Major Usaf David M Cohen

The Vital Link: the Tanker's Role in Winning America's Wars: Fairchild Paper Major Usaf David M Cohen

Publisher Marketing: This paper focuses on the unique and vital capabilities of the US Air Force's KC-135 tanker fleet. Specifically, historic and current tanker usage, tanker operational employment, and the capability of today's tanker fleet are analyzed, with emphasis on force structure and force management. Given that the KC-135 is the USAF's primary air refueling asset and that no planned replacements are due on the flightline for some time, how can the current KC-135 method of employment and force structure support future DOD and coalition operations? Since its inception in the mid-1950s, the KC-135 has undergone numerous configuration as well as mission changes. One constant throughout has been the reliance of the nation's airpower on this critical asset, whether it was sitting alert during the cold war, or providing mission essential fuel for F-117s en route to Baghdad during the Gulf War. The success of combat operations in Operation Allied Force was made possible due to the rapid, massive, and professional employment of the KC-135 in the theater of operations. This success, however, can be attributed more to the actions of the tanker community than to any planned, deliberate inclusion of air refueling assets into the operations plan. In light of decreasing budgets, aging airframes, increased downtime for maintenance, and an explosion in the operations tempo, this paper proposes a four-pronged methodology addressing taker vision, organization training and employment, as the correction needed to get the KC-135 weapon system back on centerline. This will allow the tanker to effectively aid the Air Force in successfully deterring conflict and if needed, quickly win the nation's future wars. Contributor Bio:  Air University Press Walter Gary Sharp Sr. serves as a senior associate deputy general counsel for intelligence at the US Department of Defense, where he advises on legal issues related to intelligence, covert action, intelligence and counterintelligence policy, intelligence oversight, information security, information sharing, security classification policy, information operations, and computer network operations. Prior to his appointment, Dr. Sharp served as an associate deputy general counsel for international affairs at the Department of Defense; the director of legal research for international, comparative, and foreign law at the Law Library of Congress; the director of global and functional affairs within the Bureau of Legislative Affairs at the State Department; and a principal information security engineer at The MITRE Corporation. A veteran with 25 years of service, Dr. Sharp retired as a decorated US Marine Corps lieutenant colonel with prior enlisted service. His military assignments include commanding officer of a field artillery battery, senior prosecutor, deputy legal counsel to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and international law adviser for the commanding general of the Unified Task Force in Somalia during Operation Restore Hope. Dr. Sharp's military decorations include the Defense Superior Service Medal, and his many awards for writing excellence and academic achievement include the Judge Advocate General's School Alumni Association Annual Professional Writing Award and an American Bar Association Award for Professional Merit. Dr. Sharp is the author of numerous articles and three books: UN Peace Operations (1995), CyberSpace and the Use of Force (1999), and Jus Paciarii (1999). He serves as an adjunct professor of law at Georgetown University Law Center where he currently teaches a counterterrorism course, The Law of 24. He has also taught graduate-level seminars on United Nations peace operations and international peace and security. He lectures internationally in universities and other diverse public forums on wide-ranging topics of international law and national security law, such as international peace and security, conflict management, and peacekeeping operations.