The classified AirSea Battle plan is intended to be a permanent strategic relationship between air and naval forces that must outlive its creators, said Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz. Speaking at the National Defense University in Washington, D.C., Schwartz said AirSea Battle will help the United States be able “to transit key areas of the global commons and access regions wherever our national interests may lie.” Accordingly, he said the plan “must be inculcated” into the US military’s joint culture. Schwartz, plan creator, along with Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Gary Roughead and Marine Corps Commandant Gen. James Amos, discussed AirSea Battle’s three dimensions: institutional, conceptual, and material. Institutionally, Schwartz said, the idea is “to normalize collaborative behavior and processes” through changes to the services’ cultures and organizational structures. Conceptually, the plan outlines how air and sea forces will integrate and interoperate their assets. And finally, materially, it looks at future joint systems and capabilities. “[T]his initiating concept will drive how we define future development and how we eventually derive subordinate concepts for maneuver of integrated air and naval assets,” he said during the Dec. 15 address. (Speech full text)
The Air Force and Boeing agreed to a nearly $2.4 billion contract for a new lot of KC-46 aerial tankers on Nov. 21. The deal, announced by the Pentagon, is for 15 new aircraft in Lot 11 at a cost of $2.389 billion—some $159 million per tail.