Air Force Field-Testing New Tactical Command & Control Modules

Feb. 15, 2024 | By Greg Hadley

AURORA, Colo.—The Air Force has acquired, fielded, and started experimenting with an advanced new command-and-control node, seeking feedback from Airmen before acquiring hundreds more, the service’s leading C2 officials said at the AFA Warfare Symposium.

The Tactical Operations Center-Light (TOC-L) is a computer system that does “wicked good fusion data integration … across 800 different feeds that are specific to air battle managers and the air picture,” said Brig. Gen. Luke C.G. Cropsey, the Air Force’s command, control, communications, and battle management czar.

The Air Force has 16 TOC-L prototypes in field testing today.

“I’ll call it the basic building block for where we’re going for infrastructure for C2,” Cropsey said. The systems “are being integrated in a number of joint COCOM-level exercises as well as service-sponsored exercises, so that we’re giving the operator an opportunity to go muck around with it and figure out what works, what doesn’t work, what we need to modify… And then we’re going to move into a phase two of that program very quickly, where we’ll actually start scaling that capability out.”

How many TOC-L kits the Air Force will need is not yet clear, Cropsey said, but the numbers will be in the hundreds, not thousands.

Brig. Gen. Daniel C. Clayton, director of the Advanced Battle Management System Cross-Functional Team, said the Air Force is sending a TOC-L system to the Army’s Project Convergence “Capstone 4” exercise, which runs Feb. 23-March 20 . Project Convergence exercises focus on the Pentagon’s wider Joint All-Domain Command and Control efforts to accelerate sensors-to-shooter decision making.

That kit will be running another of Cropsey and Clayton’s major projects: Cloud-Based Command and Control (CBC2), which fuses data from 750 radar feeds into a single interface and uses artificial intelligence to help battle managers choose and execute a path of action.

Cropsey touted the rollout of CBC2 to U.S. Northern Command and North American Aerospace Defense Command last fall at AFA’s Air, Space & Cyber Conference. The this week, five months later, he revealed that the system is now operational for NORAD’s eastern air defense sector and Canadian air defense sector, “with more on the way,” he added.

Three members of the Western Air Defense Sector’s 225th Air Defense Squadron tested the ability to execute Cloud-Based Command and Control (CBC2) for the first time in a geographically separated location at Camp Rilea, Ore., last April. U.S. Air National Guard photo by Tech. Sgt. Anthony Milton

CBC2 and TOC-L are relatively low-profile programs when compared to billion-dollar aircraft buys, but Cropsey and Clayton said that’s by design.

“You’re not going to see what I’ll call big, splashy, major awards for hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars, as much as you’re going to see lots of very targeted, specific kinds of works that are coming out to do a thing over here, a thing over there, do some integration, present another capability, and then work it back into the operational scene as quickly as we can,” Cropsey said.

Cropsey cited the Distributed Battle Management Node, “an element that goes out and grabs these individual pieces and integrates them into a single capability offering,” as an example. He said the Air Force is soliciting industry for Phase II of that program, even as Phase I prototypes are about to start arriving at air control squadrons, Cropsey said.

Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall made fielding operationally relevant C2 capabilities one of his seven Operational Imperatives for the department two years ago, and Cropsey and Clayton have emphasized for months that they are not simply conceptualizing future capabilities, but rolling out real solutions.

“Seven years ago, it was a lot of lightning bolts on charts,” Clayton said. “Those days are behind us. We have actual stuff in the field that is allowing the warfighters to test and experiment with it and have that decision advantage today.”

Adapt or Die: Big Air Force Changes Demand Buy-In from Within 

Feb. 15, 2024 | By Lt. Gen. S. Clinton Hinote, USAF (Ret.)

At the AFA Warfare Symposium this week, the Department of the Air Force announced 24 decisions stemming from its “Re-optimization for Great Power Competition” review. Now, as the department starts the process of implementing these major changes, former Air Force Futures boss retired Lt. Gen. S. Clinton Hinote offers his perspective in this commentary.

When a successful organization faces disruptive change, it must adapt or decline. That is the choice facing our Air Force today. Others have been here and failed. Remember Kodak? Pan Am? Blockbuster? All these companies led their respective industries, but instead of adapting to disruption in their operating environment, they doubled down on existing ways of doing business. Today, they are memories.

The Air Force has been disrupted. The years of assumed air dominance are over. Our country’s focus has shifted. Key technologies have proliferated. The competition has caught up. A worthy adversary has studied our vulnerabilities and threatens to expose them. The force is not ready for this environment. If we double down on the old ways, we will decline. As Secretary Kendall made clear repeatedly this week at the AFA Warfare Symposium, “We are out of time.”

The good news is that senior leaders—including the Secretary, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Allvin, and Chief of Space Operations Gen. B. Chance Saltzman—have identified what needs to change and are moving out. There are plans in place to address each of seven operational imperatives defined over the past two years. Budgets have been reworked and submitted—though Congress has been slow to enact. And now, a pivotal set of organizational reforms has been announced.

We should not underestimate the moral courage and dogged determination required to lead the force to this point. Leading change is exhausting if you do it right. These senior leaders—and the staffs that support them—have paid the price to get here.

These changes outlined this week to “re-optimize” the Air Force and Space Force for great power competition are absolutely necessary. Many come straight from extensive wargaming and analysis. The focus on preparing wings for combat is correct. The plan to reinstitute large-scale exercises, especially in the Pacific, will help these wings get ready and enhance deterrence. The stand-up of an Integrated Capabilities Command has been needed for years to give tomorrow’s Airmen what they need to win.

These are the most significant changes since the aftermath of the Cold War. The key now is implementation. This is where Gen. Allvin has nailed the theme: “Follow through.“

Looking back years from now, we will see many of these changes as milestones along a journey. The Airmen Development Command and the Integrated Capabilities Command will expand in mission to be critical catalysts for an adapting force. I believe both will eventually be led by four-star officers to reflect their critical portfolios. The re-introduction of warrant officers combined with an independent Air Forces Cyber Command may portend the eventual stand-up of a cyber service, which I believe is likely. The definition of wings as the “unit of action” along with the accompanying focus will lead to a new—and much more accurate—measurement of how much force we have vs. what is needed.

One valid concern, however, is the increase in bureaucratic complexity due to the proliferation of organizations and commands. Many new organizations are being created. Eventually, the Air Force will need to balance this by consolidating or decommissioning existing organizations. Otherwise, the service risks paralysis by diffusion of responsibility and accountability. In the past, this has stifled change by encouraging extreme tribalism, resource guarding, soft vetoes, and weak consensus. An Air Force focused on China needs a more focused organizational structure.

Congress is also focused on China, and they will likely endorse most of these changes because they don’t involve significant movements of people. But Congress may balk at standing up a new Program Assessment and Evaluation office in the Secretariat. In recent months, members of Congress have expressed concern that the Pentagon’s existing Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation (CAPE) office is hindering DOD modernization. They will likely question the need for adding an equivalent at the service level.

The main impediment to implementing change will not be Congress, however. It will be institutional resistance, driven by service members and civilians who are uncomfortable with change and allow their discomfort to descend into cynicism.

Some will employ bureaucratic resistance. They will say this is too much and too fast. They will warn against breaking the service to fix it. They will question why the dominant air force of the last 70 years must change so radically. They may even try to imply that those leading change are betraying our legacy. If you don’t believe me, look at the recent experience of the Marine Corps, where the drive to modernize the force for Indo-Pacific conflict has been met with a public revolt among retired Marine leaders.

The antidote to such resistance is consistent and near-continuous communication. Leaders at all levels must understand the “why” and the “what,” think through the “how,” and communicate clear expectations to their teams. If this happens, the Air Force can adapt to the changing environment and win the fight that looms just over the horizon. If not … well, we know how that story ends.

Lt. Gen. S. Clinton Hinote, USAF (Ret.) was Deputy Chief of Staff for Strategy, Integration, and Requirements from 2020-2023. He now serves as an advisor to the Special Competitive Studies Project, Dcode, Pallas Advisors, and the Atlantic Council’s Software-Defined Warfare Commission.

Space Force Combat Squadrons Aim for New Way to Deploy in Place

Feb. 15, 2024 | By Greg Hadley

AURORA, Colo.—Just as the Air Force is switching up how it packages troops for deployments, the Space Force will implementing “combat squadrons,” establishing a means for divvying up operations and readiness functions for space units that usually deploy in place, leaders said the AFA Warfare Symposium.

Today, Space Operations Command presents forces to combatant commands, typically U.S. Space Command, as full squadrons and deltas, through its newly established Space Forces-Space component, commanded by Lt. Gen. Douglas A. Schiess. That means unit commanders must juggle operations—flying satellites, gathering intelligence, conducting cyber work—with day-to-day readiness issues.

“If I need this number of elements to do the mission 24/7 and I force present them, well, then you need a number of elements over here to get ready to do that,” Schiess told reporters. “What we’ve done in the past is they’re both doing that all the time. And so that gets to … exhaustion—‘I just came off a shift and now I’ve got to go to training. And I’ve got a new person coming in and I’ve got to get them ready.’”

The combat squadrons concept will break down units into smaller crews and rotate them through phases under the Space Force Generation Model, which designates phases that units must cycle through.

Lt. Gen. Douglas A. Schiess, Commander, United States Space Forces-Space | Air & Space Forces photo

Once presented to SPACECOM, a squadron no longer works for Space Operations Command, Schiess said. “They work for the Space Forces-Space and they’re doing the mission for that. Also during that time, they don’t have to worry about bringing on new capabilities ,they don’t have to worry about training new folks to get ready to feed into the mission to be able to do that. They have their crew that is ready to do their mission.”

Brig. Gen. Devin Pepper, vice commander of Space Operations Command, said SpOC intends to follow an “eight-crew model.”

“So five of the crews, whatever system they’re operating, will be in what’s called the combat period, and the other three crews will be in what we call the Prepare and Ready phase,” Pepper told reporters. “Those are all the phases you need to take leave, go to school, do life, so to speak, and then also do the training that you need to get ready to prepare for the combat period.”

The Space Force already follows a similar system for its electronic warfare teams, and it’s similar to the Air Force’s four-phased approach to operational readiness under the Air Force Force Generation model, or AFFORGEN.

The commander of a combat squadron “may be a captain or a lieutenant now who’s responsible for that crew that’s in the combat period,” Pepper said. Meanwhile, regular squadron and delta commanders can focus completely on readiness and training.

When troops aren’t physically deploying, the change is partially just about a mindset shift said Schiess, who compared it to his first job in the Air Force, when he was as a missileer.

“I was part of the squadron, I got prepared, I would do training,” Schiess said. “But when I went to the alert facility, I didn’t work for the Air Force anymore, I worked for Strategic Command.”

The Department of the Air Force push to designate deployable or mission-focused “units of action” for both the Air Force and Space Force is part of its larger effort to re-optimize for great power competition. But there are still details that need to be worked out—Schiess noted that the USSF is still working on the naming conventions for combat squadrons.

“We’re still working through, does that become the 2nd Combat Squadron or 2nd Space Operation?” he said.

Kendall: ‘Unthinkable’ That Congress Could Fail to Pass Budget, Ukraine Aid

Feb. 15, 2024 | By Chris Gordon

AURORA, Colo.—Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall said Feb. 14 that Congress’s inability to enact critical government funding and national security legislation is “unthinkable” because it will delay military modernization at a pivotal time.

“These are historic times with a lot at stake on the table, both for our military and our continuous strategic competition as well as for the conflicts that are currently happening,” Kendall said. “It’s impossible to overstate the importance of doing these things.”

In the absence of a fiscal 2024 budget, the Pentagon has been operating under continuing resolutions, which largely keep spending frozen at the previous year’s levels and preclude new starts, though there have been carveouts for investments in America’s chronically delayed submarine construction.

CRs are designed as a short-term mechanism to prevent government shutdowns but have become commonplace amid Washington’s increased political infighting over the past decade or so.

The stopgap measure the government is operating under is “truly devastating” Kendall said in the closing session of the AFA Warfare Symposium.

According to a Department of the Air Force briefing document, a yearlong CR would represent an estimated eight percent cut in its budget absent inflation, reducing the Department of the Air Force’s buying power by nearly $13 billion. The DOD has already been operating under continuing resolutions since the start of fiscal 2024 on Oct. 1, four and a half months ago.

Meanwhile, a national security supplemental bill is also stalled on Capitol Hill. It contains $95 billion to fund military aid to Ukraine and Israel as well as funds to pay for U.S. military operations in the Middle East after an uptick in attacks by Iranian-backed groups since Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel. The bill passed the Senate, but House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) is balking at bringing the measure to the floor as lawmakers wrangle over budget priorities.

“The idea that we could fail in preventing Russian aggression from succeeding, I think is really almost unthinkable to me,” Kendall said. “That we could not be as prepared as we possibly can be to meet our pacing challenge is equally unthinkable. We’ve got to get these resources. Most of my life, we were united politically about our threats and what we needed to do about them.”

Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III also underscored his concern in a Feb. 13 statement on the two bills.

“Top Ukrainian defense officials have already warned us that their units no longer have the stores of ammunition that they need to hold off Putin’s invading forces,” Austin said in a statement. “I also call upon Congress to pass a full-year appropriation. Failure to fund the Defense Department in line with the annual defense bill would have serious consequences for America’s security, economy, global standing, and democracy.”

But perhaps the starkest warning came from the outgoing head of Air Combat Command, Gen. Mark Kelly.

Kelly said during a panel session on global threats Feb. 13 that China is serious about building up its military to pursue its foreign policy objectives, while Russia is too—without delay.

“If you look at Russia, they’re pretty serious about their war fight,” Kelly said. “If you look at Ukraine, they’re pretty serious about their war fight for existential purposes. If you look at what Iran is doing, they’re pretty serious about their war fight. And zero of those nations operate under a continuing resolution.”

Lockheed Anticipates Stable F-35 Production for Next Five Years

Feb. 15, 2024 | By John A. Tirpak

AURORA, Colo.—Lockheed Martin expects that F-35 production will remain at about 156 aircraft per year through 2028, based on U.S. military services plans and the expected international market, according to company aeronautics executive vice president Greg Ulmer.

In an interview at the AFA Warfare Symposium, Ulmer said he foresees the 156 rate continuing “five-plus years into the future,” taking into account the recent international sales and interest, and U.S. Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps plans, which don’t call for a major increase in purchases.

Lockheed has done studies to assess what it would take to boost the rate—which would require more tooling, facilities and workforce—and provided that information to the F-35 Joint Program Office, but there’s been “no demand signal” to produce the jets faster, Ulmer said. The company has discouraged the Pentagon from fluctuating the rate of its requests, which would require a cycle of adding and laying off workforce or disrupting the regular flow of parts and materiel.

Deliveries of F-35s are on hold while testing continues with the Tech Refresh-3 hardware and software package, on which the Block 4 upgrade depends.

“Over the last few months, we began testing on the next software release for TR-3 both at [Patuxent River Naval Air Station, Md.] and Edwards Air Force Base,” Ulmer said. “We’re seeing improved performance with the TR-3,” with improved stability and “significant” new weapons capability, he said.

“We’re actually flying, now, the TR-3 software for production aircraft in Fort Worth,” he noted. “We’ve got 20 production flights under our belt, as we begin the acceptance process in Fort Worth, with the new software version entering production … this month.”

“I can’t tell you when we will close on the testing and … certification of TR-3. My belief is, it’ll be sometime this summer,” he added.

While testing is underway, jets produced with the TR-3 package are being stored until testing is complete, but Ulmer declined to say how many F-35s are being stored or where they are for security reasons. Government officials have pegged the number at about 60 airplanes.

Ulmer acknowledged that discussions are underway with the JPO that could allow the fighters to be delivered with something short of the fully-vetted hardware and software package, but he would not forecast a result.

“We’re working with the Joint Program Office to define what the deliverable key release will be, but I’m not going to get into specifics,” he said. “That’s for the JPO to decide and we’ll align to that requirement.”

He also declined to forecast when a deal will be struck on the next two production lots of F-35s. Lockheed submitted its proposal last fall, but discussions continue, he said. Ulmer has previously said the long streak of F-35 price decreases will likely end with the next lots, due to inflation and the greater complexity and capability in the new aircraft.

In the last few months, the Czech Republic ordered 24 F-35s; South Korea ordered an additional 20, and Israel has said it will add a third squadron of 25 jets.

CMSAF Bass Pushes For First Targeted Pay Raise In 17 Years

Feb. 14, 2024 | By David Roza

AURORA, Colo.—The top enlisted leaders of the Air Force and Space Force reiterated calls for a broader reform of the military pay tables which lay out compensation for service members. While basic pay increases each calendar year, the charts that help guide those bumps are in need of an update, the senior leaders agreed.

“We haven’t had a targeted pay raise to our pay chart since 2007,” Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force JoAnne Bass said Feb. 14 at the AFA Warfare Symposium. “We have the most educated, talented enlisted force in history. It is about time for a targeted pay raise.”

Bass’ counterpart, Chief Master Sergeant of the Space Force John Bentivegna, held a similar view.

“When you’re looking at the pay and compensation model and you do the analysis, the measuring stick we’re using … has to be reevaluated based on where we are today,” he said.

The senior enlisted advisors (SEAs) made their remarks in a panel discussion on the enlisted force about two weeks after they testified before a House Armed Services Committee hearing on quality of life for service members, where their counterparts across the military joined in the call for pay reform.

“I think all the SEAs are pretty much right in lockstep about pay and compensation,” Bentivegna said Feb. 14. “The talent that we’re recruiting today on the enlisted side across all the services far exceeds what we’ve seen in history. But beyond that, what we’re asking them to do far exceeds anything we’ve asked them to do before.”

Targeted pay raises focus on pay increases for personnel in specific ranks. Experts say a pay raise focused on junior enlisted troops would help them keep pace with the economy.

“Cost of living has been rising steadily in recent years, and many troops are finding it increasingly difficult to afford housing, food, and other basic necessities,” wrote the Military Officers Association of America in June.

Pay and compensation has been a key issue for Bass heading into her last few weeks as CMSAF. In a Jan. 4 discussion with the Air & Space Forces Association, she said the military pay chart “really hasn’t evolved since 1949.”

Her comments came about halfway through the two-year 14th Quadrennial Review of Military Compensation, where the Department of Defense checks to make sure service members’ pay, benefits, and allowances are keeping up with socioeconomic changes.

“Today’s military family looks different than it did 30 years ago,” Bass said. “You have more dual-working parents, more dual-military parents, more single parents.”

Simultaneously, more civilian organizations offer benefits and better wages, which prompts the services to compete for talent. One key military benefit is basic allowance for housing (BAH), which Bentivegna said is in serious need of a refresh. As housing costs surged in recent years, annual BAH increases and the standards used to set BAH at each pay grade have struggled to keep up.

“Ninety-nine percent of you would not be compensated for a single family home,” he said Feb. 14. “Is that model that we’re looking at just a little outdated?”

Bass acknowledged that service is “by and large a calling” and that military members are for the most part well-compensated, but “we’ve got to figure out a different, more modern model, because civilian organizations are offering great compensation packages where 10 years ago they weren’t.”

Both Bass and Bentivegna said they were encouraged by the enthusiasm that members of Congress showed for helping better compensate service members, but the prospect of a continuing resolution casts a shadow on the prospect of future changes.

“We’re making great strides, but we talked about the need for stability in our funding,” Bentivegna said. “There are things we want to get after, but when we can’t execute what we plan for, then we fall behind.”

SDA Launches Missile Tracking Satellites; All of ‘Tranche 0’ Now in Orbit

Feb. 14, 2024 | By Greg Hadley

The first batch of the Space Development Agency’s Tranche 0 spacecraft are all in orbit, a total of 27 satellites launched into low-Earth orbit within 42 months after the contract award.

The last four of those missile warning/missile tracking satellites launched successfully into Space, along with two Missile Defense Agency satellites, from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Fla., on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.

Of the 27 satellites in Tranche 0, 19 perform data transport and communications, while eight do missile warning. One additional satellite remains on the ground as a testbed.

SDA and MDA worked together on the launch, because the MDA’s two Hypersonic and Ballistic Tracking Space Sensor satellites are closely related to SDA’s “Tracking Layer” for missile warning and tracking.

“Launching our Tracking satellites into the same orbit with the MDA … satellites is a win for both agencies,” SDA director Derek Tournier said in a statement. “We’ll be able to look at test targets from the same orbit at the same time, so that we can see how the two sensors work together.

Sensors based on the MDA satellite design will be incorporated into later tranches of the SDA constellation, Tournear added.

Tranche 0 was designed to be a “warfighter immersion” tranche, giving service members the opportunity to work with the systems, understand their capabilities, and to develop operational concepts for their use.

SDA has already announced it has connected with the satellites using the Link 16 data network, a first in space, and the first missile warning satellites launched in April 2023 have captured initial imagery.

Now senior SDA officials say they’ll look to get the satellites involved in real-world Pentagon exercises to show off what they can do.

“We’re looking for opportunities to engage in demonstrations today with the capabilities that we have available,” a senior SDA official said. “It won’t be a firm deadline where we say, now the satellites can be turned over for demonstrations. We’ll participate in any warfighter activities we can at this point moving forward.”

For the Tracking satellites in particular, “it’s just a matter of the launch windows coinciding with our satellites to be able to image those,” the official said. “So we are actively working with all of our partners to be able to schedule those demos, and you’ll see those over the coming months here.”

Tranche 0 survived multiple launches en route to its full deployment, and at least one data transport satellite experienced problems due to a defect. But the overall program has been deemed a success, proving the concept for rapidly awarding contracts, acquiring satellites, and launching them on a much faster timeline than traditional space acquisition programs.

Leaders say the PWSA is also desperately needed to boost the Space Force’s resilience on orbit. By placing hundreds of satellites in low-Earth orbit, the thinking goes, the U.S. can withstand the loss of a few satellites and keep its needed space capabilities—thus discouraging adversaries from trying to destroy any of them in the first place.

The PWSA’s scale will expand dramatically in Tranche 1, set to start launching in September of this year. SDA has awarded contracts for 126 Transport Layer satellites, 35 Tracking satellites, and 12 tactical demonstration satellites. Tranche 1 will be the first “operational” batch of satellites SDA launches.

Kendall’s Message to Airmen and Guardians on Re-Optimization: ‘Don’t Sit Still’

Feb. 14, 2024 | By Greg Hadley

AURORA, Colo.—The Department of the Air Force is launching a sweeping effort to “re-optimize for great power competition,” with new commands, offices, and processes, in one of the largest reorganizations in the Air Force’s history.

But for tens of thousands of Airmen and Guardians around the world, the most noticeable changes will come down to a focus on readiness, something Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall urged service members to make part of their day-to-day job in his parting message from the AFA Warfare Symposium on Feb. 14.

“You don’t need to wait for somebody tell you what to do about readiness. … Start thinking now about, what do we need to do to be more ready, and then do it,” Kendall said. “You don’t need to wait for that. The conflict can happen at any time and we need to be as ready for it as we possibly can.”

Many of the changes announced at the symposium “won’t happen overnight,” Kendall added. “But I think it’s going to happen reasonably quickly. We’re going to orient our operational units on being ready for the fight.”

That will include a change in how the Air Force and Space Force package forces together for deployments, or its “units of action,” as the service chiefs outlined Feb. 12.

“We’re going to be making some changes to how units are set up, so that all the things that units need to be able to deploy, if they’re deploying units, that they have, and that those units can train together,” Kendall said. “For the units that are deployed in place, we’re going to do the same sort of thing.”

Airmen and Guardians will also see the focus of their training change, Kendall hinted, once again to be focused on readiness for a potential conflict near peer adversary such as China or Russia.

“In general, I think you’re going to see your training oriented more on the things you’re going to need to be effective in great power competition,” he said.

Other changes will be smaller or are meant to be less disruptive to service members’ lives. The much-discussed warrant officer program and new technical career tracks will be tailored for specific communities. The new commands and offices being established will mainly draw upon existing units and capabilities.

“We’re going to minimize people having to move and we’re going to try to minimize costs, but we’ve got to move out pretty quickly on all those as well,” Kendall added.

More broadly, though, Kendall made it clear that he wants to drive a mindset shift across the Air Force and Space Force that the possibility of great power conflict is very real, and everyone needs to get ready.

“Buckle your seatbelt. Don’t sit still. Go ahead and move forward,” Kendall said. “Don’t wait for guidance on this. … We don’t have any time to waste.”

To shape and inform the changes he and other leaders were planning, Kendall traveled to Air Force and Space Force installations around the globe and interacted with Airmen and Guardians. Many “have their head in the game” and are ready for the challenge, he said.

“I think we’ve got all the raw material we need to make the changes that we talked about and prepare ourselves,” Kendall said. “And, frankly, it’s all about deterrence. We don’t want a war, and if we’re really ready and the Chinese understand that, we’re not going to have one.”

PACAF, Allies Plan for More Complex, Large-Scale Exercises in the Indo-Pacific

Feb. 14, 2024 | By Unshin Lee Harpley

AURORA, Colo.—As part of its re-optimization effort, the Air Force is planning to implement more large-scale exercises to improve readiness. And that will start with a major one next year in the Indo-Pacific, leaders said at the AFA Warfare Symposium.

“We’re targeting fiscal year 2025 for the first sort of run at a large multi-combatant command supported [exercise] … and we’re looking to do that in conjunction with a single AOR targeted at INDOPACOM,” Chief of Staff Gen. David W. Allvin said Feb. 12.

For the new commander of Pacific Air Forces, Gen. Kevin B. Schneider, it will be an especially major undertaking.

“I’m encouraged that the Department of the Air Force identified that, is committing resources to make that happen,” Schneider told reporters. “To do something with this scope, with this scale that we envision, it will take the weight of the Department of the Air Force and the resources.”

Such an exercise will be crucial in testing and preparing PACAF for the possibility of conflict with the likes of China, Schneider added.

“When I look at crisis, conflict, and contingencies … there’ll be a huge demand for INDOPACOM as the warfighter, and PACAF as the component,” Schneider said. “And the rest of the joint force will have tremendous demand back to our services for resources, equipment, personnel, capabilities.”

Gen. Kevin Schneider, Pacific Air Forces commander, renders the first salute to PACAF Airmen after taking command from Gen. Ken Wilsbach during a change of command ceremony on Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii, Feb. 9, 2024. U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Jimmie D. Pike

While such exercises are “not always inexpensive endeavors,” Schneider stressed their importance for deterrence. And his chief of staff Col. David Berkland later indicated in a panel discussion that the 2025 exercise will not be a one-off event.

“We’re going to start to build up to more complex, kind of high order of magnitude-type exercises,” Berkland said. “So, you might not be able to count as many happening throughout the year, but the ones that we do are going to be bigger, more intense, and more valuable, I think, for getting us to maintain that level of overmatch at the high end of combat.”

Larger exercises could also help foster broader multilateral alliances as commanders and troops spend longer periods working more closely together. In recent years, there has been a surge in interest from nations worldwide in contributing to these missions. The U.K.’s Royal Air Force joined a PACAF exercise in December, marking its first participation in that event. Canada has also unveiled its Indo-Pacific strategy, and other countries like Australia, Singapore, and France have likewise demonstrated a growing commitment by participating in multilateral exercises in the region recently.

South Korea and Japan have also played pivotal roles in these exercises. Following last year’s trilateral agreement at Camp David between Washington, Seoul, and Tokyo, the three nations have upped their collaboration through a series of multi-domain exercises.

“This kind of effort is vitally important for us,” said Col. Kimotoshi Sugiyama, commander of Space Operations Group for the Japan Air Self Defense Forces. “We’re headed in the right direction.”

The close cooperation comes in the face of increasing aggression from China. President Xi Jinping continues to say he will push to “unify” Taiwan and China, with many fearing conflict as a result. Meanwhile, Beijing has invested heavily in nuclear weapons, space, and other military technologies and at times curtailed military-to-military communications.

The People’s Liberation Army Air Force has also conducted more and more aggressive and unprofessional intercepts of U.S. and allied aircraft in the region.

“Our pilots and our air crews are going to continue to do what they’ve done all along, and that is to conduct themselves professionally, safely, and do everything we can to prevent a dangerous escalation from occurring over international airspace,” Berkland said.

On top of all that is the escalating threat of North Korea. Col. Jong-seo Park, the South Korean embassy’s air attaché, pointed to Pyongyang’s expanding nuclear and conventional capabilities and its deepening ties with Russia as causes for concern.

“Russia and North Korea, their ties are being strengthened,” Park said. “North Korea provided military support on ballistic missiles and the drones, and any kind of artillery shells and in return, Russia is providing the military and economic capabilities (to Pyongyang).”

However, Schneider said ties between China, Russia, and North Korea will never match the level of deepening and broadening partnerships the U.S. is fostering with its allies in the Pacific.

“Those relationships, alliances, and partnerships can only be envied in Beijing, Moscow and Pyongyang and they could never replicate anything near that,” Schneider said. “Our ability to come together as teams, and work together as teams for a purpose, is an amazing strength and one that we continue to enjoy. That’s why my predecessors and I pay tremendous focus into maintaining the building and increasing the capability of our alliances and relationships at all levels.”