Today the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines intensely compete over technology and a never sufficient defense budget to defend or expand their respective service's roles, missions, and functions. However, independent air, land, and sea operations no longer exist, and joint doctrine dominates the conduct of warfare. The Joint Forces Commander establishes air superiority through integrated offensive and defensive counterair missions to ensure freedom from attack and freedom to attack. Defensive counterair, synonymous with air defense, is designed to destroy or negate enemy aircraft and missiles after launch and is not the primary responsibility of one service but of all four services. Centering on non-littoral joint areas of operation, should the Army's Patriot forces become a part of the Air Force to effectively and efficiently accomplish the defensive counterair mission for the joint forces commander? Focusing on functionality instead of cost the author evaluated Patriot against the Army and the Air Force using the air defense employment principles of mobility, mix, mass, and integration. Until US adversaries can mount a robust simultaneous air and missile attack or the Air Force acquires positioning authority, the Army is the best service to exploit Patriot for the joint forces commander.
This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work.
This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.
As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
