READINESS REDEFINED, BUT NOT MEASURED
MATTHEW ROSS
JANUARY 15, 2024
Immediately after I completed my upgrade to F-15E multi-ship flight lead in 2017, my squadron deployed to the Middle East in support of Operation Inherent Resolve. A flight lead is trusted to command a four ship of fighter jets and, as part of this upgrade training, I had spent the previous six months learning how to lead counter-air and contested air-to-ground missions against a peer threat. Put simply: I was trained to fight and defend against other fighter jets. However, when I deployed for combat, the focus was entirely on close air support, a mission set I had not recently practiced, against an enemy with no jets to fight against. My most recent training to fight a peer adversary was not relevant.
Immediately following that deployment, I started the instructor upgrade, where I taught the advanced flying skills emphasized in the flight lead upgrade, but which I once again had not recently accomplished during the six-month combat deployment. Twice in one year, the Air Force had me fly missions that were misaligned with my readiness. The Air Force’s leadership believed I was mission-ready because I had flown the “required” number of sorties each month to stay current. Yet, in each instance the skills necessary for success in each mission had decayed at precisely the wrong time. And leadership had no manner in which to determine or track that skill decay.
In this case, the Air Force fell short of answering Richard Bett’s three key questions: Ready for what? Ready for when? What needs to be ready? The Air Force could not determine what mission set I needed to be ready for: high-intensity conflict or uncontested close air support. The Air Force could not determine when I needed to be ready to fight each mission set: Should I be training for close air support before the deployment instead of high-intensity counter air? The Air Force could not determine what skills needed to be upgraded and which could be allowed to decay in preparation for the deployment or the instructor upgrade.
https://warontherocks.com/2024/01/readiness-redefined-but-not-measured/
