Free Republic

U.S. Air Force and Navy officials are set to deliver the Air-Sea Battle concept to Pentagon leaders within a month, a senior Air Force official said today. Representatives from both services have already briefed Defense Department brass on the topics to appear in the classified document meant to help the two services figure out how to defeat defenses aimed at holding U.S. ships and planes at bay, according to Lt. Gen. Philip Breedlove, the Air Force’s chief of operations, plans and requirements. The plan “will be a tool for our president” and other leaders to use in case country must...

spent the morning at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessment’s release of their new report “AirSea Battle: A Point of Departure Operational Concept” (you can find the report here as well as the briefing slides). Lots to unpack here from the 123 page report, the author’s brief and the lively discussion that followed. CSBA says that China’s military modernization aims at denying U.S. air and maritime freedom of maneuver and access in the Western Pacific (WestPac) by targeting bases and ships with precision guided missiles. China’s buildup of increasingly capable anti-access/area-denial “battle networks” will, over time, make the current...

On Tuesday, the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments will release their new report “AirSea Battle: A Point of Departure,” at an event on the Senate side of the Hill, hosted by Senators Joe Lieberman and John Thune. This is the follow on to an initial paper written by CSBA’s Andrew Krepinevich that examined some of the underlying assumptions driving the new joint Navy-Air Force concept intended to find ways to ensure access in the Western Pacific and the Gulf in the face of ever more capable Chinese and Iranian precision guided weapons and anti-access battle networks. Pentagon sources tell...