The Future of CAA

[b_sav]

Well, the article is not without merit. In theory, the CAAs just changed names and moved into the new Theatre-Aligned Operations Squadrons. We'll just have to wait and see how that works out.

T-AOS: A New Model for Competition

GEN Slife's congressional statement referenced in the above: chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://www.armed-services.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/2022%20AFSOC%20Posture%20-%20Lt%20Gen%20Slife%20-%20SASC-ETC%20(27%20April)%20(Final).pdf

MST provides innovative leap in SOFORGEN

I'm lacking a lot of knowledge in this world, so it's all super exciting to me but also jargon salad at times. My little tiny understanding of this is that CAA and other elements of a previous structure weren't necessarily utilizing everyone's skills in the right way (wrong languages and training in the wrong places?), so now we have a regionally aligned T-AOS model.

And a T-AOS is regionally aligned, something like green berets have been doing forever? These new T-AOS models will have an operations flight that has cargo pilots hauling around special tactics, intel, cyber and everyone else who fits on the bus. The missions will be "limited only by creativity" and some of Cobb (author)'s ideas include being the first in to "grey zone" territories to land on dirt strips and establish runways, or to launch PSYOP campaigns from the cargo hold.

Training for officers in T-AOS is in “Theater Air Operations Squadron (T-AOS) Skills Training Requirements,” Memorandum for Record, May 31, 2023. which remains impossible to find online.

So everyone who gets AFSOC birds on airframe selection night gets to be rambo-bond-and maybe Maverick when we get the AFSOC fighter jets? Did I miss a selection course somewhere in there?

 

[JedisonsDad]

TAOS is still too early in development to know for sure what it will be, but it is not CAA-esque or CAA light. Yes they are regionally aligned, but language is no longer a skill. All tactical training is on hold. We do not have aircraft. All advising will be “left of crank”, meaning no actual flying.

 

[talonlm]

This could easily go down a hundred rabbit holes, so I'll just address what you asked. If something isn't clear, just ask.

You'll get used to the jargon soup; just takes time and study.

NSAV currently has a pretty good future. SOCOM likes it and it's relatively cheap.

For the CAA program, JedisonsDad hit the nail on the head. Put simply, you're gonna get an Air Advisor with an AFSOC patch. Not knocking the Air Advisor guys--they've done some outstanding work--but their mission is different from what was asked of the CAAs. The CAA program, compared to what it was three years ago, is pretty much dead.

The MSTs and grey-zone operations mainly amount to AFSOC trying to find ways to do more with less. The is not entirely unjustified. The USAF is notorious for its enormous footprint--all the stuff and people we take with us when we deploy. MST, operating in the 'grey zone,' and even the T-AOS concept are all efforts to reduce AFSOC's footprint. Getting back to the AFSOC roots, at least in theory.

Now, for my opinion piece: This has everything to do with money and relevancy. Since the focus has shifted to China, Russia has gone full stupid, and the Middle East has gotten back to normal, money for everything within SOCOM's sphere--AFSOC included--has begun to dry up. Now, it's a fight for relevancy (and, hence, money). Splashy gunpig kill-TV or videos of MC-Js dropping jumpers or chucking MOABs and ATACMs out the back make a lot more money for AFSOC than some obscure FID program that won't pay off for twenty years. And this only barely addresses the changes--there are several others within the command that AFSOC had to work through that many don't like. But it comes down to the money. If you can't pay for it, you can't have it. AFSOC made their decisions on which way to go, and now we get to see what comes next.

 

[b_sav]

@JedisonsDad Thank you, looking back my last comment uninentionally comes off overly snarky. It sounds like I'm headed to a T-AOS so I'm just excited to figure out what to look forward to in the assignment and there's a lot going on in those articles I linked. I appreciate your wisdom.

 

[AWP]

Slife... @amlove21 isn't Slife the guy who dumped a ton of money into the amphibious -130 abortion and essentially declared war on AFSOC's ground component?

Or am I thinking of a different guy?

 

[b_sav]

@AWP Reading through his talk to congress I linked above was the first I ever heard about amphibious 130's, and I thought it was kind of goofy to be mentioned in there so specifically. Had no idea it was a recurring theme of his.

 

[DA SWO]

Slife... @amlove21 isn't Slife the guy who dumped a ton of money into the amphibious -130 abortion and essentially declared war on AFSOC's ground component?

Or am I thinking of a different guy?

Nope, that's the guy.
VCSAF
The guy big blue politiced for USSOCOM/CC

 

[amlove21]

Slife... @amlove21 isn't Slife the guy who dumped a ton of money into the amphibious -130 abortion and essentially declared war on AFSOC's ground component?

Or am I thinking of a different guy?

Same guy. You may remember him from the previous season of, “The Guy that Ruined AFSOC and Caused irreparable Harm to ST and Somehow Failed Upward”.

Nope, that's the guy.
VCSAF
The guy big blue politiced for USSOCOM/CC

And SOCOM wasn’t fooled.

Buckle up. If you thought the gutting of “standards that are really norms” and taking the 105 off AC130s or decimating morale was his knot trick- wait till he really gets going as the VCSAF.

 

[AWP]

A career Pave Low pilot getting in bed with the fighter pilot mafia to actively shit on the community that produced him. Is his callsign "Judas"?

 

[Steve1839]

Is his callsign "Judas"?

Miley, perhaps?