Interdependence, not Independence:

The Army, Navy, and Marine Corps objections to the Air Force becoming executive agent for unmanned aerial vehicles that fly higher than 3,500 feet are symptoms that those services still don’t get it about being “interdependent,” Lt. Gen. David Deptula, USAF’s deputy chief of staff for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance said Friday at a Washington seminar. He declared that the resistance shows that the other services are still clinging to the notion that each must be able to fight wars “by itself.” Such an approach is neither operationally desirable nor affordable, he asserted, reaffirming the message he’s been spreading that the Air Force and the other services must move to “the next level of jointness.” He said that interdependence doesn’t mean that every service gets “an equal share of the action,” but that the regional commander decides the best mix of forces for the missions at hand. If every service tries to be independent, “everything unravels” Deptula argued. “The last thing we need to do is turn the clock back on Goldwater-Nichols, by allowing services to develop redundant capabilities thereby rejecting the premise of joint warfighting.”