Published Airpower Journal -
Spring 1995
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The United States Air Force remains the premier air and space force in the world and a critical contributor to our national security. Our mission is "to defend the United States through control and exploitation of air and space." Our guiding construct, Global Reach--Global Power, defines five roles in support of this mission: sustaining nuclear deterrence, providing versatile combat forces, supplying rapid global mobility, controlling the high ground of space, and building US influence around the world. These roles have assumed heightened significance in the post-cold war era. Air and space power provide an economical means for shaping the international environment through global presence and increasingly underpin national capabilities to conduct decisive combat operations worldwide on short notice.
Since our birth in 1947, the Air Force has been an institution that thrives on change, but never so successfully as during the past several years. We have cut personnel by one-third, fighter forces by nearly half, and the bomber force by two-thirds. Our budget is down 40 percent from its cold war high. During this period, the Air Force recreated itself. First came the Year of Organizing. We restructured top to bottom--consolidating major commands and redefining authority so people charged with new missions control the resources to do the job. Next came the Year of Training. We are now implementing life-cycle training processes in support of all USAF requirements. The Year of Equipping followed. We reinvigorated planning--developing road maps across 40 mission areas to make educated decisions that balance current readiness with modernization needs. Finally, this past year was the Year of Readiness. We strengthened readiness forecasting and are poised to win future battles through better resource management today. Thus, in a very real sense, this year will be a year of dividends. The forward-leaning initiatives of the past four years are yielding big returns. Today's Air Force is simpler, more flexible, tougher, less expensive to operate, and focused on the tasks ahead.
Yet, while resources have diminished, demands for air and space power are increasing. This trend suggests bigger challenges in the next decade than those we overcame in the past. In a world defined by contingencies, we have set our sights on four objectives to help guide us in these turbulent times: remaining engaged, supporting our people, preserving combat readiness, and building for the future. This report recounts our accomplishments in these areas and identifies key challenges.
The new world environment required a new national security strategy aimed at providing stability for the emergence of new democracies. The Air Force is fully engaged in support of that strategy. While personnel strength has fallen one-third across the force and 50 percent overseas, the number of people on temporary duty overseas is up nearly four fold since the Berlin Wall fell. Our global reach forces operated in nearly every country in the world this year. We delivered 75,000 tons of relief to Bosnia and 15,000 tons to Rwanda and Zaire. Our airlift and tanker forces continue to support contingency operations in Europe, Southwest Asia, and the Caribbean, as well as to conduct humanitarian missions in these and other areas around the globe.
Our combat components are also charting new territory. Almost 50 percent of our active duty fighter force is continuously engaged overseas. These forces support alliances, promote stability, and provide sustained combat power on demand throughout Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. We have flown 18,000 sorties over Bosnia. In February 1994, our F-16s downed four jets attacking targets in a prohibited zone. In the Persian Gulf, we have flown more than three times as many missions since Desert Storm as we did during the war itself. Within 10 days of Iraq's provocation last fall, 122 combat aircraft had augmented the 67 already deployed, and we had flown 1,000 sorties in support of Vigilant Warrior. To drive the point further, four bombers on a power-projection mission punctuated American resolve by flying nonstop from the United States to deliver 55,000 pounds of bombs within audible range of Iraqi forces. As Secretary of Defense William Perry said, "The Air Force has really deterred a war. When we deployed F-15s, F-16s, and A-10s in large numbers, I think they got the message very quickly."
Another increasingly important vehicle for Air Force engagement involves expansion of our military-to-military contacts. Since 1993, our security assistance personnel have worked in 101 countries to foster stability, sustain hope, and provide relief. Air Force training reached 4,900 international students in 1994. In fact, 29 graduates of our schools are now their nations' air force chiefs of staff. Contacts with states of the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe are also thriving. We have exercised with Russian, Polish, and Lithuanian militaries. We have sponsored CINC (commander in chief) counterpart visits and base and unit exchanges. Thirteen US states have partnerships with new nations as a result of our Air National Guard's Building Bridges to America program. Finally, our liaison teams in 12 host states provide expertise on everything from civil-military relations to chaplaincies. Through these contacts, we share American military skills, insights, and values so that foreign militaries can better help themselves and so we can operate better with them.
Finally, in response to the burgeoning requirements of engagement, the Air Force has reconceptualized presence--what it is, why we do it, and how best to support joint requirements. Our concept of presence includes all peacetime applications of military capability that promote US influence. Correspondingly, the way we exert presence is changing. We are augmenting a reduced permanent presence overseas with information-gathering systems linked to joint military capabilities that can be brought to bear either proactively or just in time.
Our space and airborne collection platforms help provide global situational awareness. Sometimes this information, by itself, can promote US influence. In other cases, information linked to forces that can react swiftly with the right mix of joint capabilities anywhere on the globe reduces the need for traditional physical presence. Permanent presence is still imperative in many areas. And even where it is not, we routinely verify our global commitments through deployments. But we do not need and cannot afford to be everywhere at once. We can exercise more influence in more places by providing assistance, assurance, or deterrence either periodically or on demand. This allows for maximum effective use of our air and space forces to help build US influence jointly and globally, while controlling risks and minimizing costs.
People are the ultimate guarantors of combat readiness. Attracting and retaining quality people depends on providing a reasonable quality of life. This means three things: providing acceptable standards of living, treating people with dignity and respect, and managing stresses associated with high deployment tempos.
Acceptable Standards of Living
The Air Force boosted quality-of-life funding 5 percent this year. We are focusing on key areas such as child care, housing, and family support. We provide quality child care for 45,000 families each day at substantially less cost to our personnel than commercial caregivers. We are arresting growth of deferred maintenance for housing; exploring privatization to improve access to quality units; and working towards private rooms for unaccompanied enlisted personnel. Family support activities such as parenting, chaplaincy, and abuse prevention programs are reaching more people. Finally, in response to an increasing number of families citing financial strains, we have doubled financial training for new recruits.
We have accomplished much, but much remains to be done. The president's recent commitment to the highest-level military pay raise permitted by law will help stop the fall in military pay as compared to that of the private sector, but the gaps generated in past years will continue to grow (albeit at a much slower rate). Therefore, we must continue to look for opportunities to improve the lot of those who serve in today's Air Force and their families. The department's renewed commitment to a better quality of life, through investments totaling $2.7 billion, is an important step in our efforts to counterbalance that pay gap and to achieve needed retention levels. At the same time, we will continue to pursue ways to reduce the substantial out-of-pocket housing and moving expenses that now are absorbed by military families.
Recruiting also remains a top priority. In recent years American youth have been turning away from military service. The propensity to enlist is down 35 percent since 1990, and some speculate that young people doubt our ability to provide career opportunities that are challenging yet stable. The recently enacted boosts to our advertising appropriation should help correct that misperception, but some concerns remain. We aggressively monitor recruiting trends, and stand ready to pursue the resources necessary to achieve excellence in this area so vital to long-term readiness.
In sum, 1994 signaled a year of rededication to members of the Air Force and their families--a dedication to more equitable pay, to providing a better quality of life, and to excellence in recruiting and retention. We will continue to build on these accomplishments in the year ahead and recognize our responsibility to move quickly in arresting any adverse trends that might emerge.
Treatment of People
The Air Force is setting new standards in the equitable treatment of people to enhance unit effectiveness and cohesion. Our focus is in two areas: eliminating discrimination and harassment and enhancing professional opportunities. Air Force leaders at all levels are getting the word out--discrimination and harassment have no place in our profession and will not be tolerated. Our policy is clear, educational processes are continuously being improved, and local commanders are empowered to deal with incidents in a frank, open, and proactive way. Correspondingly, opportunities for professional growth have been clarified and expanded. Year of Training initiatives resulted in life-cycle education and training objectives that reduce uncertainties concerning requirements for advancement. New opportunities are also available to women, who now compete for over 99 percent of all positions.
Managing the Stress of Deployments
Finally, we are working to reduce the stresses associated with high deployment tempos. Personnel deployment tempos are up fourfold in as many years. Average annual deployment rates for special mission and support aircraft are particularly high--HC-130 (194 days), EC-130E (187 days), E-3 (165 days), U-2 (148 days), AC-130 (146 days), MH-60G (145 days), RC-135 (143 days), F-4G (135 days), and C-130 (126 days)--with corresponding demands on support personnel. To reduce stress on our people, we are broadening support bases for affected platforms, targeting family support for affected units, distributing deployment burdens through our Palace Tenure program, and working with our Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve partners to balance mission loads across the Total Force.
We are preserving the combat readiness of the Air Force through resource management, realistic combat training, and stability in funding to meet the challenges of contingency operations.
Resource Management
Year of Readiness initiatives produced three critical enhancements to Air Force readiness. First, we strengthened readiness forecasting. Our improved status of resources and training system (SORTS) ensures that all units provide readiness snapshots not only of current health, but forecasts looking three, six, and 12 months ahead. This system helps predict the impact of resource decisions as well as to uncover weaknesses before readiness erodes.
Second, the way we support weapon systems is being fundamentally altered. Lean logistics is an integrated effort among maintenance, supply, and transportation systems to provide the right part, at the right time, at the best price to the user. Lean logistics selectively removes one whole tier of maintenance support for highly reliable weapon systems, reduces depot maintenance time, and uses transportation procedures like those of commercial package carriers. The results are impressive. In the avionics area, for instance, repair pipeline times have been cut by 75 percent.
Third, we are enhancing readiness through better distribution of mission tasks across the force. The Air Force is making increasing use of the world-class capabilities of our Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve. These affordable, accessible, and highly capable partners are integral to our war-fighting strategy. They are also making decisive contributions in peacetime contingency operations around the world. We have expanded their mobility roles, introduced bombers, and are funding key upgrades that reflect our increasing dependence on these citizen-airmen in frontline roles. In a similar vein, the Civil Reserve Air Fleet has been expanded to provide 34 percent of our cargo and 90 percent of our passenger capability. Finally, we are obtaining authority to use US air forces assigned to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) on a temporary basis outside the region when required.
Combat Training
Realistic combat training is not a luxury, but a necessity. We have insisted on strong funding profiles for all combat training programs. What began 20 years ago as a modest exercise concept known as Red Flag has since become the backbone of USAF readiness. As one commander put it, "What we did in Desert Storm would have been impossible if the entire Air Force didn't have flag exercise experience." Now all Air Force flag exercises are joint or combined. Similarly, the Air Force is a full partner in all major Army exercises at the National Training and Joint Readiness Training centers. Finally, we bring our high training standards to over 50 major joint and combined exercises around the globe each year.
Underpinning this, of course, is the realistic day-to-day training that prepares our people for these large exercises. Thus, we maintain high day-to-day training tempos across the force, and daily operations increasingly emphasize composite and joint force operations to build on basic formation skills. Finally, we continue to enhance combat training through simulation, but primarily as a supplement to flight operations. Teamwork and uncompromising standards measured in a realistic flight environment are the touchstones of war-fighting excellence. We will continue to arm our people with experiences that mimic the crucible of war in its most demanding phases.
Challenges
Stability in our operation and maintenance (O&M) budget is key to maintaining Air Force readiness, and that stability depends on timely funding for contingency operations. If future funding is delayed, then the balance between force structure and readiness support could easily be upset. We would then have less ability to deal with spot-readiness setbacks in systems such as the airborne warning and control system (AWACS), F-117s, EF-111s, B-1Bs, C-5s, C-141s, AC-130s, and in engines for the F-15 and F-16. These problems are manageable, but there is little margin for error. A related concern is the impact of contingency operations on combat training. Heavily tasked units have fewer opportunities to hone their complete repertoire of combat skills. We need continued stability in our O&M accounts, including timely funding for contingencies, in order to manage these problems.
As Gen John Shalikashvili said, "The combination of slower modernization rates and a rapidly changing threat environment makes long-range planning more difficult and more important." The Air Force has set standards in this area of planning.
Planning Savvy
We have developed 25-year road maps across 40 mission areas to make educated decisions about modernization needs. These plans link future tasks to deficiencies, to candidate solutions, and to laboratory programs for an end-to-end view of each mission area. We evaluate alternatives ranging from nonmaterial options to changes in force structure, systems modifications, science and technology applications, and new acquisitions. Correspondingly, we continue to evolve and reform the manner in which we conduct the acquisition of systems and capabilities. Through numerous initiatives we are streamlining the process, reducing the paperwork, adopting commercial practices, standards, and processes, all aimed at more effectively and efficiently placing the required capabilities into warfighters' hands.
This new planning process and our initiatives in acquisition reform are major milestones, but they are also just the beginning of a renaissance in Air Force planning and systems acquisition. The year 1995 is the 50th anniversary of the Air Force Scientific Advisory Board (SAB), whose first reports set the trajectory for Air Force modernization for decades. This year will see a similar level of effort by the SAB, Air Force planners, Air University, and our acquisition and modeling and simulation activities. I have challenged our best and brightest to revolutionize and institutionalize new planning and acquisition processes that will prepare us for the twenty-first century.
Essential Foundations
Air Force scientific and technological prowess remains the fulcrum for future readiness, but our strategies to maintain preeminence are changing. In prior decades, we produced the most critical technologies. Now we must harness commercial applications in many areas. Hence, in addition to funding our science and technology program at the maximum authorized level, we have revitalized the SAB as a nexus linking the Air Force to other government agencies, commercial sectors, academe, and our allies. Through the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, we support about 3,000 senior researchers and 2,000 graduate students at universities, in industry, and in laboratories. We have also developed international data exchanges, research agreements, engineer/scientist exchanges, and Foreign Comparative Test and Nunn Amendment programs, and we are committed to the research activities of the NATO. These efforts keep us at the cutting edge of technological advancements and promote affordable solutions to aerospace problems. Finally, our approach to research, development, test, and evaluation (RDT&E) is also changing. Vigorous growth in modeling and simulation capabilities is promoting better RDT&E at reduced cost.
Regional War-fighting Requirements
Modernization objectives to meet two major regional conflict (MRC) requirements must be understood in their strategic context. Decisions made today have 30-year implications. Regional threats may change radically. We probably will not have the luxury of a Desert Shield-type buildup. Next time, we may be fighting our way in, racing for control of footholds in one (or two) theaters. If we lose the race, the result will be a fait accompli or a long, costly war.
With these points in mind, Bottom-up Review (BUR) conclusions depended on key modernization efforts to field highly leveraged forces early on. These forces would (1) secure a lodgment in-theater, (2) blunt enemy progress, and (3) thereby lay abutments for a sea and air bridge over which follow-on forces would propagate initial success. Moreover, portions of the lead cadre must be prepared to swing to help reproduce decisive results in a second theater or to deter a second aggressor. In sum, BUR conclusions depend on leveraging the capabilities of airpower, at sufficient operations tempos and with the right munitions, to defeat two enemies on opposite sides of the globe in less than two months. Within this context, we are focusing on the following priorities.
Rapid Global Mobility
The C-141 is tired! It will continue to serve through this decade, but it makes better economic sense to modernize with C-17s rather than extend the life of this aging workhorse. The once-troubled C-17 is now a success story--replacing the C-141 at lower operating costs while delivering C-5-type payloads into C-130-size airfields. This core airlifter underpins the nation's two-MRC strategy and is US Transportation Command's highest priority. Production of the C-17 is ahead of schedule, and the aircraft made its operational debut in Vigilant Warrior. We are also evaluating augmentation using a nondevelopmental airlift aircraft with a decision pending in 1995. We are also upgrading our air refueling and theater airlift fleets to increase flexibility, better support our sister services, and enhance viability in the next century.
Air Superiority
The initial battle for air superiority may well determine the course of the next MRC. Our early deploying fighter forces may arrive outnumbered to engage the full weight of the enemy's air forces, missile forces, and surface-to-air defenses--all supported by robust command and logistical infrastructures. This is why the F-22 is our top modernization objective. Modern air battles tend to be cataclysmic. An initial disadvantage can quickly cascade into outright defeat with profound consequences for the progress of a war. Air superiority provides freedom of maneuver so ground, air, and naval forces can operate with impunity to end conflicts quickly and decisively. It is fundamental to the safe arrival and resupply of forces. It is essential for protection of high-value aircraft that help achieve information dominance, such as the joint surveillance and target attack radar system (JSTARS) and the airborne warning and control system. And it must extend deep into enemy territory to ensure success of all other offensive operations.
The Air Force has ensured that American fighting forces have had air superiority since Kasserine Pass in the spring of 1943. We must continue this record in the twenty-first century. Many foreign fighters are now at parity with the F-15. The F-15 is vulnerable to surface-to-air missiles (SAM), and it may not win the air battle beyond the next decade. The F-22's stealth characteristics, supersonic cruise, high maneuverability, and advanced avionics all provide the qualitative edge required to fight outnumbered against future opponents and win. The ability to penetrate at the time and place of our choosing and to achieve first look/first shot/first kill decisions underwrites the capabilities of all follow-on forces in an MRC. Finally, the F-22 will penetrate enemy defenses unassisted in a strike role once the contest for air superiority is decided.
A second essential component of air superiority is suppression of enemy air defenses (SEAD), which protects aviation forces that do not possess stealthy characteristics. By upgrading a portion of our F-16s with high-speed antiradiation missile (HARM) targeting systems, we will more than offset the retirement of the aging F-4G Wild Weasel. Finally, proliferation of missiles and weapons of mass destruction (WMD) presents the most serious long-term threat to aerospace superiority. Our modernization objectives aim at neutralizing these weapons before launch and very early in flight. This will reduce stress on midcourse and end-game systems provided by our sister services. Moreover, by neutralizing WMD on enemy territory, we can create powerful incentives not to use it in the first place, better protect our forces if it is used, and thus shift our emphasis from deterrence by threat of punishment to deterrence by defense.
Surface Attack
The third vital requirement in an MRC is denying enemy power projection on land--and again, early successes reduce the costs of all subsequent operations. Our modernization objectives are centered in three areas. First, we must deliver massive firepower beginning in the opening hours of a war through a balanced approach to bomber modernization. The B-2's stealth and large payload will significantly improve flexibility and offensive striking power. Six B-2s, for example, are more lethal and survivable than all land- and sea-based airpower used during the 1986 Libya raid. While the B-2 is the head of the fleet, the B-1B is the backbone with its greater numbers, larger payload, and higher speed. The B-1B recently demonstrated its capability to sustain wartime operating rates in an operational readiness assessment, greatly surpassing the required mission-capable rate. Finally, the venerable B-52H will continue to provide an economical means to conduct standoff precision attacks or direct attacks. Acting in concert, the bomber force will provide critical leverage in an MRC and a responsive swing capability to deter or respond to a second conflict. By downsizing the bomber force to an acceptable level in the near term, we have generated savings to help fund upgrades that will enable us to deploy 100 bombers with enhanced capabilities by the end of the decade.
Second, we are modernizing theater strike and multirole platforms. The principal strength of these forces is their ability to sustain high combat tempos over long periods to maximize fire and steel on target. We are upgrading subsystems to extend life and enhance capabilities, but no new acquisitions are planned for a decade. Soon after, we must transition joint advanced strike technology (JAST) programs to make the next generation strike aircraft a reality. The ultimate success of JAST is closely tied to the F-22. F-22 production will provide technological leverage to help ensure JAST technologies are transitioned in a timely and affordable way. Conversely, F-22 delays would create a fiscal bow wave in the next century as the nation attempts to field new fighter and strike aircraft simultaneously.
Third, the Air Force has made a precision commitment. In 1944, it took 108 B-17s dropping 648 bombs to destroy a target. In Vietnam, similar targets required 176 bombs. Now, a single precision guided munition (PGM) can do the job. This is how the F-117 destroyed 40 percent of all strategic targets while flying only 2 percent of all strategic sorties during Desert Storm. Consequently, the Air Force has tripled the number of precision-capable platforms since the war, boosted PGM inventories 25 percent above prewar levels, and is developing new generations of PGMs with enhanced accuracy, standoff, and adverse weather capabilities.
Dominating the Information Environment
Global reach and global power are synonymous with Air Force operations worldwide, but the 1990s have seen the ascendance of another Air Force role--dominating the information environment--by providing global situational awareness and denying or corrupting that of our adversary. Information operations are no longer a cost of doing business but are presence and war-fighting methods in their own right. They substitute for force in some cases and increasingly serve as a multiplier when force is required. As principal operator of our nation's air and space information-gathering systems, we have stepped up to modernization challenges on behalf of joint warfighters.
This year saw development of an objective command, control, communications, computer, and intelligence (C4I) environment for the twenty-first century and a map to get there. Our proposal is not a grand design but a set of nested strategic plans that will allow rapid migration toward the goal--harmonizing efforts throughout the Department of Defense. The objective is a global network with a worldwide information plug-in, common tactical pictures, bandwidth on demand for any application, in any form, to and from anywhere, allowing all war fighters to access the information they need.
This vision is already coalescing in the field. Our Space Warfare Center is bringing operations and support together from all services to make space support to the joint war fighter routine. We glimpsed what we are looking for in Haiti, where our space teams deployed in support of the joint force commander (JFC). For the first time, the JFC, National Military Command Center, and service operation centers viewed a common tactical picture displaying everything from readiness data to imagery and weather at the click of a button. The Air Force is making similar strides developing conceptual, doctrinal, and legal positions on information warfare (IW); incorporating IW into education, training, and exercise programs; and developing operational capabilities. One important step was establishment of the Air Force Information Warfare Center in 1993.
Modernization of information systems proceeds apace. Our space test program successfully flew 23 research experiments this year. We now have a fully operational constellation of 24 global positioning system (GPS) satellites; and the first military strategic and tactical relay satellite (MILSTAR) supported joint operations in Haiti. Our airborne information systems are also being modernized and netted to each other and to ground and space systems to produce large force-multiplying effects. Correspondingly, we are modernizing our users to make faster and better use of information. GPS modifications continue on all Air Force aircraft. Targeting information is finding its way from space and airborne sensors directly to the cockpit or smart weapon. Finally, our new mission support system is pulling together operational, weather, intelligence, threat data, and command and control information from all sources into portable workstations for Army and Air Force war fighters. These are precisely the advances we need to fully exploit the capabilities of a much smaller military.
Space Launch
Information dominance depends on affordable access to space. We turned the corner in space launch this year. The year 1994 saw more than 20 successful launches, continuation of our Delta launch vehicle's 100 percent success story, and Titan IV's return to flight. We also submitted a space launch plan to the president and Congress to evolve our expendable launch systems and received funding for the first booster replacement in 30 years. Finally, we are enhancing national capabilities through cooperation with industry at Vandenberg AFB, California, and Cape Canaveral, Florida. This progress represents an essential beginning only. America's leadership in commercial space launch has declined from almost 100 percent of market share in the 1980s to 32 percent this year. If we do not continue to build on recent successes, the consequences for military and economic security could be serious.
Across the spectrum of peace and conflict, the Air Force exemplifies the ascendant role of air and space power in American security. Air and space power are fundamental to building US influence jointly and globally through presence. Likewise, air and space power increasingly underpin national capabilities to conduct decisive combat operations worldwide. Growing tension between expanding security requirements and dwindling resources will continue to challenge us in each of our objective areas: remaining engaged, supporting our people, preserving combat readiness, and building for the future. But Air Force priorities within each area are clear and our plans to achieve them viable.
It is also clear, however, that this tension magnifies the importance of two imperatives for the future. First, solutions to our nation's security needs must be joint solutions. The Air Force strives to build a team within the team. Second, as technology and threats evolve, so must our views on strategy, doctrine, and roles and missions. The declining size of our military demands abandonment of the business-as-usual mind-set. Innovative thinking is key to reducing duplication and getting the most capability from our defense budget. To paraphrase General Shalikashvili, the combination of diminishing resources and a rapidly changing threat environment makes interservice trust more difficult and more important.
Let me conclude with a salute to our Air Force men and women. We have come a long way from Kitty Hawk to Vigilant Warrior, and during that journey, we have raised the sight of all mankind to the skies and to the stars. People did that. If I have learned anything in the last two years, it is that a strong American defense comes not from the building of gadgets but from the building of character. Every day, Air Force people are rewriting the script that reads "duty, honor, country." Over 800,000 airmen--uniformed and civilian, guard, active, and reserve--serving at 191 installations spanning the globe, have committed their lives in our nation's service. With them lies the promise that we will meet the challenges ahead and go beyond--casting America's watchful eye upon the globe, wielding her sword and shield and lending her helping hand.
Sheila E. Widnall (BS, MS, PhD, Massachusetts Institute of Technology) has been secretary of the Air Force since August 1993. In previous positions with the Air Force, Dr Widnall served on the USAF Academy Board of Visitors, and on advisory committees to Military Airlift Command and Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio. Dr Widnall, a faculty member of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for 28 years, became an associate provost at the university in January 1992. A professor of aeronautics and astronautics, she is internationally known for her work in fluid dynamics, specifically in the areas of aircraft turbulence and the spiraling airflows created by helicopters. She has served on many boards, panels, and committees in government, academia, and industry. The Tacoma, Washington, native is the author of some 70 publications.
The conclusions and opinions expressed in this document are those of the author cultivated in the freedom of expression, academic environment of Air University. They do not reflect the official position of the U.S. Government, Department of Defense, the United States Air Force or the Air University.
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