De-Ranged

Colonel Colella examines global power from its origins as Strategic Air Command built a fleet of bombers and tankers to meet the needs of the global nuclear-deterrent policy of the Cold War. He traces this evolution through the studies and commissions of the 1990s established to determine the force structure for the twenty-first century. Next, he establishes assumptions made to develop a force focused on expeditionary short-range airpower to project global power are established, and then Colonel Colella evaluates four case studies-Operation Nickel Grass, Vulcan Black Buck missions, Operation Eldorado Canyon, and Operation Desert Strike-in the application of airpower over long range. The studies are used to provide evidence to support and refute the assumptions made during the 1990s to model the USAF force structure around short-range expeditionary forces with the intention of forward deploying them in a crisis. Colonel Colella offers recommendations for methods to equip those future forces with a sturdy in-flight refueling force capable of supporting long-range missions free from the entanglements of foreign support and reliance on forward basing.