![]() What does this have to do with the F-15EX and F-35A? The F-35A represents the deliberate part of the strategy, while the F-15EX represents the emergent part. As a strategy is executed, various smaller emergent strategies are coupled and decoupled to the long-term deliberate strategy as new opportunities present themselves. The Mintzberg model acknowledges that the realized strategy is actually a combination of both deliberate and emergent strategies. The realized strategy (the end) rarely matches the intended strategy (the beginning) because a strategy can - and should - evolve over time. This should sound familiar, as it’s the marketing pitch for today’s multi-domain operations. Viewed through a military lens, strategic competition should continually produce a range of variables that can be mixed and matched to produce exponentially more capabilities that provides a unique versatility to commanders that can be used to complicate a competitor’s situation. Like a business jockeying for market share, competition is perpetual and infinite, a series of ever-shifting temporary states of winning and losing - not victory or defeat. The goal is to dissuade competitors in certain geographic, technical, and ideological areas and push them towards ones that better align with U.S. In this context, the idea is best described as a methodology to disrupt target markets in precise ways that generate deliberate competitive shifts. In the 1980s, the idea of competitive strategies became popular in corporate America and the concept of strategic competition emerged in both the C-suite and the E-ring. People with this mental framework risk misinterpreting strategic competition as an arms race to build a gold-plated fighting force that sufficiently deters an adversary and can ensure an expeditious victory if deterrence fails. That said, traditionally military leaders, strategists, and planners are culturally ingrained to think about how to win if deterrence fails, mirroring the western view of warfare in absolute terms - victory or defeat war or peace. National Security Strategy and 2018 National Defense Strategy there is still no definition within the Department of Defense to unify words, thought, and action. Despite some form of “competition” being mentioned over 60 times in the 2017 U.S. National Defense Strategy called for “ the reemergence of long-term strategic competition ,” strategic competition has become another well-worn buzzword referenced in speeches, statements, interviews, and congressional hearings. Strategic Competition in Action, or Inaction? To understand this requires the conversation begin with strategy - something that many voices in the debate appear to have overlooked. Spoiler: The F-15EX and F-35A are both needed, but not in the way the debate has been framed and not in a way most defense professionals have been conditioned to think. Building on that, I hope to offer yet a different perspective, and one that he may not agree with. ![]() His research provided a much-needed objective and analytical voice to a conversation that has become overwhelmingly subjective and emotional. Air Force fighter currently in production - the F-35.īrad Orgeron’s recent article explored four options that would sustain the fighter air superiority fleet over the next 20 years by detailing possible procurement combinations of three aircraft -F-15C, F-15EX, and F-35A. This camp’s message is that the F-15EX is an outdated fighter from the 1960s, equipped with decades old technology, is not survivable, not effective, is of little operational relevance, does not support the National Defense Strategy, and is more expensive than the only U.S. They predictably advocate that buying more F-35As - not F-15EXs - is the solution to replace the deteriorating F-15C/D fleet, whose shortcomings are inherent to operating a 35-year old fighter that averages 8,300 flight hours but was originally designed to fly just 4,000 hours. ![]() Largely driven by lobbyist influence mixed with self-interest, a number of lawmakers and retired generals reflexively viewed the proposal to buy 144 F-15EXs as a threat to the 80-year 1,763 F-35A program. Air Force’s request to buy F-15EX fighter jets to replace the aging F-15C/D Eagle has certainly been entertaining.
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