Unit-Level Automation for Air Force Contingency Operations in Low-Intensity Conflict

Abstract : Small computers will increasingly become more integral to mission accomplishment, especially at the unit level. Small computers offer many potential advantages for unit-level mission support, especially when larger systems are impractical, unavailable, or unresponsive to rapidly changing user needs. These advantages have been evident in daily activities, during exercises, and, most recently, in the Persian Gulf. This study focuses on small computers as a potential means of providing automated support to units involved in contingency operations in low-intensity conflict (LIC). By all accounts, LIC is the arena most likely to see US military involvement in the years ahead. Contingency operations, one of four LIC categories, apply most directly to the Air Forces since they often involve traditional applications of air power. Small computers can be effective tools for units requiring automated support, especially in the unpredictable, support-limited, and time-sensitive LIC arena. However, functional-area manages must take a more active role in their partnership with the communications computer community in order to plan for effective small-computer mission support from the ground up. Although Air Force units have made a tremendous investment in small computers, both in dollars and hours of development, not enough effort has gone into coordinating and integrating their mission-related use across functional areas.