How Did Airmen Like William Tell? ‘If It Doesn’t Come Back, There’s Going to Be a Mutiny’

How Did Airmen Like William Tell? ‘If It Doesn’t Come Back, There’s Going to Be a Mutiny’

Sept. 29, 2023 | By Greg Hadley

When F-35s, F-22s, and F-15s took to the skies over Savannah, Ga., earlier this month, it marked the first time in 19 years the Air Force had hosted its most prestigious air-to-air competition, William Tell. 

It probably won’t take anywhere near so long for it to happen again. 

“We’re already talking about running William Tell again in 2025,” said Brig. Gen. D. Micah “Zeus” Fesler, William Tell Air Expeditionary Wing commander, adding that discussions within Air Combat Command and Headquarters Air Force were underway even before the 2023 competition was over.

Indeed, that was an objective for William Tell ’23, said the competition’s director, Maj. Garrett “Dodge” Getschow in an Air & Space Forces Magazine interview. “One of the feedback comments from one of the surveys was, ‘If William Tell ’25 doesn’t come back, there’s going to be a mutiny.’” 

Hundreds of Airmen participated in the meet at the Air Dominance Center, which also included weapons loading and intelligence competitions, and Getschow and Fesler both said the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive—not only an encouraging sign for William Tell, but an indication of the power of competition. 

“We want to make it a regular event, and I think you will also see, there used to be a competition called Gunsmoke that was an air-to-ground competition,” Fesler added. “So I think you may see those continue out over time. And you may see William Tell continue into the future.” 

The idea to stage William Tell again, nearly two decades after the last edition in 2004, began roughly a year and a half ago, Getschow said. Leaders at the top of Air Combat Command saw it as a way to “invigorate that motivation through competition”—competition that had largely taken a back seat during the Global War on Terror as the Air Force faced no peer adversary. 

Actually pulling off the event required months of planning, much of it led by young officers and NCOs, said Fesler. The Air Force regularly stages exercises like “Red Flag” that challenge pilots to fly against simulated enemies. But Fesler said there’s a clear difference between the two. 

“In our exercises, we have a tendency to train towards our adversary, to focus on the training portion of it, which is absolutely critical,” he said. “We want to make sure the youngest Airmen, the youngest wingmen, the youngest warriors we have are ready to go to war. We want to make sure our command and control pieces are all ready to go when we really focus on bringing all those pieces together and training.  

The difference between an exercise and a competition is in what is being watched and measured. “Although there are similarities … the real difference that you see is that there’s a scoreboard, and there is a scoreboard that everybody saw every night, Fesler continued. “They knew how they performed, and they could see how they were doing relative to one another’s peers. When you’re in an exercise, you really are focused on the one sortie you just flew, the one mission you just executed, and debriefing.” 

In addition to the weapons load and intelligence competitions, the flying portion of the meet consisted of four segments: 

  • One-on-one basic fighter maneuvers, or “dogfighting” 
  • Air combat maneuvers. “We had four bandits that were surrounding two ‘blue air’ jets, and they would take turns attacking that blue air from all sorts of different directions,” said Fesler. “So imagine yourself at the center of a wolfpack, with adversary airplanes attacking you, and effectively they have to survive through that scenario.” 
  • A gunnery contest. Participants shot their aircraft guns at a banner towed by a Learjet; judges could then examine the banners to determine accuracy—Fesler said teams got to take their banners home with them. 
  • Fighter integration. “Four F-22s plus four F-35s plus four F-15s against 20 adversaries,” said Fesler. “And those 20 adversaries would regenerate one time, so a total of 40 adversaries. And they had to defend a piece of airspace for a 40-minute period of time. And so over that entire period, you had that team of four plus four plus four that was working together with their air battle managers, as well as their intelligence team, to put together the best game plan and then go out and execute that game plan. And that was probably the pinnacle event of all of them.” 

Pilots didn’t have to worry about standard administrative tasks like coordinating refueling or setting frequencies, added Fesler. They were simply expected to show up each day, form a plan, and fly. 

Trophies were handed out to the best teams and individual pilots and crew chiefs for each fighter type, as well as the top performing teams in fighter integration, maintenance, weapons load, intelligence, and command and control.  

A U.S. Air Force weapons loader assigned to the 104th Fighter Wing, Massachusetts Air National Guard, celebrates his performance after winning the F-15C Eagle aircraft weapons loading competition during the William Tell competition Sept. 13, 2023 hosted by the Air Dominance Center located at Savannah Air National Guard Base, Georgia. U.S. Air National Guard photo by Senior Airman Christa Ross

“When you think about NFL football, like that level of competition, people want to win,” Getschow said. “Especially Airmen have this intrinsic drive to win. So now when you can actually codify that and put it on paper and create an awesome environment outside of that competition, I think that is where it struck everybody, not just from the competitors themselves, but the maintainers that are getting the jets ready, or the logistics guys that are bringing hundreds of trucks to make this happen, knowing, ‘If any of us fail, this might mean our wing fails.’” 

Beyon the competition, organizers also wanted to use the revival as a chance to celebrate the Air Force and engage with the public. 

More than 100 distinguished visitors observed the meet, said Getschow, and participating Airmen could attend keynote and panel discussions with notable Air Force figures like former Chief of Staff Gen. T. Michael Moseley; retired Col. Cesar Rodriguez, who scored three air-to-air kills in his career; and retired Lt. Col. James Harvey III, a Tuskegee Airman who was part of the winning team at the first-ever gunnery meet. 

Moving forward, Getschow said he’d like to see the meet expand in 2025, with every competing wing bringing their own maintenance team and possibly an air-to-air missile shoot. At the same time, Fesler said he wants to make sure Airmen don’t become too focused on friendly competition at the expense of the mission. 

Still, given how palpable and relatable competition can be, Getschow said he sees an opportunity for William Tell 2025 to capture the imagination of the public. 

“I think if the country hears that we’re sending the best of the best to fight the sport of kings and see Airmen that are the tip of the spear go out and try to win, and that story can be told with the same hype and drama and suspense, I think that will inspire the American public to have a little bit more belief in the military,” he said. 

An Airman Is Chairman: Brown Succeeds Milley, Sworn in as Joint Chiefs Chair

An Airman Is Chairman: Brown Succeeds Milley, Sworn in as Joint Chiefs Chair

Sept. 29, 2023 | By Chris Gordon

JOINT BASE MYER-HENDERSON HALL, Va.—Gen. Mark A. Milley handed over his responsibilities as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. on a gray Sept. 29 morning here, marking a milestone in a turbulent era of U.S. defense policy. Brown is the first Airman to serve as the nation’s top military officer since 2005.

The outspoken Milley and the measured Brown are a study in contrasts. A burly Army general, Milley served as the top military adviser to two presidents and found himself at heart of an array of foreign crises.

In a farewell address at Fort Myer, Milley ticked off some of the challenges he faced during his four years as Chairman, including the successful campaign that collapsed the Islamic State group’s caliphate, an abrupt end to a war in Afghanistan the general has called a “strategic failure,” and the ongoing push to help Ukraine claw back territory from invading Russian troops.

Milley did not explicitly mention former President Donald Trump, who picked Milley to be Chairman only to turn against him in the aftermath of 2020 presidential election. But the differences between the former President and retiring Chairman seemingly formed the backdrop for the major theme of Milley’s speech: the importance of elevating respect for the Constitution over political loyalties.

“Today is not about anyone up here on the stage. It is about something much larger than all of us. It is about our democracy. It is about our republic,” Milley said. “We don’t take an oath to an individual. We take an oath to the Constitution. And we take an oath to the idea that is America, and we’re willing to die to protect it.”

Milley administered that oath to Brown, who will officially take over the role of Chairman at midnight Sept. 30 when Milley’s term expires.

“CQ knows how to lead a global fighting force,” Milley said.

Service members participate in a retirement ceremony for Gen. Mark A. Milley and the assumption of Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff by Air Force Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall, on Sept. 29, 2023. Photo by Chris Gordon/Air & Space Forces Magazine

Brown brings a wealth of experience to his position with years of serve in the Pacific, Europe, and the Middle East, along with a deep appreciation for the importance of airpower.

“When I became Chief of Staff of the Air Force three years ago, I expressed the need to ‘Accelerate Change,’” Brown said, referencing his oft-repeated mantra of ‘Accelerate Change or Lose.’ “My conviction has not wavered. The journey of change must continue to strengthen our national security.”

Brown will be taking on his post as Ukraine’s counteroffensive is moving slowly, China is building up its military might, and the future of nuclear arms control is in doubt. Among his challenges are political differences in the Congress that run so deep that the government is on the cusp of a shutdown that could leave much of the Pentagon’s workforce unpaid and interfere with defense programs.

“As leaders, we must never lose sight of the direct impacts of the decisions we make and the impact they have on the lives and families around the world,” President Joe Biden said in remarks at the ceremony.

With Brown’s ascension to Chairman, the role of Chief of Staff of the Air Force will be filled on an acting basis by Vice Chief of Staff Gen. David W. Allvin. Allvin has been nominated to take over as CSAF on a permanent basis and is awaiting confirmation.

Service members participate in a retirement ceremony for Gen. Mark A. Milley and the assumption of Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff by Air Force Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall, on Sept. 29, 2023. Photo by Chris Gordon/Air & Space Forces Magazine
Watch, Read: CSAF Brown on ‘The State of the Air Force’

Watch, Read: CSAF Brown on ‘The State of the Air Force’

Sept. 29, 2023

In his last major speech before ascending to the role of Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown delivered a keynote address on “The State of the Air Force,” at AFA’s Air, Space & Cyber Conference on Sept. 11, 2023. Watch the video or read the transcript below.

Well, good afternoon. I’ve had the opportunity to provide keynote remarks at AFA several times over the past few years, and in those remarks I told you that we can’t predict the future, but we can shape it. That I don’t believe in impossible, that we’ve done this before, we could do it again, and that air power is the answer.

Now throughout my tenure as your chief of staff, I’ve been focused on accelerating change. In 2018, Simon Sinek released a book “The Infinite Game,” about building an infinite mindset in an infinite game. The players are known and unknown. The rules are not agreed upon and are changeable, and the objective is to sustain the game as long as possible. We are in an infinite game. We have a complex strategic environment with five known challenges outlined in our security strategies and there are other players and factors that will come and go not all playing by the same rules.

Our objective is to continue to change, to remain relevant. In this dynamic environment, change is a journey and the journey must continue to ensure we remain the most respected air force in the world. First, I want to thank Orville for the kind introduction, and I notice he said, praise the Lord. I’m asking for a few prayers too.

I also want to congratulate the Mitchell Institute on its 10th anniversary. I want to thank them for all they do to advocate for our Air Force, for Airmen, for our Space Force, our Guardians, and for our combat capability. I want to thank our department of the Air Force leaders, Secretary Kendall, Under Secretary Jones, our CSO, Salty Saltzman, Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force Jo Bass and Chief Master Sergeant of the Space Force, Toby Towberman. Thanks for your leadership. I especially want to say thanks to Chief Master Sergeant of the Space Force Towberman. This is his last AFA, as a Chief Master Sergeant of the Space Force

Toby, you’ve done an incredible job setting the foundation for all of our Guardians today, and for generations that come. I’ve been proud to work with you, the Air & Space Forces Association, thanks for providing this venue of professional development for Air Force and Space Force and to all our Airmen, Guardians, families, industry community partners, attending today, welcome. I want to reflect on the journey of the last three years, on our accomplishments and how we’re accelerating change.

You know, I wrote “Accelerate Change Or Lose” because I saw the evolving strategic environment and I knew we needed to change because if we don’t change, if we fail to adapt, we risk losing. We risk losing the certainty with which we have defended our national interest. For decades, we risk losing our credibility with our joint teammates and our allies and partners.

We risk losing quality Airmen and most importantly, we are just losing our ability to secure our future. In our profession, the words of General Omar Bradley will always ring true. In war, there is no second prize for the runner up and I agree because personally and professionally I do not play for second place.

Change is a journey and that journey started with placing greater focus on future conflict. What is required of us by our nation, by changing our mission statement: to fly, fight and win air power any time anywhere. One of our biggest changes came from the release of new doctrine. We took the old doctrine, slashed it down to 16 pages. We included mission command as a key tenant, but a culture of mission command doesn’t just happen because it’s in our doctrine. Airmen and leaders must practice mission command daily using simple scenarios, to invoke confidence ahead of complex challenges we will find in combat.

When I wrote “Accelerate, Change or Lose,” one of the key words was collaboration. We must collaborate more than just within the Air Force when it’s collaborated across the joint force. Inter-agency with the industry, with our allies and partners. We must be integrated by design starting at the beginning with the end in mind from the initial concept, from the initial plan to delivery of capability to execution of combined operations integrated by design. The action orders focus us on what must change. I’d already drafted the action orders when I came in to chair as the chief and it was one of our Maj. Com. Commanders who laid it out A-B-C-D, so it’d be easy for all of us to remember Airmen, bureaucracy, competition and design implementation. Action Order Airmen is how we recruit, train, and retain our Airmen. It’s how we develop Airmen with the attributes needed to compete, deter and win in a high end fight.

We have the best Airmen in the world and we must continually focus on creating an environment where all Airmen can reach their full potential. We’ve been working on helping Airmen in their career progression. We’ve established Airman leadership qualities to set expectations. We continue maturing developmental categories. We published the enlisted force development action plan. We change the list of promotions to better value experience. We continue to evolve our command and leadership selection processes and we’ve executed a series of reviews of Airmens’ quality of service and quality of life, addressing factors that contribute to their wellbeing and those that detract from their success. We’ve moved forward on performance report improvements and static close out dates across the force. You know, before we had bullets that many could not understand, we had 60,000 made-up acronyms by removing all the vowels.

It was like Wheel of Fortune. If a family member or future employer read your performance reports, they would have no clue what you’ve done with your career. Now with NATO performance statements written in plain English, everyone can appreciate the great value each of our Airmen provide to our nation. Finally, we provided greater cross-training opportunities even for first turn Airmen. I was at Al Dahfra back in January with the CMSAF and I was finishing dinner with some CGOs and after a group photo, the photographer asked to speak with me and I mentally prepared for this Airman to present me an issue that he was challenged with. Instead, staff Sergeant Sabatino DeMasio shared his story. He was a maintainer but he was highly skilled for photography and video and he wanted a cross-training in the PA and he had been told it couldn’t happen. He had quoted something I had said about Cross-training to make his case.

He just wanted me to know that because of my statement, he was cross-training into combat camera after his deployment. Matter of fact, Staff Sergeant DeMasio checked into his new squadron as a combat camera Airman just last week.

Change is a journey and the journey must continue. Action or bureaucracy is focused on changing our decision processes to make analytically informed and timely decisions so we can outpace our key competitors decision cycles. Our decision processes must enhance, not impede our effectiveness. It’s how we must break down silos across the Air Force. For example, our Vice Chief General Dave Allvin who had a confirmation hearing today to be CSAF 23. I heard it went fairly well.

The Vice Chief led a Tiger team designed to move fast and take action and the team did just that. We brought back the enlisted college loan repayment program. The team found a way to recruit roughly 1,300 more Airmen a year just by changing our tattoo policy. With no change in our qualification standards, we’re introducing the staff to the staff using Microsoft Teams to fly communication. Secretary Kendall is working hard toward an acquisition quickstart initiative, a multi-year procurement to seize opportunities when we see them and give a clearer demand signal to industry. We’ve been innovating and responding to Airman’s operational needs, empowering Airmen to innovate and find solutions to our Air Force problems. From the MAJCOM all the way down to the squadron level, we found that good ideas have no rank. We even have Airmen innovating out of thin air, one making water, another making fuel. Project Arcwater, the 2022 Spark Tank winner Senior Master Sergeant Brent Kenney, uses solar fabric and batteries with a generator back up to pull water out the air.

Project Fierce. In 2022 Blue Horizons Project by Lieutenant Colonels Nikki Pearl and Corey Stottinger produces fuel from carbon molecules in the air, fuel that can be made anywhere at the point of need. Innovative solutions to bureaucratic problems, all thanks to Airmen.

You know, I found in the bureaucratic processes it’s hard to say “yes,” it’s easy to say “no.” If there’s something you believe in, then you need to get past what I call the five stages of no. Hell no; no; we’ll think about it; not a bad idea; we should be doing it already. Change is a journey and the journey must continue.

Action order competition isn’t just about orders of battle operations, activities and investments; it’s how we accelerate our understanding of our adversaries, how they make decisions, through an emphasis on competitive thinking and comparative analysis, so we can better deter and be prepared for conflict. Now based on my experience at the Seoul ADEX in 2019 where I had a bilateral engagement with the PLA Air Force Northern Theater Commander, I learned it’s not only what is said, but it’s the underlying meaning of what is said. Because of that experience, we’ve worked hard to increase visibility of the Chinese Aerospace Studies Institute at Maxwell. We pushed for more intel briefs and open source information to our Airmen, all so we could better understand our pacing challenge the People’s Republic of China.

We’ve become more agile to counter their threat, practicing ACE across the globe, doing so with our allies and partners. Refining, improving, creating a more agile and lethal force. We are executing more challenging exercises and mobility command just recently concluded Mobility Guardian 23, the most realistic yet. 3,500 Airmen with 70 aircraft showcasing agile combat employment that we can respond anytime, anywhere. Change is a journey and the journey must continue.

Action order of design implementation is how we adapt, how we need to make difficult force structure decisions, how we need to develop an affordable and analytically defensible force structure. How we accelerate the transition from the force we have to the force required. We continue to implement AFFORGEN with the next major step—air task forces. We publish and continue to update our future force narratives and we conducted deep dives to inform decisions on our future force.

We codified our core functions and published the Air Force future operating concepts in the six fights. Secretary Kendall that guided the department through the operation imperatives and our budget submissions. And as he articulated yesterday, he’s leading a broad review to re-optimize for great power competition. Part of the operation imperatives is the B-21 family of systems. A perfect example of successful design implementation, of operators and acquisition professionals working together to deliver capability to the war fighter.

Just as importantly, developing the maintenance processes to ensure aircraft availability. Air Force Global Strike Command has an Airman working to do that right now, Airmen like Staff Sergeant Ashley Ross, ensuring the capability we need is supportable and maintainable, day one. Change is a journey and the journey must continue.

For that journey to continue, we need you and those who support you. It’s your serving today and those who will serve tomorrow. It’s your loved ones and your families. We can’t thank our families enough. Let me express my personal thanks to all of our family members across our entire air force, your sacrifices, your support, are how we do what we do. I want to thank my family, my wife of 34 years Sharene, our sons Sean and Ross. They never raised their right hand to take an oath, but like many family members, they have sacrificed more than we probably realize. I want to thank my inspiration to join the Air Force, my parents. My dad, who told me as a high school student, ‘four years in the military won’t hurt you,’ and my mom who supported the idea. Mom and dad, you were right.

We are all inspired by someone to serve our nation, to join our Air Force or join our Space Force. We need to think about the Airmen of tomorrow and the Guardians of Tomorrow. We all have a responsibility to inspire the next generation. I believe that people only aspire to be what they see. Be seen, share your stories, be that inspiration.

In closing, within the infinite game, Simon Sinek uses a term “existential flexibility” to create an extreme disruption in strategy to advance. Said another way, over a hundred years ago by General Giulio Douhet, an Italian air power theorist, “victory smiles upon those who anticipate the change in the character of war, not upon those who wait to adapt themselves after the changes occur.” Today with the convergence of security challenges impacting current and future geo-strategic environments, change must continue. We changed before and we can do it again. We know air power is the answer and that we are the most capable, most respected air force in the world.

In my first AFA address as the chief, I said, “We can’t predict the future, but we can shape it.”

Change is a journey and the journey must continue to shape our future, to give the joint force, our allies and partners in America, the capabilities required to protect our security interests, to deter a future conflict, to be ready to win when the nation’s calls, and to execute our mission: fly, fight, and win. Airpower anytime, anywhere. Thank you.

Ukrainian F-16 Pilots Arrive in the US for Initial Training

Ukrainian F-16 Pilots Arrive in the US for Initial Training

Sept. 28, 2023 | By Chris Gordon

Ukrainian pilots have arrived in the U.S. to train to fly F-16s. In the past few days, several pilots arrived at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas, to begin English language training, a U.S. official told Air & Space Forces Magazine.

Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh confirmed the move during a media briefing on Sept. 28.

“Training has started for several pilots,” Singh said. “The English language training will vary depending on proficiency and skill.”

The U.S. official said several pilots have arrived in the past week at Lackland and maintainers would be arriving in the U.S. soon.

Gen. James B. Hecker, commander of U.S. Air Forces in Europe, said in an interview earlier this month that “we think it’s going to be somewhere up to about 10 pilots … and then more maintainers.”

Pentagon Press Secretary Air Force Brig. Gen. Patrick S. Ryder has said “dozens” of maintainers will be coming to the U.S. for training.

Singh said she could not provide further details on when pilots would begin transitioning to pilot training with the 162nd Wing at Morris Air National Guard Base, Ariz. The timeline may be affected by the impending government shutdown.

“Civilian personnel that are involved in the training of Ukrainian pilots, such as English language training is what we’re talking about right now, absolutely there could be impacts to training,” she said. “We’re still reviewing some of these details.”

When the decision was first announced to train some Ukrainian personnel on F-16 in the U.S., the Pentagon said English language training would begin in September and pilot training would start in October. But that was before a government shutdown looked likely.

“A shutdown is literally the worst-case scenario for this department,” Singh said. “We really don’t want to have to go through making painful decisions like this.”

Singh and other Biden administration officials have warned of a government shutdown, which appears highly likely as the House struggles to move forward with any bill to fund the government. The Senate has passed a short-term bill to keep the government open until mid-November, allowing the military to operate normally and to pay troops.

But the government is barreling towards a lapse in funding when the clock strikes midnight on Sept. 30. There appears to be little chance of Democrats and Republicans reconciling their differences and putting a bill on President Joe Biden’s desk before the end of the fiscal year at the end of the month. Government civilian employees are preparing for guidance on whether they will be furloughed. Military officials are preparing to pare down some activities and have their troops go without pay.

Certain military activities are “excepted” and Active-Duty Airmen will still report to work. However, most DOD civilian personnel will not report to work. Training of Ukrainian pilots will at least be subject to some of the far-reaching disruption expected across the Department of Defense, Singh said, as bases will not operate with all of their usual staff.

Additionally, training for the Ukrainian pilots is scheduled to occur with the Air National Guard, which is treated more like the civilian workforce during a shutdown than Active-Duty units, according to DOD guidance. The 162nd Wing is the nation’s primary F-16 schoolhouse for foreign F-16 pilots. Singh said it was too early to say what the impacts to that unit might be if the shutdown continued well into October or beyond when Ukrainian pilots were initially scheduled to arrive in Arizona.

“It’s definitely going have an impact to training whatever that might be,” Singh said. “Whether it’s actual personnel in the room or if this continues to go longer … training could be delayed for other aspects of pilot training.”

Minihan: These ‘Magic’ Airmen Need More SOF-Like Capabilities

Minihan: These ‘Magic’ Airmen Need More SOF-Like Capabilities

Sept. 28, 2023 | By David Roza

As Air Mobility Command boss Gen. Mike Minihan assessed a recent major exercise in the Pacific, one clear lesson came through: the importance of the Global Air Mobility Support System (GAMSS), the network of Airmen who run airfields and move cargo for transport, refueling, and aeromedical evacuation operations down range.

“The Global Air Mobility Support System is the secret and the magic that will ultimately define our tempo,” Minihan told Air & Space Forces Magazine. “Quite frankly, what is aspirational to others, they do on a daily basis.”

But the general wants to take GAMSS “to the next level” by boosting their ability to operate without the support and security they are used to, by fine-tuning the command and control elements overseeing GAMSS, and by pushing them to act in small, independent teams.

What Is GAMSS

The GAMSS is made up of two elements: air mobility operations and contingency response. The 521st Air Mobility Operations Wing headquartered at Ramstein Air Base, Germany, and the 515th AMOW stationed at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii, serve as regional hubs for mobility aircraft passing through on the way to operations further afield.

In contrast, contingency response (CR) groups act like bite-sized air bases, with enough maintainers, aerial porters, security forces, communication specialists, and other career fields to open up a small airfield for mobility business.

“If it’s somewhere new, then likely CR goes in first and that can be backfilled or augmented by AMOW forces,” one anonymous Air Force officer with experience in GAMSS told Air & Space Forces Magazine.

Airmen from the 621st Contingency Response Squadron set up tents during Exercise Jersey Devil on Jan. 11, 2023, at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, N.J. U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Anastasia Tompkins

The officer acknowledged that in a conflict, AMOW units would likely be swamped at their fixed hubs moving troops and supplies to the operating location. Even so, AMOW Airmen practice picking up and moving elsewhere in line with Agile Combat Employment, the concept in which Airmen disperse from sprawling air bases and predictable routes that can be easily targeted by adversaries.

SOF-like

In preparing for ACE, Minihan wants his contingency response and air mobility operations teams to be more flexible and more prepared for combat than they are now.

“The way I’m describing it is I want the CR to be more SOF [special operations forces] and I want the AMOWs to be more CR,” Minihan said.

The general pointed to forward area refueling points as one example of a capability normally reserved for Air Force Special Operations Command that he wants CR to hone. Another is being able to carry out mission orders in small, independent groups. Minihan made an analogy to landing a C-130 while wearing night vision goggles, a qualification which many pilots pursued after Sept. 11, 2001.

“That used to be reserved for only special [qualifications] within a squadron or if you were in AFSOC,” he said. “Let’s not wait for the event to open up the capabilities that the entire force needs to have. Let’s take advantage of the time we have now.”

U.S. Air Force Airmen assigned to the 821st Contingency Response Group and Japan Air Support Command members integrate to accomplish contingency response tasks together at Yakumo Sub Base, Japan, July 11, 2023, during Exercise Mobility Guardian 2023. (Courtesy photo)

The anonymous officer with GAMSS experience said the direction to become more SOF-like was encouraging, as it could help contingency response prepare for adversaries “that can reach out and touch us.”

“We don’t want to make CR SOF, we want to make them more SOF-like where they are resourced appropriately, they are getting the training for these very high-threat environments that they need to survive and operate,” he said. “To be SOF-like means that they are able to shoot, move, and communicate more effectively on their own without a lot of oversight or overhead.”

Still, CR troops are not typically trigger-pullers, so the officer cautioned that if they are sent into high-threat environments, they would likely appreciate better situational awareness through tools such as small uncrewed aerial systems, which could also help move cargo or people between islands if needed.

Those investments may help the joint force, as CR forces operating out of isolated airfields in the Pacific could also help generate unmanned aerial vehicle sorties, Army troops positioning long-range fires, or other movements.

Command and Control

Coordinating operations over a vast area like the Pacific proved difficult during Mobility Guardian 2023, the massive exercise this summer where Minihan noticed shortcomings in unity of effort that sometimes led to aircraft being placed at greater risk than necessary. An Air Force Times article also found CR workload ramping up due to communication and coordination problems.

Minihan hopes to address that concern in part by connecting his troops with beyond line-of-sight communications, but another part of the picture is the mobility task force (MTF).

In an operation, a MTF acts like a forward-deployed air operations center that commands and controls the other components of the mobility mission, including GAMSS. During the 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan, a group of CR Airmen known as Task Force 74 oversaw mobility operations across dispersed locations despite limited communications. In a similar way, an MTF performed well during Mobility Guardian 2023, Minihan said, but it could use some polish.

“We’ve got a bit of fine-tuning to do,” he said. “Like with everything you do that is new, most of it is just ensuring the entire force knows what their role is so that you eliminate as much confusion out there as possible.”

DAF to Review Thousands of Discharges For Airmen With Mental Health Conditions or Trauma

DAF to Review Thousands of Discharges For Airmen With Mental Health Conditions or Trauma

Sept. 28, 2023 | By Unshin Lee Harpley

The Department of the Air Force announced Sept. 28 it will review the general or other-than-honorable discharges of thousands of Airmen affected by post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), traumatic brain injury (TBI), mental health conditions, sexual assault, or sexual harassment.

The decision follows a nationwide class action lawsuit, filed by Air Force veterans Martin Johnson and Jane Doe in September 2021. In the lawsuit, Johnson and Doe argued that since the start of the Global War on Terror, the Air Force has granted less than honorable discharges to many service members due to misconduct related to conditions such as PTSD, TBI, sexual trauma, and other behavioral health issues. The plaintiffs also alleged that veterans with these conditions were consistently denied upgrades by the Air Force Discharge Review Board.

In response, the Air Force agreed to settle the lawsuit, but denies the allegations made in it. The settlement was signed by both parties and filed with the court on April 24, an Air Force spokesperson told Air & Space Forces Magazine, and the court preliminarily approved the settlement Sept. 26.

Under the terms of the settlement, which is pending its final approval in a hearing on Dec. 4, the AFDRB will conduct a thorough review of applications submitted between Sept. 13, 2015, and the date when the settlement becomes effective. This review specifically targets cases where the AFDRB had previously denied upgrade requests for veterans who cited mental health conditions or traumatic experiences as the reasons for their discharges under general or other than honorable (OTH) conditions.

Additionally, the settlement expands eligibility for veterans seeking discharge upgrades. Those who were discharged and submitted applications to the AFDRB between Sept. 13, 2006, and Sept. 12, 2015 but received unfavorable decisions will now have the opportunity to reapply.

However, the discharge upgrades are not guaranteed, and each application will be assessed on a case-by-case basis.

Johnson, who suffers from PTSD himself, expressed satisfaction with the Air Force’s commitment to addressing the mental health and trauma-related concerns of veterans.

“I am pleased that the Air Force is taking steps through this settlement to make the AFDRB more accessible to veterans like me who love and have served this country,” Johnson said in a statement. “I am glad the Air Force is committed to taking less-than-honorably discharged veterans’ mental health and trauma seriously.”

Alex Wagner, assistant secretary of the Air Force for manpower and reserve affairs, said the settlement and commitment to reviewing cases “underscore our continued commitment to provide former Airmen and Guardians fairness, due process, equity, and justice in all cases that are submitted to our review boards.”

In addition to reviewing past cases, the settlement introduces procedural reforms and new decision-making protocols for veterans seeking discharge upgrades in the future. These reforms aim to ensure a fair and supportive process for veterans dealing with mental health conditions, traumatic brain injuries, or evidence of sexual trauma.

Notable changes include the establishment of a one-year pilot program allowing veterans to supplement their records, documenting medical opinions, providing a phone number for inquiries, and conducting training on mental health issues and unconscious bias. The settlement also mandates the AFDRB to offer a universal video teleconference option for veterans who wish to have a personal appearance but cannot travel to Washington, D.C.

At the approval hearing in December, Judge Charles S. Haight Jr. will take any objections into account when deciding whether to grant final approval. An official at the Yale Veterans Legal Services Clinic told Air & Space Forces Magazine that if the settlement is not approved after the fairness hearing, depending on the reasons given by the Court for rejecting the settlement, the parties will resume the litigation or explore a revised settlement.

Watch, Read: Secretary Kendall on ‘Accelerating Readiness for Great Power Competition’

Watch, Read: Secretary Kendall on ‘Accelerating Readiness for Great Power Competition’

Sept. 28, 2023

Department of the Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall delivered a keynote address titled “Accelerating Readiness for Great Power Competition,” detailing his plans for a ”re-optimization” review of the Air Force to prepare for competition with the likes of China at AFA’s Air, Space & Cyber Conference on Sept. 11, 2023. Watch the video or read the transcript below.

Frank Kendall

Good morning.

China, China, China. I knew you’d be disappointed if I didn’t say that. If nothing else, I’m consistent. It’s great to be here. I’ve been using these AFA events to mark my time in office. First, it means I’ve survived another year. It’s also a time to think about what we’ve accomplished and what we need to prioritize as we move forward. I’ll be talking about both today. Let me begin by thanking the AFA, especially Bernie Skoch, Orville Wright, Doug Raaberg, and the countless individuals who helped make this year’s Air and Space Force Symposium happen. We wouldn’t be here without your hard work enthusiasm and support, so thank you.

It’s also the 10th year since AFA’s Mitchell Institute was established. Congratulations to David Deptula and the Mitchell team for their decade of support to the Air Force and Space Force. We’re proud to have you all on our one team. I’d like to thank AFA for their flexibility with the schedule so I could be with Secretary Austin, and General Milley and the families of the fallen at the Pentagon 9/11 Memorial this morning. Honoring those we lost on Sept. 11, 22 years ago today. The threat of attack from violent extremist organizations still exists, and we will never forget those we lost on that tragic day.

Fifty years ago, 591 Americans returned home after imprisonment in North Vietnam. They endured years of hardship and torture to return as honored heroes. We’re honored today to have some of those brave Americans with us here. Can you please recognize Colonel Michael Brazelton, Colonel Robert Certain, Colonel Lee Ellis, Colonel Tom Kirk, and Lieutenant Colonel Tom Hanton.

We are all grateful for your service and devotion to our nation. I’d also like to thank those currently serving the hundreds of thousands of active Reserve Guard and civilians, Airmen and Guardians who support the department of the Air Force and who serve their country honorably every day. Every time I visit an installation across the world, I’m amazed by the work that you do and the efforts you are taking to keep our nation strong and safe. I especially want to thank the military families who assume a huge burden while the service members support our nation.

Thank you. Without your love and sacrifice, our nation could not be protected. We are responding to your needs, this year we have provided more resources to recruit and retain childcare providers. We have and will continue to increase spouse employment opportunities and we are partnering with local governments to ensure that all service members and their families can live and thrive in supportive communities. Thank you also to our industry partners, traditional and non-traditional who provide the products, services, innovation and ingenuity that we count on to do our jobs. Thank you also to the many nonprofit groups who support our men and women in uniform. A special thanks to our civic leaders who take care of our military families living in their communities across the nation. Thank you to our international partners and allies, many represented here today. Thank you for our shared values and our goals as we confront threats around the world together.

Finally to our partners in Congress, members and staff. Thank you for the many ways that you support the Air Force and Space Force and the entire Department of Defense. We have great relationships with our four oversight committees on both sides of the political aisle. I’d be remiss today, however, if I didn’t acknowledge some recent concerns with regard to the Congress. With us today, our number of general officers who have been waiting for up to six months for Senate confirmation of their promotions and for the opportunity to take over the commands and roles that they are slated for. With us also are many general officers who have delayed retirement or have been asked to fill a position of leadership on an acting or temporary basis. With us are a great many Airmen and Guardians who are in a unit or organization that doesn’t have confirmed permanent leadership. Let’s give all these people around of applause to thank them for helping us cope with this unprecedented situation.

This is a situation that one senator has created for us. My message today for that one senator, causing all this corruption and uncertainty, is that all these men and women and their units and their families are having their readiness in their lives negatively impacted by your unprecedented actions. They’re all doing their duty and making whatever sacrifice we ask of them, including the ones associated with your holds. They all took an oath to defend the constitution and they are fulfilling that oath today. US Senators take a very similar oath on behalf of all the men and women serving their country honorably today who cannot speak for themselves, I’m asking you to lift the blanket hold you have on over 300 general officers awaiting Senate approval of their well-earned promotions.

As we approach the end of the fiscal year in a few weeks, I do have some requests of the Congress. First as I just discussed, do not hold up the promotions of all of our general officers because of opposition to a policy that they did not create and cannot change. We need these people in the leadership positions they are being assigned to. Second, do not hold all of our reprogramming requests because of a disagreement with a basing decision. We need the ability to reallocate that money to where it can meet our national security needs. Third, do not shut down the government in three weeks. Many of us have been through shutdowns, they are extremely damaging to our readiness, retention and morale.

Fourth, do not put us under a continuing resolution for the first quarter of the fiscal year. Now, the ship may have sailed on this request, but CRs of any length are hugely inefficient and delay much needed modernization. Fifth, do not extend any CR beyond December. We can manage a short CR as we have many times. Beyond that, much more serious damage will be done to American security. Finally, and most of all, do not trigger either temporary or permanent sequestration-like cuts to our military. The cuts under a long CR and the reductions required by the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023 if a budget is not passed will lead to severe reductions in modernization and readiness. We endured this kind of irrational cut 10 years ago and are still recovering. We never want to endure that, something like that again.

Under a long CR or mandatory cuts we also could not initiate or increase all the modernization efforts identified as needed to meet our operational imperatives and to be competitive with China. We have already lost far too much time waiting for the Congress to act on our modernization funding needs, under the normal process. As we look out into the next week and months, we urge you to give us the authorization, appropriations and confirmations that is your duty to provide for our military. Our men and women in uniform and the people who also support them are doing their jobs. Congress, please do yours. One team, one fight.

OK. Speaking of teams, I’ve had the privilege to work with a fantastic team the last year. I brought on the honorable Kristyn Jones to perform the duties of the undersecretary of the Air Force. General Salty Saltzman was confirmed as the new Chief of Space Operations. We’re going to miss General CQ Brown, who will hopefully confirmed soon. But soon I hope that General Dave Alvin, who has his confirmation hearing tomorrow, will be confirmed as the new Chief of Staff of the Air Force and that General Jim Slife will also be confirmed and replaced General Allvin as the Vice Chief of Staff of the Air Force. Each morning before most senior leaders start our day with a 30 or 45 minute tag up to think, plan, strategize, and collaborate. Our team has made great progress in furthering our goals for the department. I’m going to talk about that progress and discuss what we’re doing next.

Before I begin, there are two departing leaders I’d like to especially recognize. The first is Chief Master Sergeant of the Space Force, Roger Towberman. CMSSF, you are going to be a legendary as a… I’ll do it again: You are going to be legen, wait for it, dary as a major component of the foundation of the Space Force, as the first senior enlisted leader of the Space Force, you have personally and directly created a culture of excellence, leadership, and innovation. You have secured your legacy in building today’s Guardians and all of those that will follow. Thank you, we wish you and Rachel all the best.

There was also one other person on the DAF Senior leadership team and we expect will be speaking here with us for the last time, at least as the Chief of Staff of the Air Force. CQ, where are you? For the last two years, we’ve met almost every morning and often throughout our day, several times collaborating, helping the Air Force grow through this challenging time. Your contributions to the Air Force and the Department of the Air Force will long outlive your time as Chief of Staff, as you accelerate the change that our team needs.

I’m proud to call you a friend and colleague. While I’m sad to lose you from the DAF team, I could not be more excited that if you’re confirmed, you are going to two floors down to become the Senior Military Advisor to the President and the Secretary Austin. Our nation and our military need your strategic leadership guidance and wisdom to help us through the challenging times. I look forward to continuing to work with you and Secretary Austin as we deter our pacing challenge and shape the military into the force it needs to be to prevail against any threat. I’m going to miss you, as we all are, but I’m glad you won’t be far away and you will be serving your country in an Air Force uniform. Thank you for your service.

Sharene, I want to thank you also for all your many contributions to the Air Force. We’ve become good friends also, and if CQ’s new position doesn’t give you enough to do, I know that you can always thrive with the DAF. Thank you for your support to our Airmen and their families. A few weeks ago I spoke at the Air Force Sergeant’s Association. Was impressed by the perceptive questions about the threat that I was asked by the audience. You understand the nature of the challenge we face, the necessity that we change to meet it China, China, China. China’s by far our pacing challenge. The acute threat from Russia, potential rogue states, Iran and North Korea and violent extremist groups are all on our list of challenges. These are threats that the Air Force and Space Force will continue to deter and engage daily across the globe.

Airmen and Guardians are working with allies and partners to help Ukraine defeat Russian aggression, deterring Iranian or North Korean aggression and combating violent extremist organizations throughout the Middle East and around the globe. But China is the pacing challenge, but as the President articulated just this weekend, we want China to succeed but to succeed by working within the rules that benefit all nations, including China. As the President indicated, there is no desire to contain or decouple from China, but there is a strong desire to live in a world free of aggression, which all nations can prosper in peace. After the first Gulf War, China recognized that it needed to redesign and modernize its military if it hoped to compete with the United States, and to achieve its goals in the Western Pacific, particularly with the integration of Taiwan to communist China. China dramatically shrank the size of its ground force so it could acquire a force more relevant to deterring or if necessary defeating the United States and its allies’ ability to protect power in the Western Pacific.

China created two new military services, the Rocket Force and the Strategic Support Force and it substantially increased the capabilities of both the People’s Liberation Army Air Force and the PLA Navy. The Rocket Force is intended to attack America’s high value assets, aircraft carriers, forward airfields and key C2 and logistics nodes. The strategic support forces are designed to achieve information dominance in the space and cyber domains including by attacking our space-based capabilities. China has been re-optimizing its forces for great power competition and to prevail against the US and the Western Pacific for over 20 years, we must do the same. China has been building a military capability specifically designed to achieve their national goals and to do so even if opposed by the United States. I want to ask you to conduct a little thought experiment. Humans aren’t great at assessing risk, but let me give you two examples.

Imagine it’s 1940 and you’re considering the risk that Japan will launch an attack on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. Now compare that risk to the risk you see today of an attack on Taiwan by China sometime over the next several years. Do one more thought experiment. Imagine it’s January 2021 and you’re assessing the risk of Russian invading Ukraine. Compare that to the risk you see of an attack on Taiwan by China over the next several years. War is not inevitable and our job first and foremost is to deter aggression. History, including some recent history, tells us that deterrence can and sometimes does fail. If our power projection capability and capacity are not adequate to deter Chinese aggression against Taiwan or elsewhere, war could occur. If it does and we cannot prevail, the results could cast a long shadow. I’m going to get a little wonky on you now.

My staff warned me against this, but I’m a history buff, so I’m going to ask you to indulge me a little bit. I want to share a historical analogy with you. History does not repeat itself and I don’t think it even rhymes, but it can teach us. In 1905, two years after the Wright brothers’ first flight and half a world away, a European great power went to war with a rising Asian power.

The war was the Russia-Japanese war of 1905. That war culminated in a decisive battle in the western Pacific waters between Japan and Korea and the straits of Tsushima. Russia had sent its grand imperial fleet on a voyage of 15,000 miles to defend its outposts at Port Arthur in what is now China, from a Japanese attack. Russia was one of the leading powers in Europe and less than a century before had defeated Napoleon. Japan was an upstart Asian country that had been opened to western trade and technology by American commodore Matthew Perry, in a way Admiral Aquilino’s predecessor, just 50 years before. The battle of Tsushima straits did not go well for Russia. The entire Russian fleet was completely destroyed and the Japanese Navy lost three minor combatants.

Now obviously Imperial Russia and Japan in 1905 are not the United States and China today. Russia’s inability to project power in the Western Pacific then has little to do with our situation today. But let’s talk about the consequences of the battle to Tsushima Strait. A major power, Russia lost its influence in Asia, a major power, again Russia, saw its military credibility evaporate. An arms race in this case between Britain and Germany was amplified. In Europe, another major power Germany seeing how weak Russia was, felt comfortable about entering a two front war nine years later in 1914, World War I. The Russian naval mutinies that followed the battle helped pave the way for the Russian Revolution In 1917 and the creation of the Soviet Union. In Asia, a rising power, Japan gained the confidence to defy European powers and the US, Japan and next Korea in 1910, ceased Manchuria in 1931, invaded China in 1937 and attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941.

The point of all this is that operational tactical defeats, especially when they involve rising and existing great powers, can have major strategic consequences. I will leave it to you to speculate about the consequences of an American power projection failure in the Western Pacific today. Our job is to make sure that doesn’t happen by deterrence if at all possible, but by our readiness and our military capability and by force if necessary. That is why the Air Force and Space Force exist. Two years ago, recognizing that we were in a race for military technological superiority, we moved to accelerate the pace of modernization in the Department of the Air Force. We initiated the effort to meet seven imperatives that describe the operational problems we needed to solve. We finished the first round of analysis of those problems more than a year ago. Where we could, we started work immediately.

We allocated approximately 5 billion to new modernization programs in 2024 alone and about 30 billion from ’24 through ’28. We’ve continued this work and expanded it as we’ve learned more and as the threat has become more severe. We’ve established the so-called cross-cutting operational enablers in the areas of munitions, mobility, training and testing, Counter-C4ISR and electronic warfare. For those of you who may be wondering when we’ll get back to normal, this is normal. We have a well-resourced strategic pacing challenge that is showing no sign of slowing down or quitting. We are in a race for technological and operational superiority that we can expect to last for the next several decades. Even though China is currently experiencing serious economic problems, which the President noted yesterday, this does not reduce the risk of aggression. There is no evidence at this point to indicate that their goals, China’s goals, or their methods to attain them are going to change.

Today we are waiting for Congress to act on the FY24 budget we submitted in March of this year, which was for the funds we had identified that we needed nearly a year before in the spring of 2022. Waiting does not make us more competitive or enhanced deterrence, but despite my impatience, I feel that we have made a good start on the modernization front and that our way forward is now well-defined. The other members of the DAF senior leadership team and I are not as comfortable with other aspects of our enterprise. Our consensus is that during the past 30 years, the Department of the Air Force has gradually optimized many aspects of how it organizes, trains and equips the Air Force and Space Force for the deployments and fights we have been in and for the operations that we are we’ll routinely conducting today in peacetime.

The sequestration era reinforced this direction and forced an emphasis on efficiency over effectiveness. The Air Force and Space Force are incredibly capable, but we need to re-optimize the department for greater power projection and for great power competition. The war we need to be most ready for if we want to optimize our readiness to deter or respond to the pacing challenge is not the type of conflict we have been focused on for many years. Our need to re-optimize is widespread. Some early manifestations of this fact that I observed were the absence of existing organizations that could address the operational imperative problem set, the lack of integrating organization for command control, communications and battle management, the lack of centers of technical excellence focused on sustaining superiority in the various cross-cutting operational enablers were further evidence of the need for change. But the need to re-optimize the DAF extends beyond how organizations are structured to ensure technological superiority.

As I have visited units and bases and been exposed to our current approach to functions such as manning, training, deploying and sustaining the Air Force and Space Force, it’s become clear that change is needed in almost all areas. As I have asked questions about the deployability of our war fighting and combat support organizations and about how their readiness to deploy and fight are being evaluated. As I learned how we had optimized to support current deployments, especially to the Middle East, it’s become increasingly clear that more change is needed and that we need to accelerate that process. We need to examine all aspects of how the Department of the Air Force is structured and operates and be open to major changes that reflect the requirements of the National Defense Strategy to deter, and if necessary prevail against China or Russia. We must ensure that the Air Force and Space Force are optimized to provide integrated deterrence, support campaigning and ensure enduring advantage.

Fortunately, many needed changes are already underway. Major initiatives in the Air Force and Space Force such as AFFORGEN in the Air Force and the evolving allocations of responsibility across Space Force field commands are all moves in the right direction. On Friday, I approved the Air Force creation of three new air task forces to serve as pilots in order to experiment with ways to more efficiently provide deployable integrated units, two for CENTCOM and one for the INDOPACOM. These are not the final permanent deployable units we expect to form, but they are a major step in the right direction and we will learn from this experience. Training in both services has always evolved towards greater focus on our pacing challenge. Concepts like multi capable Airmen and agile combat employment are aligned with meeting the pacing challenge, but they have not been fully implemented. We also have two current legislative proposals before Congress that will help optimize the Air and Space Forces.

The first is the Acquisition Quick Start Initiative to buy down risk by ensuring, initiating our highest priority and most urgent programs immediately, without having to wait for even a regular budget cycle to say nothing of a CR imposed delay. We already waited for well over year, as I said, to start work on our modernization issues. By giving the department the flexibility to quick start its most urgent programs early, this initiative will prevent us from losing ground unnecessarily to the military technological race with China. The second is the Space Force Personnel Management Act, which will give us the flexibility our nation’s newest service needs to recruit and promote and manage the talent we need for great power competition. It will also expand promotion opportunities. We want to thank the House and Senate for their support of these proposals and look forward to working with the Congress for final approval.

Nevertheless, there is much more that we need to accomplish. Over the next few months the Department of the Air Force Senior Leadership team will lead a broad review of all aspects of how the DAF performs its basic missions to organize, train, and equip the units and capabilities that we provide to the combatant commands and to the joint force. This effort was initiated with kickoff meetings in the Secretariat Air and Space Force staffs just last Thursday and Friday. The goal is to identify and begin execution by January 2024 of a range of changes that will re-optimize the Department of the Air Force for great power competition. At that time, the major effort will shift from identification and analysis of alternatives, to execution of recommendations. There is no time to lose. This effort will be conducted by five teams formed from the Department of the Air Force headquarters of the secretariat, the air staff, and the Space Force staff, with participation from the field.

These teams will conduct major lines of effort focused on the following aspects of the department’s core functions. One line of effort will focus on how we are organized, both in the headquarters and in the field. A second will focus on how we equip the force. A third line of effort will focus on personnel, how we recruit, train, and retain our people, including how we optimize career paths and manage talent. The fourth line of effort will address readiness, how we create, sustain, and evaluate readiness across the Air and Space Forces. A fifth line of effort will examine how we provide support to the operational Air and Space Forces to include providing installations, mobilizing, demobilizing, providing operational medicine and so on. All these efforts will be closely guided by the departments senior leaders. It’ll be an inclusive process open to and encouraging of innovative thinking.

Just as we have challenging and innovating potential adversaries, we must be open to new ways of organizing and doing business ourselves. My goal is by the time we meet at the next AFA, the changes we need to re-optimize for great power competition, and possibly for conflict, will be well underway. Last week we briefed some of our outside advisors on this effort, one of them was born in China and is a leading expert on Chinese culture, history and government. Her reaction was interesting, her view is that the five lines of effort that I just described, organizing, equipping personnel, readiness and support are essentially identical to the lines of effort Xi Jinping has been implementing since 2016 to prepare China for war with the United States. I’ll let that sink in for a second. Over the last few years, you have heard various pithy statements from your senior leaders, accelerate change or lose, integrated by design, competitive endurance. What got us here won’t get us there. One team, one fight. Change is hard. Losing is unacceptable.

You’ve heard these various mantras from leaders in the department and you might think it’s difficult to make out what they all mean and how they all relate. They all mean the same thing. We’re all talking about the fact that the Air and Space Forces must change or we could fail to prevent, and might even lose a war. Not the kinds of war we’ve fought or been fighting for the last 30 years, but a war between modern great powers with enormous costs and consequences for the US and its partners and for the world. We cannot let that happen. I recently sent a letter marking my two years in office to all of our Airmen and Guardians. I mean, let me be clear about my intent with that letter.

If we are going to deter, we must be ready for war. We must be ready for a kind of war we have no modern experience with. My aid has been reading a book called “The Aviators,” it’s about Rickenbacker, Doolittle, and Lindbergh. In the 1930s they were all invited to Germany to see the Luftwaffe being created. They all came back and tried to warn the nation that Germany was preparing for war, the nation didn’t listen. Today the intelligence couldn’t be clearer. Whatever its actual intentions may be, I could not say, but China is preparing for a war and specifically for a war with the United States. Again, war is not inevitable and no one can predict when or if it will occur. Our job is to deter that war and to be ready to win if it occurs. Being prepared for war means ensuring that our competitive advantages are continuously and consciously strengthened and maintained.

We all have that task individually and in our organizations today, tomorrow and for the foreseeable future. That is what my letter was trying to say. There is no greater or more important moment to serve our nation than this one, when the threat is the most challenging and the most consequential. It is your initiative, professionalism, and dedication that gives us our enduring competitive advantage. The PLA Air Force and the PLA Strategic Support Force are attempting to replicate the training and attributes embodied by our Airmen and Guardians. They will fail, they will fail because they cannot copy or duplicate the initiative, the professionalism and the dedication that I see in you every single day. I’m proud to be your Secretary and I will continue to fight for all of you to ensure you have the resources you need and to assure that you and our nation are ready for any conflict that may come. Semper Supra, air power anytime, anywhere, one team, one fight. Thank you.

SPACECOM Nears FOC, But Fight Over Its Homebase Rages On

SPACECOM Nears FOC, But Fight Over Its Homebase Rages On

Sept. 28, 2023 | By Greg Hadley

U.S. Space Command will reach full operational capability before the end of 2023, its commander Gen. James H. Dickinson told members of Congress on Sept. 28, even as the fiery debate over where to base the combatant command shows no signs of letting up. 

President Joe Biden announced in July his intent to keep SPACECOM’s permanent headquarters in Colorado Springs, Colo., reversing a previous decision by then-President Donald Trump to move the command to Redstone Arsenal, Ala. 

But just as Trump’s decision outraged Colorado lawmakers and prompted multiple investigations into the Air Force-led basing decision, Biden’s choice has infuriated Alabama legislators—most critically Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.), the powerful chairman of the House Armed Services Committee. 

After Biden announced his decision, Rogers vowed “this fight is far from over.” At a full committee hearing Sept. 28 featuring Dickinson, Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall, and Chief of Space Operations Gen. B. Chance Saltzman, he went a step further. 

“I am going to ask the Inspector General for the Department of Defense to investigate this,” Rogers said. “In the meantime, I intend to work to make sure that no funds are authorized or expended to be spent in Colorado Springs for the building of a permanent headquarters.” 

Rogers’ key role as HASC chairman in drafting and passing the annual National Defense Authorization Act, which authorizes funding and can set policy for the Pentagon, makes his voice particularly crucial in the ongoing fight. 

Dickinson confirmed during the hearing that Space Command is on pace to reach full operational capability by the end of 2023, a little more than two years after he declared initial operational capability in August 2021. The Pentagon had previously said FOC would be declared in August, but a change in mission requirements led to the delay. 

“We received an additional unified command plan task in the latest one that came out in May of this year, which is trans-regional missile defense,” Dickinson said. “So I’m assessing to make sure I have the proper functions and personnel in the headquarters to be able to do that task.” 

Dickinson has previously said uncertainty over the command’s future basing was also delaying FOC. 

What impact a potential DOD Inspector General investigation might have on the basing timeline is unclear. Rogers also requested a Government Accountability Office investigation into the matter in August.

Previous IG and GAO investigators determined the basing decision process that led to Alabama’s selection did not violate any laws or policies, though both reports identified issues of concern and irregularities in the selection process. 

Redstone Arsenal gate
The gate of Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Ala. Courtesy photo.

Differences in Opinion 

While Kendall, Dickinson, and Saltzman all said they supported President Biden’s decision to headquarter SPACECOM in Colorado, Dickinson and Kendall in particular acknowledged they had offered contrasting recommendations—Dickinson favored keeping SPACECOM in Colorado Springs, while Kendall supported the move to Alabama. 

During the Department of the Air Force’s re-evaluation of the basing decision, Kendall said his team concluded that “there would be some operational risk associated with moving the provisional headquarters in Colorado to any other location.” But while Dickinson argued that operational risk was “significant,” Kendall said he and the Air Force strategic basing team believed mitigation measures were available, including greater reliance on contractors instead of government civilians. 

Dickinson said the decision to stay in Colorado “ultimately maintains our readiness at the highest levels while imposing the least disruption to the mission and workforce.” He pointed out that 60 percent of SPACECOM’s headquarters is staffed by civilians, who are not obligated to move with the command, as uniformed personnel would be. He said an internal analysis concluded that 88 percent of those civilians “would probably not move” from Colorado to Alabama. 

Kendall, however, said he believed the long-term cost savings of a move from pricey Colorado to more affordable Alabama, provided appropriate mitigation measures, outweighed the operational risk. 

Kendall had previously told lawmakers that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin had delegated the basing decision to him and that he had received “no indication that the president is going to do anything with regard to that decision.” But during the Sept. 28 hearing, he said he was informed that the president was making the final decision “shortly” before it was announced. 

The gate at Peterson Space Force Base in Colorado Springs, Colo. U.S. Space Force image
Space Force Considers New Component in Japan, As Saltzman Bolsters Ties With Visit

Space Force Considers New Component in Japan, As Saltzman Bolsters Ties With Visit

Sept. 27, 2023 | By Unshin Lee Harpley

The Space Force may establish a combatant component in Japan soon, Chief of Space Operations Gen. B. Saltzman said in a news conference in Tokyo on Sept. 25. According to multiple media reports, Saltzman said setting up a new unit in Japan represents the “next phase” in joint initiatives aimed at enhancing space defense across the Indo-Pacific region.

Such a move would mark yet another step in the Space Force extending its footprint in the region. U.S. Space Forces Indo-Pacific, a component under U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, was established at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii, in November 2022.

That was followed by the establishment of U.S. Space Forces Korea under U.S. Forces Korea, a sub-unified combatant command, at Osan Air Base, South Korea, the next month. U.S. Forces Japan is another sub-unified command under INDOPACOM.

Saltzman also said during the Tokyo news conference that the Space Force has been internally exploring the idea of establishing a communication hotline with China to avert space-related crises, as reported by Reuters.

However, the Space Force has not been in contact with its People’s Liberation Army counterparts, a U.S. Space Force spokesperson told Air & Space Forces Magazine. The representative added that Saltzman noted any effort of this nature would be led by the State Department and have to be approved by the President of the United States.

Space is a key arena in the strategic competition between the United States and China. According to a recent report from the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies, Beijing has developed various counterspace weapons, including ground-launched anti-satellite missiles, electronic warfare systems, and offensive satellites, making it a rapidly advancing player in space.

Saltzman’s visit to Japan, spanning six days from Sept. 21-26, had the overarching goals of strengthening the U.S.-Japan alliance, supporting its modernization endeavors, and bolstering integrated deterrence through collaborative space security initiatives. In a series of high-level meetings, Saltzman engaged with Minister of Defense Minoru Kihara, Chief of Staff for the Japan Self-Defense Forces Gen. Yoshihide Yoshida, Chief of Staff for the Japan Air Self-Defense Forces (JASDF) Gen. Hiroaki Uchikura, and President of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, Dr. Hiroshi Yamakawa.

Those talks built on the progress made in previous bilateral initiatives, including the first-ever Space Engagement Talks (SET) held in July. They also included discussion about how the U.S. might use Japan’s future deep space radar and avenues to enhance collaboration in satellite communications, research, and development.

In addition, the leaders talked about deepening interoperability through space education, training programs, joint exercises, and more.

U.S. Space Force equipment sits on pallets inside a C-17 Globemaster III assigned to the 436th Airlift Wing, Dover Air Force Base, DE, at Yokota Air Base, Japan, May 10, 2023. U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Jarrett Smith

Saltzman’s itinerary also included a stop at Fuchu Air Base, where he met with Col. Kimitoshi Sugiyama, the Commander of the JASDF Space Operations Group. The Space Operations Group, responsible for JASDF space domain awareness operations, was established in March 2022, expanding upon the previous Space Operations Squadron.

The U.S. and Japan have been charting a tighter path together in space for a while now. In January, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Secretary of State Antony Blinken agreed alongside their Japanese counterparts to recommit that their mutual defense policy would extend into space, meaning any attack on either country’s satellites could lead to the invocation of Article V of the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty, in which the two countries could “act to meet the common danger” if either country is attacked on Japanese territory.