The Air Force has spent the last 20 years reducing its footprint in Europe, but the last six months of Russian military aggression, among other world events, could force the service to rethink that strategy.
Airmen rotating through Europe should expect a higher op tempo that includes rapid deployments, joint training and more temporary assignments in Eastern Europe.
While the details of any change in strategy are still being worked out, the key to success in recent joint missions has been readiness, said Gen. Frank Gorenc, commander of U.S. Air Forces in Europe, U.S. Air Forces Africa, and Allied Air Command.
“We’ve been able to move and train forward on the eastern frontier of NATO, and from some of the feedback we’ve gotten back, particularly some of the NATO command elements, they’ve been very grateful for that,” Gorenc said in an Aug. 28 interview with Air Force Times. “And it demonstrates two things: the inherent speed and flexibility of air power, and the usefulness of forward-based force structure.”
Gen. Philip Breedlove, commander, U.S. European Command and NATO Supreme Allied Commander, also cites the role of air power.
“Air power is a big part of the joint approach to this issue,” he said, referring to counteracting Russia’s behavior.
“What we will be looking to do is determine where it is appropriate to increase our air policing presence and, frankly, air policing is not always what is required. In some cases, we simply need to take aviation forces forward and exercise it and work with the nations,” Breedlove said in a Sept. 2 interview.
Ready to move — as a team
Dozens of rotations have taken place in the last few months in Poland, the Baltics, Bulgaria and the Czech Republic, with more expected before the year ends.
Operation Atlantic Resolve — an ongoing effort to demonstrate U.S. commitment to NATO allies and European partners in the midst of Russia’s repeated aggression toward Ukraine — has been at the forefront, with exercises and joint training in those countries.
“We certainly have a robust schedule, certainly through the end of this year in the eastern front,” Gorenc said, “But … we continue to move aircraft to get very high-end training that’s necessary to support worldwide combat operations.”
Europe rotations include stateside airmen and aircraft — like the B-2s from Whiteman Air Force Base, Missouri, that deployed in June to Royal Air Force Fairford in England— to train and show force.
“If we continue to cut forces forward, then yes, we will need more rotational presence,” Breedlove said. “We have a few rotational presence models that work very, very well. Our state partnership program is a complete success with these nations.”
Gorenc said older relationships must also be reinvigorated and strengthened.
“We recently completed a deployment in Portugal, we completed a deployment in Greece … so we’ve been able to get around in many locations. And the good news is Ukraine, in a weird way, has sparked an increased sense of urgency particularly among our partner countries, and they’re eager to … increase their readiness, and eager to understand our lessons learned … in capabilities that are emerging,” Gorenc said.
In the short term, especially looking at the crisis in Ukraine, Breedlove said, NATO has worked to put together air policing and air training operationsthat rapidly deploy in the region, along with land operationsand with NATO naval force exercises — such as Sea Breeze 2014, which includes the USS Ross — primarily in the Black Sea.
“Today, 28 of the 28 nations are participating in the assurance measures,” Breedlove said.
Leaders are now looking to implement a long-term, three-pronged strategy, he said:
■ Revisualize the NATO Reaction Force, a multinational force that brings together land, air, maritime and special operation forces.
■ Identify an additionalNATO headquarters farther east.
■ Create smaller forward forces in locations where they are able to rapidly receive, assimilate and develop combat power if required.
“I believe the entire NRF needs to have adaptation, and I believe that a smaller portion of the NRF needs to be much, much more responsive,” Breedlove said. “Our recommendations are being considered in what is called the Readiness Action Plan.”
The plan was approved by alliance leaders at a September summit in Wales. It will allow for a more “visible NATO presence in the East,” NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said Sept. 5.
Cross-continental missions
Flight activity — by NATO nations and Russia — has been higher than usual, but not surprising due to the Baltic air policing missions, Gorenc said.
There’s also been an uptick in activity on the African continent. “There’s the ongoing strife with respect to Libya, and the status of Libya; there’s the standup of the ‘new normal’ mission with respect to support to embassies,” Gorenc said.
When the U.S. embassy evacuated Tripoli in July, air support was needed to safely transport personnel from the area.
At the same time, French counterparts have been busy in Mali, and USAFE and NATO forces have supported peacekeepingpartnering to facilitate support efforts in the Central African Republic.
“There’s lots of partnerships going, and so the Africa continent continues to be on a rise with activity that requires one of the five core competencies of the Air Force to operate,” Gorenc said.
The 1,000-plus airmen in Africa must also be wary of the Ebola virus. While the Air Force isn’t directly aiding in health efforts, there are concerns about the national security implications of the Ebola crisis, and “there’s movement with respect to patients,” Gorenc said. “Where we can help, we do, and where we’re tasked, we do.”
A particular concern is the mobility challenge, given Africa’s underdeveloped infrastructure. Movement inside Africa is difficult, Gorenc said, and the Air Force must always consider whether there’s enough transportation or “enough eyes on the mission.”
“The footprint is lean, the footprint is temporary, and the footprint is only developed at the request of the host government,” he said.
Simultaneously, the U.S.is working through the Afghanistan drawdown. Depending on changes in manpower and depending on how the transition from combat ops to the train-advise-and-assist mission goes, there will probably be spikes in activity, Gorenc said. In coordination with Transportation Command, USAFE is postured to execute.
“The moniker of U.S. Air Forces Europe is ‘forward, ready now,’ and under the list of things that are forward are mobility and logistics and throughput and communication that goes through Europe because of our very robust mobility bases and our mobility throughput capabilities,” Gorenc said.
Making it work
Almost 75 percent of infrastructure across Europe has been eliminated since 1990, and more cuts are on the way once the European Infrastructure Consolidation Review is completed in the coming months.
Breedlove, who supports infrastructure cuts, said he hopes leadership “takes a knee” before sacrificing people or aircraft.
The size of the F-15 fleet — which has been a critical support tool in the air policing missions — is expected to shrink, officials announced during the rollout of the fiscal 2015 defense budget request in February.
“The F-15 cuts, they’re on the books and they are automatic,” Breedlove said. Unless we do something about it, they will take place. This is what I’m asking, that we stop and look at those before we allow them to automatically happen.
“I’m not saying stop the cuts. I think we just need to have a function that allows us to stop and look at these cuts and see if they’re appropriate, that they were laid in and made before we saw Russia cross the border and forcefully annex Crimea and saw Russia cross the border and begin to impose its will in Eastern Ukraine,” he said.
But with additional cuts looming, USAFE forces have found “innovative ways” to move forward, Gorenc said.
“The good news is, unlike rotational forces that might have to come from the states, we’re relatively cheap, because oftentimes we do things from our locations … [but] we find different ways to transport some of the support equipment, we find different ways to move airmen from one location to the other — it’s not necessarily the normal way that we do it, but it does cost the taxpayer less,” he said.
For example, 45 ground vehicles — not aircraft — carried nearly 90 airmen from the 606th Air Control Squadron of Spangdahlem Air Base, Germany, in June to participate in two exercises in Poland.
Equipment or forces may be delayed during transport, but USAFE is committed to making it work with the resources available, Gorenc said.
“We milk every cow in every field to make it as cheap as possible for every mission,” he said. “It’s seldom, but we do it.”
Additionally, in line with the Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel’s direction to cut 20 percent of Air Force headquarters budget, USAFE-AFAFRICA headquarters staff is losing 23 percent of its officer positions, 27 percent of enlisted billets, and 23 percent of the civilian positions.
“These are positions that have gone away and not people,” Gorenc said during a USAFE-AFAFRICA commander’s call Aug. 29.
“What we’re trying to do in Europe, as we take these staff cuts, as we take these infrastructure cuts, as we finish off those force structure cuts already on the books, my message: Let’s look at the way we’re doing things and let’s do it better.”
Breedlove’s fear is that, as sequestration takes over, the pressure on the services and their budgets will drive the forces apart, strong forces though they are.
“The soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines that enter into our joint team these days, first of all, they are so much better than we were when we were young,” Breedlove said. “They are so much more capable. The tools that they have, their intellect, the way that they attack problems, they’re just better than we ever were. So, they are also facing tougher problems than we ever faced.”
Air Force expects high op tempo for Europe rotations
