Naval War College

The Ultimate Quarterback: How the Joint Force Commander Can Utilize the Air Component, Supported by the Ground and Special Forces Components, to Naval War College

Publisher Marketing: The current U. S. military way of war is driven by a conventional, symmetric combat mindset. This immediately leads to designating the ground component as the main effort to achieve operational objectives against ground-centric adversaries. There may be, however, better options that would maximize combat potential to meet the operational objectives with the fewest losses in the least amount of time. One of those options would be for the Joint Force Commander (JFC) to designate airpower as the main effort, using the Joint Force Land Component Commander (JFLCC) and Joint Force Special Operations Component Commander (JFSOCC) as supporting commanders, when the situation warrants. Operation ALLIED FORCE (OAF) and Operation ENDURING FREEDOM (OEF) are used to illustrate the validity of this concept. This operational concept would be appropriate in certain situations when the Joint Force Air Component Commander (JFACC) has command and control of the preponderance of kill mechanisms to attack the enemy's center of gravity. The use of operational art through an Ends, Ways, Means, and Risks framework is examined to determine when the JFC should consider designating airpower as the main effort and what conditions the JFC should be alert for in order to use this concept. Changes across the entire Doctrine Organization Training Material Leadership Personnel Facilities (DOTMLPF) spectrum are required to codify this change to ensure JFCs have another accepted option to achieve operational objectives.