"Accelerate Change or Lose", USAF's Lead Wings follow-up

On 5 January 2022, the commander of USAF's Air Combat Command (ACC), General Mark Kelly, designated five units as Lead Wings as part of the combat air force’s transition to the service’s new force generation model. In November 2020, Scramble Magazine wrote about the Lead Wings concept and their future effectiveness.

In October 2020, USAF's Air Combat Command (ACC) Exercise Agile Flag 21-1 came to a close at Tyndall AFB (FL). This latest USAF exercise, which was held in and over the Florida Panhandle, was the first-of-its-kind event to test the effectiveness of future “Lead Wings”. 

Using this exercices as a baseline, ACC worked towards a flag-level exercise in 2021 to certify a lead wing’s ability to generate and provide command and control as well as support and defend combat forces. It was stated that with exercise Agile Flag 21-1 the USAF gained a better understanding of how it can provide combat airpower and a wide range of other capabilities to combatant commanders while remaining agile and lethal.

The following wings have been ordered, and are ready, to rapidly generate combat power as a deployed force during an Agile Combat Employment (ACE):

4th Fighter Wing, Seymour Johnson AFB (NC), operating the F-15E Strike Eagle
23rd Wing, Moody AFB (GA), operating the A-10C Thunderbolt II, HC-130J Combat King II and HH-60G Pave Hawk/HH-60W Jolly Green II
55th Wing, Offutt AFB (NE). Carrying out worldwide reconnaissance, real-time intelligence, command and control, information warfare and combat support with various RC-135 versions
355th Wing, Davis-Monthan AFB (AZ), operating the A-10C Thunderbolt II, HC-130J Combat King II and HH-60G Pave Hawk (Future HH-60W Jolly Green
II)
366th Fighter Wing, Mountain Home AFB (ID), operating the F-15E Strike Eagle

Although it is striking that the toolbox for the first-mentioned Lead Wings does not contain any 5th Generation Fighter such as the F-22A Raptor or the F-35A Lightning II, these fighters will be provided when additional forces are required for a designated Lead Wing, also known as 'Lead Wings in Extremis'.

While not currently designated as Lead Wings, the following flying units, as 'Lead Wings in Extremis', have been assigned to provide enabling requirements when needed:

1st Fighter Wing, Joint Base Langley-Eustis (VA), operating the F-22A Raptor
20th Fighter Wing, Shaw AFB (SC), operating the F-16C/D Fighting Falcon
325th Fighter Wing, Tyndall AFB (FL). No current aircraft assigned. Tyndall F-22A Raptors have been redistributed to other units. F-35A Lightning IIs are
expected to arrive in 2023
388th Fighter Wing, Hill AFB (UT), operating the F-35A Lightning II

With this latest move, the USAF is transforming from a reactive force, optimised for counter-insurgency operations over the past 20 years in permissive environments, to wings ready to deploy as high-performing, task-organised combat teams, and operate in a (highly) contested environment with joint and coalition partners.

Photos by USAF