THE FRIDAY FOTO: April 12,2024

STILL LIFE WITH FIGHTER JETS.

 (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman Keagan Lee) Click on photo to enlarge the image.

Airmen from the U.S. Air Force 34th Fighter Squadron perform pre-flight checks on their F-35A Lightning II multi-role jet fighters during a foggy morning at Mountain Home Air Force Base, Idaho on March 28, 2024.

The pre-flight checks preceded the squadron’s participation in an Agile Combat Employment large force exercise in Utah and Idaho in late March. Manufactured by Lockheed  Martin, the F-35 is called Lightning II to honor another deadly aircraft, the World War II era P-38 Lightning flown by the U.S. Army Air Force.

During the ACE exercise (March 22-to-29), airmen in the 34th Fighter Squadron and Fighter Generation Squadron operated from Hill Air Force Base, Utah and “contingency locations” at Historic Wendover Airfield in Wendover, Utah, and Idaho’s Mountain Home Air Force Base. It was the first locally-generated ACE exercise created by the 388th Fighter Wing.

Agile Combat Employment (ACE) is an operational concept that emphasizes flexibility and adaptability to enhance air power in more contested battlespaces.

Historically, the U.S. Air Force relied on a combination of U.S. and overseas air bases for relatively uncontested movement and operational reach — in short, to project combat power across the globe. But that all changed once the Cold War ended. The Air Force has reduced its global footprint, from 93 air bases during World War II, to 33 permanent overseas air bases — a 65 percent reduction. Adversaries’ new weapons systems now place bases at risk that were previously considered sanctuaries from attack.

To counter the threat, ACE seeks to develop operational maneuvering both before and after attack to increase the survivability of aircraft and other assets while still generating combat power. If done right, according to Air Force documents, ACE complicates the enemy’s targeting process, while creating political and operational dilemmas for the enemy, and flexibility for friendly forces.

Achieving ACE’s goals requires reexamining a wide variety of systems, including command and control (C2), logistics under attack, counter-small unmanned aircraft systems, air and missile defense, and offensive and defensive space and cyber capabilities.