competition continuum. Long-term strategic competition and the expansion of our adversary’s military capabilities threaten the United States’ prosperity
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and security. Joint force operations are increasingly interconnected, interdependent, and challenged. Our adversary’s anti-access and area denial focus and proliferation of advanced technologies create contested environments that reduce airpower’s ability to conduct global operations across the competition continuum, reduce freedom of maneuver, and challenge the Air Force’s ability to operate. This operating environment requires examining how forces will sense, plan, decide, and act in concert across all domains.
The National Defense Strategy delivers the framework that defines the Department of the Air Force’s functions. The Air Force, as part of the Department of the Air Force, provides the Nation with global vigilance, global reach, and global power. Service doctrine describes how to fulfill that responsibility.
Global Vigilance is the ability to gain and maintain awareness anywhere; to provide warning and to determine intent, opportunity, capability, or vulnerability; then to fuse this information with data received from other Services or agencies and use and share relevant information with the joint force commander (JFC).
Global Reach is the ability to project military capability responsively–with unsurpassed velocity and precision–anywhere, and provide mobility to rapidly supply, position, or reposition joint forces.
Global Power is the ability to hold at risk or strike any target anywhere, assert national sovereignty, safeguard joint freedom of action, and create swift, decisive, precise effects.
The Air Force prepares and employs forces within this strategic environment to achieve our national objectives. These objectives include defend the homeland, remain the preeminent military power in the world, ensure the balances of power remain in our favor, and advance an international order that is most conducive to our security and prosperity. When the Air Force mobilizes in the pursuit of these objectives, they are integrated as a part of the joint force, led by a JFC.
The Air Force organizes, trains, and equips forces to be an air component to a JFC. As part of the joint force’s air component, our forces must be prepared to accomplish JFC objectives. The air component commander’s administrative authorities are derived from Title 10, U.S. Code and exercised as the commander, Air Force forces (COMAFFOR). The air component commander’s operational authorities are delegated from the JFC and exercised as both the COMAFFOR, over Air Force Forces, and as the functional joint force air component commander (JFACC), over joint air forces made available for tasking. Thus, the air component commander leads Air Force forces as the COMAFFOR and the JFC’s joint air operations as the JFACC. This duality of authorities is expressed in the axiom: Airmen work for Airmen and the senior Airman works for the JFC.
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Chapter 2 – WHO WE ARE: AIRMEN
Our Airmen are the competitive edge we have over our adversaries and the reason we are the world’s greatest Air Force.
JoAnne S. Bass, 19th Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force
All Airmen support and defend the Constitution of the United States and live by Air Force core values. Historically, the term Airman is associated with uniformed members of the US Air Force (officer or enlisted; regular, Reserve, or Guard) regardless of rank, component, or specialty.1 Today, Air Force civilians and members of the Civil Air Patrol, when conducting missions as the official Air Force Auxiliary, are incorporated within the broader meaning of the term, Airman.
1 This broader meaning does not, however, mean or imply that anyone other than uniformed members of the US Air Force are members of the Armed Services in other contexts. For example, in the context of punitive Air Force instructions or law of war regulations, care must be taken to ensure the rights and obligations imposed under those regulations are not uniformly applied to both Service members and civilians.
2 Air Force Manual 35-15, Air Force Leadership (1948): “Leadership is the art of influencing people to progress with cooperation and enthusiasm toward the accomplishment of a mission.” Air Force Pamphlet 35-49, Air Force Leadership (1985): “Leadership is the art of influencing and directing people to accomplish the mission.” The definition in the text is a distillation of these earlier efforts.
Airmen espouse Air Force core values:
Integrity first.
Service before self.
Excellence in all we do.
Success hinges on the incorporation of these values into the character of every Airman. Air Force core values are a commitment each Airman makes when joining the Air Force. They provide a foundation for leadership, decision-making, and success, no matter their rank, the difficulty of the assigned task, or the dangers presented by the mission.
Every Airman is a leader and positively influences others to accomplish the mission. Leadership is the art and science of motivating, influencing, and directing Airmen to understand and accomplish JFC objectives.2 Two fundamental elements of leadership are the mission and the Airmen who accomplish it. Effective leadership transforms human potential into effective performance in the present and prepares capable leaders for the future. Airmen step forward to lead others in accomplishing the mission while simultaneously serving as followers. You can be a commander without being a leader,
or you may be a fine leader without a command, but you must be a good leader to be an effective commander.3I’m firmly convinced that leaders are not born; they’re educated, trained, and made, as in every other profession. To ensure a strong, ready Air Force, we must always remain dedicated to this process. General Curtis E. LeMay,5th Chief of Staff, United States Air Force
Airmen understand the attributes of airpower and should apply airpower with an appreciation for the breadth, scope, and uniqueness it brings to joint all-domain operations. Airpower is fundamentally distinct from other forms of military power. Its inherent flexibility allows it to be applied independently or in concert with other forms of military power. Airmen have a distinct point of view forged from air operations throughout history and our unique operating domains.
Chapter 3 – WHAT WE DO: AIRPOWER
Regardless of our respective ranks and positions, we must execute to the best of our abilities and we must do it right the first time because the application of airpower is serious business where half-hearted efforts and playing for second place are not options.
General Charles Q. Brown, Jr., 22d Chief of Staff, United States Air Force
DESCRIPTION OF AIRPOWER
Airpower is defined as the ability to project military power through control and exploitation in, from and through the air. Elevation above the earth’s surface provides relative advantages and creates a mindset that sees competition from a broad perspective. The air domain allows Airmen to exploit airpower’s attributes of speed, range, precision, tempo, lethality, and adaptability to create effects in all domains. These attributes of airpower change the dynamics of competition in ways that enhance the effectiveness of joint forces through greater mobility and responsiveness. Airmen have an appreciation for airpower’s broad potential. Airmen do not view or study airpower as an auxiliary or complementary capability subordinate to another Service. Airmen view their expertise in the application of airpower as the main reason for the Service’s existence. The Air Force employs airpower to achieve JFC objectives and to complement other components of the joint force.
The attributes of airpower create effects throughout the operational environment and competition continuum. Airmen apply airpower by bypassing geographical limitations or striking with precision at critical vulnerabilities within adversary centers of gravity (COGs) at long ranges, on short notice, and for sustained periods. Airpower can control the tempo of operations in our favor and leaders employ airpower in concert with all forms of military power. Airmen integrate capabilities across multiple domains to create effects in support of JFC objectives through joint all-domain operations. While all Services rely heavily on such integration, joint all-domain integration is fundamental to how Airmen employ airpower as part of the joint force.
To enable convergence of effects in all domains, Airmen support JADO by conducting operations principally in, from, and through:
The air domain, defined as “the atmosphere, beginning at the Earth’s surface, extending to the altitude where its effects upon operations become negligible.”
The Information Environment (IE), which includes the cyberspace domain. The IE is “the aggregate of individuals, organizations, and systems that collect, process,
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disseminate, or act on information,” while cyberspace consists of “the interdependent networks of information technology infrastructures and resident data, including the Internet, telecommunications networks, computer systems, and embedded processors and controllers.” The effective use of information as an instrument for affecting perceptions and behaviors and to support human and automated decision-making is an increasingly important element of joint operations.
The electromagnetic spectrum(EMS) is defined as “the entire range of electromagnetic radiation.” It is critical for connecting the joint force and as a medium for creating effects, freedom of action in the EMSat the time, place, and parameters of the joint force’s choosing, is a required precursor to the successful conduct of operations in all domains.
A comprehensive understanding of operations within the warfighting domains, the EMS, and IE are critical to achieving JFC objectives. The other Services have air arms—magnificent air arms—but their air arms must fit within their Services, each with a fundamentally different focus. So those air arms, when in competition with the primary focus of their Services, will often end up on the short end, where the priorities for resources may lead to short falls or decisions that are suboptimum. It is therefore important to understand that the core competencies of[airpower] are optional for the other Services. They can elect to play or not play in that arena. But if the nation is to remain c...