사무엘 파파로 인도태평양사령부 사령관, 공수 및 공중급유능력 부족 지적

[위종민]

사무엘 파파로 인도태평양사령부 사령관이 4월 10일 미 상원 군사위원회 청문회에서 공수 및 공중급유능력이 요구량의 60%에 불과하며, 이를 민간 계약으로 보충하고 있지만 민간 급유기들은 전투상황에서는 동원하지 못할 수도 있다고 증언했습니다. 

인도태평양 사령관, "공중수송 및 급유 능력 부족… 군 전용 자산 확충 시급"

미국 인도태평양사령부(INDOPACOM) 사령관인 사무엘 J. 파파로 해군 대장은 2025년 4월 10일 상원 군사위원회 청문회에서 현재 미군의 공중수송 및 공중급유 능력이 작전 요구 수준에 미치지 못한다고 지적했습니다. 그는 "전투 물류력(Combat Logistics Force)은 전체 요구량의 약 60% 수준에 불과하다"며, 민간 계약으로 일부를 보완하고 있으나 실제 전투 상황에서는 군 전용 자산이 필요하다고 강조했습니다.​Air & Space Forces Magazine

파파로 대장은 공중급유기의 부족을 언급하며, "모든 작전 능력을 위해 수백만 파운드의 항공유가 필요하지만, 현재 급유기 전력은 부족하다"고 밝혔습니다. 또한, 2023년 말 인도태평양 지역에서 미 전투기가 민간 급유기를 통해 급유를 받은 사례를 언급하며, 이러한 민간 자산의 활용이 제한적일 수 있음을 시사했습니다.​

그는 공중수송 능력의 한계를 예로 들며, "패트리어트 방공 대대 하나를 중동으로 이동시키는 데 C-17 수송기 73대의 비행이 필요했다"고 설명했습니다. 이는 대규모 작전 시 현재의 수송 능력이 부족하다는 것을 의미합니다.​

파파로 대장은 이러한 문제를 해결하기 위해 급유기 전력의 다양화와 무인 수송 수단의 도입을 제안했습니다. 그는 "기계가 할 수 있는 일을 인간에게 맡기지 말라"는 원칙을 언급하며, 무인 수송 수단이 소규모 기동 부대에 신속하게 보급을 제공할 수 있다고 강조했습니다.​

마지막으로, 그는 인공지능(AI) 기반의 지휘통제 도구를 활용하여 물류 지원과 물자 사전 배치를 효율적으로 관리하고 있다고 밝혔습니다. 그러나 그는 "AI로 물자 부족을 해결할 수는 없다"며, 물리적 자산의 확보가 여전히 중요하다고 강조했습니다.

Paparo: Airlift and Tanker Fleets ‘Below What We Need’ in Pacific

Navy Adm. Samuel J. Paparo Jr., nominated to lead U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, testifies during his confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Feb. 1, 2024. Screenshot

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Paparo: Airlift and Tanker Fleets ‘Below What We Need’ in Pacific

April 14, 2025 | By John A. Tirpak

The Air Force and Navy’s logistics capabilities—including airlift and aerial tanking—are insufficient for the needs of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, its commander told lawmakers last week, and the requirement needs to be addressed by more than just commercial stopgaps. He also endorsed the idea of small, uncrewed sustainment craft, as they could permit support to smaller and more dispersed units.

“We have … significant gaps in sealift,” Adm. Samuel J. Paparo told the Senate Armed Services Committee in an April 10 hearing, adding that the Combat Logistics Force—which includes both sealift and airlift—“in total is about 60 percent of the actual requirement.”

INDOPACOM makes up for that in part by hiring commercial tankers and “contracting other capabilities,” he said, but “when the unforgiving hour comes” and battle is engaged, only military ships and aircraft will be able to go forward into combat zones, he noted.

Moreover, “as I utter these words, 17 of those Combat Logistics Force ships are laid up for lack of manpower,” Paparo noted.

In addition, Paparo said, “we have to have many millions of pounds of jet fuel in the air for every capability. And so our tanker fleet is below what we need. We account for that with some contract air services as well.” U.S. fighter jets refueled off a commercial tanker in late 2023 over the Indo-Pacific, and Air Mobility Command has said it is working on an analysis into expanding the concept.

Still, Paparo noted the same issue: should conflict arise, the U.S. military will need its own aircraft to send into war zones.

To highlight the massive burden on airlift, Paparo said that moving a single Patriot air defense battalion from INDOPACOM to the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility “took 73 C-17 loads” to accomplish.

“That’s [just] one battalion of a force element,” he emphasized. “So our lift requirements must be paid attention to.”

On social media, former AMC commander Gen. Mike Minihan echoed Paparo’s point: “If [73] tails are required for a limited move like that, we are woefully unprepared for what large-scale operations against a peer adversary will demand,” he wrote.

To get after these shortages, Paparo said that “diversifying the tanker fleet is key,” as are “alternatives of lift capability that we can order into harm’s way.”

Asked by Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) if he sees a role for uncrewed commercial airlift “in a contested logistics environment,” Paparo said it would open the door to new tactics.

“One of the precepts of unmanned is, never send a human being to do something that a machine can do,” Paparo said. “So … inherently, we’re moving in that direction, and I’d welcome the ability to execute that lift.”

He also said such a capability would “give me the ability to diversify the places” that sustainment can go directly, “bringing smaller payloads into simultaneously smaller maneuvering units, and would enhance our ability to sustain by the speed it would confer.”

Paparo also said the command is doing everything it can to smartly manage the logistics support, materiel, and pre-positioning of items it has.

“Over the top of all of this, we’re incorporating artificial intelligence tools with command and control tools, so that it’s not an on-demand system, but so that we are executing that absolutely indispensable joint function as effectively as we possibly can,” Paparo said.

“We are an AI-enabled headquarters, and that’s important too, but you can’t AI your way out of a materiel shortage.”