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AF prepared to carry out any Afghan plan

SHAW AIR FORCE BASE, S.C. — Air Forces Central Command isn’t waiting for the commander in chief’s decision on Afghanistan to plot its future role there.

It’s in the throes of planning right now, two of the command’s officers told Air Force Times in an interview.

AFCent officials are figuring out what assets they will need to support whatever strategy President Barack Obama settles on for the eight-year war against al-Qaida and Taliban-led insurgents, according to Col. Ken Craib, deputy director of operations, and Lt. Col. John Edwards, deputy chief of plans and requirements.

Obama will announce his decision Tuesday on plans for deploying as many as 40,000 additional troops to Afghanistan, the number requested by Gen. Stanley McChrystal, commander of U.S. Forces Afghanistan. There has been disagreement within the White House on how many troops to send, with some senior officials favoring a much lower number.

“Just as you’ve heard all sorts of numbers, obviously we’ve heard all sorts of numbers,” Craib said. “We are posturing ourselves, based on the decision, to have the right assets in the right places.”

Edwards pointed out the Air Force is simply conducting routine business by laying out different scenarios for Afghanistan.

“There are always multiple courses of action that we plan to based on the guidance from leadership,” he said. “There are facts and assumptions that we are provided to plan with, and we take those and develop new courses of action, and present those back up the chain” of command.

Besides the number of troops, AFCent planners also must consider the troops’ responsibilities. Some in the administration want to send more combat troops; others prefer to provide more trainers for Afghan forces.

Force mix has a big impact on what kind of assets and how many airmen the Air Force would need to provide, Craib said.

“A lot of the question is, ‘What are those boots on the ground going to do?’ ” he said. “As the ground forces change their strategies, so will the air forces to support that. Are they combat forces that are seeking to engage the enemy? They will have a different requirement than a provincial reconstruction team that’s just going in to develop the areas.”

The Air Force’s distribution of assets at bases throughout the region — not just in Iraq and Afghanistan — will help the service respond to whatever requirements emerge, Edwards said. Forces in Kuwait, for example, can provide capability to both theaters.

“We don’t know for sure what will happen in the future, and that’s why this force gives us that flexibility to support across the AOR,” he said. “This really allows the Air Force to contribute additional capabilities without additional costs. That’s something that only airpower can do with our long range and reach.”

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