THE KEY TO MAXIMIZING THE AIR FORCE’S AGILE COMBAT EMPLOYMENT CONCEPT? THE ARMY
Matthew Arrol | 06.28.22
The Key to Maximizing the Air Force’s Agile Combat Employment Concept? The Army
When Ukraine’s military launched a campaign in May to retake territory seized by Russian forces after their February invasion, Ukrainian MiG-29s were overhead, flying low and supporting the ground forces’ attacks. Around the same time, Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense announced the shootdown of a Russian Su-35 by a Ukrainian aircraft. In the four months since the war began, Russia has lost a staggering 171 total aircraft, including thirty-four fixed-wing combat aircraft, many of them to Russian ground-based air defense systems.
Among the many ways in which Ukraine’s military capabilities in the war have surprised analysts is the degree to which Ukrainian forces have continued to contest the air domain. From air-to-air combat to close air support for ground forces to effective air defenses, Ukraine has outperformed virtually all expectations. How it has done so is the source of important lessons for US airpower. In particular, examining the resilience of the Ukrainian air force, specifically within the context of the US Air Force’s emerging agile combat employment (ACE) concept, reveals ways to maximize that concept’s potential against a capable adversary on a highly lethal, hyperactive battlefield.
To be sure, many analysts have rightly pointed to Russian ineptitude across a variety of functions at all levels of war as a leading factor in both sides’ performances so far, and it would be fair to suggest that any lessons learned must be tempered with the realization that Russian capabilities were largely overestimated in the lead-up to war. There are aspects of Ukraine’s success, however, that deserve closer scrutiny and have far-reaching implications for the US military in other theaters. The war in the air is one of these.
https://mwi.usma.edu/the-key-to-maximizing-the-air-forces-agile-combat-employment-concept-the-army/
