Improving Integrations with U.S. Allies and Partners
TOPIC SPONSOR: AF Futures
Why should/shouldn’t the United States Air Force devote effort and resources to improving integrations with its allies and partners?
- Bellis, Maj. Jerome, "By, With and Through: Leveraging Allied Forces to Build Western Pacific Combat Airpower," AF Global College thesis, 2024, 58 pgs.
- Conlon, Col. Jennie E., "The Cobbled Road to Equipping US Allies: A Look at Rotary Wing Acquisition in the Indo-Pacific," AWC Strategic Studies Paper, 2024, 30 pgs. Winner of the AWC Maj. Gen. Edward G. Lansdale International Affairs Award
- Dobre, Maj. Costinel-Viorel (ROUAF), "Integrated Deterrence: Department of the Air Force and NATO Space and Cyberspace Interoperability" AFGC thesis, 2025, 66 pgs.
- The DAF must devote resources to integration because interoperability is the "bedrock" of integrated deterrence. Currently, the alliance is over-reliant on the United States, which provides approximately 60% of NATO's space assets and 75% of reconnaissance satellite capacity in high-risk regions. Improving integration mitigates this strategic vulnerability—which adversaries could otherwise exploit as a single point of failure—and promotes equitable burden-sharing so that collective defense does not rely entirely on American infrastructure.
- Hoagland, Lt. Col. Cody, "Regional Officers: The Keystone to Global Integrated Operations," AWC Strategic Studies Paper, 2020, 39 pgs.
- Holston, Joel S., "Building the Neighborhood Watch: Partnered Integration of Airborne ISR for Indo-Pacific Competition," OLMP thesis, 2024, 39 pgs.
- Kim, Lt. Col. Daniel, "Building Partner Capacity in Cyberspace to Enhance Deterrence," SAASS Thesis, 2021, 68 pgs.
- Kind, Lt. Col. Richard, "Neglecting Our Asymmetric Advantage Over China: USAF's Role in Shaping Allies and Partners," AWC Strategic Studies Paper, 2022, 23 pgs.
- McBrayer, Lt. Col. Brandon, "Organizing F-16 Squadrons to Maximize Readiness, Leadership Development and Alliances," AWC strategic Studies paper, 2020, 26 pgs.
- Phillips, Maj. David P., and Maj. William C. Hardy, "Balancing Power: Establishing the Indo-Pacific Treaty Organization as a Political and Nuclear Alliance," ACSC thesis, 2025, 97 pgs.
- Poindexter, Col. Eugene, "US Military Leadership and Support of AMISOM: Are We Successful?" AWC Strategic Studies Paper, 2019, 29 pgs.
- Rummel, Maj. Joshua A., "'STRIKES ALL OVER PACIFIC!': ACE Risks Greater Destruction Throughout the Indo-Pacific," AF Fellows Paper, 2024, 2 pgs.
- Tompkins, Lt. Col. William M., "NATO Intelligence Sharing: Lessons Learned from the Ukraine-Russian War," AWC SSP, 2025, 26 pgs.
- Trimble, Maj. Michael M., "Asymmetric Advantage: Air Advising in a Time of Strategic Competition," Published as an AU Press LeMay Paper, 2019, 131 pgs.
- Wang, Lt. Col. Timmy, "Black Cats: Republic of China Air Force U-2 Squadron," SAASS thesis 2025, 91 pgs.
- Wang answers this by demonstrating the immense reciprocal benefits and force-multiplying effects derived from the highly classified U.S.-ROCAF partnership. The U.S. devoted significant resources—such as training ROCAF pilots in Texas and supplying U-2 aircraft alongside Lockheed Martin maintenance crews—because Taiwan was willing to assume the severe operational and strategic risks of flying deep into hostile Chinese territory. This integration not only supplied the U.S. with otherwise unobtainable high-resolution imagery of Chinese nuclear facilities, but the combat flight data gathered from ROCAF encounters with SA-2 surface-to-air missiles enabled the U.S. to rapidly iterate and develop new electronic countermeasure (ECM) systems (like System 12, System 13, and Oscar Sierra) for its own fleet without risking American lives.
- Youngquist, Lt. Col. Benjamin D., "Relooking at America's Treaty and Alliance Structure in the Indo-Pacific," AWC PSP, 2021, 35 pgs.