The Role of the Air Reserve Component Under a Peacetime Strategy of Engagement

The Expeditionary Aerospace Force (EAF) concept represents a tremendous leap for both the active and reserve components. It is an attempt to manage the Air Force under the engagement strategy the nation executes, while maintaining a force structure created to fight and win two nearly simultaneous major theater wars. The Air National Guard and the Air Force Reserve Command have been integrally included in the Aerospace Expeditionary Force (AEF) construct, and that inclusion will be to the benefit of both components. It will also present challenges. This paper discusses the strategic background that led the USAF to create the AEF construct, noting the multiple demands on the force and the stresses that result. It describes the AEF structure, both in terms of the active component and the Guard and Reserve contributions. It discusses further changes planned for the near future with respect to ARC fighter integration into the Total Force, and it makes recommendations on those changes. By the end of this paper the reader should have a better understanding of the why and how behind the EAF and a clearer picture of the future of the Total Force and the strategy that it executes.