Top soldier advocates AF relationship Published Nov. 5, 2003 By Cynthia Bauer Air Mobility Command Public Affairs ANAHEIM, Calif. (AFPN) -- The relationship of the Army to the airlift and tanker community is one of the “most important relationships that we have,” said the Army chief of staff during the 35th Airlift/Tanker Association convention here.In the convention’s closing address Nov. 1, Army Gen. Peter J. Schoomaker discussed joint interoperability and the Army’s transformation.“I’d just like to tell you right up front and declare I am a joint officer who happens to be in the Army, who happens to be the chief of staff of the Army right now,” Schoomaker said.He said parts of the Army’s transformation were “incredibly important for what (the Army and Air Force) do together.”Schoomaker said his strategy for the Army is to be more proactive.“(U.S. forces are) going to move before the other guy moves, and we’re going to reach out and touch him at his place, not ours … we’re going to have to be strategically more agile,” he said.The key is to work more closely in the joint arena, to move toward joint interdependence, he said.He called the 1991 Gulf War “component warfare deconflicted at the joint level. It was not joint warfare in the context of what we did in (Operation) Iraqi Freedom, which I would call joint interoperability,” he said.Forces were much more capable because of shared responsibility among the components for battle command, and command and control for special operations and conventional forces. This resulted in an aggressive plan, fewer forces and more agility on the battlefield, Schoomaker said.Schoomaker, who formerly commanded U.S. Special Operations Command, said air mobility provided critical support to the joint force, from inserting forces from long distances into Afghanistan to refueling helicopters to extend their range.“If you’re talking about operational maneuvers at strategic distances, hundreds of thousands of miles, you’ve got to have airlift to do it, especially in the timeframes we’re talking about,” he said.Achieving an expeditionary force while maintaining the Army’s campaign qualities is what Schoomaker called modularity. That means smaller brigades, smaller units within.Modularity, he said, will require a different way of thinking for the air mobility community. He said moving smaller units, keeping them with their weapon systems and preserving unit integrity would be challenging, but necessary for combat effectiveness.“What it means is that we are going to work together in much closer ways so that we can take advantage of this enormous strategic mobility that you provide,” he said.The Air Force is helping the Army transform through the evolving ability of the C-17 Globemaster III to land in the dark with crews qualified on night-vision goggles on unimproved strips, Schoomaker said. Improvements to navigation and communication systems are also helping.Schoomaker also discussed networking.“It’s becoming increasingly important that we must be able to interact on the battlefield much differently than we previously have,” he said. He said the Army is making the leap from Earth-based communications to space-based links.“It’s clear that terrestrial (communications) concepts are not sufficient to keep up with formations on the move,” he said.Army officials are also increasing their network connectivity within the joint arena, Schoomaker said.Teaming mobility and the Army’s jointness and modularity help the United States get out ahead and deal with things more quickly at greater distances from the United States, he said. He said we can not repeat the problems of the recent past.“This is not the kind of problem we can continue to hope against hope, and continue to have a strategy of trying not to lose. This has got to be a transition into what the strategy actually is -- to defeat (enemy) capabilities long before they form,” Schoomaker said.