U.S. Air Force Wants to Strengthen its Global Reach.

The Air Force is developing an innovative concept known as the Global Strike Task Force (GSTF) that could help the United States dramatically reduce its dependence on overseas bases, while increasing its global responsiveness, according to Air Force Gen. John P. Jumper, commander of the Air Combat Command.

The GSTF concept proposes to use a combination of long-range bombers, such as the B-2; new, stealthy fighters, such as the F-22 and the Joint Strike Fighter, and a next-generation transport, called a common widebody aircraft, to strike at targets around the world, Jumper told a recent seminar sponsored by DFI International in Washington, D.C.

GSTF "applies the lessons of the 1990s to counter the emerging anti-access threats of today," Jumper said. Many potentially hostile regimes--unable to defeat U.S. forces in traditional combat--are focusing instead on strategies that keep the United States from deploying its units in a theater of operations, he noted. These include various combinations of ballistic and cruise missiles, surface-to-air missiles (SAMs), advanced fighters, sea mines, terrorism and weapons of mass destruction.

Jumper said that he was particularly concerned about recent models of Russian-built aircraft, which are being sold to other countries. Those aircraft are good, he said. "We get our hands on them, and we test them," he told the seminar. "When our pilots fly them, they are better than our pilots flying our own aircraft.

"Did we skip a generation of technology?" Jumper asked, in an apparent reference to President Bush's campaign pledge to modernize military technology. "You bet, and that's the generation that we skipped."

Such anti-access strategies won't necessarily defeat the United States, Jumper noted, "but we are going to have to deal with them." GSTF offers a strategy for doing that, he said.

In GSTF the B-2s and F-22s would serve as a "kick-down-the door" access force, Jumper explained. The F-22s would clear the way for the B-2s, defeating the enemy's next-generation fighters, SAMs and other air defenses, Jumper said. Then, he added, stealthy B-2 bombers could fly thousands of miles from bases in the United States or other secure locations to hit targets, facing a diminished threat from defenders.

During the 1999 air war against Yugoslavia, Jumper pointed out, B-2s flew 2,600 miles from Fairford, England, around Spain and across the Mediterranean to bomb Yugoslavia. B-2s flying 30-hour missions out of Whiteman Air Force Base, in Missouri, dropped more than 650 Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAMs).

After the access force prepares the way, a persistence force would follow, lingering over the battlefield to provide air support for ground troops. "This is where the Joint Strike Fighter comes in," Jumper explained.

The GSTF concept envisions eventual development of a single, common widebody aircraft that could be configured differently to replace today's transports, tankers, airborne warning and control system (AWACS) and joint surveillance target attack radar system (JSTARS) platforms, Jumper said.

One of the lessons learned in the Kosovo operation was the need for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance systems and aircraft to have "horizontal integration" to improve handling of emerging targets, Jumper said.

"During the Cold War, when a satellite produced photographs of a missile site in Siberia, everybody started popping champagne corks," Jumper said. "The photograph was the product. Now, we don't pop the cork when the photo arrives. We pop the cork with the target is dead."

Further development of the GSTF concept will have to wait, Jumper acknowledged, for completion of the Bush administration's review of defense strategy, programs and structure. At this point, the administration has not decided whether it wants to proceed with several defense programs, including development of the F-22 or the Joint Strike Fighter.

Still, Jumper makes the point that GSTF fits in well with today's low-scale coalition operations, which have limited objectives and require agreement among allies, low-collateral damage and a minimum of friendly casualties. He is envious, he said, of Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower's orders during World War II. Eisenhower was told simply to invade Europe and destroy the forces of Nazi Germany. "It brings a tear to this old airman's eye," Jumper said.