How did lessons learned in operation enduring freedom contribute to improve joint air support to ground forces in oif?

Answer 1

One must have a competent opponent in order to validate military doctrine and equipment. And the last time that was done was in the skies over North Vietnam, when US airpower developed "Wild Weasels" and other countermeasures against anti-aircraft defenses; along with super-sonic aerial jet combat concepts and weapons such as the TOP GUN school at Miramar California or the USAF's RED FLAG aerial combat schools (which reintroduced the old traditional "dog-fight" for fighter pilots).

True, the US Army finally got the chance to deploy it's much vaunted "combined arms" (air land battle) doctrine against Iraq during Operation Desert Storm in January and February of 1991. But that turned out to be just target practice (in the military the correct term is "live fire exercise") the slaughter became so bad, that President Bush Senior had to order a stop to it (as he watched the "Highway of Death" on CNN). Iraq was by no stretch of the imagination a competent enemy! There entire air force fled into Iran (and that was their enemy! They just finished fighting an 8 year war with them in 1988).

Operation Enduring Freedom is not a war against Afghanistan, nor is it a war against any Army, Marine Corp, Navy, or Air Force in which to learn anything new. What is new, is the Global War on Terrorism. This is requiring special talents & skills (and weapons) and new procedures (doctrine, tactics, strategy) which will have to be learned.

In the 1990s the US Military lost it's traditional role of being strictly a military force. This was due to the collapse of the USSR and the end of the cold war. In order to save it's job, the military had to accept LAW ENFORCEMENT duties, consequently, the US Military is now part Policeman, part Soldier. Iraq and Afghanistan are law enforcement functions; finding terrorists, and either arresting them or terminating them.