Maintaining Aerial Dominance Remains Crucial for Victory; Obtaining It Grows More Challenging
United States Air Force leaders emphasized the need to maintain air superiority in any future conflict, despite increasing reliance on autonomous aircraft, nonkinetic capabilities, and space, at the Air Force Association's Warfare Symposium in Colorado.
Senior Air Force officials argued that air superiority remains the cornerstone of success in any potential war, regardless of associated costs. They emphasized the importance of sufficient flying hours, regular training, and exercises in preserving a force capable of securing control of the skies, as well as having a stockpile of suitable munitions and an adequate number of platforms to deliver them.
Maj. Gen. Joseph D. Kunkel, the Air Force's director of force design, integration, and wargaming, stated that achieving air superiority is essential to winning battles, and that the commitment of resources to accomplish this will be necessary if the United States wants to prevail. Kunkel added that while fiscal constraints exist, there is no shortcut to victory.
Gen. Kenneth S. Wilsbach, head of Air Combat Command, argued that air superiority is key to enabling the joint force to operate where and when necessary, making it an indispensable enabler of operations in all domains. However, he emphasized that air superiority should not be considered in isolation from space superiority. In both cases, he said, the absence of dominance would make success impossible.
Lt. Gen. Dale R. White, the Air Force acquisition executive's uniformed deputy, highlighted the lesson from the war in Ukraine, namely that a conflict without air superiority would lead to a stalemate.
U.S. adversaries are developing their own means to achieve air superiority and to deny it to U.S. forces. Wilsbach specifically pointed to China's recently revealed sixth-generation fighter aircraft, asserting that the primary purpose of these new aircraft is to establish air superiority.
The Air Force is currently developing a new design to address this challenge, with the Next-Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) program including both Collaborative Combat Aircraft and a crewed fighter at its core. However, fiscal realities pose a significant challenge to the NGAD family of systems, with the former Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall's decision last summer to delay rather than commit to the program's substantial costs leaving the program on a precarious footing.
To keep the NGAD program alive, contractors were awarded Technology Maturation and Risk Reduction contracts late last year, allowing them to maintain their design teams through the end of the year, leaving a relatively short window for the Trump administration to decide whether to proceed with the program.
Airing at the symposium, Kunkel was adamant that wargamers had found no more viable option than NGAD for achieving and maintaining air superiority in a highly contested environment. However, White cautioned against limiting thoughts of what air superiority might look like in the future, suggesting that it could take a variety of forms, including nonkinetic ways to dominate the skies.
Wilsbach agreed, stating that electronic warfare, cyber techniques, and potentially other nonkinetic capabilities can add to traditional kinetic attack, while Kunkel pointed out that the Air Force can already attack and disrupt adversary surfaces using nonkinetic means.
Training remains a critical element in achieving and maintaining air superiority. Deploying pilots today may expect only 12 flying hours per month, a level comparable to that flown by Russia in the late 1990s at the nadir of its military power. The development of Collaborative Combat Aircraft will add to pilots' capabilities, but there is a time when the U.S. may not be able to rely solely on unmanned aircraft for its air superiority needs.
The Air Force is also exploring the use of manned-unmanned teaming concepts, with a unit expected to begin flying Collaborative Combat Aircraft at Creech soon. However, Wilsbach noted that today's AI has not evolved to the point where it can replace a human brain.
Artificial intelligence broadly is expected to have a significant impact on accelerating the achievement of air superiority, but White cautioned that its potential value is also seen by adversaries, and that the U.S. cannot afford to be complacent. Instead, it must continue to innovate and adapt in order to stay ahead of the competition.
- The Air Force leaders insisted that maintaining air superiority is crucial for success in any potential conflict, even if it requires substantial resources and finance.
- General Kenneth S. Wilsbach stressed that air superiority and space superiority both are crucial for operations in all domains, as the absence of dominance in either case would make success impossible.
- The Next-Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) program, which includes both Collaborative Combat Aircraft and a crewed fighter, was identified as a critical program for addressing the challenge posed by adversaries trying to achieve air superiority.
- Maj. Gen. Joseph D. Kunkel asserted that nonkinetic means, such as electronic warfare, cyber techniques, and the ability to attack and disrupt adversary surfaces, can also contribute to achieving and maintaining air superiority.
- The development of manned-unmanned teaming concepts is being explored by the Air Force, with a unit expected to begin flying Collaborative Combat Aircraft at Creech, but it was acknowledged that today's AI has not evolved enough to replace a human brain.
