Category: Defence Intelligence

Source: United States Air Force

AURORA, Colo. (AFNS) —  

Department of the Air Force senior enlisted advisors addressed an audience of Airmen and Guardians in a wide-ranging discussion about ‘Airmen and Guardians in the Fight,’ the theme of their panel, on Feb. 14 at the Air and Space Forces Warfare Symposium in Aurora. 

Chief Master Sgt. of the Air Force JoAnne Bass and Chief Master Sgt. of the Space Force John Bentivegna spoke on a panel moderated by the 14th Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force Gerald Murray about the importance of properly empowering, training and equipping the enlisted force to prepare for Great Power Competition.  

Starting off the panel, the senior enlisted advisors took time to acknowledge and honor the legacy of Chief Master Sgt of the Air Force no.5, Robert Gaylor, who recently passed away. “What’s amazing about Chief Master of the Air Force no.5, Bob Gaylor, is his lessons are timeless and they will be forever remembered.” Bass said.

Moving on, Bass addressed the room of Guardians and Airmen by discussing the department’s focus on reoptimizing the force to prepare for Great Power Competition while also recognizing there are still questions as to how the department will go about doing it. 

“You’re going to see more change in the next four to six years than I’ve seen in my entire almost 31-year career. It is about time. Our Airmen are ready, they’ve been ready, they’ve been postured for it; the big question is ‘ready for what?’” 

Bass said that there are still questions to answer as the department optimizes including how the service will get there admitting, “the how is still being worked out.” But, while the department works out the details, she wants to empower Airmen to start making changes now. 

“Each of our Airman will be crucial to helping us get after the how we will do this – how we will reorient the force,” she said. 

“Don’t wait on us. There are things that all of us can do within our squadrons, within our flights, within our sections. All of us should be thinking about how we can reorient toward the threat … and make things better for us.” 

Along the same line, Bentivegna addressed proposed changes to the Space Force, including evolving training and skillsets to develop Guardians. To better understand the needs of the service, the Space Force recently completed a service-wide review defining the roles and responsibilities of enlisted, officer and civilian Guardians.

“With such a small, mission focused service … how do we maximize the number of functional areas with the number of officers and enlisted and civilians,” he said, speaking of the core findings in the recent review. “In addition to how we employ them, in that [review], it talks about how the enlisted force is the primary warfighters of the service. They’re the subject matter experts in their weapon system and they are responsible for the training and readiness of the unit of action.”

A key theme of the panel was the urgency of embracing change and seeking new pathways to transform the force at the lowest level.  

“The force of the future is empowered,” Bass said. “The force of the future are critical thinkers. Our future force will value what our components bring to the fight, will figure out ways to integrate by design everything they do.”  

Integrated by design is a central concept for modernizing the total force by designing, building and operating systems that mesh active duty, reserve, and Air Guard components to maximize their total effect and give commanders options when responding to any challenge.  

Both asserted that the path to change starts with reliable funding, urging congress to approve a budget on time.

“There are things we want to get after, but if you don’t have the money you can execute on your plan for, then we fall behind,” Bentivegna said. “We have to make the investment to train [Guardians] accordingly to be able to succeed.”

Concluding the panel, both leaders praised the contributions of Airmen and Guardians as they help reshape the force into the force of the future.  

“When it comes to the accomplishments that I’m probably most proud of, I would say it’s the accomplishments that our Airmen make every single day,” said Bass, who will be retiring in March. “Like I always tell my team, I wish I had a GoPro on because I want our senior leaders to see the excellence and the greatness and the innovations that I get to see … across the board.” 

Bentivegna shared her sentiment, indicating he sees enthusiastic Guardians every day who are eager to learn the skills needed to keep their competitive edge.

“We’re all getting after it,” Bentivegna said. “This journey that we’re on is going to empower the enlisted corps to really get after what they want to do, which is the mission.”

Source: United States Air Force

AURORA, Colo. (AFNS) —  

Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall sat down with retired Lt. Gen. Bruce “Orville” Wright, AFA president and chief executive officer, for a “Fireside Chat” to close out the AFA Warfare Symposium Feb. 14 on the same note that it started, with a look at how the services will operate in an era of Great Power Competition.

The Q&A-style discussion addressed key takeaways from the reoptimization announcement, how the Department of the Air Force will address resourcing issues and breaking through barriers to streamline change.

A recap of the discussion can be found below: 

Airmen and Guardians are still wrapping their brains around what exactly all this change means for them. What do you think are the changes our Airmen and Guardians will feel the most, and what changes will be most apparent?

There are a lot of things that will affect us down at the unit level. It won’t happen overnight, but I think it’s going to happen reasonably quickly. We are going to orient our operational units on being ready for the fight we might have to be in at any time, and the leaders in charge of commanding those organizations are going to be tasked with it. Start thinking now about what we need to do to be more ready and do it. The conflict can happen at any time, and we need to be as ready as we possibly can. We’re going to be making some changes to how units are set up and all the things that units need to deploy. We’re also going to look at our garrisons and make sure they’re set up like they need to be. You’re going to see opportunities open up for career paths like tech tracks and warrant officers for a small subset of the force. In general, you’re going to see your training orient more on things you need to be effective in a Great Power Competition. We’re going to minimize people having to move, and we’re going to minimize cost, but we’re going to move out pretty quickly. So, buckle your seatbelt, don’t sit still, and go ahead and move forward. We don’t have any time to waste.

China aims to be able to take Taiwan one way or the other by 2027. Is there possibly a risk that restructuring could cost us readiness in the near term?

I don’t think so. We can maintain our readiness while doing this transition. I don’t see any fundamental impact on the fighting force. There shouldn’t be. The goal is to as quickly as possible, get to a better posture.

General Saltzman is introducing Space Futures Command. How is that similar or different from Army Futures Command?

Let me contrast the three. The Air Force, the Space Force, and the Army. I’ve spent 50 years listening to arguments on whether requirements come before technology or vice versa. It’s an irrelevant conversation. Basically, the two have to work together as a team. I am a big fan of extreme teaming, and I’m also a big fan of having a balance between the different elements to try and get better solutions. The two have to work very closely together. I think the Army tipped too close to the operations side. The futures command of the Space Force is going to be an integrated organization that has that integrated perspective and will bring the operations and technology sides of the conversation together in one organization. On the Air Force side, we’re doing it a little differently. We’re going to have Integrated Capabilities Command that’s going to be operator-commanded. It will be a three-star. They’re going to be working to get to the best possible solutions for the entire department. There’s a healthy tension in this if it’s done right, you’ve got to bring the two together. Having an operational and a technological lead is something we’re going to try to institutionalize throughout the system.

Not surprisingly, the decision to bring back warrant officers in limited career fields has sparked a lot of interest. Could we get more on your vision as to what warrant officers will bring to the fight?

In the last few years, we’ve had 100 people leave the Air Force to go be warrant officers in another service, in cyber and IT, which is why we need warrant officers. Somebody else made the comment that the thing warrant officers can provide you with are people who are very technically proficient, and they stay current all the time; that’s all they’re going to do. They’re the trainers and the mentors in their units, both for other officers and the enlisted members. It gives us technical continuity, and you don’t get that unless you stay in that field. I think there’s a great opportunity there. We’re going to do it with cyber and IT first, the operational need there is the greatest. At some point, we’ll think about if there are other fields where it makes sense, but for now, our focus is on getting cyber and IT ready.

We’ve all experienced the frozen middle — the great and slow bureaucracy. How are you going to break through that barrier with so many changes all at once?

It’s hugely important. Life at the Pentagon tends to be a team sport, and one team, one fight applies to the Department of the Air Force all working with others who are stakeholders, the joint staff; you’ve got to keep their interests in mind, and you have to communicate with them effectively to be successful. I learned a long time ago that you don’t get anything done on your own by forcing things through. You get things done by informing people, bringing them along, explaining to them what you’re doing and why you’re doing it, and getting their buy-in and support. We were hugely successful with the operational imperatives work. Make the case for what you need and show all the work you need to do to be successful. Building teams, teamwork, and explaining what you need to do works. The people we’re dealing with want to do the right thing, you just need to persuade them that what you want to do is the right thing.

Integrated Capabilities Command has been needed for a long time. Can you talk a bit more about your thoughts on that?

I think it’s important for organizations to have clear missions. Our forces that are designed to be ready to fight now; their leadership needs to focus on that. We need our readiness commands to focus on readiness. We need a capability that works together to achieve the overall mission. By putting this together, we can have an organization that’s focused on that. We need to be aware of the fact that we’re in a long-term competition. We have to not only have ready forces today, but we need people building a pipeline to have those capabilities over time, and we need to make sure that those resources devoted to that are run efficiently.

As you’ve traveled around and met Airmen from AFCENT, PACAF and USAFE, what did you learn that you didn’t already know?

I think I increased my appreciation of the high quality of our force and the quality of the people, and particularly our enlisted people. Today’s force is dramatically different than the force of the past, and I would say it’s one of our greatest strengths.

Was there a base or a mission as you traveled around the world that informed you in the context of mission focus?

What I see is a lot of people who have their heads in the game and want to do better see the deficiencies that we have and are trying to do better. I see a lot of innovation going around. I don’t see it in a particular part of the force. I see it everywhere. I see it in nuclear forces, mobility forces, and our fighter forces. I see it wherever I go. We’re a high-quality organization, wherever we are and whatever we’re doing. I think we’ve got all the raw materials we need to make the changes we talked about to prepare ourselves. Frankly, it’s all about deterrence. We don’t want a war, and if we’re really ready and the Chinese understand that, we’re not going to have one.

For our industry and national security counterparts, are you starting to see a stovepipe in the space and air industry?

There’s been a lot of conversations about that. I got to meet with several companies during this conference. Both from our traditional defense suppliers as well as a lot of new entrants that have been with us less time, there’s enormous intellectual capital there. We want the industry working with us to help solve our problems. It goes back to extreme teaming. It has to be done with the recognition that industry does have an incentive to make money; that’s what corporations do, but that doesn’t mean they don’t care about what we’re trying to do. They have tremendous technological talent. We need to bring all that together to help us make the best decisions and solutions. 

Could you bring together what the merging of air and space capabilities will look like?

I think the operational imperatives are designed to identify that and flesh it out and move us toward that. I think we’re in a race; we’ve got to go as quickly as we can. The other guys are moving toward it, too, trying to adapt technology more quickly. All the things we announced are designed around the underlying ideas of competitiveness and urgency. One of the central features of what we’re trying to do is an increased reliance on space-based capabilities. The Air Force and the whole joint force is going to become more reliant on the Space Force. We’re going to have a mix of capabilities and try to confront our adversaries with more than one problem, but space is going to be increasingly critical and decisive in a peer conflict.

Source: United States Air Force

AURORA, Colo. (AFNS) —  

Gen. Mike Minihan, commander of Air Mobility Command, participated in the “Rising Intensity of Competition and Conflict” panel with commander of Air Combat Command, Gen. Mark D. Kelly, U.S. Air Forces in Europe-Air Forces Africa commander Gen. James B. Hecker, and Pacific Air Forces commander Gen. Kevin Schneider, Feb. 13, at the Air and Space Forces Association Warfare Symposium at the Gaylord Rockies Resort & Convention Center in Aurora.

During the panel, moderated by retired Gen. Herbert Carlisle, former ACC commander, Minihan centered on advancements the command is pursuing in 2024 to account for rising global tensions and strategic competition. He emphasized the need for near-term investment in connectivity to improve the survivability, agility, resiliency, and lethality of AMC warfighting capabilities.

“I want to get 25 percent of my fleet connected by 2025. Connectivity and joining the DAF Battle Network allows us to maneuver the exquisite joint, coalition capabilities into the position of advantage so that they can be successful. This is not about the MAF’s survival, it is about everyone’s survival and ability to win.” Gen. Mike Minihan, commander of Air Mobility Command

Minihan’s approach also includes his 10-line initiatives – broken down to four bins of data, decision advantage, development and discipline – aimed at creating irreversible momentum toward addressing gaps in solidifying command relationships, improving command and control, and honing AMC’s ability to explode into theater.

“I’ve got six months left in command and in my career, and I intend to close those gaps by the time I’m on that change of command stage,” Minihan said.

Over the course of 2023, AMC flexed to respond to contingency operations on a large scale. Across the year, the command flew over 23 thousand global missions, transporting more than 283,000 tons of cargo and more than 705,000 passengers. The end of the year saw the sharpest increase in tempo as the Department of Defense surged support to the central and European commands areas of responsibility while maintaining its global obligations. These events once again demonstrated AMC’s role as the joint force maneuver.

“It is not lost on AMC that we are the most relied upon force in the history of warfare,” Minihan said. “The reality is everybody else’s success – the Air Force, the joint force, the multiple combatant commands – is dependent on us being able to put them in position to be successful, and we take this charge very seriously.”

Even with the success the command saw throughout 2023, Minihan recognizes there is more work to be done, including ensuring the MAF is ready for strategic competition, deterrence, and potential conflict in the Pacific. One of the major areas of improvement is optimizing human performance for aircrew conducting maximum endurance operations. To address this problem set, AMC hosted a Human Performance Industry Day in December aimed ensuring the MAF is ready for maximum endurance operations in the Pacific.

Exercises also aligned joint and allied partners to ensure the command is ready. AMC played vital roles in exercises Bamboo Eagle 24-1 and Red Flag in January while testing new capabilities that supported Minihan’s 10-line initiatives. Examples of these capabilities include palletized effects, connectivity advancements, and maneuver battle management.

“MBM is not the fun part of battle management. It is all the things that need to happen so that we have the privilege of executing a kill chain,” Minihan said. “Do we have the gas in the right place? Do we have the munitions in the right place? Do we have everything required so that we can maneuver our capabilities to a position of advantage so that they can be lethal. Amateurs study tactics, professionals study logistics … victors study maneuver.”

“BE 24-1 gave us a realistic, challenging scenario to get after maneuver and what we need most to be successful is connectivity,” he continued.

Each commander expressed concern for global tensions rising and the need to ensure forces are postured to respond. AMC is aggressively addressing shortfalls, and filling gaps that will allow the joint force to operate at the tempo and relevance to win if called upon.

“I don’t lose sleep because of our amazing Airmen, who fill the gap between what they have versus what they need, and they do so with courage, tenacity, professionalism, passion,” Minihan said. “It doesn’t matter whether they fly, fix, or support. [Their] value to the mission is not proportional to [their] proximity to the cockpit. It takes all of us to get the mission done.”

Source: United States Air Force

AURORA, Colo. (AFNS) —  

To best optimize itself for great power competition, the Air Force plans to, among other things, bring back warrant officers within the cyber and information technology professions, said Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David W. Allvin during a presentation Feb. 12 at the Air Force Association’s 2024 Warfare Symposium.

That change was among two dozen announced by senior Air Force officials. Each change is specifically designed to prepare the service for strategic power challenges from competitors like China and Russia.

“Both China and Russia are actively developing and fielding more advanced capabilities designed to defeat U.S. power projection,” said Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall. “The need for modernization against capable, well-resourced strategic adversaries never stops. But modernization isn’t the only thing we need to do to be competitive. Today we are announcing 24 key decisions we have made to improve both the readiness of the current force and our ability to stay competitive over time, to continuously generate enduring competitiveness.”

Those changes, Kendall said, focus on people, readiness, power projection and capability development and are implemented within the Department of the Air Force, the Air Force and the Space Force.

Spotlight: Science and Tech
Within the Air Force, Allvin explained, the service is looking to better attract and develop cutting-edge talent, specifically within information technology and cyber fields. The service plans to expand technical tracks for officers and create technical tracks for enlisted, and to also reintroduce the rank of warrant officer within the information technology and cyber fields as a way to maintain technical leadership with those skills.

“We know there are people who want to serve. They just want to code for their country. They would like to be network attack people and do that business,” Allvin said. “But everybody needs to see themselves into the future beyond just this assignment or the next. So, developing that warrant officer track for this narrow career field, we anticipate will drive that talent in and help us to keep that talent. There’s something specific about this career field, why it’s attractive and it’s a nice match for a warrant officer program. The pace of change of the cyber world, the coding world, the software world — it is so rapidly advancing, we need those airmen to be on the cutting edge and stay on the cutting edge.”

The Air Force had warrant officers when it was created in 1947, after being split off from the U.S. Army. But the service stopped appointing warrant officers in the late 1950s.

Allvin also discussed changes in the way the Air Force will conduct exercises. The plan is for the service to implement large-scale exercises and mission-focused training which encompasses multiple operations plans to demonstrate and rehearse for complex, large-scale military operations, he said.

“We’re going to reorient ourselves to more large-scale exercises rather than a smaller scale that have been a product of the last two to three decades,” Allvin said. “Large-scale means multiple weapons systems, multiple capabilities, coming together in a combat-simulated environment and showing our ability to execute the mission that’s going to be expected of us in the high-end conflict.”

Exercises in recent years, he said, have already been getting bigger. But those enhancements have been driven at the local level, not from the top down. That will change.

“Our Air Force needs to institutionalize this,” he said. “And we’re going to do that.”

He said the Air Force is looking at fiscal year 2025 for its first large-scale, multi-combatant command exercise targeted at Indo-Pacom.

Chief of Space Operations Gen. Chance Saltzman said a change underway within the Space Force is to enhance readiness by implementing standards that reflect operations under contested conditions rather than those of a benign environment.

“The legacy force that we had, our roots … were built around efficiency, built around a benign environment,” he said. “So, the standards for readiness that we kind of held our forces to was different. It wasn’t built for the domains that we’re facing, a contested domain.”

Now, Saltzman said, the Space Force must rewrite its standards for readiness centered around a contested domain, rather than an uncontested domain.

Spotlight: DoD Space Strategy
That, he said, means in part having the right mix of officers, enlisted personnel and civilians in Space Force units. It also means training must be aimed at more than just procedural competency.

“As soon as you put a red force in the mix, as soon as you put a threat in the mix, it radically changes your training,” he said. “You have to have advanced training, you have to have tactics training, you have to understand how you work together, in-comms, out of comms, with other units, in order to continue to achieve the kinds of effects in a contested domain when an adversary, a capable adversary, is doing everything they can to stop you from being successful.”

Space Force, he said, will build a training infrastructure and a test infrastructure to validate its tactics so operators will know more than just how to operate equipment — but will be successful against an adversary.

Kristyn Jones, who is currently performing the duties of the undersecretary of the Air Force, also pointed to changes at Department of the Air Force level. There, she said, among those changes, the department expects to create an Air Force Integrated Capabilities Office to lead capability development and resource prioritization. The office is expected to drive Department of the Air Force modernization investments.

“We’ll be looking at capabilities across our services, not in stovepipes,” she said. “We’re enabling end-to-end creation of effects. This organization will help us to prioritize our investments and will be responsible for working with us to determine the next iteration of operational imperatives.”

Source: United States Air Force

AURORA, Colo. (AFNS) —  

Gen. James B. Hecker, commander of U.S. Air Forces in Europe-Air Forces Africa and NATO Allied Air Command, provided updates on USAFE-AFAFRICA’s priorities during multiple engagements at the Air and Space Forces Association Warfare Symposium, Feb. 13.

During a media roundtable, Hecker spoke with reporters to emphasize the unwavering commitment USAFE-AFAFRICA shares with allies and partners.

“We’re stronger than ever. We have 31 [NATO] nations, soon to be 32 we hope not in the too distant future,” Hecker said. “Everything that we do within NATO, as well as USAFE-AFAFRICA, is to deter our competitors [from engaging in acts of aggression].”

Hecker also articulated the command’s five operational focus areas, aimed at ensuring USAFE-AFAFRICA forces are able to achieve air superiority, on demand, alongside allies and partners. The five focus areas include: countering an adversary’s anti-access area-denial capabilities, integrated air and missile defense, intelligence and information sharing, command and control, and agile combat employment.

“I came up with five priorities about six months after I took command, and those haven’t changed. I think all countries realize you can’t go about this on your own. We’re much better working with partners and allies. This doesn’t matter if it’s over in the European theater or in Africa.” Gen. James Hecker, Commander of U.S. Air Forces in Europe-Air Forces Africa and NATO Allied Air Command

The integration of missile defense systems amongst NATO members remains a top priority for the U.S. Air Force and USAFE-AFAFRICA. An integrated missile defense system enhances collective defense measures while reinforcing the NATO Alliance’s commitment to leveraging top-tier military capabilities for regional security and deterrence.

“My second operational focus area is the need for a very sophisticated integrated air and missile defense system,” Hecker stated. “Integrated air and missile defense is something that we are always interested in.”

During the roundtable, Hecker also addressed questions on lessons he has seen from the war in Ukraine. In his response, he highlighted various innovative tactical methods employed by the Ukrainian Military such as the use of low-cost, acoustic detection systems and how the Ukrainian military has been innovative in developing and employing unmanned aerial systems.

In addition to the media roundtable, Hecker participated in a panel on the rising intensity of competition and conflict alongside Gen. Mark Kelly, commander of Air Combat Command, Gen. Mike Minihan, commander of Air Mobility Command and Gen. Kevin Schneider, commander of Pacific Air Forces.

In his panel comments, Hecker continued to emphasize the strategic importance of a robust NATO Alliance, ready to fight and win when called upon to do so.

“We need to move with a sense of urgency so we can deter threats,” Hecker said. “If that fails, we need to be ready to defeat aggression. That’s my message not only to the NATO Air Chiefs, but any partner as well.”