Ideas
Returning the Air Force to its expeditionary roots
Agility and innovation helped win WWII. They will be essential for the next conflict.
Lt. Gen. David A. Harris | September 17, 2025 12:44 PM ET
Commentary Air Force
If the United States goes to war tomorrow, its Air Force will fly and fight as the world’s best. But the service will operate in a world where the assumptions that shaped it for more than 30 years no longer hold.
No longer can the Air Force rely on Bagram-style air bases as sanctuaries, thanks to anti-access and area-denial capabilities developed by China and others. To deter and defeat adversaries, the service must focus on agility, adaptability, and operating with a smaller footprint in austere environments. Leaders must refine options for getting into theater to generate tempo and seize initiative. In short, the Air Force must return to its expeditionary roots—a critical change that is already underway.
During World War II, Gen. Pete Quesada and the 9th Air Force brought expeditionary practices to the European theater. As the Third Infantry Division advanced across the continent, Quesada’s teams leap-frogged forward, establishing temporary airfields every few days to keep pace with Patton’s armored columns. Forward basing of fighter-bombers and mobile base defense, paired with air liaison officers embedded in ground units, enabled constant high-tempo combined arms to counter German Panzers. That is one example among many. But what Quesada understood—and what is essential to remember now—is that tempo and initiative are decisive advantages, especially when operating against peer adversaries in contested environments.
Today’s expeditionary approach mixes old concepts with new ones. The Air Force’s One Force Design is a transformational framework that includes future operating concepts tailored to the complex threats of great power competition.
https://www.defenseone.com/ideas/2025/09/returning-air-force-its-expeditionary-roots/408171/?oref=d1-homepage-top-story
