Volume 27, Issue 3, May - June  2013

Joint Targeting and Air Support in Counterinsurgency:
How to Move to Mission Command

This article articulates the disconnect between current joint close air support / targeting doctrine and the doctrine and practices of counterinsurgency warfare. It shows how joint doctrine does not support—and often undermines—doctrine developed by the Army and Marine Corps for guerilla warfare built around mission command. Additionally, the article describes how the joint targeting community, led by the Air Force, can integrate this concept into its doctrine while strengthening both the supporting and supported mission in accordance with the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff’s white paper of April 2012.

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  • Ed G 9/13/2012 12:42:44 PM

    If the way ahead is for the "most mobile and critical force multiplier [to] operate and be controlled by the supported element," are the support functions for that CAS platform also being put under control of the supported element? ie Tanker support, SEAD, TACP, AWACS, JSTAR. Additionally who is the supported element? Division, Brigade, Battalion, Company? Decentralization of control may increase success at a tactical level, but as we draw down, decentralization of control means less efficient use of limited assets. Joint success is measured operationally/strategically, not tactically.

  • Fred Curtis 12/3/2012 4:20:04 PM

    This is the old classic argument for assigning air assets as you would vehicles out of a motor pool. Dwight Eisenhower recognized that air assets need to be centrally commanded. The Air Force has gone full circle though with a single air operations center. A good solution would be to give AWACS the mission and capabillities that used to be in Direct Air Support Centers for immediate missions in support of ground forces. Command also implies operational and asdministrative functions - decentralized control of a subset of assets by AWACS could make CAS very responsive.

  • John Jensen 1/24/2013 12:24:05 PM

    I certainly do appreciate and commend LTC Darling's service to our Nation and for his many tours into combat areas for its defense. However, I believe he has a misunderstanding of Air Force C2 doctrine, in particular, its CAS mission in support of the other Service components.