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Published Airpower Journal - Spring 1999

NEW DOCTRINE DEMANDS CHANGES
IN THE AEROSPACE FORCE

LT COL FRANK W. JENNINGS, USAFR, RETIRED

THE US AIR FORCE has made a significant but little noted change in the terminology it uses to describe what it does. It is signifi- cant not only because it changes the language of the Air Force’s guiding principles—its doctrine—but also because the change reflects a more accurate description of the realm of the Air Force’s primary operations and responsibilities.

If it’s true that “at the heart of warfare lies doctrine,” as stated in the Air Force’s basic doctrine manual, then revising the central terminology used in expounding its doctrine is a remarkable recognition of an altered understanding of certain war-fighting concepts.

Less than two years ago, in September 1997, Air Force Doctrine Docu- ment (AFDD) 1, Air Force Basic Doctrine, used exclusively the disjointed term air and space to describe the Air Force’s single environmental continuum for operations.¹ You can’t find the term aerospace anywhere in that document. Yet now, with the publication of AFDD 2-2, Space Operations, in August 1998, aerospace is the preferred term.

Air Force Chief of Staff Michael E. Ryan says of Space Operations, “As a keystone doctrine document, it underscores the seamless integration of space into the total aerospace effort.” He says also in his foreword to the document that “the United States is the world’s foremost aerospace power, and our space forces are essential elements of that power.” He states that the US Air Force is an aerospace force comprising “both air and space systems and the people who employ and support these systems.”²

This view of the “seamless” nature of operations in the atmosphere and the space beyond is a notable departure from the AFDD 1 basic doctrine document of 1997—which seems to treat the aerospace medium as divided—stating, “Warfare is normally associated with the different mediums of air, land, sea and space.”³ This concept of disjointed mediums associated with warfare, which also is implied in the three-word term air and space, has been overtaken by the new doctrine document, and much of the terminology—Air and Space Expeditionary Task Force (ASETF), for example—has been changed. The terminology in the basic doctrine document—along with descriptions of some concepts—is no longer consistent with current thinking and is inaccurate to the extent that it speaks a “language” different from the new document.

AFDD 2-2 states, “The aerospace medium can be most fully exploited when considered as a whole. Although there are physical differences between the atmosphere and space, there is no absolute boundary between them. The same basic military activities can be performed in each, albeit with different platforms and methods. Therefore, space operations are an integral part of aerospace power.”

Elsewhere, AFDD 2 states that “within the DOD, the Air Force is in the forefront of space operations. The Air Force provides essential support and expertise for space activities to other military departments and the civil sector. . . . Gaining air and space superiority is a primary goal of a military campaign and must be achieved early to ensure freedom of action. . . . Centralized control and decentralized execution are essential to the successful and optimal use of aerospace power.”⁴

What appears to be a sudden change by the Air Force in its understanding of its primary realm of operations is actually only a restating of a concept that leaders began discussing and promulgating more than 40 years ago. Air Force Pamphlet 11-1-4, Interim Aerospace Terminology Reference, published on 30 October 1959, was the first official document issued by the Air Force to explain aerospace terminology. It was compiled by Air Staff representatives because, as explained in its preface, “in the past several years, there has been a large number of ‘official’ Air Force glossaries printed about space, missiles, satellites, and related subjects. Although each was compiled in good faith and for specific purposes, it was inevitable that a large number of terms would be common to most of the glossaries and that the definitions of these terms, when compared, would reflect inconsistencies.”⁵ Along with a rather extensive description of the space environment, the 1959 Air Force pamphlet stated that “aerospace is an operationally indivisible medium consisting of the total expanse beyond the Earth’s surface.”⁶

Gen Thomas D. White was the first Air Force chief of staff to use the term aerospace. It appeared in the August 1958 issue of Air Force Magazine.⁷ After that, leaders and doctrine experts used the word throughout the Air Force until Gen Merrill A. McPeak became chief of staff in 1990. He preferred air and space, and his views were dutifully echoed throughout the Air Force until General Ryan took over in 1997. In fairness to General McPeak’s successor, Gen Ronald R. Fogleman, it must be said that while he seldom used the term aerospace, he did state in 1995, “I think as we move into the 21st century, the United States will be defined by the fact that it is an aerospace nation.” General Ryan soon made it clear that the term aerospace was preferable to air and space and should be used throughout the Air Force.

It’s ironic that the Air Force, which originated aerospace some 40 years ago, has at times seen the word embraced more enthusiastically by industry, commerce, and education than by itself. The reason for the word’s widespread usage is its plain meaning and proven value. Looking back on decades of its ever-growing use, I see it embodying the most challenging and vital operational realm for military forces dedicated to national defense.

Aerospace is simply another word for sky. It’s that heart-thumping “wild blue yonder” that has inspired and excited America’s youth from the earliest days of flying. From Earth it extends even farther than the eye can see or human technology can reach.

Aerospace is the region that Pilot Officer John Gillespie Magee Jr., Royal Canadian Air Force, had in mind more than a half century ago when he wrote his immortal poem “High Flight”: “Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth/And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings. . . ./And, while with silent, lifting mind I’ve trod/The high untrespassed sanctity of space.”

There is no better symbol for aerospace than the Air Force’s traditional winged star, which is reproduced on the cover of Air Force doctrine documents—the star representing the firmament with its constellations, and the wings for flight closer to Earth. The winged star combines aeronautics with astronautics—two essential human elements of aerospace power.

Aerospace is our planet’s natural realm in the universe. It’s the Air Force’s primary operational medium and area of expertise in support of the people it helps protect.

Clearly, the Air Force’s job in aerospace is as big as the sky; its future, unlimited as space. But all its doctrine documents must speak the same language, and all its organizations should acknowledge in their titles the reality of the twenty-first century that they are engaged no longer in operations confined only to the air—to the Earth’s atmosphere—but their planning, training, development, and actions are now and forever interrelated and interdependent with space. The US Air Force has an obligation to act boldly in demonstrating that it is, in truth, an aerospace force comprising “both air and space systems and the people who employ and support these systems.”

San Antonio, Texas

Notes

1. Air Force Doctrine Document (AFDD) 1, Air Force Basic Doctrine, September 1997.

2. AFDD 2-2, Space Operations, August 1998, n.p.

3. AFDD 1, 7.

4. AFDD 2-2, 5, 7.

5. Air Force Pamphlet (AFP) 11-1-4, Interim Aerospace Terminology Reference, 30 October 1959, 1.

6. Ibid., 2–3.

7. Air Force Magazine 41, no. 8 (August 1958): 36.

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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