Lessons can be drawn from Afghan war: Conflict validates need to 'transform' Army, improve aircraft reach and munitions.

• Author: Goure, Daniel
• Position: Commentary

It might appear presumptuous to draw any lessons for the U.S. military from the war in Afghanistan. Yet, this war reflects ongoing changes in military strategy, doctrine, force structure and equipment, with important ramifications for both the ongoing war on terrorism and the broader transformation of the U.S. military.

Traditionally, U.S. defense planning has been threat-driven. This means that the force structure and military strategy were focused on countering the most capable and likely threats to the nation.

Threat-based planning permits the creation of alliances, the establishment of forward bases and the pre-conflict deployment of equipment. None of these advantages can be assumed to exist for conflicts in the future. This puts a premium on rapid reach by U.S. forces.

The implication of the basing problem for the United States is the importance of investing in aircraft that enhance reach. The average range of U.S. in-theater air bases to Afghanistan is more than 1,000 miles. B-2 bombers have carried out 30 hour-long bombing missions from bases 10,000 miles distant. Even the humanitarian airdrops have been performed by C-17s flying out of Ramstein, Germany nearly 3,000 miles distant.

As the range between available air bases and battlefields increases, so will the need for aerial refueling. The unparalleled global reach of the U.S. military is underpinned by a fleet of some 700 aging KC-10 and KC-135 tankers. More than 100 tankers are required to support fewer than that number of daily combat sorties over Afghanistan. U.S. global deployments have stretched the tanker fleet almost to the breaking point. Acquiring new fighters and bombers, but failing to replace the tanker fleet, would defeat the effort to improve the reach of U.S. air power.

An important aspect of reach is provided by the U.S. Navy's command of the sea. Those who thought the era of the large aircraft carrier was over have been proven wrong. U.S. aircraft carriers in the Persian Gulf have routinely been conducting some 50 combat sorties per day over Afghanistan. U.S. surface ships and British and U.S. submarines launched some two dozen cruise missile strikes on the opening night of the war. The value of amphibious warfare capabilities also was shown with the deployment of Marine Corps expeditionary forces to Camp Rhino.

A counterintuitive lesson of Afghanistan is the importance of ground power in future conflicts. The experience in Kosovo in the spring of 1999 seemed to...