Air Force Combat Support: Adjusting Doctrine to Meet Expeditionary Air Force Requirements

The current U.S. Air Force vision of it's future is the Expeditionary Aerospace Force (EAF) with the ability to rapidly deploy anywhere in the world in hours and days to meet taskings provided by the National Command Authorities. Although the Air Force has always had this mindset, the drastic overseas force drawdown after the end of the cold war and an expanding role in supporting small contingencies around the world has made rapid deployment more important than at any other time in Air Force history. This paper provides specific recommendations on how Air Force Combat Support doctrine can be adjusted so that rapidly deployed EAF forces can be supported when they reach their warfighting bases.