Wild Blue Yonder

April 13, 2021
The Problem with Three: Great Power Competition Deterrence

Defining the relationship between two entities has provided some useful models. Marriage signifies the communal bond between two people. Newton helped define the gravitational relationship between two bodies. The Cold War brought insight into the working of strategic deterrence between two nuclear
April 5, 2021
Counter-Cyber Reflections for NATO

BackgroundSince the mid-1990s, Russia has steadily recovered its ailing economy from post-Soviet collapse and resurfaced onto the world stage. It is Vladimir Putin’s objective to re-establish the Russian Federation (RF) in the international arena as a global security broker and secure Russia’s
March 31, 2021
“Fight’s on. Commit. You’re Dead.” Why the United States’ Largest Training Ranges Are Too Small and How LVC Can Provide the Answer

Executive SummaryThe United States is running out of room.Eielson AFB, Alaska, boasts claim to the Department of Defense’s (DOD) premier training venue, a range spanning over 1.5 million acres of maneuver land and 65,000 square miles of airspace known as the Joint Pacific Alaska Range Complex
March 29, 2021
Satellite Servicing: A History, the Impact to the Space Force, and the Logistics Behind It

IntroductionSatellite servicing is an important emerging technology not only to industry and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), but also to national security. Servicing technology should be of key interest for the United States Space Force (USSF) to research, and serviceability
March 26, 2021
AI-Enabled War-in-the-Air

It is a time of rapid disruptive technological change and none more so than in the field of artificial intelligence (AI). While developed by and for the commercial sector, AI’s apparent potential for military use is now pushing armed forces globally to begin experimenting with embryonic AI-enabled
March 12, 2021
China in Search of AI Supremacy

In order to totally understand the need of the United States to maintain and compete for artificial intelligence (AI) supremacy over our near peer threat, China, we must first look at the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) militarily goals and what makes them unique in their pursuit. According to the
March 9, 2021
Better Models for Specialized Career Fields

It’s no secret the Air Force is currently unable to fill cockpits for its aircraft due to a pilot shortage.1 Even with COVID-19 increasing retention from 46 percent of pilots to 51 percent, the service is still 2,000 pilots short, with no end in sight.2 The Air Force is attempting to fill the
March 5, 2021
Contingency Basing for Great Powers Competition

This Air University Advanced Research paper focuses on applying the new context created from Great Powers Competition to military contingency basing. The broad scope of this paper relates the emerging concepts of adaptive operations and Agile Combat Employment (ACE) to the challenge of basing
Sept. 14, 2020
Moving the “Big Rock”: Inculcating Critical Thinking in the Air Force’s Project Warrior

When Gen David L. Goldfein became the chief of staff of the Air Force (CSAF) in 2016, he sought to revitalize the Air Force. He also narrowed in on the squadron as the “core fighting unit” by which Airmen most strongly identified with the service’s “culture and
Aug. 31, 2020
Chasing the Chimera of the Indigenous Jet Fighter: China’s Stealth Fighters and the Lessons of Recent Aviation History

China has demonstrated an apparent capability to develop stealth fighters. While Chinese aviation technology should not be underestimated, this essay strikes a cautionary note. Using historical examples from Argentina, Egypt, and India, the author contends that Chinese stealth fighters are being