Air Force Materiel Command has merged two headquarters directorates into the Directorate of Air, Space, and Cyberspace Operations in an effort to better conform its operations to the Air Force’s multi-domain strategic vision and to the strengthened focus on cyberspace. The new directorate’s mission is to provide world-class test and evaluation expertise along with integrated, multi-domain operations strategy, governance, and enabling capabilities command-wide for the delivery and support of agile war-winning capabilities, the command said. “For AFMC, this merger is about providing 21st century integrated lifecycle management support to the warfighter,” Brig. Gen. John Shapland, director of the new organization, said in a release. The merger, effective July 1, combines the former directorates of Air, Space, and Information Operations and of Communications. It has four divisions that include Test & Evaluation, Assurance, Current Operations, and Standardization/Evaluations. The merger is also aligned with the Air Force’s Future Operating Concept, Shapland said. “It focuses on enabling cyber effects within its new domain and across all the others.” Under the Future Operating Concept, released last September, space and cyber capabilities are critical components to the service’s “integrated multi-domain operations.”
Amid NATO’s continued push to ramp up air defenses in Eastern Europe, Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall swung by seven allied countries to boost relations last week, including those on Russia’s and Ukraine’s doorstep.