Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz and Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Jonathan Greenert attempted to break down the AirSea Battle initiative during a joint discussion at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C., May 16. AirSea Battle is more of a mindset really intended to guide the Air Force and Navy to “unprecedented” levels of collaboration and cooperation that will preserve US access to air and maritime commons, they said. “We’re not thinking about things in the ‘airman’ and ‘sailor’ stovepipes anymore,” said Schwartz. Furthermore, attempts by many to connect the concept strictly to China’s growing military prowess are misguided at best, he added. “This solution should not be hijacked by any particular scenario,” said Schwartz. Greenert said limiting the concept to a particular region would be “short-sighted” and a “mistake.” “We would like to make this cross-domain operation more of an assumption for the future,” he said. One example of such collaboration, said Greenert, could include using a submarine to defeat an enemy’s air defenses, either kinetically or through electronic countermeasures. “The idea is to broaden the aperture and make that the standard approach,” said Greenert. (Schwartz’s prepared remarks) (Brookings webpage with event audio)
A provision in the fiscal 2025 defense policy bill will require the Defense Department to include the military occupational specialty of service members who die by suicide in its annual report on suicide deaths, though it remains to be seen how much data the department will actually disclose.