Aerospace Sanctuary in 2025: Shrinking the Bull's-Eye

摘要

Future technologies may allow a direct reduction of core entities or centers of gravity on an operating air base. Reducing the core entities has a direct impact on base defense. As fewer things become critical for sustained operations defending them becomes easier. Further, there is a direct synergism in operability and defense. The same technologies that improve operability by making it easier to complete the mission or by reducing the cost of doing business also reduce the number of core entities, thereby reducing defense requirements. On the air base of 1996, there are many core entities. Degrading or destroying any of the ascribed core entities could degrade mission accomplishment. For the aerospace base of 2025 very few things should be core. This paper identifies the concepts to use emerging technologies that have the potential to create a land base that may be considered an integrated system which provides a sanctuary; capable of sustaining operations regardless of threat location environmental condition or type of mission. First the base can be harder to find and therefore target. This situation is accomplished by reducing the number of people assets buildings spare parts and so forth on the base. Reductions are possible for several reasons: an increase in the reliability and maintainability of everything on the base; the use of robotics for tasks not requiring human inputs; and a reduction of bomb dump size as munitions get smaller. Ambient temperature superconductivity could allow redundant dispersed power generation eliminating exposed power grids. The structures that remain could take advantage of material advances provided by nanotechnology and microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) to mask or reduce external infrared radar and visual signatures. These technologies could offer improved hardening to reduce damage should an adversary successfully prosecute an attack.