Peer adversaries possess the capability to disrupt or deny U.S. combat power generation at the installation level through coordinated multi-domain attacks combining precision strike weapons, cyber operations, space-enabled targeting, and/or infrastructure disruption. Their objective is not necessarily to destroy aircraft in flight, but to deny or degrade sortie generation by targeting the infrastructure that enables it.
Department of the Air Force installations are still largely governed, funded, and evaluated as support infrastructure rather than combat platforms operating within an adversary’s weapons engagement envelope.
This creates a strategic gap: Installations generate combat power but are not doctrinally treated as warfighting systems required to sustain operations under attack.
