The Air Force is working to transform the way it deploys forces by officially establishing Air Task Forces and Combat Wings as the service’s future “units of action” for operations. This initiative furthers unit predictability and cohesion for Airmen by bettering the Air Force’s ability to articulate risk and requirements to the Department of Defense.
This summer, the standing up of the first three Air Task Forces part of the larger plan to establish at least six such units will get underway. The task forces will undergo rigorous workups and are set to deploy as integrated forces by fiscal 2026. Each of the forces will comprise a Command Element, Expeditionary Air Base Squadron, Mission Generation Force Element, and Mission Sustainment Team, all designed for Agile Combat Employment.
Lt. Gen. Adrian Spain emphasized how rotational forces have evolved and that, similarly, Combat Wings would share much in common with the process of building warfighting effectiveness over time. Combat Wings will be organized with command, mission, and support elements and will operate as complete units when deployed or stationed at home.
Brig. Gen. David Epperson emphasized the incremental approach, with task force command elements standing up this summer and sustaining elements forming teams of 100-150 personnel that will train together so they integrate seamlessly during deployments.
It will be so organized into three variants: Deployable Combat Wings, In-Place Combat Wings, and Combat-Generation Wings. Each variant corresponds to a particular type of requirement- namely from the fully deployable ones to those that do the support elements for others.
That new model, the Air Force Force Generation model, is already in motion, with its first Expeditionary Air Base team deployed to the Middle East. That deployment showed what pre-trained units could do operating at “the speed of trust.”
That next step is what the Deployable Combat Wings concept will do: place entire teams in a position to live, work, and train together to ensure readiness for any theater, whether it be in the Indo-Pacific, Europe, Africa, or the Middle East.
Epperson said there are challenges with resources and manning to match those requirements, but the process will continue to uncover areas that need to grow. The goal, he added, is for combat wings to be coherent units capable of performing wartime tasks.
This strategic shift aptly meets the goals of the National Defense Strategy for the pursuit of enduring advantages and integration of deterrence. In the words of Lt. Col. Jared Patterson, 20th Expeditionary Bomb Squadron, the Bomber Task Force mission underlines the credibility of U.S. forces confronting variable global security environments.
The commitment by the Air Force to enhancing warfighting effectiveness reflects an awareness that any future conflicts will be substantially different from what existed over the last three decades.