Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown’s testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee on July 11 at his confirmation hearing to become the next Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff offered extensive statements from lawmakers in between questions to the general. Over the course of two and a half hours, Brown answered questions about topics ranging from the potential sale electromagnetic spectrum to the future of Homestead Air Reserve Base in Florida.
But among his responses common themes emerged, offering new insight insight into how Brown will approach the Chairman’s role.
An Operator’s Perspective
Brown emphasized his operational experience repeatedly—as well as his relative outsider status in the Pentagon, where he has spent comparatively little time for such a high-ranking officer.
“For the 11 years prior [to becoming Chief of Staff], I served in seven assignments across four combatant commands—EUCOM, AFRICOM, CENTCOM, and INDOPACOM. I’ve held leadership positions focused on our five national security challenges—China, Russia, North Korea, Iran, and violent extremists,” said Brown. “So, I arrive before you having spent less time as a general officer in Washington D.C. and more time with our fielded forces allies and partners, either in conflict or preparing for conflict. Having led warfighters abroad shapes my thinking. As a result, I’m mindful of the security challenges at this consequential time and the need to accelerate to stay ahead of the growing threat.”
Brown’s experience in Command of Pacific Air Forces, at Air Forces Central, and as Deputy Commander of U.S. Central Command exposed him to allies’ top military leaders, an asset for any Chairman seeking to build international consensus.
“One of the benefits that I’ve had as having served as a commander of Pacific Air Forces is the number of air chiefs and chiefs of defense and in some cases, ministers of defense that I’ve known personally, had a chance to engage with,” said Brown. “That dialogue to me is hugely important to determine how best we can move forward and break down barriers and identify areas that we can work together on…not only as a military, but also between our nations, as well. And that’s where my focus will be: to continue that dialogue to ensure we can work together and then highlight where the challenges may be and then work with the right entities to be able to move forward to ensure that we are able to win the next war if called upon to do so, but definitely deter or avoid war.”
Analytical Engineer
Brown’s studious reputation is that of analytical thinker who studies issues deeply, tendencies that were on full display in his confirmation hearing.
“I’m an engineer by background, so doing assessments and doing analysis is how I think about things,” Brown told Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) when asked about shifting resources within Europe. “And that’s something we do need to do not just for Europe, but I would say for all of our major security challenges, to continue to reassess.”
Brown’s analytical approach melded well with that of Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall, and his toward analysis helped shaped the Air Force’s modernization program, including divesting older platforms to fund the development of future systems.
“I’ve often talked about how we have to balance risk over time and look at capability and capacity,” Brown said. “Because we can’t just try to modernize completely at the risk of today’s operations, and at the same time, we can’t maintain all capability for today’s operations and not have the capabilities [needed for] the threats we see forthcoming. And so between that, as you look at that iron triangle, it’s the balance between those.
“We can work on emotion, but emotion doesn’t work. It’s really the analysis that we have to go through to be able to determine how we make those tough calls.”
If confirmed, Brown pledged to foster an environment as Chairman in which “you step away from your own empirical interests and then we do what’s best, not just for your part of the organization, but what’s best for the entire organization.”
China and the Indo-Pacific
Brown mentioned China—America’s “pacing challenge,” according to the National Defense Strategy—just once by name throughout his entire testimony. Yet he had plenty to say about the Indo-Pacific region and offered hints about his views on deterrence and readiness for conflict with the Chinese.
“You cannot wait until the crisis occurs to be able to deploy capability,” Brown said. “You have to pre-position capability and have that in place. You have to work with allies and partners to have access to locations, so you can put capability into place. And that’s an area that we are focused on not only as an Air Force, but I’d also say as a joint force.”
Brown highlighted Air Mobility Command’s massive Mobility Guardian exercise, as well as CORONA South, a recent logistics-focused tabletop exercise held in June among senior leaders.
Russia’s War on Ukraine
Brown said logistics figures high on the list of lessons from the war in Ukraine.
“I think the Russians learned if you don’t pay attention to the logistics, it’s hard to win and hard to move forward,” he said. “I think we also learned that the timeline for military operations, particularly in a conflict, sometimes takes longer than we might expect, and that is also a challenge.”
But Brown also noted how NATO allies came together to support Ukraine with arms and intelligence, the importance of Ukrainians’ intense will to fight, and the enduring lessons about airpower and the need to achieve air superiority, are the war’s key takeaways.
Industrial Base
Questions regarding America’s defense industrial base have grown more urgent in recent months, and Brown himself said during the hearing that he believes Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has “exposed” cracks in the base as U.S. weapons stockpiles dwindle. To combat that, he urged lawmakers to approve the Pentagon’s request for multiyear procurement buys of certain munitions, saying they are necessary to offer steady demand to contractors.
“Just based on experience when I was air commander for United States Central Command during the defeat ISIS campaign, and we had some similar conversations back in 2017-ish time frame when North Korea was very active. We did some reviews and did highlight it then,” Brown said of the industrial base’s problems. “Now it’s highlighting even more so. And it’s the aspect of why it’s important for us to not only invest in the platforms but invest in munitions that they have enough stockpile, particularly the advanced munitions that are most effective.”
The Apolitical Meritocracy
Brown sought to stay above political debates during his hearing, declaring that he would set a “personal example” of staying apolitical and urging civilian leaders to keep the military out of political fights. But several Senators pressed him on Air Force diversity, equity, and inclusion policies, with some lawmakers suggesting the service was engaging in what Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.) called “race-based politics.”
Brown responded that he believes service members simply want a “fair opportunity to perform” and that they must be qualified for the positions they fill.
“I’ll just tell you from my own career: When I came in, and flying F-16s, I didn’t want to be the best African American F-16 pilot; I want to be the best F-16 pilot,” Brown said. “I would say the same thing when I went to be an instructor at the weapons school … [and in] every position I’ve had throughout my career. I wanted it because I was the best and qualified. I did not want to be provided a position of promotion based on my background. I wanted it to be based on the quality of my work. And I think that’s the aspect that all of our service members look for: They want a fair opportunity, but they also be rewarded for their performance.”