Concentrating on Dispersed Operations

Potential adversaries recognize that the US' ability to project combat power across the globe is essential to the maintenance of US military dominance. Consequently, degrading US combat power projection requires a strategy of access denial, which consists of geopolitical and military measures. In the Pacific Rim, the development of anti-access capabilities is accelerating. Specifically, China has increased its procurement of ballistic, cruise, and anti-ship missiles, sea mines, and diesel submarines with a special focus on anti-carrier operations. The anti-access challenge affects all the services. As the Pacific Rim continues to emerge as a global region of importance, the US must implement access-enhancing measures now to optimize its power projection capability later. The central question for the Air Force centers around how land-based airpower can assist in answering the emerging anti-access challenge in the Pacific Rim. This is not the first time the US has answered a significant anti-access challenge. The US encountered a severe anti-access challenge from the Soviet Union during the Cold War. In the 1950s and 1960s, the Soviet Union confronted the US with multiple nuclear delivery means that threatened US military forces overseas and stateside. The US answered this anti-access challenge in a multi-faceted approach that should inform our efforts in the Pacific Rim today.