'Access' challenges in expeditionary operations.

• Author: Farrell, Jr., Lawrence P.
• Position: President's perspective

One of the predominant themes in recent Defense Department strategic reviews and blue-ribbon panel studies has been the "access" problem that U.S. forces increasingly are expected to encounter in future military operations around the world. These operations are expected to be, mainly, of an expeditionary nature--with all that is implied in the word expeditionary.

The access issue became front-page news during the buildup for Operation Iraqi Freedom, when the Army's 4th Infantry Division was denied entry into Iraq through Turkey, and the Air Force had to relocate command operations to Qatar and other locations, after Saudi Arabia restricted the use of its airspace by U.S. war-planes.

This predicament is not likely to go away, but rather will grow. Each of the services has looked at ways to work around the access problem. The Air Force, for example, developed a concept for a "global strike force" that would rely less on air bases overseas and more on strategic projection of air power in a "kick down the door" mode--with late generation stealth fighters and bombers. The Marine Corps and the Navy, particularly, base their war-fighting doctrine on the projection of power from the sea, highlighting the value of aircraft carriers and amphibious large-deck ships.

But the Navy alone cannot solve this. In the long term, access is decidedly a joint problem that requires joint participation.

That was the message heard loud and clear throughout the recent Expeditionary Warfare Conference that NDIA hosted in Panama City, Fla. That event traditionally had focused on amphibious operations, and most of the attendees and speakers came from the Marine Corps and the Navy. Over the years, the amphibious theme has changed to an expeditionary warfare theme. This year for the first time, every service was represented, to include the Chief of Staff of the Air Force Gen. John Jumper; the Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Vernon Clark; the Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Michael Hagee, the Coast Guard Deputy Commandant, Vice Adm. Thomas J. Barrett, and Army Brig. Gen. David Fastabend, deputy chief of staff at the Training and Doctrine Command.

It is encouraging to see the services tackling these issues jointly, because, in the future, every service's ability to plan military campaigns will be affected. As Gen. Hagee noted, the countries that restricted access to U.S. forces during Operation Iraqi Freedom--Turkey, Austria, Belgium, Saudi Arabia--are our allies. The fact...