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New service doctrine redefines air power

If you think air power is just fighter jets screeching across the sky armed with deadly precise missiles, think again.

It took three years for the Air Force to redefine what air power means in its Force Doctrine Document 1, or AFDD 1 — a must-read for all airmen, officials say. The changes are the first since 2003 and align the service’s guiding document with the missions airmen are being called upon to do.

Gen. Thomas K. Andersen, commander of the Curtis E. LeMay Center for Doctrine Development and Education at Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala., said doctrine writers chose to redefine air power to reflect what airmen contribute to joint war-fighting efforts today.

“People still come from different functional areas and expertise ... but I think [air power is] a term that’s going to help us break down some of those stovepipes,” Andersen said.

Air power is now defined in the doctrine as “the ability to project military power or influence through the control and exploitation of air, space and cyberspace to achieve strategic, operational or tactical objectives.”

Before the update, the doctrine was still grounded in a Cold War mentality of near and identifiable combatants going into battle, Andersen said. A decade of war has magnified the joint war-fighting efforts such as the service’s ability to provide close-air support to protect ground forces, providing supplies to remote forces, humanitarian relief and training coalition partners. The service performed all these missions while increasing its intelligence-gathering and surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities.

In addition to a new definition of air power, the doctrine distinguishes between traditional and irregular war and emphasizes the role that culture plays in war.

“You can see a lot has evolved from the present conflict in the Middle East,” Andersen said of the revised doctrine. “It shows some flexibility and shows some of the responsiveness of how we present forces to the joint fighting arena.”

Absent from the doctrine, until now, was mention of the growing reliance on computers for day-to-day operations and risks associated with the technological advances that have occurred during the past two decades. The doctrine acknowledges the threat of hackers and describes the Air Force’s cyberspace operations and integration of nuclear support.

Though AFDD 1 clocks in at a hefty 125 pages, including a glossary and appendices, Andersen said the document is designed to be easy to read with lots of historical context, bullets, highlighted sections, pictures and plain language.

“Really simply, it is what we believe as airmen,” Andersen said. “If you are going to be a leader or a member of the Air Force you have to understand the basic tenants of what we believe. [The doctrine] is based on best practices, it’s based on lessons learned and it is a common frame of reference for some of the fundamentals of how we organize, train and fight.”