Request for Question Clarification by
pafalafa-ga
on
25 Sep 2005 09:30 PDT
Builder had a pretty impressive list of publications, so I'm not
certain which particular aspect of his work you're referring to.
However, there's a pretty good overview of his work on rethinking the
AF mission here:
http://www.airpower.maxwell.af.mil/airchronicles/apj/apj97/sum97/netsum97.html
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Organizing, Training, and Equipping the Air Force for Crises and
Lesser Conflicts by Carl H. Builder and Theodore W. Karasik. RAND,
1700 Main Street, Santa Monica, California 90407-2138, 1995, 93 pages.
Few authors have supported, cajoled, incensed, disgusted, and
delighted the Air Force as Carl Builder. In the early 1980s, he wrote
a provocative book on nonnuclear strategic weapons that challenged the
very existence of the Strategic Air Command. Now, with co-author Ted
Karasik, he is provoking the Air Force leadership again. This book has
as its thesis that the Air Force should rethink how it should organize
(reorganize), equip (re-equip), train (educate), and above all,
establish doctrine and select a responsible organization to understand
crises and lesser conflicts (CALC) in our unstable and disordered
world. Even the term they coined, CALC, jars the current thinking
about the many nontraditional missions the armed forces are being
called upon to perform. Some would describe CALCs as military
operations other than war, or, operations other than war, and even,
noncombat missions. However, Builder and Karasik believe these terms
miss the mark because in the case of the Air Force, we are involved in
not just domestic, nontraditional, or routine operations, but are
?performing international and nonroutine operations short of war,
especially those that pose the threat of combat operations.? This is
the meat of Builder?s research and is the basis of his definition of
crises and lesser conflicts.
CALCs are occurring with increasing frequency, overtaxing crucial
parts of the Air Force resources while idling other resources that
could conceivably be used to head off CALCs. The challenge to the Air
Force, according to Builder, is not so much in determining future
missions but rather to define, ?how military power can be used
effectively in a range of difficult situations.?
The Air Force, according to the extensive research done to write this
report, is encountering this problem sooner and more severely than the
other services because our unique aerospace capabilities are in
greater demand even though we are already severely stressed. He points
out how our airlift, both global and theater, is in daily demand.
Surveillance and enforcement platforms in both air and space,
especially airborne warning control system, are overused.
Reconnaissance and intelligence for situation and risk assessment are
also overtaxed. Finally, there is maximum use of ground-to-air threat
suppression platforms for enforcement of air security.
It is important to note that this book is not a clarion call for the
reserve forces to take on more responsibility. Rather, there are valid
recommendations to reorganize important assets in the reserve and
active forces. It may be, Builder suggests, that airlift, suppression
of enemy air defenses, reconnaissance and logistics units need to be
in the active force, while bomber and fighter units dedicated to major
regional conflicts should be in the reserve structure. Builder
suggests sort of a reverse of the tip-of-the-spear adage where the
shaft is the cutting edge for CALCs.
The challenges the authors give the Air Force are neither
insurmountable nor unfamiliar. Using historical examples, Builder
shows that the Air Force can offer the nation?s leadership military
capabilities that can ameliorate crises and lesser conflicts before
they become true combat situations. Aerospace power, with its
independent capabilities to feed, supply, rescue, police, and punish
from the air, could be fashioned to address urgent problems without
being held hostage on the ground. It would behoove the Air Force
leadership to read Builder.
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Does that help?
pafalafa-ga
