In Europe, US Air Force Brings Back Cold War Mobility Concept – By Patrick Tucker (Defense One) / Dec 23 2020
The shift from countering terrorists to Russia is also bringing cutting-edge fighter-jet simulators.
RAF MILDENHALL, UK—For the 100th Air Refueling Wing, pivoting away from counter-terrorism to great power competition means reverting to Cold War concepts such as highly mobile command centers.
Wing members tested their ability to move command posts among bases — a concept now dubbed Agile Combat Employment, or ACE, during September’s three-day Wolfpack exercise. They flew their command-and-control element forward to Ramstein Air Base in Germany, gaining “some redundancy, some dispersed capability,” said Lt. Col. Rich Winfrey, the Wing’s Chief of Plans and Programs. “We had not done that before, so that was new.”
Dispersal among several bases was standard operating procedure during the Cold War, but two decades of largely counter-terrorism work pressed the air wing to become more “efficient,” said Maj. David Nan, Chief of Wing Plans and Agile Combat Development Lead. That efficiency is why the air base plays a key role in missions reaching into Africa and the Middle East. In October, they flew MC-130J airlifters to help special operators rescue hostages in Nigeria.
