U.S. Air Force Contributions to Stability Operations

The September 2002 National Security Strategy published by the Bush Administration identified the requirement for the U.S. Military instrument of power to be prepared to engage weak and failing states. Both Afghanistan and Iraq represent highlight the important role stability operations play in obtaining the desired political end state. The Department of Defense (DoD) recently developed guidance on conducting stability operations. DoD Directive 3000.05, Military Support for Stability, Security, Transition, and Reconstruction (SSTR) Operations was published in November 2005. This document is significant because it elevates stability operations from a secondary U.S. military mission to a core military mission.Does the U.S. Air Force have a role during stability operations? It absolutely does. The most common responses on how the U.S. Air Force can contribute to stability operations center around its flying platforms and and rightly so. These missions include close air support, time sensitive targeting, ISR collection, or airlift.The research question addressed in this paper is whether the U.S. Air Force is organizing, training, and equipping its force to support DoD's stability operations? The thesis presented in this paper is that the U.S. Air Force can contribute significantly to stability operations but it first needs to develop doctrine so it can effectively employ one of its unique and overlooked strengths, its Agile Combat Support function, in order to better support DoD's current and future stability operations.