NATIONAL HARBOR, Md.—The Air Force stood up a provisional version of the new command to coordinate its ambitious modernization efforts, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David W. Allvin announced at AFA’s Air, Space & Cyber Conference.
Integrated Capabilities Command has begun to lead the Air Force’s work to build the future force in a “provisional status” as of Sept. 16, the service said. The command is expected to achieve full operational capability in 2025.
The ICC is one of the Air Force’s key re-optimization initiatives. The aim is to create a unified organization to lead the service’s force modernization and requirements instead of parceling them out among major commands—what Allvin termed a “diffuse Air Force.”
Air National Guard Maj. Gen. Mark Mitchum, who has been serving as a special assistant to Allvin, will serve as the provisional commander of ICC. Officials have said the commander of ICC will eventually be a three-star general.
Allvin touted the standup of the ICC as central to his effort to overcome stovepiping and create “One Air Force” that is aligned toward common goals.
The standup of ICC is one of the “major structural changes” to help realize that vision, Allvin said in a keynote address.
“We are going as fast as we dare to build the Air Force we need from the beginning so we remain competitive into the future,” Allvin told thousands of Airmen here—from junior enlisted service members to four-star generals.
ICC will have multiple goals. It will wargame operational concepts, develop alternative force structures, generate requirements to try to stay ahead of threats, and integrate needs to fulfill the service’s missions. It will also seek to provide the defense industry with a clearer understanding of what the service needs for science, technology, and experimentation.
“We will bring together experts from across multiple fields into one organization to drive rapid collaboration that results in a coherent demand signal to industry. This will be essential to driving capability development at the pace our security environment demands,” Mitchum said in a statement. “We’re standing up the provisional Integrated Capabilities Command now because we need the collaboration and integration across the Air Force right now.”
The provisional Integrated Capabilities Command will work alongside Air Force Materiel Command’s Integrated Development Office on future service requirements.
Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall also highlighted the ICC’s importance.
“Given the dynamic and challenging threat environment we face today, we know our current processes are not competitive enough,” Kendall said in a statement. “This organization is a key part of the competitive ecosystem we are creating to reoptimize for great power competition. With other DAF organizations, ICC will ensure the Air Force keeps pace with our pacing challenge, China, and acute threat, Russia.”
Allvin told reporters that ICC would number around 750-800 Airmen by the time it is fully operational. It will operate largely from current major command headquarters, such as Air Force Global Strike Command’s Barksdale Air Force Base, La., and Air Mobility Command’s Scott Air Force Base, Ill.
The current provisional command is “upwards of about 100 people total, but not taken from their locations or reassigned,” Allvin said. “They’re just all merging together, and that’s what’s standing up now.”
“We’re doing a ramp-up approach,” he added. “I would like to have it done—the full one—within calendar year 2025.”
The provisional version of ICC will “eventually activate operating locations or detachments co-located with current Air Force operational centers of excellence, bringing on warfighting and programming expertise found across the current functional portfolios,” the Air Force said in a release.
Allvin said the ICC will “continue to mature” over time. “Their first task to do is to be able to evaluate the way we’re modernizing our Air Force by core functions,” he said.
A permanent location for a fully operational ICC will be established in the future. Allvin has previously noted that this step will require close consultation with Congress, which could make this initiative “longest pole in the tent” of the major Air Force reforms. The ICC commander also has to be confirmed by the Senate.
“But we did not want to wait for all that to get started,” Allvin said. After the Air Force rolled out its re-optimization initiatives, Congress directed the Air Force to notify lawmakers of any organizational changes it planned to make at least 30 days in advance, which Allvin said the Air Force did last month with its plans for the provisional ICC.
“ICC will reach full operational capability once a three-star commander is nominated and confirmed, a unit manning document is approved, and the strategic basing process is completed,” the Air Force said. “At this point, the command will no longer be provisional and continue to be responsible for strategic resourcing, modernization, recapitalization and the Air Force Force Structure.”