US Air Force - How We Fight

The Interdependent Fight -- Spherical Situation Awareness in the Groundfight

Secretary of the Air Force Michael W. Wynne

Excerpts of remarks as delivered to the Corps of Cadets, U.S. Military Academy, West Point, N.Y. Sept. 14, 2006

We are seeing right now an historic evolution in maneuver warfare: to the Interdependent Fight, where long-duration mass on the ground can be exchanged for rapid massing of resources of awareness, of detection, and of instant communications to deliver concentrated and precision strike.

Interdependence arises from the literal interconnections across all of these domains, constantly, in the hands of unit-level warriors of each and every Service simultaneously. Interdependence goes beyond Joint. It is an evolutionary step upward.

This Interdependent Fight calls for exquisite situation awareness. We thought in the past in terms of 360-Degree Awareness. But I submit that the American Warrior has evolved. He's evolved to what I call Spherical Situation Awareness. This is a new term. It calls for a new Habit of Thought. It is the habit of taking a comprehensive, spherical view, at once vertical and horizontal, real-time and predictive, penetrating, yet defended; also in the cyber realm; eliminating as much as possible obstacles of terrain, weather, foliage, darkness, jamming and any defenses erected in any of these domains, all the means of surprise that provide cover and resources to the enemy, even buried objects and buried targets.

Most importantly, Spherical Situation Awareness delivers to the net the tools of precision fire, including fires measured to avoid innocent casualties, and to get instant feedback to all that are on the command net. The kill cycle can thus be cut to minutes and possibly seconds, from the detect to the assessment.

This is no panacea. The thinking enemy already finds ways to avoid massing, dodge our sensors and inflict casualties. A sober reminder is the recent notification of the passage of First Lt. Emily Perez, a former Brigade Cadet Sergeant Major who was killed in action in Iraq just this past week - Class of '05. And this is not Land Power versus Sea Power versus Air Power: we must fight Interdependently because we in fact are Interdependent. Only in combination we will root out and kill each enemy.

History that is written in the decades to come will celebrate your triumphs and honor the steadfastness and courage in your ranks. Your innovation in bringing the Interdependent Fight from text to battlefield will write that history.

Thank you for your service, your devotion, and the sacrifices you and your families have and will make.

May God bless you, and may God continue to bless our great Nation.

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[johnmason2354]

USA military number ONE. None better.

[Mrod330]

great vid. shows all the branches working together. this vids for all you haters out there who think we're just a chair force.

-airman

[bribribri56]

you have some great stuff here

[MrJonkelp]

This is a great video

[sirpillow69]

air force sucks they're too fucking picky. join the army

[KaiKuro]

I work 12 hrs a day, 5 days a week for you idiots who put us down when we give you the right to do so, yet i still do it happily casue i love this country

[KaiKuro]

@FLATFEET3 your sadely mistaken if you think we're there for oil, maybe they dont tell you guard guys what they tell the active duty people like me, but its not for oil lol.

[100PercentOJ]

If you don't stand behind your military, gladly stand in front of us.

[OfficialDotEXE]

@Arthur5041975 lmao some one is butt hurt. I love when people talk shit about the air force and the truth is that a large amount of those people who talk shit can't even get in. it's the hardest branch to get into. you probably had dreams of being in the air force, but you have a drug charge so they said HAHA YA RIGHT. how's wal-mart by the way? get that manager spot yet making 11 an hour?

[FLATFEET3]

@jake561 im in the national gaurd and will be deployed..im exited but i dont fight for the us.i fight for my 2 children. this war is stupid.and we can live without oil..did the romans use oil to survive.no.we need a new source of fuel..obama wants to do so but it will put us in massive debt..but i dont fight for the us..not anymore

[jake561]

@FLATFEET3

Oil that you couldn't live without, the point is, they're dying for US! Show some respect!

[aubreyfarmer]

The survival of the United States as a sovereign nation depends on the military waking up to the demagoguery. We have a criminal element in control of the White House, Congress and the courts. How can so many thousands know about the criminal activity in Washington and Wall Street and criminal control of the media, yet it continues. The amount of fraud on Wall Street alone, you would think, would be such an embarrassment, that someone would be forced to take take one for the team. Incredible!