Swiss Air Force Knives

摘要

Agile Combat Employment (ACE)-the idea that small numbers of aircraft and personnel can quickly move forward and fight from remote and austere locations, with a minimal footprint-is catching on. Born in the Pacific Air Forces when Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. was in command and also tested in Europe, the concept depends on the idea that Airmen can be trained to do multiple jobs so that fewer Airmen overall need to be deployed for any given operation. Now the Air Force is developing a program and syllabus for Airmen to be designated "multi-capable," so that they're prepared to do things like protect a base, load weapons, marshal and turn aircraft, and other tasks in addition to those jobs defined by their specific Air Force Specialty Code (AFSC). "The old concept of [mobilizing for combat] is: We roll in a really big package, and we'd have kind of a permanent footprint," said Maj. Gen. Mark. D. Camerer, the commander of the U.S. Air Force Expeditionary Center (EC). "And we would expect that we were always assured we can defend the base, and we didn't have to worry about attack from above or from elsewhere; we can stay there a long time, we can bring 200, 300, 400 people to execute that.