US Air Force - How We Fight

The Interdependent Fight -- Spherical Situation Awareness in the Groundfight Secretary of the Air Force Michael W. WynneExcerpts of remarks as delivered to the Corps of Cadets, U.S. Military Academy, West Point, N.Y. Sept. 14, 2006We are seeing right now an historic evolution in maneuver warfare: to the Interdependent Fight, where long-duration mass on the ground can be exchanged for rapid massing of resources of awareness, of detection, and of instant communications to deliver concentrated and precision strike.Interdependence arises from the literal interconnections across all of these domains, constantly, in the hands of unit-level warriors of each and every Service simultaneously. Interdependence goes beyond Joint. It is an evolutionary step upward.This Interdependent Fight calls for exquisite situation awareness. We thought in the past in terms of 360-Degree Awareness. But I submit that the American Warrior has evolved. He's evolved to what I call Spherical Situation Awareness. This is a new term. It calls for a new Habit of Thought. It is the habit of taking a comprehensive, spherical view, at once vertical and horizontal, real-time and predictive, penetrating, yet defended; also in the cyber realm; eliminating as much as possible obstacles of terrain, weather, foliage, darkness, jamming and any defenses erected in any of these domains, all the means of surprise that provide cover and resources to the enemy, even buried objects and buried targets. Most importantly, Spherical Situation Awareness delivers to the net the tools of precision fire, including fires measured to avoid innocent casualties, and to get instant feedback to all that are on the command net. The kill cycle can thus be cut to minutes and possibly seconds, from the detect to the assessment.This is no panacea. The thinking enemy already finds ways to avoid massing, dodge our sensors and inflict casualties. A sober reminder is the recent notification of the passage of First Lt. Emily Perez, a former Brigade Cadet Sergeant Major who was killed in action in Iraq just this past week - Class of '05. And this is not Land Power versus Sea Power versus Air Power: we must fight Interdependently because we in fact are Interdependent. Only in combination we will root out and kill each enemy.History that is written in the decades to come will celebrate your triumphs and honor the steadfastness and courage in your ranks. Your innovation in bringing the Interdependent Fight from text to battlefield will write that history. Thank you for your service, your devotion, and the sacrifices you and your families have and will make. May God bless you, and may God continue to bless our great Nation.

Channel: News & Politics
Uploaded: November 30, 1999 at 12:00 am
Author: MyEarbot

Length: 08:40
Rating: 4.56
Views: 51717

Tags: Afganistan  Air  Army  Coast  Force  Guard  Iraq  Marines  Military  US  War  

Video Comments