Integrated swarming operations for air base defense applications in irregular warfare

Abstract

For decades our military has been designed and funded as a conventionally superior force on the battlefield employing the most devastating and advanced weapon systems the world has ever seen (World, War I, II, Operation Desert Storm, and Phase I of Operation Iraqi Freedom). However, in low intensity conflicts (LICs) or irregular warfare (IW) campaigns, U.S. forces are faced with an irregular enemy, one that does not choose to fight our forces directly but rather through unconventional or indirect methods. For over 60 years, the Department of Defense has had an appalling record of protecting its air bases and personnel while deployed around the world in support of low intensity conflicts. However, the way the military defends and protects these air bases still revolves around a Cold War threat, a conventional threat. The strategy of global power projection and forward presence are the cornerstone to U.S. defense. To enhance combat capabilities in the Air Force and to defeat irregular warfare (IW) forces in any environment, the answer lies within the concept of Integrated Swarming Operations (ISO); the complete integration of a highly trained security force, skilled in the employment of successful counterinsurgency tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs), with today's most sophisticated Command, Control, Communications, Computer and Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (C4ISR) platforms into a battlefield swarm. In doing so, ISO allows security forces to achieve their three critical air base defense Mission Essential Tasks (METs) of 1) tactical ISR, 2) intercepting the threat, and 3) application of force as well as the Air Force's Integrated Base Defense (IBD) Objectives of "See First, Understand First, and Act First."