Strategy drills: Air Force maps out future, with an eye on the present.

• Author: Erwin, Sandra I.
• Position: Defense Review

Air Force strategists preparing for an upcoming war game are setting their sights on 2025, mapping out scenarios for how the service will organize, equip and train its forces two decades from now.

Current events, however, also will play a leading role.

Although the tabletop and computer-simulation drills, called Title X war games, are routine annual events in the military services, this year's exercise takes on added significance for the Air Force, as it will occur in the midst of a swirling debate on the value of air power in U.S. military operations.

In a departure from previous war games, the June 2005 event, called "Future Capabilities Game," will not only assess the Air Force's tactics and weapons, but also commanders' abilities to transition from traditional to unconventional combat scenarios.

Burning issues such as the U.S. war on terrorism and the expansion of the military's role in homeland defense are dominating the discussions within the Air Force about future strategies, officials tell National Defense. The debate is occurring as the Pentagon prepares the congressionally mandated Quadrennial Defense Review of military capabilities and strategy. The QDR also serves as conceptual groundwork for the Pentagon to make spending decisions.

The service's head of strategic planning, Maj. Gen. Ronald J. Bath, says his job is to think about "2025 and beyond." Nevertheless, he adds, the QDR compels the Air Force and the other services to take into account immediate priorities that the Defense Department must address in the next three to five years.

"What makes this QDR different is that we are in the middle of a war," says Bath.

Unlike the 2001 QDR, when emphasis on "air power" was at the core of the nation's military strategy, the ongoing review is about supporting ground forces. "We have a joint responsibility to make sure troops on the ground are taken care of," Bath says.

Against that backdrop, officials anticipate the upcoming war game to be dominated by "joint" concepts and tactics.

"We'll find there is a lot of common ground among the services," he says. "My job is to talk to other players to find out what their positions are. There is going to be communication back and forth."

Although the QDR work is just getting under way, and will continue for at least six more months, the Air Force already has articulated its posture in terms of how it assists troops on the ground.

"Everybody sees things from their own organizational culture," says Bath. "We see things from an airman's culture. We need to articulate what we bring to the table, why we bring it, what we think we should do in the future."

In the next 20 years, the Air Force's ambitious agenda involves two major goals: shifting...