The Air Force is confronting its inadequate airlift capacity. The Navy is inadequate to move and escort convoys. Just who will move and sustain the Army from the continental United States (CONUS) to overseas battlefields?
The Air Force’s fleet of airlifters — roughly half the size it was during the 1990s — has been operating at high tempo for two decades, wearing out airplanes with no near-term prospect of replacement and further cuts to the force planned, despite projected demand for airlift that will operate in increasingly contested environments.
The problem for the Army is much greater than just assuming the Air Force can spare airlift for Army light tanks. What is left for the Army after the Air Force struggles to meet its own demand for airlift? The Air Force demand will increase just for itself (back to the problem article):
The Air Force’s Agile Combat Employment concept proposes decentralized operations by small units at locations away from permanent bases vulnerable to attack.
The Air Force says it has enough right now.
We already know the Navy is too pressed with higher priorities to escort convoys from CONUS (quoting an article):
In the event of a major war with China or Russia, the U.S. Navy, almost half the size it was during the height of the Cold War, is going to be busy with combat operations. It may be too busy, in fact, to always escort the massive sealift effort it would take to transport what the Navy estimates will be roughly 90 percent of the Marine Corps and Army gear the force would need to sustain a major conflict.
Which is a problem given that America must be in the power projection game to prevent threats from looming over the Western Hemisphere.
Or will we abandon a century-long history of refusing to let those across the oceans settle their problems on their own without becoming a threat to us? The Napoleonic Wars and the effects on American trade don't bode well for that strategy.
NOTE: I left that last paragraph garbled which reversed my intended meaning. Picked a bad week to quit sniffing glue, I guess. It's fixed now.
NOTE: War coverage continues at this post.
