Our Air Force is really good at what it does. From the Army's point of view, the worry is, what will the Air Force choose to do when the money is tight?
So isn't the A-10 a key asset in providing ground support? This is not comforting:
Well, what I would tell you is that 75 percent of the close-air support sorties in Afghanistan today are not done by the A-10. They're done by the F-16, the F-15E, the B-1, the B-52 is close air support. We have a lot of airplanes that can perform that mission and perform it well. I've flown close-air support missions in the A-10 and the F-16. We can do it with other aircraft.
Those other aircraft do other things for us. If I'm the ground component commander, my most critical concern on the battlefield as far as a warfighting concern is where is the enemy's operational reserve and when will they be committed and how. I can handle the fight in front of me. Our Army and our Marine Corps are the best on the planet. There's nobody who can stand in front of them and survive. The operational reserve concerns them.
An airman's job, an air component commander's job on a big fight is to eliminate the operational reserve. Get rid of the enemy's second echelon forces so they can't affect the ground fight. Eliminate the enemy's will to continue to fight by taking out his strategic infrastructure and affecting his leadership and its centers of gravity.
That's what air forces do in a big way to save big numbers of the people on the ground.
Those things are done by the other airplanes I just mentioned, which can also do close air support. The A-10 can't do those things. So when we get into the debate about which to keep and how many to keep, those are the kind of things we have to factor into this.
Good grief. The B-52 is close air support only because the Taliban has no air defenses. The B-1 is close behind in that assessment.
And against an enemy with air defenses, those F-16s and F-15s will probably have duties to achieve air superiority. Like fighting planes and destroying ground-based air defenses and striking enemy airfields and their command and control facilities. Where does helping ground forces fit in their picture?
And then the Air Force Chief of Staff highlights all the other missions that the Air Force says help ground fighters. So even when the Air Force says they will help the ground forces, does the Air Force mean it will provide the kind of support that the ground forces want when they want it?
Or will the Air Forces tell the Army that the Air Force has the big picture, and really, nailing that second echelon 30 miles away is way more important strategically than intervening in that tank battle raging 2 miles in front of you guys?
If history is a guide, I'm betting on the latter.
After all, notwithstanding his obvious sincerity about helping Marines (his son is a Marine infantry officer, he notes), there is a reason that the Marine Corps has its own air force to provide direct ground support. Not only do they figure they can't count on the Air Force to have the same priorities and sense of urgency as the Marine infantry officer on the ground in contact, the Marines don't even trust the Navy to provide that kind of responsive firepower.
But the Army will be fine to rely on the Air Force to do what is needed--in Air Force terms.
Heck, you can see the rationalizing of this thinking right in that quote--the Army can take care of itself because nobody can stand in front of them and survive. So you guys take out the enemy in front of you and the Air Force will get on with helping you "in a big way to save big numbers of people on the ground" by conducting deep target strikes against operational reserves that you guys with mud on you can't see, let alone hit, anyway.
During the peak of fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, I was very impressed at how well the Air Force (and Navy) provided air support for ground troops in contact.
But ground support was the only game in town, at the time. Now that the ground wars are winding down and money is tighter, the Air Force will go back to doing what the Air Force thinks is most important.
Yes, the A-10 is superb at ground support, the general admits. But it can't handle the second echelon.
So goodbye A-10. We know what Air Force priorities are now.
Airrrrrrr Forrrrrrrrce!!!
