Shaw Air Force Base, South Carolina. (December 8, 2023): In this photo by Airman 1st Class Steven Cardo, Captain Joshua Holden with the 79th Fighter Squadron flashes his unit’s signature “Tiger, Tiger” hand signal as he prepares for take-off during Exercise Tiger Claw 24-2 held here recently. Air Force pilots and their support crews practiced operating from austere environments in dispersed locations as part of the Air Force’s Agile Combat Employment (ACE) doctrine.
The concept was born during World War II where airfields had to be improvised and quickly constructed and defended in austere environments. Today, the ACE concept calls for relying less on large traditional main overseas bases as hubs for projecting combat power and more on multiple, dispersed forward operating locations over great distances.
The plan envisions a lean, select group of Airmen deploying to far flung locations to prepare airfields in forward locations for fighter jets to land. This is part of a larger strategy to decentralize air assets to complicate the enemy’s targeting of friendly forces while expanding the options for commanders to go on the attack. This new policy is in response to the growing ability of adversaries to strike bases that have traditionally been considered sanctuaries.
No longer.
While operating from smaller, dispersed locations offers agile combat response, it also introduces a significant uncertainty factor that must be overcome. Information about enemy location, disposition, or activity will be incomplete, inaccurate, and potentially subject to adversary manipulation. As such, Air Force units must adapt their tactics to prevail despite these uncertainties. ACE will span air, space, cyberspace, land, maritime, and special operations forces who will need to be in the right places at the right times to evade enemy strikes while creating opportunities for commanders strike from multiple locations simultaneously.
For pilots like Captain Holden, the ACE concept will improve survivability and effectiveness of air units in any future war.