Quote Originally Posted by jonSlack View Post
Getting the USAF more involved for the sake of getting them more involved?

The main effort in COIN are the ground forces, the Army and the Marine Corps. The USAF should be the main effort in the strategic air and the space arenas. I hope there is nobody sitting around racking their brain trying to figure out a way to the Army and the Marine Corps a greater role in those areas merely for the sake of getting them a greater role.

The Army already operates a fixed wing aircraft fleet. I do not understand the institutional resistence to allowing the Army to enlarge this fleet to include aircraft whose role is tactical CAS and where the primary consumer are the ground forces. Actually, I think I understand the resistance, I just do not think it is valid.

I believe in getting assets down to the lowest level possible. But by making the procurement of CAS by the Army a joint effort it makes it much more difficult than it needs to be.

I personally believe, as UAVs become more and more prevalent, there will eventually be a new agreement, similar to the Key West Agreement, that will "allow" or "permit" the Army to continue to fly small unarmed UAVs while all armed UAVs and the larger unarmed UAVs will be controlled by the USAF. I think that is a bad idea, but I think it will happen none the less.
I agree with this. Expanding the AF into the ground role just for the sake of them being there is not a good idea, IMO. Security Forces did handle roles somewhat like this in Vietnam (though more in the light infantry role), but it was never a mission they enjoyed or really bought into. I'm not sure if they should be forced to just for a stake in the joint game.