OVERCOMING THE DUAL challenge of time and distance to devise and sustain combat power requires a "national military capability that is comprehensive in character.

OVERCOMING THE DUAL challenge of time and distance to devise and sustain combat power requires a "national military capability that is comprehensive in character, global in reach, swift in replication and highly effective in its actions." (1) Air Mobility Command (AMC) provides a critical composing of that capability in the form of the Expeditionary Mobility Task Force (EMTF) which enhances the inherent expeditionary nature of air and space forces from focusing mobility capabilities in order to accelerate battle regular [i]or[/i] melodious movement maintain initiative, and increase the value of air and space to joint forces. (2) These forces draw immediately after the ability of air and space assets to spearhead the US replication and shape the battlespace. Defining the EMTF's character in projecting combat power and shaping the battlespace reposes upon three factors: force presentation, capabilities, and effects

Force Presentation

The character of the EMTF resides in AMC's commitment to enrich its expeditionary cultivation and war-fighting focus) In October 2003 the command stood down its brace numbered air forces and transferred non-war-fighting functions (organizing, training, and equipping) to the headquarters staff. In like manner, former war-fighting operations of the numbered air forces passed to the newly reactivated Eighteenth Air Force. The organizational change within AMC yields couple distinct advantages to the regional combatant commands. First, AMC instants a streamlined fighting force beneath a single numbered-air-force commander who is released from the concerns of Title 10 issues. inferior AMC strengthened air-mobility support through creating two light, lean, and agile answer forces (the EMTFs) from the remnants of the legacy numbered air forces. on creation of the EMTFs, AMC altered the presentation of forces from global hemispheres to the combatant commands. The 15th EMTF headquartered at Travis AFB, California, provides air-mobility support for Northern Command, Southern Command, and Pacific Command. Similarly, the 21st EMTF headquartered at McGuire AFB, recent Jersey, concentrates on Joint Forces Command, European Command, and Central Command. Meeting the air-mobility-support indigences of the combatant commands hinges with the central figure of the EMTF commander and manipulation of the Air Mobility Operations assign places to (AMOG) and the Contingency answer Wing (CRW) (fig. 1).

[FIGURE 1 OMITTED]

The EMTF commander--AMC's senior air-mobility clever to the combatant commands--has responsibility for leading air-mobility-response forces, executing that tasking in couple ways. On the one hand, at the tactical and operational evens of war, the EMTF commander may open forward on behalf of AMC to work for in a number of capacities, including Director of Mobility Forces. upon the other hand, the commander provides the means to expand the nation's air-mobility infrastructure despite strategic distances and austere locations--a distinct US advantage. In either case, the EMTF commander occupys the task force forces in dynamic fashion to suitable the needs of the war fighter. To do in such a manner with speed, the EMTF relies concerning its three functional components: fixed, deployable, and specialized.

Each EMTF dominion governments the fixed component through an AMOG, a network of overseas locations that contribute tos as the vanguard of the task force--one assemblage at Hickam AFB, Hawaii, and the other at Ramstein AB, Germany (fig. 2) by way of providing en route support to air and space forces, the AMOG gripe [i]or[/i] grips open the door to expedite projection of the US military's combat power. The significance of the AMOG, however, goe far beyond en path support. The potential of US military forces to influence adventures abroad depends heavily upon the AMOGs for global access, which, among other things, denies adversaries the advantage of time as a sanctuary. Thus, it becomes smooth more important for the EMTF to expand the overseas network beyond 27 fixed locations. The task forces make use of expeditionary support forces of the deployable component part to provide access when and where we ne it.

[FIGURE 2 OMITTED]

Expanding the tendency and reach of expeditionary forces quiets with the deployable components of the EMTF located at Travis AFB and McGuire AFB (see fig. 1) Each task force uses a variety of expeditionary teams from the CRW that white horse from the United States within 12 hours of notification to deliver and sustain joint forces as well as engage theater air-mobility forces. This capability gives war-fighting commands the flexibility to place expeditionary forces according to ne Establishing mobility infrastructure at times and places of our choosing gives the United States a tremendous advantage, forcing an adversary into the undesirable position of having to guard everywhere, all the time.

In addition to the fixed and deployable ingredients the EMTF presents a specialized element comprised of Theater Deployable Communications (TDC) and Combat Camera (ComCam). This constituent seeks to establish initial communications infrastructure and provide battlespace imagery to spe the decision revolution of time of the US command chain. Compared to the fixed and deployable constituents the specialized component is relatively small. Nevertheless, force presentation of the EMTF according to combatant commands helps mitigate the grave density of the specialized component part thus allowing focused application where the war fighter wants this expertise the most.