In 1984, when the Army formally agreed to take on the responsibility of providing ground-based air defenses for air bases, Air Force officials made clear their concerns about the capabilities of near-peer adversaries and the need to fill gaps in then-current measures to protect installations . That commitment expired in the 1990s, before resurfacing again in 2023 when Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall announced his “Operational Imperatives,” which includes resilient basing as one of his top priorities to achieve Agile...
