Overview

This informative and up-to-date book anthology adds to the history of air base defense and provides guideposts to future leaders charged with defending air operations in complex environments, using the Balad Air Base in Iraq as a case study. This anthology discusses the converging operational issues of air base defense and COIN. It explores the diverse challenges associated with defending air assets and joint personnel in a COIN environment. The authors are primarily Air Force officers from security forces, intelligence, and the office of special investigations, but works are included from a US Air Force pilot and a Canadian air force officer. Four of the essays have been previously published in Air and Space Power Journal, some of which were updated to reflect changes in doctrine, and one is an excerpt from an Air Force Fellows research project. The authors examine lessons from Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, and other conflicts as they relate to securing air bases and sustaining air operations in a high-threat COIN environment. The essays review the capabilities, doctrine, tactics, and training needed in base defense operations and recommend ways in which to build a strong, synchronized ground defense partnership with joint and combined forces. Some of the chapters offer recommendations on the development of combat leaders with the depth of knowledge, tactical and operational skill sets, and COIN mind set necessary to be effective in the modern asymmetric battlefield. Defending Air Bases in an Age of Insurgency * PART 1 - HISTORICAL AND INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVES * Chapter 1 - A Short History of Air Base Defense: From World War I to Iraq * Chapter 2 - A Canadian Perspective on Air Base Ground Defense: Ad Hoc Is Not Good Enough * Chapter 3 - Air Support for Base Defense: Lessons for the Noncontiguous Battlefield * PART 2 - CASE STUDY - BALAD AIR BASE, IRAQ * Chapter 4 - Defending the Joint Force: Lessons Learned from Joint Base Balad * Chapter 5 - The Defense of Joint Base Balad: An Analysis * PART 3 - THERE IS NO REAR AREA CHANGES TO AIR BASE DEFENSE IN A COUNTERINSURGENCY ENVIRONMENT * Chapter 6 - The Air Force's New Ground War: Ensuring Projection of Air and Space Power through Expeditionary Security Operations * Chapter 7 - Sharpening the Eagle's Talons: Assessing Advances in Air Base Defense Doctrine * Chapter 8 - Setting the Right Glide Slope: Preparing the Air Force for the Next Counterinsurgency Campaign * PART 4 - ORGANIZING FOR THE FUTURE * Chapter 9 - Nowhere to Hide: The Growing Threat to Air Bases * Chapter 10 - Law Enforcement and Base Defense: Improving Interoperability to Benefit the War Fighter * Chapter 11 - Conclusion: Ten Propositions on the Defense of Air Bases

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9781976866012

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