{"id":45649,"date":"2025-10-13T18:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-10-13T18:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2025\/10\/13\/is-it-time-for-the-army-to-stop-defending-air-force-air-bases\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T04:28:36","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T04:28:36","slug":"is-it-time-for-the-army-to-stop-defending-air-force-air-bases","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/land\/2025\/10\/13\/is-it-time-for-the-army-to-stop-defending-air-force-air-bases\/","title":{"rendered":"Is it time for the Army to stop defending Air Force air bases?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">No more relying on the U.S. Army to protect the Air Force\u2019s air bases \u2014 it\u2019s time for the Air Force to take responsibility to defend its own airfields, argues an Air Force officer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe Air Force is doctrinally responsible for its own force protection,\u201d wrote Lt. Col. Phil Ferris, an airpower strategist on the Air Staff, in a recent <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mitchellaerospacepower.org\/app\/uploads\/2025\/08\/MI_Forum_58-Base-Defense-Under-Fire-FINAL.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"\" title=\"https:\/\/www.mitchellaerospacepower.org\/app\/uploads\/2025\/08\/MI_Forum_58-Base-Defense-Under-Fire-FINAL.pdf\">essay<\/a> for the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies. Currently, \u201cthe Air Force\u2019s only current active defense option\u201d comes from its own fighter aircraft.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But that\u2019s not feasible in many cases, Ferris argues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cMany air bases do not have fighters on station, including many overseas and expeditionary environments,\u201d Ferris told Defense News. The Air Force\u2019s Security Forces \u201cemploy non-kinetic C-UAS [counter-unmanned aerial system] options and some small arms, but many units lack assigned medium and heavy machine guns needed to provide meaningful protection.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Instead, Air Force bases should handle their own defense against small drones and low-flying cruise missiles, while the Army focuses on fast, high-altitude threats such as ballistic missiles, Ferris said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe Air Force should cover C-sUAS [counter-small unmanned aerial system] in Groups 1 to 3 [drones weighing less than 1,320 pounds] and address the low and slow cruise missile mission gap,\u201d said Ferris, an airpower strategist on the Air Staff and a veteran Security Forces officer. \u201cThe Army can continue to provide Patriot and THAAD [Terminal High Altitude Area Defense] units, and can augment C-sUAS and cruise missile defense when able, but the Air Force must retain the means to protect itself just as the other services do.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The stakes could not be higher. Should the U.S. go to war with China, for example, it is a near-certainty that American air bases on Guam and elsewhere would be hit with missiles, bombers and commando raids. And as demonstrated by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/articles\/cq69qnvj6nlo\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"\" title=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/articles\/cq69qnvj6nlo\">Ukraine\u2019s recent drone strikes<\/a> on air bases deep inside Russia, even small nations or terrorists can destroy billion-dollar bombers with thousand-dollar drones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The problem is that the air defense of Air Force bases is complex. In many nations, air defense is assigned to the air force. But for the U.S., the common perception is that under the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defenseone.com\/ideas\/2025\/01\/time-new-key-west-agreement\/402489\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"\" title=\"https:\/\/www.defenseone.com\/ideas\/2025\/01\/time-new-key-west-agreement\/402489\/\">1948 Key West Agreement<\/a>, which defined the roles of the various military services, ground-based air defense is the responsibility of the Army. The fact that Army air defense batteries are often colocated with Air Force bases in the Middle East and elsewhere only reinforces that belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">However, \u201cthat is only partly true,\u201d according to the Mitchell Institute essay. The Key West Agreement \u201cnever explicitly gave that mission to the Army,\u201d Ferris wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe closest delineator of responsibility for air defense of air bases in writing was a memorandum of understanding signed by the Army and the Air Force in 1984 stating that the Army would be primarily responsible for air defense of air bases,\u201d the essay explained. Except there is an important caveat: \u201cIf inadequate funding was applied to the mission, the Air Force could conduct its own point defense.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Either way, Ferris argues that the Air Force can no longer rely on the Army for base protection. The Army is already strained with existing responsibilities for air and missile defense around the world. Meanwhile, the Air Force\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/opinion\/2024\/08\/16\/the-us-needs-more-pop-up-air-bases-worldwide-to-keep-enemies-guessing\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"\" title=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/opinion\/2024\/08\/16\/the-us-needs-more-pop-up-air-bases-worldwide-to-keep-enemies-guessing\/\">Agile Combat Employment<\/a> doctrine calls for dispersing airpower among many small and temporary installations. While this avoids creating concentrated targets for enemy missiles, it also means having to transport, maintain and supply cumbersome air defense systems to remote outposts. The result is that \u201csuch bases cannot support the fielding and maintenance of large pieces of equipment like Patriot, THAAD, or even the relatively smaller indirect fire protection capability (IFPC) batteries,\u201d wrote Ferris.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Ferris calls for the Air Force to adopt a comprehensive air and missile defense plan for its air bases, including both active and passive defenses. He points to several air defense systems that the Air Force could utilize, including the Army\u2019s Multi-Domain Artillery Cannon project and the Marine Corps Medium-Range Intercept Capability and Marine Air-Defense Integrated System. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">These could be supplemented by machine guns and shoulder-fired missiles, which have proven useful for downing drones in the Ukraine war. In addition, air bases need to employ passive measures, such as camouflage, jamming enemy sensors, decoy targets and hardening air bases. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe key is not which unit operates the systems, but that they fall under the Security Forces Defense Force Commander,\u201d said Ferris. \u201cThe DFC has base defense integration responsibilities and must be the final decision authority for defensive responses, since attacks will likely be multipronged.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Ferris emphasizes the importance of emissions control, or EMCON. Experience in Ukraine has shown that transmitting radio, radar or cell phone signals is an invitation for a missile or drone strike.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The U.S. Army is already worried that too much radio chatter is making its <a href=\"https:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/ukraine-attacks-on-russia-us-army-command-post-vulnerability-2023-7\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"\" title=\"https:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/ukraine-attacks-on-russia-us-army-command-post-vulnerability-2023-7\">command posts vulnerable<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cCurrently, the Air Force invests very little in this arena, and individual airmen receive limited training in reducing signatures to lower a base\u2019s targeting priority,\u201d Ferris said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Air Force should also strengthen air base defenses against ground attack by special forces, guerrillas or terrorists. This means leveraging \u201ctechnology to make up for the lack of manpower and fixed locations,\u201d the essay suggests. This includes cameras and other sensors, drones and remote vision devices to allow crews to see outside their ground vehicles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWhatever the Air Force employs, it must have the capability to be rapidly deployable (using as few C-130s as possible) and affordable from a cost-imposition perspective,\u201d Ferris wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Ferris raises an unpalatable prospect: Some locations simply cannot be defended. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cMany areas may be ultimately indefensible in the Indo-Pacific theater, and it may be better to focus on allied and partner capabilities and some long-range fires outside of the second island chain,\u201d he wrote. \u201cThe threats close in may simply be too dense.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An Air Force officer argues the Air Force can no longer rely on the Army for base protection.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":88206,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":14,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[78,160,29,14,36],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3415],"class_list":["post-45649","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ausa-digital-show-dailies","category-daily-news-roundup","category-digital-show-dailies","category-land","category-newsletters"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"KO6UVI724FAQXHSLDA4I2PA3PY","arc_canonical_url":"\/news\/your-army\/2025\/10\/13\/is-it-time-for-the-army-to-stop-defending-air-force-air-bases\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented 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