Joint Operations

Teamwork is the key to successful joint military operations. Within the team framework, many parts must coordinate to operate as intended. BMT introduced you to the team concept — and you've learned that strategic thinking is what makes it work.

You're not just an Airman serving in the Air Force — you're a member of the armed forces that protects air, land, sea, space, and cyberspace.

This section covers the purpose of joint operations, the guiding documents, Agile Combat Employment (ACE), command relationships, types of joint teams, advantages of joint operations, and joint exercises.

Overview

Objective: Identify basic facts and general principles about intermediate Airmanship fundamentals.

Learning Outcomes

• Identify the guiding documents for Joint Operations.
• Discuss the purpose and advantages of Joint Operations.
• Describe the types of Joint Teams and Joint Exercises within the DoD.

Foundational Competencies

• Strategic Thinking — Considering and organizing activities and resources to achieve a desired goal; thinking on a large and small scale, long and short term.
• Teamwork — Builds cohesive teams within and across units; shares wins and successes so each team member feels valued and approved.

Summary

• Purpose
• Guiding Documents
• Agile Combat Employment (ACE)
• Command Relationships and Authorities
• Types of Joint Teams
• Advantages of Joint Operations
• Joint Exercises

Purpose

The challenges our nation faces today demand that our military forces operate as a joint team. Teamwork is the key to maintaining joint military operations. All Airmen need to remember that joint teams are vital to national security and the continued success of the U.S. Armed Forces.

Guiding Documents

The Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff (CJCS) disseminates joint operations guidance and directives through instructions, manuals, notices, and guides. Each Joint Publication has a publication manager and is reviewed periodically — usually every two years — by the joint community for additions and changes. Joint Publications address joint command structures, process, doctrine, and capabilities.

Each service publishes service-specific doctrine and guidance, plus policy on how it will support joint doctrine.

Two specific documents that matter for joint operations:

• Goldwater-Nichols DoD Reorganization Act of 1986
• AF Basic Doctrine (or Service Doctrine)

Becoming familiar with these helps you understand that joint operations are not only mandatory but essential.

Goldwater-Nichols DoD Reorganization Act of 1986

The intent of this Act was to fix problems caused by inter- service rivalry and to streamline the chain of command. It increased the powers of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and created the ability to more effectively and efficiently employ U.S. military resourcing — including:

• Manpower / personnel
• Equipment
• Funding
• Training (time, expenses, resources)

It enables services to work together — integrated, interoperable, and interdependent — with less conflict.

Air Force Basic Doctrine

A guide on how to best integrate air, space, and cyberspace forces in military operations — based on broad concepts, sound principles, and repeatable processes.

Established over years using information and lessons the Air Force collects from past combat or contingency operations, experiments, and exercises based on the "Airman's perspective." It's the foundation of air and space doctrine and sets the tone and vision for the future. Changes are based on lessons learned, changing national guidance, and changing threats to national security.

Benefits of using Air Force Basic Doctrine

• Save lives and resources.
• Applies universally across the Air Force.
• Enables the application of air and space power to its best advantage.
• Promotes more effective decision-making.
• Increases mission success.

Agile Combat Employment (ACE)

To address new and emergent great power competition challenges that place overseas air bases at significantly increased risk, the Air Force has moved to a new operational concept called Agile Combat Employment (ACE).

ACE is a proactive and reactive operational scheme of maneuvers executed within threat timelines to increase survivability while generating combat power throughout the integrated deterrence continuum.

The ACE framework consists of five core elements:

1. Posture
2. C2 (Command and Control)
3. Movement and Maneuver
4. Protection
5. Sustainment

ACE teams include Multi-Capable Airmen (MCA) — Airmen trained as a cross-functional team to meet and provide combat support to mission-generation force elements conducting dispersed and dynamic operations.

Command Relationships and Authorities

When serving on a joint team, the mission commander — known as the Joint Force Commander (JFC) — may not be a member of the Air Force. When deployed to a joint force, each service member usually has two chains of command — operational and administrative. Understand your responsibilities for each.

Depending on your role in the mission, the first interaction with another Service may occur at your immediate supervisor or several levels of leadership above. For joint missions to be successful, all service members must function under one cohesive, clearly defined operational chain of command.

Clear and effective command relationships, regardless of branch, are central to effective operations and organizations. To apply the principles of war and the doctrine of air and space power, Airmen must fully understand:

• The terms of command relationships.
• The mission of the command.
• How their skills and experience support each.

Understanding joint terminology can facilitate the rapid establishment of joint teams.

Types of Joint Teams

Joint Force

A joint force is composed of two or more military services that operate under a single joint force commander. Since the Marine Corps is an extension of the Navy, forces composed of only those two services do not constitute a joint force.

Joint interaction usually occurs via two scenarios:

• A single service unit performs operations as part of, and perhaps alongside, another service to accomplish a specific mission.
• Members of a single-service unit or individuals are assigned to a joint staff.

All U.S. military services are directed to be:

• Integrated — the arrangement of military forces and their actions to create a force that operates by engaging as a whole.
• Interoperable — the ability to operate in synergy in the execution of assigned tasks.
• Interdependent — the purposeful reliance of each other's capabilities to maximize the complementary and reinforcing effects of both. The required degree of interdependence varies over time under different circumstances.

Joint operations use air, space, cyberspace, land, sea, and amphibious forces working together. To reach our full potential, it's critical to know the unique strengths each service brings to the joint team:

Although the United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) is not a service, it has unique service-like responsibilities and is a critical element of the joint force. It synchronizes the planning of Special Operations and provides Special Operations Forces to support persistent, networked, and distributed Global Combatant Command operations.

Air and Space Power Functions

Air and space power is flexible and versatile — enabling the Air Force to perform many tasks within a joint force.

Coalition

A coalition is a group formed between two or more nations for a common action. They handle a variety of specific purposes or address problems needing immediate attention. Coalitions continue to grow and change based on the needs and problems in the world today.

One such coalition is the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) — a group of countries formed to fulfill the goals of a treaty, holding the primary role of safeguarding the freedom and security of involved countries through political and military means.

Advantages of Joint Operations

Helps instill teamwork

Teamwork is the basis of what "joint forces" are all about — it's the key to successful joint military operations. After serving on joint teams, you'll gain a true understanding of how teamwork can achieve more than you ever imagined.

Allows greater optimization of forces

Joint teams help optimize forces:

• Greater flexibility to employ forces and resources; coordinate efforts of air, ground, sea, and space assets to achieve the assigned goal.
• Synergy — achieve more collectively as one team than individually.
• Saves time, money, and lives — standardization across the military versus continually creating new programs for each service.
• Find what works the best based on research; publish lessons learned for continual improvement and reduction in errors.
• Develop and use the best capabilities — people, procedures, and equipment with the best skills, strengths, abilities, and options. Example: the military uses the Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker because it performs multiple functions — refuels AF, sister service, joint, and coalition aircraft; airlifts cargo; transports passengers; medically evacuates patients; flies reconnaissance.

Offers greater success in a rapidly changing world

Joint teams can adapt more readily to the continually changing nature of war:

• The traditional method is used by traditional enemies who wear recognizable uniforms, belong to nation-states, follow established laws, and fight out in the open.
• The irregular method is often used by terrorists who operate in the "shadows" trying to blend into a society, aren't tied to a particular country (may have cells in many locations), engage by avoiding a nation-state's strengths, and don't wear recognizable uniforms or follow established international rules of lawful warfare. We've all seen the irregular means used by terrorists on 11 September 2001, when they captured commercial airliners and used them to attack the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

Joint operations achieves greater success when executed by reacting and making changes to all services in a unified manner, streamlining functions and developing innovative processes.

Prepares the military for future operations

All services must continually prepare for future threats. All Airmen are responsible for sharing thoughts, ideas, and suggestions to keep our forces on the cutting edge. Using joint operations warfare allows the AFFORGEN concept to be fully operational. It also lets the U.S. accomplish many objectives simultaneously — defend the homeland, maintain effective overseas presence, conduct a wide range of concurrent operations.

Former Chairman of the JCS Gen Colin L. Powell stated after the Persian Gulf War: "The key to meeting future challenges is improving how Military Services work together in joint operations."

Joint Exercises

Training and exercises help prepare joint forces to reach their full potential. They do this by:

• Using standardized communication during training (acronyms, jargon, roles, processes, and equipment).
• Developing forces to operate complementary to each other.
• Preparing forces for new warfighting challenges — using service and joint doctrine, performing joint missions, and training the way they intend to fight.

Training and exercises prepare forces for new war strategies. Many air operations during the 1990s emphasized pilots and weapons (the "iron"). There was a sense of detachment as operations often occurred from a distance with long-range guided weapons. Two examples: massive air campaigns in Kosovo and Operation ALLIED FORCE (Yugoslavia).

However, recent operations in Afghanistan and Iraq required a greater number of Airmen on the ground — emphasis switched from air operations to ground-based combat support. This meant reorganizing forces to meet new challenges.

Joint Exercise benefits

An example of joint exercises are the Atlantic Strike Exercises, held a few times a year at Avon Park, FL. These provide realistic training to mirror current threats — IEDs, mortar assaults, ambushes, and sniper attacks.

Summary

Joint Operations is vital to national security. As you've learned, it has many advantages and lets us use the combined capabilities of all U.S. military services as well as other countries. Joint operations achievements are limitless. Following the Core Values — Integrity First, Service Before Self, Excellence In All We Do — ensures every Airman is doing their part to be a valuable member of these teams. Joint teams are vital to national security and the continued success of the U.S. Armed Forces.