Dec. 15, 2021

Combined Arms in the CAS Firefight

The shifting threat environment and return to strategic competition forced the United States Air Force to rethink the mission and force structure of Air Force Tactical Air Control Party (TACP) airmen, now known as Special Warfare. This article reminds the Joint Force that in the best of times integration of forces is a significant challenge. Only through close relationships, combined training events, and technological advances are TACP airmen effective in integrating Air Force assets with ground maneuver units.

July 15, 2021

CAS Lessons Learned at the Combat Training Center

The following is a synopsis of CAS Lessons Learned from four Air Warrior (AW) exercises conducted in the spring and summer of 1993. Like a mission briefing, the important items are listed in order from start to finish. As Army data were not available at press time, this information comes exclusively from USAF AW reports. CAS lessons learned include a mix of predeployment, air-ground coordination, weapons employment, and post-attack considerations.

July 1, 2021

The Future of Air-Ground Integration: Linking Sensor to Shooter in the Deep Fight

The Joint Force’s ability to move, maneuver, and control territory will continue to rely heavily on joint fires to create conditions that provide the supported commander freedom of action. However, in order to keep pace in an operational environment, where adversary weapon systems present advanced capabilities and ephemeral windows of targetable vulnerability, joint fires must maximize connectivity across the Services and across disparate platforms to achieve that goal. On the modern battlefield, it is increasingly crucial to arm weapon systems with actionable data to achieve effects in a constrained amount of time.

June 1, 2021

Less Is More

Although a relatively new tactic, this article focuses on the game plan because it is subjective in execution—leading to a wide variety of techniques across the CAS community. Also, the game plan illustrates the trend toward removing initiative from flight/section leaders, which, inherently, makes CAS tactics less flexible.