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Battle commanders (land or sea) need their own air assets. They do not need to have their air requests put on a list in the central air power office letting some air power weenie decide if that commander's request is a higher priority than what air power had planned for that day.

Using that logic, why have an army and a marines....they're both just land forces? Ans: because the sea commander sometimes needs to occupy land, and he needs to do it on his own schedule, not that of the chief of staff of the army.

Ans: because the sea commander sometimes needs to occupy land, and he needs to do it on his own schedule, not that of the chief of staff of the army.

Help me out here, but has a Navy admiral has ever ordered a Marine operation to hold land (maybe a port seizure that I'm forgetting about somewhere?) without it being essentially a joint operation? The island hopping campaign of WWII comes to mind as a possibility, but they were still conceived and planned as joint operations.

>>Battle commanders (land or sea) need their own air assets. They do not need to have their air requests put on a list in the central air power office letting some air power weenie decide if that commander's request is a higher priority than what air power had planned for that day. <<

The Joint Force Commander establishes the strategic guidance and the Joint Forces Air Component Commander uses his forces to plan and execute an air war that supports the JFC guidance. . .and guess what. . .usually the JFC is Army or Navy, but sometimes Air Force. The JFACC may also be Navy, but when the shirt in air power occurs, like having the most and the ability to command and control those assets, then is shifts to the Air Force. While the Army may have more "aircraft" via helicopters, they do not have the ability to command and control an air campaign that spans an entire theater, not some chunk of airspace that is only 50 miles wide.

CAS is part of the apportionment and CAS can be planned or immediate. I never saw an immediate CAS request go unfulfilled.

Storming Norman from Gulf War I "fired" the first plan Gen Horner came up with because it was "local" in it's scope and had no clue about the effects of a true strategic air campaign. After Col Warden dropped by Rums/Powell and Bush and explained the concepts of CoG's, then Warden was sent over to Horner. Horner threw out Warden because Horner was an idiot. Warden's plan worked and Horner took all the credit.

There is much learning and evolution that has taken place over the years when it comes to the proper application of air power. . .all for the good.