Current Air Base Ground Defense Doctrine: Are We Postured to Meet the Expectations of the AEF?

The United States Air Force has transitioned to a CONUS based expeditionary force to reduce PERSTEMPO and offer greater flexibility in force projection options. However, with the end of the Cold War, reductions to our forward-deployed forces, and the emergence of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) threats, the USAF is left with the problem of protecting the Aerospace Expeditionary Force (AEF) in a deployed environment Air Base Ground Defense (ABGD) has always been a key mission for aerospace forces. Throughout the history of military aviation, airfields and bases have been threatened with enemy attack in one form or another. USAF efforts to create a viable ABGD system have been a sporadic combination of episodic buildups and subsequent drawdowns of security force personnel and equipment. In essence, the Air Force has struggled with the concept of how to defend it's air bases for decades, from World War I to OPERATION ALLIED FORCE. The Air Force is hoping that they have finally found the answer with the activation of the 820th Security Forces Group, With their motto: "ready to go anywhere, any place, anytime," the the 820th SFG is a multidiscipline unit that offers a total force protection (FP) package, Depicted, as a revolutionary concept, the 820th SFG integrates all aspects of FP (i.e. air base ground defense, combating terrorism, physical security, operations security, personal protective services, resource protection, intelligence, counterintelligence, logistics, etc.) into a cohesive unit. With the capability to deploy within 24 hours of notification, the USAF believes it has finally established a viable solution to the age-old problem of protecting our deployed assets.