Supporting Expeditionary Aerospace Forces: New Agile Combat Support Postures

With the end of the Cold War, the United States has entered an entirely new security environment that has required the U.S. Air Force to stage a large number of deployments, carried out by a substantially smaller force than existed in the 1980s. To meet these challenges and to address resulting personnel turbulence, the Air Force has formulated the expeditionary Aerospace Force concept. Prototype analyses in this report suggest that with today's support processes, ploicies, and technologies, deploying even a modest fighter-based combat force to a bare base will require several days of development before the Forward Operating Location can sustain a high flying tempo.