USAF's Air Task Forces, more than a tool kit
A five minute read about USAF's six new experimental Air Task Force (ATF) units.
On 8 October 2024, Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC) held a ceremony for the newly erected 11th ATF at Davis-Monthan AFB (AZ). On the same day, the 21st ATF stood up under auspices of the Air Force Global Strike Command (AFGSC) at Dyess AFB (TX). Those were the last two new ATFs that were given a designation. Earlier, three Air Combat Command (ACC) ATFs and one Air Mobility Command (AMC) ATF were added to USAF's Order of Battle (OrBat).
For now, ATFs, part of USAF's "Air Force Force Generation (AFFORGEN)" cycle, replaced the temporary Expeditionary Air Base model, and are a big next step of USAF's progress toward a "Deployable Combat Wing". It is a significant milestone in USAF's journey towards todays modernisation and readiness to ensure and maintain a competitive advantage over the pacing challenge.
Deployable Combat Wings are not new. The past years, the USAF has experimented a lot with mixed aircraft during deployments and exercises. On 12 November 2020, Scramble Magazine first wrote about the USAF's exercise Agile Flag, the effectiveness of future “Lead Wings” and how it would become the new standard. Scramble also wrote about the different USAF Expeditionary Air Base deployments with mixed aircraft; "Thunderbolt and Lightnings", "Increased Middle East fighter presence" and "Keystone of the Pacific".
In the recent past, throughout the Global War on Terror (Iraq, Afghanistan etc.), the USAF had been using a crowd-source model to fill deployment billets, essentially taking aircraft and airmen from across the Air Force and putting them together for the first time at a deployed location. As recent threats evolve and the USAF enters an era of Great Power Competition (GPC), a more agile and capable force presentation is required.
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Aircraft and airmen assigned to an ATF will follow the AFFORGEN cycle to deploy as units of action in the coming years. For combatant commanders, the ATF will become a tool kit to use for various tasks and effects. The ATF model will allow the units of action to train as a team to improve unit readiness and help the leadership and commanders clearly articulate USAF capacities and the effects which can be, or cannot, be achieved.
Credit photos: USAF