Air Base Defense Debate Takes A Turn Amid USAF Interest In The Mission

Ongoing intraservice debates on the future of U.S. air base defense took a new turn early this month when the head of the U.S. Air Force suggested his service take over the mission from the U.S. Army.

Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall’s suggestion is the latest statement from an official within his branch of the armed services pressing the Army to increase its focus on air base defense procurement, which the Air Force says has not been prioritized sufficiently. It also follows a legislative push for the Air Force to be creative in protecting austere bases.

• The Air Force would need more money and personnel to take over base protection
• The services are looking for a new counter-UAS approach

Kendall told the Airlift/Tanker Association 2024 Air Mobility Symposium and Tech Exposition in Grapevine, Texas, that there is an urgent need to increase base resiliency by boosting defensive measures. He said China has spent heavily on its weapon capacity, including ballistic, cruise and hypersonic missiles, to assault the installations.

“It strikes me as amazing how many weapons they are fielding for the purpose of attacking our bases,” Kendall said on Nov. 1. “If there’s one thing we must move faster on in this area it is our progress against the full range of threats to our bases. This is a joint responsibility that we have been working with our Army colleagues and that we hope to accelerate.”

Kendall has a unique perspective on the mission: While he is the top Air Force official, he also is a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and served in the Army, including as commander of a Hawk air defense battery.

“Frankly, I would be comfortable with the Department of the Air Force taking on the total defense and local defense of air bases as an organic mission if the needed resources—human and financial, etc.—were made available,” he told conference attendees.

Kendall’s statement follows a similar remark in July by Air Combat Command Cmdr. Gen. Kenneth Wilsbach, who said some bases could be left unguarded in the Air Force’s move toward a concept it calls Agile Combat Employment (ACE), which calls for quickly deploying small numbers of aircraft to austere bases. “Much of this is an Army mission, and I’d really like to see the Army put some more resources into weapons that can defend our bases,” Wilsbach said.

Army leaders including Secretary Christine Wormuth have long said air base defense, and particularly Raytheon’s Patriot missile units, are by far the service’s most tasked mission segment. Additionally, the support for Ukraine’s defense against Russia’s full-scale invasion has put pressure on the production lines for the Patriot and the Lockheed Martin Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense system. Meanwhile, the Air Force’s move toward ACE is requiring additional and more agile air defense systems.

In its version of the fiscal 2025 defense policy bill, the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) called on the Air Force to look at ways to adopt a surface-to-air missile (SAM) system that the U.S. rapidly developed for Ukraine. That effort, known as FrankenSAM, includes communications towers, passive infrared camera systems, early warning radar trailers, truck-mounted launchers and small form-factor communication kits, coupled with open-source software designed to connect Western- and Soviet-made air defenses. Franken-SAM was designed and built—and completed live-fire testing—within eight months of contract award, allowing it to be fielded by the end of 2023.

“Within two months of arriving in theater, and with less than two weeks of operator training, FrankenSAM fully demonstrated its range of capabilities, providing an immediate impact on the battlefield,” the SASC’s explanatory report stated. “The FrankenSAM program demonstrated the ability of the U.S. Air Force and industry to rapidly produce effective solutions to immediate problems when given the imperative to perform critical missions, such as air defense.”

The Air Force also is looking for new ways to intercept small drones, both from land and air. The service released a sources-sought notice on Oct. 24 for a counter-small uncrewed aircraft systems (UAS) Low Collateral Effects Interceptor that can target Group 1 and 2 UAS. The system would need to be an autonomous aircraft launched from an air vehicle with a “hard kill system.” This follows the Army’s own solicitation for a ground-launched missile to shoot down Group 1, 2 and 3 UAS. The Army wants the missile, called the eXtended-Range Counter-sUAS missile, to have a longer range than the FIM-92 Stinger with the ability to use tracking data from ground systems.