and imagery intelligence to monitor belligerents' actions. I think such data rounds out the picture a peacekeeping commander has available and makes the tools in his toolbox more effective.

It's hard to believe that we would have blue-helmeted troops and not support them. One of the ways that we can support them is with access to our global awareness assets. We've seen where timely and accurate information in the hands of the peacekeepers does two things. One, it enhances their respect in the eyes of the belligerents. And two, it allows them to move in such a way that militarily and politically allows them to sustain a fragile peace. So the bottom line is that we help the overall mission.

a

ith this global awareness comes an extensive command and control network. As a commander at all levels, from the flight level to CinCTRANS (commander in chief, U.S. Transportation Command), I will tell you that a commander without the proper command and control asset commands nothing except his desk. You must have the ability to communicate with the forces under your command, and you must have the ability to exchange information with them freely, frequently and on a global basis.

It's one thing to have highly technical, sophisticated observation platforms, but if you can't use the information in a timely manner, it's wasted. Our command, control, communications, [computers] and intelligence architecture, or C4I, connects Joint STARS [Surveillance and Target Attack Radar System], AWACS [Airborne Warning and Control System], satellites and similar assets to the deployed force. These assets are critical and invaluable.

ated in every recognized country in the world with the exception of seven. Two of those countries did not have runways, and two were Libya and North Korea. Interestingly, two of the other countries were Rwanda and Burundi which we visited in 1994.

he point is that we operate globally every day in the but for international forces as well. And we do this at great speed at home and abroad.

For example, within 18 hours of the Los Angeles earthquake, Air Force aircraft landed with critical urban search and rescue equipment. This may not seem like much of an accomplishment - to do something within 18 hours is not much of a reaction time. But if you step back and recall that an earthquake does not give us much warning, with no leading intelligence indicators. So you can appreciate the speed that we refocus our mobility assets that are dedicated to other parts of the world. When a story breaks on the morn

ing

news,

the Air

Force has

our

nation

engaged by the time of the evening telecast. Our air mobility forces lever

age

this nation's response in any crisis.

And our mobility forces carry more than just relief supplies, they deliver troops - ours and those of other nations. There were times when I was CinC at U.S. Transportation Command that I thought we had the wrong name. The title "United Nations Transportation Command" would have been more appropriate. In Somalia, for example, we moved forces from 11 different countries in addition to our own troops.

share a little of the significance

I will tell you that our C'I is one of those features that is respected around the world. One of the major contributions we make to any operation other than war is our world-class command and control. And in the main it does not require us to deploy a lot of U.S. troops. It is a high-leverage capability. It's a tribute to our armed forces that the international community associates high-caliber C1I with American command and control.

of our Somalia operation as a humanitarian and peace effort. Once the president made the decision to send troops in, air mobility forces got them there quickly. We established an air bridge of airlift and tanker aircraft, so we could fly people directly from this country to where the CinC needed them. This accelerated our deployment, again highlighting the speed of our mobility forces.

I visited Somalia two weeks before the decision was made to deploy forces. I saw firsthand that this country had only one usable airfield and one port, making throughput a major challenge. What I was most proud of was that during the initial seven-day build-up we averaged 10 million ton-miles per day.

Now I won't belabor what a "ton-mile" means, but our level of effort into Somalia, with a single airfield, was twothirds of what our daily average was during Desert Shield. Some people fail to appreciate how remote this part of the world is. It's as far from Cairo, Egypt, to Mogadishu, Somalia, as it is from Los Angeles to New York. That is a large continent. And we accomplished our mission with

out activating the Civil Reserve Air Fleet and while using fewer airfields. So overall, Somalia was quite an achievement. I'm very proud of what airmen and soldiers, sailors, Marines and civilians did there.

uch global mobility is a unique national asset. Now I don't want to offend any of our allies present, but we're the only country in the world with such capability. We have the ability to project power and influence events anywhere in the world with the speed and certainty that our air mobility forces give us. But I will also tell you that if we don't pay attention to it, we risk losing it. Global mobility is not a God-given right.

The backbone of the mobility fleet has been the C-141. We designed it in the '50s, built it in the '60s, made it air refuelable in the '70s and have flown it hard in the '80s and '90s. If we are going to keep the rapid response we value to deploy combat unit and supplies overnight anywhere in the world, we need a new core airlifter. Providing this capability is not about protecting an Air Force program, it's about meeting a national priority.

I have traveled around the world and talked to people in different countries. I can tell you that ... big "T" tail aircraft with the American flag on the

power with little collateral damage.

And in peacekeeping operations, I think air power can serve as a valuable force multiplier. Typically, a peacekeeping force is lightly armed, to match the mission and threat. environment. However, a belligerent can rapidly concentrate forces and outgun the peacekeepers.

Air power - because of its speed, lethality, precision can quickly be brought to bear. That's part of the mission of our close air support forces in Bosnia. And as we look at events around the world, one of those that has gained attention is our engagement in Mogadishu last year, where we lost American troops. I have to wonder that, if we had an AC-130 or fixed-wing CAS [close air support] aircraft on hand, could events have turned out differently? I'm not trying to second-guess someone, but here was a situation where we found ourselves without all the tools in the toolbox.

Having an Air Force chief talk about this accurate, precise combat potential is not new. But to hear one talk about

an imprecise contribution may confuse you. So let me explain. Here I'm talking about our psychological operations.

syops, or what will become known

warfare, is of value because it disperses information across an entire area. It

represent America, they are America. They show our nation's commitment, strength and reach. These aircraft are very valuable tools in the toolbox of our national leaders.

ing no-fly zones, providing air support for peacekeepers and similar undertakings.

I'd suggest that we offer the CinC two forms of combat power. The first one that we talk a lot about is precise, combat power. The second one that I will talk about more in a moment is our imprecise assets.

Now Desert Storm demonstrated the accuracy of today's combat aircraft. I think most would agree that one laserguided bomb striking a single target has a potential role to play in peace operations. Today we have increased the number of precision-capable aircraft in the United States Air Force four-fold over what we had in Desert Storm. This is the result of fielding the LANTIRN [Low-Altitude Navigational Targeting Infrared for Night-flying system] capability in our F-16s and F-15Es. Such precision combat assets give the joint commander the ability to apply lethal combat

peace ops. With psyops we shape the arena before U.S. forces enter and while our forces are engaged. We let the inhabitants know our intentions and provide another source of news. In nontraditional missions such support helps to align the population to our side. So it's critical for our nation and the joint force to have this capability.

But as important as these forces and capabilities are, I can't forget the people who make it happen. Our highly trained Air Force men and women are just as important as any single piece of equipment. And our people are in high demand. Today, to support our worldwide contingencies, we have over 11,600 folks deployed. This includes roughly

1,000 guardsmen and reservists.

And we have more than just air crews involved. We also have comm [communications] experts, security police, linguists, intel [intelligence] types, air traffic controllers and many others engaged.

or example, in February Air Force medical specialists will take over running the U.N. field hospital in Croatia. They'll support 26,000 folks in the U.N. Protection Force operating throughout the entire former Yugoslav Republic. This is just one example of how our entire force is engaged, whether you're a medical technician, crew chief or aviator.

And our support to the joint commander goes beyond just those wearing flight suits or BDUs [battle dress uniforms]. If you look back on our deployment to Somalia, we relied on our civilian airline industry to get the mission done.

our

able to our nation's leadership.

As a service chief, one of my primary jobs is to ensure our Air Force brings the most capable forces to the table, to allow us to be effective players in such nontraditional missions. With the current pace of operations some have asked if we are sacrificing readiness. One of the key questions is, "Are we overtasking our people so they are not ready for combat?" Well, that's a legitimate question.

For the Air Force, the answer is, "No, we do not have a hollow force problem - we have an optempo [operations tempo] problem." We have some folks on the road too much. Some time ago the Air Force four-stars got together and concluded that a person should be, ideally, TDY [temporary duty] no more than 120 days a year. This is a very high personnel tempo over any sustained period of time, but at that limit it allows sufficient time for our people to get the right amount of training at home station and to take 30 days of leave a year.

And while I'm talking about the other services, let me share my thoughts with you on what some call our "fifth service" special operations forces. Yesterday I spoke with the roles and missions commission [Commission on Roles and Missions of the Armed Forces]. I won't go into the details of the twohour-plus session, but I did talk about special operation forces and our Special Operations Command. I told the commission that I consider special operators to be just that- special. They bring special capabilities and something unique to the combatant CinC.

And I'll tell you that if the Defense Department proceeds with the CV-22 buy, the Air Force is going to buy CV22s for our special operations forces. I've made a commitment to Gen. [Wayne A.] Downing [CinC, U.S. Special Operations Command] and to [Maj.] Gen. [James L.] Hobson [commander, Air Force Special Operations Command], and in our view the CV22 will replace our MH-58s after the turn of the century. This aircraft offers the CinC the ability to self-deploy

Well the majority of our people have been deployed less than 120 days over this last year. However, 13 out of 20 of our major aircraft types have exceeded that number. Many of them are special capability aircraft that are in high demand for operations other than war. They include systems like AWACS, AC130s, rescue HC-130s. These are mission-type aircraft that have their people on the road 160 to almost 200 days last year.

from sion-type

a combined rotary- and fixed-wing aircraft anywhere in the world. It will deploy quickly, reducing our lift requirements and opening many more operating locations. And the CinC gets the speed of a fixed-wing aircraft with the flexibility of a rotary asset. So, the CV-22 will improve our SOF [special operations forces] war fighters' abilities to move troops or conduct a rescue operation.

ut with or without this aircraft I expect our special ops

Broks, like the rest of the Air Force men and women, to

be active players in our nation's conduct of humanitarian relief efforts and peace operations. To get the mission done takes a total team effort, and no single service is more important than another. Together we allow our nation to remain engaged internationally. Our armed forces are one tool, along with the political, economic, diplomatic assets avail

lo one of my challenges is to find ways to spread out this TDY burden. Let me give you a few examples of where we may not be doing this as well as we could.

Last year we had A-10 pilots in Europe deployed 180 days while their counterparts in the states were gone only 45 days. That's three-quarters less. So I need to convince the CinC in Europe that he has assets available to him other than those assigned in Europe. After all, that's what our new military strategy is about a CONUS [continental United States]-based military with forward-deployed troops to provide presence and handle the immediate response.

In other areas we may need to redistribute some force structure between the Guard or Reserve and active duty units. The example that comes to mind is our rescue assets. We have a significant portion of this force structure in the Guard and Reserve, and they deploy to support our contingency ops as often as practical. But there is a limit on the amount of volunteerism we can expect from our citizenairmen. The result is that our active duty stateside HC-130 crews were deployed 194 days last year. That's far too much.

Now if you compare that with our mobility forces, you see a different picture. I have already talked about how our mobility forces are deployed around the world. In AMC, we have almost an even mix of active duty to Guard and

Reserve, and we have only one aircraft that is bumping up against the 120-day limit. I think the difference is the associate reserve program and our Air Force Reserve and Air National Guard equipped units. We get about 25 percent of our daily mobility assets from volunteers from the Guard and Reserve. So the goal is to find smarter ways to use our people and assets, allowing everybody to share the workload. When I took over as chief I made a promise to call a shovel a shovel. I'm not interested in hiding anything from those in uniform or the American public when I talk about readiness. We recognize that these operations do not provide an Air Force war fighter all the skills he or she needs for combat, and the increased flying hours stress some weapon systems.

But most of our indicators show we're not in bad health. For example, our aircraft cannibalization rates this year are below where they were in 1989 and 1990, and our accident rate is below our 10-year average. So as I look across the entire Air Force, I think we're prepared and ready to be an effective team player on the joint force to fight and win

America's next war. However, operations other than war, if sustained without recognition that they do take a toll on the force, will begin to erode our ability to perform our fundamental mission.

So let me sum up: The Air Force offers the joint commander a diverse array of capabilities and talents — machines and people. Many of the forces I've described today have been typically classified as "support" or "force enhancers," but in today's climate, global awareness, global mobility and sustained combat power are often the actual tools that accomplish the humanitarian or peace operation.

First on-scene, first to respond, today's air and space forces give this nation the lethal and nonlethal responsive military options to meet with staying power to meet a crisis.

Published for internal information use by the American Forces Information Service, a field activity of the Office of the Assistant to the Secretary of Defense (Public Affairs), Washington, D.C. This material is in the public domain and may be reprinted without permission.