Air Force Update, Chief of Staff of the Air Force Gen. David Goldfein at the 2019 Air, Space & Cyber Conference.
Transcript
Well, good morning, ladies and gentlemen.
[Man] Good morning.
One more time. Good morning.
[Audience] Good morning.
Well, on the eve of the Air Force’s 72nd birthday, it is important to remember where it all began. General Carl Spaatz served as the first chief of staff of the Air Force, appointed the position on September 26th, 1947, barely one week after our Air Force became a separate and independent service. Our Air Force today faces numerous challenges from adversaries around the globe, but our enemies continue to be met and defeated by the greatest Air Force in the world. And the 685,000 active, Guard, Reserve and civilians that make our up Air Force family will not falter or fail because airmen share an unbreakable trust. As the chief of staff of the Air Force, our next speaker is the senior uniformed Air Force officer responsible for organizing, training and equipping 685,000 activity duty, Guard, Reserve and civilian forces serving in the United States and overseas. As a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Goldfein and other service chiefs function as military advisors to the secretary of defense, National Security Council and our president. General Goldfein was commissioned from the Air Force Academy class of 1983. He has flown trainers, the F-16 C/D, F-117, MQ-9 and MC-12. He has commanded across multiple levels in the Air Force, squadron, group, two wings, and was a Combined Forces air component commander at Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar. He has left a legacy of superior leadership at Air Combat Command, (mumbles) AB, NATO, Iraq, Afghanistan, the air staff and on the the joint staff. Allow for something else. 50 years since I held up my right hand, 40 years since I’ve been going to Air Force Association conventions and conferences. There is something special in the wind right now in our Air Force. And in my humble opinion, it’s General Dave Fingers Goldfein and Dawn. Our nation is blessed by the incredible leadership. (audience applauding) Our nation is blessed by the leadership and the incredible warrior statesman that is General Dave Fingers Goldfein. (audience applauding) (heraldic music) (audience applauding) (heraldic music)
Well, good morning.
[Audience] Good morning.
Or as they say in cowboy country, howdy.
[Audience] Howdy.
Not a bad game Sunday. (audience laughing) So four years ago, we sat down with AFA and we had two objectives. Number one was to turn this convention into the number one professional development opportunity of the year for our Air Force. And the second was to bring so many airmen to this convention that we were gonna bust out of the Gaylord. And I want ya to look around this room. I think we got there. (audience applauding) So let me start by recognizing just a few folks. And I wanna start off with telling you of all the blessings of being your 21st chief of staff, by far, at the top is the fact that I get to do this job with my best friend, my teammate for life, my high school sweetheart, Dawn, who I met over 40 years ago. (audience applauding and cheering) So like many of our spouses, Dawn’s moved 21 times. She’s sent her husband off to war four times. She’s sent her daughter off to war once. She’s weathered a hurricane with a newborn and one on the way while her courageous husband was off saving airplanes. (audience laughing) And she’s had a rather unique experience of having the wing commander and a chaplain and an entire team show up at the middle of the night to tell her that her husband had been shot down in enemy territory and his condition was unknown. So Dawn represents so many of our spouses who exhibit that really unique, special kind of courage when they endure the long hours, the hardships, the separations, and, you know, something I don’t think we talk about enough, the loneliness that sometimes comes with our military service. So I wanna ask all of our military spouses who are here, past and present, to please stand so we can offer you our thanks. (audience applauding) (soothing music) (audience applauding) (soothing music) I wanna thank the Air Force leadership. I will tell you that this team that we have of MAJCOM commanders and our air staff is second to none. And I will tell ya as the chief of staff of the Air Force, what a blessing it is to have these incredible leaders. And Acting Secretary Donovan, I wanna thank you for stepping into the breach over the last four months. Thanks for your words yesterday and for keeping the trains on track and keeping us moving in the right direction. Mr. Secretary, thank you. It’s been an honor to work with you. (audience applauding) And we prepare now for, hopefully with a Senate vote, our next secretary of the Air Force, Ambassador Barbara Barrett. And so, of course, for all the right reasons, the Senate takes very seriously their oversight of the confirmation process. So I wanna talk a little bit about Ambassador Barrett, but first I need us all to do something together. On the count of three, we all have to say “pending confirmation,” right? Okay, so ready? One, two, three.
[David and Audience] Pending confirmation.
Okay, we have that on record. All right, so now let’s talk a little bit about the background of our hopefully soon to be secretary of the Air Force. She’s an instrument-rated pilot. She’s a trained astronaut who is a backup cosmonaut for a Russian space mission. She’s a Fortune 500 industry leader times two. She’s a lawyer who worked and clerked with Justice Sandra Day O’Connor. She was the former chair of our aerospace corporations, our federally funded research and development center. She was the former deputy administrator of the FAA, so she knows a little bit about international and national airspace. And she’s the former ambassador to Finland. So ladies and gentlemen, here’s what I’ll tell ya. We won the lottery again, (audience laughing) and we can’t wait to welcome her to our Air Force. I also wanna talk a little bit about my wingman in this journey, Chief Wright. So it’s September, and it won’t be long before it’ll be the holiday season. And I don’t know if you know about this, but the chief’s face actually looks really good on top of a Christmas tree. (audience laughing) So I’ll tell ya now, the chief has connected with airmen. And I’ll tell ya one of the reasons he’s connected with airmen so well is because he’s the real deal. And I’ll tell ya my favorite Chief Wright story. So we’re in Bagram and we’re over there during the holiday season last year and spent it with the troops. And folks are just lined up to get a picture with their chief master sergeant of the Air Force, right? And this airman is just, I mean, laser focused on the chief walking, and he’s not taking his eyes off of him. And he’s over there and he looks over and he grabs my arm, without looking at me, (audience laughing) and he hands me a cellphone. (audience laughing) Right? And he says, quote, he says, “Dude, can you take a picture “with me and the chief?” (audience laughing) (audience applauding) Yeah. (audience applauding) I said, “Absolutely.” So we walked up to the chief. And of course, this kid’s still not figured it out, right? So I get to the chief and I got OCPs on, right, so I got my rank right here, and I said, “Okay.” I said, “Focus right here.” (audience laughing) (David laughs) That was the best picture we’ve ever taken. (audience laughing) And in thanks to our incredible airmen, you are the greatest treasure in our nation’s arsenal, and it’s our job as leaders to take care of you. And so thank you for taking the time, and thank you for your wing commanders, especially, who came here and brought their airmen to expose them to this incredible once-in-a-lifetime professional development opportunity. It is an honor every day to serve as your chief. I also wanna recognize our Gold Star families. I had the most incredible conversation with a Gold Star mom not long ago. And she said, she says, “Hey, Chief. “Here’s my biggest fear. “Don’t let my son die twice. “First on the worst day of my life, “and the second when you stop remembering “and saying his name.” We, as an institution, have an obligation to make sure that we never forget, that we always remember. And so I wanna highlight one particular family that’s here, the family of Staff Sgt. Dylan Elchin. So we lost Dylan in 2017 in Ghazni, Afghanistan, to an IED. And this is the picture on the right, the Special Tactics community. They do a march from San Antonio to Hurlburt Field. And this is the last mile of that march that we did for Dylan. And my commitment to the family, to Donna, to Ron, to the brother, to grandfather Ron, I’m here to tell ya we will never forget Dylan and we will always say his name. And the reason I know that is the leadership of his squadron is here. Lieutenant Colonel Greg Walsh, Chief Jason Payne and several of their teammates. We will always keep you in our hearts and we will never forget. Would you please stand so we can recognize you? (audience applauding) (soothing music) (audience applauding) (soothing music) So I’m the 21st chief of staff. And I can stand on this stage and look at you in the eye without blinking and tell you with absolute confidence that if we go to war today with the Air Force that we have today, I’m 100% confident that we are going to be able to win. It’s gonna be hard, it’s gonna be bloody, we’re gonna lose some folks, but I’m confident that we’ll win. And the Air Force that we enjoy today is actually the Air Force that was built by our predecessors, such is the time phase associated with building an Air Force. So if we go to war today, we’re actually gonna go to war with the Ryan-Jumper-Moseley force. And I spent a lotta time thinking about Chief 24. Chief 24 just made brigadier general on the usual timeline. And Chief 24 is gonna go to war in 2030 with the force that Goldfein built. That’s what we’re gonna talk about today. What is the Air Force we need in 2030, for that chief, for her or him to walk up on this stage and have the same confidence that I have based on the work that was done by my predecessors? So to give you a little peek into the areas of investment that we have going forward, I asked the team to put together just a short video, so let’s run that. (dramatic music) So that’s a peek into where we’re going, but let’s spend a few minutes talking about where we’ve been. So four years ago, I walked out on this stage and I walked us through three primary areas of focus, and it was all oriented towards one target that we all have been aiming on. And we had been relentless about driving forward towards this target the entire time: joint warfighting excellence. How do we ensure that we provide what the nation needs? That we arm the secretary of state and our diplomats to go into every negotiation to negotiate a better peace from a position of strength? Because at the end of the day, that’s the purpose of military power. We don’t necessarily want to fight, but we know that the best preparation and the best deterrence is to ensure that we have the military capable to win if called upon. So let’s talk a little bit about this journey that we’ve been on over the last four years. And most importantly, let’s talk about what we’ve learned along the way. So we started this journey focused on fixing our fighting formation, our fundamental fighting formation, which in the United States Air Force is a squadron. And I will tell you, I think we hit a nerve on this one. And we started this conversation on a foundation of trust, that the chief and I absolutely, completely, without hesitation or reservation, trust our command teams to get after the mission and get after taking care of people. And because we trust them, it allows us to push decision authority back down where it belongs. And this is more than just doing it because it’s the right thing to do. This is actually a joint warfighting imperative. Because I can’t expect a squadron commander to be making decisions, taking risk forward when I deploy that individual to Estonia or Poland or somewhere in the Far East if I’m not demanding the same thing at home. And so we have successfully, over time, pushed decision authority down based on this foundation of trust. And because we trust the commanders to know what to get after in their squadrons, how to build readiness, how to build resiliency, we’re also pushing resources down where it counts. Because when I was a squadron commander, I was given room to run. And I knew what my squadron needed and I knew what the obstacles were and the irritants were. And so we’re pushing money, we pushed $70 million directly into the accounts of squadron commanders and wing commanders, and gave them room to run, to spend those resources on the innovative ideas that we know our young airmen are coming up with every single day. So hopefully what’s resonating when we hit this nerve is that we’re putting our money where our mouth is. And we talk about trust and confidence, it’s more than just names and labels. We’re actually taking action. And when I go out, and the chief and I go out to bases, I love asking two questions to every airman I meet. The first question is, “What brought ya in? “What’s your story?” And I love hearing the story of patriotism, of, “I just wanna get out of this little, “small hometown of mine.” “I was in college and I just didn’t have a.” I mean, there’s all the stories that we know of why folks join and crossed over into Big Blue. And then the second question, as I’m talking through with them on what their squadron is or where they are, where they’re working, I ask them the question, “So, hey, tell me, “what does it mean to be a Bulldog?” Or a Tiger or a Cougar or whatever other carnivorous animal is your mascot. (audience laughing) Now I want you to note that I didn’t ask, “What do you do in your squadron?” And I didn’t ask, “What do you do it with “in your squadron”? This is not about whether you and your squadron strap on a keyboard, a ground control station, a missile launch facility, a cockpit, a you name it, right? Because what I’ve found is that the culture and the morale of the squadron is not based on what that squadron straps on. I’m asking ’em the question what does it mean to be a Bulldog? And what I’m hoping to hear from that airmen is, “You know, sir, “I’m part of something really special, “a high-powered team. “And the airmen to my right and to my left “are the most incredible people on the planet. “And the reason I joined actually plays out. “The value proposition of why I “joined the Air Force, actually, “I feel valued in my organization “and I’m led by an inspirational, “courageous and caring leader.” That’s, of course, what we all wanna hear. And we wanna hear that the culture of that organization, in the Bulldogs, is a culture where the right thing is easy and the wrong thing is just really hard. Because this is part of who we are as airmen. Six weeks after a squadron commander takes the flag of that organization, you can hack the clock. That squadron will have the culture of that command team. It’s the nature of who we are. And that command team consists of a commander, a senior NCO and a volunteer lead spouse. And what we need to do as an organization is make sure that the org chart of the United States Air Force continues to evolve so that the chief and I and the secretary at the bottom and squadron commanders at the top and the rest of us all exist to make sure they have what they need to get the job done. We have got to keep the throttles up on this. And I would say of all the things that we started, focused on joint warfighting excellence, selecting and developing inspirational, courageous and caring commanders and command teams is perhaps the most important journey that we’ve begun, and we have got to keep the throttles parked at full military power. Joint leader development, what have we learned? Well, we learned that joining leader development actually begins with talent management. And so I sent a team out to survey the force. 35,000 interviews. Looked at every base. Came back, squinted with our ears, listening to the force, and what we came back and understood was that a common understanding in our Air Force of what we value as an institution, what incentives we put in place and then how we compete the officer corps and the NCO corps against those values was a bit murky. And so therefore, trust and confidence in our officer corps, and to a certain extent, our enlisted corps. Our enlisted corps actually were farther ahead because of the work of Chief Wright. But in our officer corps, we determined that we have to overhaul our talent management system. And our objective is to find the sweet spot between art and science. Science is the machine of personnel management. It’s the Air Force Personnel Center, it’s the boards, it’s the OPRs, the PRFs, the different, it’s the assignment system that we have in place, right? And you actually have to have a machine to be able to do what we need to do in an organization as large as we are. But you also have to have art. And art is commanders and their civilian equivalents identifying the talent in their organization and being able to influence the development of that officer against what we value as an institution so that we are promoting our best and our brightest to do the nation’s business in the service that has the most diverse portfolio. I mean, we do leaflets to nukes. And we operate from a hundred feet below the surface to the outer reaches of space. And we’re involved in every military mission, either in a supporting or a supported role. And so how do we develop the talent we need for the future? And so as we began this discussion, there was also some folks who were pretty passionate about that and started doing some writing. And one of ’em was Colonel Jason Lamb. And Jason was writing some articles on our talent management system. And you may know him as Ned Stark. So Ned laid out some really thoughtful pieces on, hey, how do we do this business of talent management? And so tomorrow at 15:45, he and Lieutenant General Kelly will be on the stage. And I encourage you, if you can be there, ’cause they’re gonna walk you through all the elements that we’re working through now on our overhaul of officer talent management. And I think Jason, you here? Ah, nice job. Thanks for what you’re doing. (audience applauding) And if we get this right, this conversation will begin with what we value as an institution. And everything we do will be mapped to that. Let me tell you what we value. In the officer corps, and I think this also applies to our NCO corps, we value, number one, how well do you accomplish the mission that you have been assigned? Number two, how well do you lead the airmen entrusted to your care? Number three, how well do you manage the resources required to do your mission? And number four, how well have you individually improved your unit during the rating period? That’s it. Those are the four core competencies that is gonna drive everything we do in officer talent management. And those four core competencies ride on a foundation of impeccable character. It’s absolutely appropriate for the American people to expect you and I to be men and women of impeccable character. We, along with our Navy teammates, are responsible for the most destructive weaponry on the planet. It’s appropriate for them to hold us to higher standards. And for leaders and developing leaders, of all the things that we do as airmen, working on this journey of impeccable character is perhaps the most important that we ever do. So we’re about to come to close here on our summer discussion. We have the wing commanders, 280 strong, who are all gonna be here on Thursday. We’re gonna get the final feedback from the discussions they’ve been leading because you don’t lead an overhaul of a talent management system from the top down. Commanders have got to own it at every level. So we’re coming to closure on the discussion. We’ll make our modifications, then I will make a recommendation to the secretary at the end of this month. Why is this so important? You know, as senior leaders, we only actually leave one real legacy that’s lasting, and that’s those who we raise to replace us and the investment we make in them. So we gotta get this right. And what have we learned on multi-domain operations and the C2, the critical command and control that we require to get after it? So as the brand new chief, my first year, I hosted my first Corona, when we got together with all the three and four stars. And I looked out at the table and I looked and I said, “Okay, who is my integrator? Who is the one at the table who actually can take and look across leaflets to nukes, across the entire portfolio of all the missions that we perform? Who is the one who can actually integrate and design and build a blueprint for a future force that we need to be able to fight and win in 2030? And it didn’t take me long to realize, as I looked around, it was me. The way we were organized, I was the first level of complete, total force, and one Air Force integration. And I will tell ya, that’s never gonna work. Because by the time it got to me, it was pretty much already baked. And so it became clear to me that we were organized to perpetuate, not innovate. And so therein lies why we did some pretty, and I’m not a big fan of organizational changes to fix thing because ya gotta first start with a problem statement. So we worked our way through the CONOPS first and we reorganized the staff. And we pulled the A5 and the A8 apart. And we stood up an organization called the Air Force Warfighting Integration Center. And they became the lead for integrating and designing the blueprint of a future Air Force. And we put some of our most incredibly talented folks, and it’s starting with Lieutenant General Tim Fay as the A5. Ladies and gentlemen, Mike Fantini as the head of AFWIC. And if ya haven’t met him, not sure he’s here, but Brigadier General Q. Hinote, who is the E.F. Hutton, for those of you who are old enough to know who that is, of our Air Force. I mean, when he talks, everybody listens. And they got after design. And their first task was to answer a question from Congress, which is what is the Air Force that we need to be able to effectively execute the missions of the National Defense Strategy to monitor risk? It was a good question, and they, along with Kevin Williams and the A9 team, got after it. 2,000 iterations looking at every force element, everything back and forth, and that’s where we came up and delivered to Congress that the Air Force is too small for what the nation is asking us to do, and we need to grow to 386 operational squadrons. More important than the number, though, was the new dialogue we were having. Because for the first time in years, we went to Congress and started a discussion on the Air Force we need, not just the Air Force we can afford. Every committee chair in every defense committee included this in their opening statement. The president committed to this in his address to the cadets at the Air Force Academy. And we’re on track now to get this written into law in the 20 NDAA. That was task number one. We had our own version of night court. And we ran it a little bit like a nuclear certification, right? ‘Cause I remember as a young captain going to watch my first one. And there was this old, crusty wing commander, had one good eye, right? Scar across his face. Shriveled up old guy. Now the wing commanders are all tall and debonair, right? This guy, when I was a captain, he was near dead, right? (audience laughing) And I remember, with a cigar, and he looks at these two F-111 crew at the time. And he looks at ’em with this one eye. He says, “Oh,” he goes, “how many people you think “are gonna die in this attack?” And I remember (laughs) the pilot looked at him and he says, “Well, sir, two for sure.” (audience laughing) And that wing commander just busted a gut and he says, “Okay, you’re certified. “Get outta here.” (audience laughing) Okay, so we had our own little nuke cert, right? And we wire brushed every program in the United States Air Force and we graded that against the National Defense Strategy. And as a result, you’re gonna see some of the largest movement of resources as we deliver ’21 in probably the last two to three decades on building the Air Force we need to do multi-domain operations. But here’s the other thing we learned. This whole thing called multiple-domain ops, man, it’s hard to get your mind around. I don’t know how many times I’ve talked about it with groups, and we all leave, and then after I get done, they go, “Yeah, I got it,” and we’re all running for the door and everybody’s ready. And then it doesn’t take long to go, “Okay, exactly was he talking about”? Right? So we’re gonna have a little fun now. So I asked the team to pull together an operational vignette. And I’m gonna transition now for just a few minutes to a script. And this is one of those points in the speech where it’s high risk, high reward, right? Because once ya start writing a script and having a video to go along with it, this is gonna work either really well or really badly, right? All right, but what I wanna do is I wanna walk through this script because it’s important for us to leave here understanding what are we aiming at? What’s different, what’s new when we talk about multi-domain operations? So let’s party. So multi-domain operations. This isn’t just about the domains you see building in the video here, land, sea, air, space, cyber and undersea. Nor is this just about executing operations across these domains. We actually already do that now. Where we’re going is to use dominance in one domain or many, lending a few capabilities or many to produce multiple dilemmas for our adversaries in a way that will overwhelm them. This is where we’re going. But I wanna make the case for why it involves all of us gathered here today, for airmen, joint partners, allies, and why this is a call to arms. First, we’re seeing the international order and threats change. And while we still need to maintain campaign momentum against violent extremist organizations, the world is shifting towards new actors and more complex threats. As we heard yesterday, state competition has returned, and it’s taking on non-traditional forms, such as maligned influence in the information environment and little green men acting as proxies. Second, within this complexity, the future of our economic information and security interests are becoming increasingly intertwined. And third, we’re all wrestling with the accelerating advance of technology, a fact that introduces both new challenges and new opportunities. So we’re all investing in a wide array of technologies which will play key roles in how we advance our combat lethality. But modernization is not strictly defined by hardware. It requires changes in the way we organize, train, develop and then employ forces. Victory in future combat will depend less on individual capabilities, and more on the integrated strengths of a connected network available for coalition leaders to employ. And as the air component commanders of the world, the CFACCs, we are uniquely positioned to integrate domains and capabilities, and we’re often the ones tasked to pull it all together. An integrated and collaborative approach is central to unleashing the potential of multi-domain operations. So let’s pick up the story there. So what’s new? As I said, in our platforms today, already we’re cross-domain. We have weapons and aircraft that are guided by space, and ground units that are networked to air platforms. What I’m talking about is a fully networked force where each platform’s sensors and operators are connected, not by point-to-point circuits, but in a mesh network that is highly resilient and self-healing. And they’re not just connected, either. They’re a command and control system that automatically pairs the right sensors to the right targets, using data from all platforms and sensors, identifying and refining targets automatically, and allocating weapons to targets, allowing us to converge effects in a synchronized and a simultaneous manner. So let’s now play this out in an imaginary world. Here’s our scenario. Gamma Republic is in the center, who is an adversary with expansionist claims to a peaceful nation in the south, Alphaland. Alphaland is blessed with rich natural resources, a deep water port, both of which the Gamma Republic has long desired. In order to assert itself as a regional leader, the Gamma Republic has militarized an island off shore from which they can threaten maritime commerce. And they’ve also placed integrated air defense systems on the border of Alphaland to challenge access. But the story begins not with an outright assault, but when disaster strikes. A massive earthquake rocks Alphaland, causing devastation to the local infrastructure. Local emergency services spring to action, but are overwhelmed by the amount of damage and need for assistance. With local and national government unable to deal with the crisis, they make a formal request for international relief. Embedded in this disaster is an opening for bad actors to take advantage of a weakened neighbor. And into this chaos, under the guise of humanitarian relief, proxy forces from the Gamma Republic move into Alphaland. Misinformation is spread about threats to those with Gammaland cultural ties, and under this pretext, conventional Gammaland units, shown as red stick figures, invade Alphaland. And after the invasion, they lay claim to critical resources, ports, airports and land, resulting in the displacement of over 10,000 civilians who become refugees, flooding into neighboring Betaland. There’s an international outcry, and a military coaliltion is formed to retake Alphaland. So here’s the first set of simultaneous military activity that you’ll see. Multi-domain operations designed and choreographed to overwhelm the adversary with multiple dilemmas. Its orchestrated simultaneous maneuver with air, land, sea, space and cyber forces. First, U.S. and coalition assets employ space and underwater sensors to track Gamma submarines and surface vessel positions. Adversary positions are detected and communicated system-to-system. Weapons and target pairing assignments are done automatically, using machine-to-machine communications and artificial intelligence. And those weapon-target pairs are assigned, allocated and approved by the Joint Task Force commander. Let’s start with the underwater fight. As airmen, we’re used to seeing the world through a heads-up display, so I asked the team for a periscope view. Turns out it’s not all that different. And the point is, as airmen, every one of us need to understand how to integrate naval capabilities if we’re to design and lead joint campaigns. In this scenario, underwater threats are eliminated, enabling friendly surface vessels to push further in to support operations in other domains. Simultaneously, an unmanned airborne system, or RPA, is surveilling the Gamma Republic island to locate and fix military assets. Cued by subsurface and space assets, a bomber targets the final Gamma Republic submarine guarding the island, while a surface naval combatant engages the integrated air defense batteries with precision weapons and air assets strike the surveillance radars. This combined and simultaneous effort opens sea lanes and enables further coalition ingress into Alphaland. At the same time, above the Earth, coalition space sensors are networked together to get near continuous global coverage. They detect two Gamma Republic satellites maneuvering into position directly below and adjacent to friendly communication satellites. And while they’re showing hostile intent, neither Gamma Republic satellite has taken offensive action yet. At this point in the land campaign, the coalition is now highly mobile, building the enemy target deck. And while the adversary assets in space were maneuvering, far below, coalition special operations units were securing key terrain, enabling an amphibious assault to take over the port and recapture the airports. Their communications rely on three satellites, two coalition satellites represented in green, and the one U.S. satellite in blue. Suddenly, a U.S. satellite loses effective coverage, reducing the ability to communicate with forces in that area. Jamming is suspected, but not certain. The fog and friction of war continues. Jamming is identified, and an alert goes out on the command net for all sensors available to detect and geolocate the jamming source. The coalition works to identify the source of interference by monitoring threats in the cyber domain, as well. So the command and control net orchestrates space, air, land sensors to refine the possible emitter estimates in time for an unmanned asset overflight. The system cues a UAV that has a sensor which provides a positive ID. And once it confirms the threat location, the command and control system pairs a nearby artillery unit to destroy the target. Air, land, sea, cyber operations occurring simultaneously to achieve objectives. However, the U.S. and coalition satellites remain jammed. The multi-domain fight continues. The on-orbit systems we saw earlier, perched next to our satellites, are now suspected as the source of the interference. To eliminate that threat, a further multi-domain response is planned and executed. Let’s see how this operation unfolds. Our primary target is the optical sensing station, distributed by the red icons at the top left of the Gamma Republic. This is their primary source for surveilling space activity and controlling satellites. So the net is enabled, allowing assets to communicate using sensor data and allowing shooters to act with initiative. Here we see the strike package is ingressing Gamma Republic, eliminating targets of opportunity, a SAM site, an enemy convoy, identified by the friendly soft element. And they continue their drive to the target area, conducting a simultaneous strike on the fixed satellite control targets. So networks’ multi-domain sensors, matched with fifth-generation airpower, fundamentally changes our posture in space. With Gamma’s ground base space sensors severely damaged and their satellite command and control center destroyed, our coalition and U.S. systems are then able to execute a synchronized maneuver to evade these on-orbit jammers without being followed. And after that maneuver, we’re able to restore communications back to the ground forces engaged in the fight and allow a fully networked force to continue their campaign in the Gamma Republic. Multi-domain operations. Using dominance in one domain or many. Blending a few capabilities or many to produce multiple dilemmas for our adversaries. While the nature of warfare remains constant, the character of warfare is changing. And if you’re an airman who’s passionate about coalition warfighting, designing and leading joint campaigns, and the increasingly important role of air and space superiority, it’s a great time to be a member of our nation’s armed forces. And if we’ve done our job right as leaders, organizing, training and equipping our service for multi-domain operations and the C2 that’s required and selecting and developing the leaders needed for this future fight, our airmen are gonna excel at multi-domain ops because we’ll have built it into every exercise, every war game and home states and operations. And maybe, just maybe, our adversaries will pause long enough to question whether they can accomplish their political objectives by taking us on. Maybe, just maybe, what I’ve described redefines deterrence in the 21st century. So now let’s talk about where we’re headed. We’ve been building on a foundation for the Air Force we need to be able to do what I just described for the last three years. In 2018, the first year in many that we actually received full funding, and our thanks to Congress and the staffers that are here for that, we were able to successfully stop the bleeding because we have been in a downward spiral for years. In that same year, in ’18, two key products were produced, the National Defense Strategy and the Nuclear Posture Review. The last version of the National Defense Strategy I saw as chief was version 67. Such is the nature of the inclusive way that Secretary Mattis brought on that signature document. In ’19, we actually this year have begun our recovery with a second year of full funding. And in ’19, this last year, we took on two really important debates. The first was the shift from a platform-centric approach to battle management to a network-centric approach to advance battle management. This, ladies and gentlemen, was much bigger than Joint STARS. This is about the future of joint warfighting in a networked digital age. And we began our transition in space to a defendable architecture as we canceled SBIRs seven and eight, and moved to the next generation of infrared satellite technology. And in ’20, the budget that is currently coming to closure, is actually the first budget that has complete National Defense Strategy alignment because it produced in ’18, and you always plan two years out. So the ’20 budget that’s on The Hill now has complete and total alignment with the National Defense Strategy. This is gonna be as hard for us culturally as it is technically to shift from a platform-centric orientation that we all grew up with to a network-centric orientation. Let me just try a little thought experiment to make my point. Let’s bring up today’s Air Force. So I stand here today as the 21st chief and tell ya that this is one hell of an Air Force. And it’s why I can stand here with confidence and tell ya if we go to war, we’re gonna win. Now take down the slide. By now, every one of you has found your happy place. You’ve found some platform, sensor or weapon on that slide that has helped define your career. And the question for us is can we look beyond the devices, can we look beyond the trucks, can we look beyond the platforms and actually focus on the highway we need to build for the future? Next slide. So this is the Air Force that Chief 24 will inherit if we keep everything on track. It’s one hell of an Air Force, but there’s a bit of a story here. Look at how much is still there. So the question for us today is I don’t actually know, standing here today, what’s gonna go in the bay of that B-52 or that X-37 or that F-35 connected through advanced battle management in 2030, nor do we have to. I know this for certain, it’s in the mind of an airman in this room. Our job is to connect ’em. Our job is to build the network and to build the highway that these platforms and sensors and weapons are gonna ride on to be able to do the work that I just described. The smart kids in 1982, when I was in my fifth year at the Air Force Academy, (audience laughing) got a Rubik’s cube. Any of you played with that? You know how many options you can present in a Rubik’s cube? There are 43 quintillion options in a Rubik’s cube. So I want ya to think about every colored square on a Rubik’s cube as a platform, as sensor, a weapon, a coalition teammate, a partner, a domain. The question for us today is how do we present 43 quintillion options to future warfighters so we can throw so many dilemmas at an adversary that they choose not to take us on? I was out at Silicon Valley and I was meeting with a number of heads of the big Silicon Valley software companies. I was the senior military guy. And they said, “Hey, chief, so tell me, “why are you here?” I said, “Well, I’m the chief of staff “of a garage startup.” (audience laughing) Orville and Wilbur, right? Two bicycle mechanics, okay? So we’re a garage startup, right? And today we’re sort of a hardware company, platforms, sensors and weapons. And I’m here because our future’s in software. It ain’t gonna be the device that wins, it’s gonna be the app. And the question for us is how do we build the highway to be able to work it? Of all the domains that we have to dominate. And when you and I walk into a room and they see our uniform, most of our international teammates, joint teammates, many of the American people, they actually don’t know what our badges mean. These are really important to us and they’re part of our culture, but they don’t really know what our tribe is. When they see this uniform, what they expect is that you and I own the high ground and that we’re equally passionate about air and space superiority. And what every war game that AFWIC run told us is that if we’re gonna win, you gotta win first in space. But make no mistake, I’m one who will stand here today and tell you that if, in fact, a war extends or starts in space, because there’s no such thing as war in space, as General Raymond has taught us, right, there’s just war, if a war starts or extends into space, everyone loses. I don’t see any winners in any scenario that comes out of that engagement. But we have to understand the math equation of deterrence, which hasn’t changed in all these years. It’s capability times will, as seen in the eyes and the heart of your adversary. And so if we don’t want a war to extend or start in space, we have to be capable, and our adversaries have to believe that we’re capable of winning it. And ladies and gentlemen, that is our job. And it’s also our job to bring on this new service that I will tell ya I am really excited about. And I’ll tell ya why. The president has actually given us a gift. As the service that’s passionate about air and space superiority, here’s the gift. Before his speech, I, as chief, could not stand on a stage and say the words space and warfighting in the same sentence. It was prohibited. Prohibited from talking about it, prohibited from planning about it. And when the president stated openly that space is a warfighting domain and we have to dominate that domain, just like we do in every other domain, it opened the aperture for us to talk about what we, as a service, have been passionate about for years. And we have three tasks ahead of us. We gotta defend what we have because it’s gonna be there for a while and we all depend on it. And while we’re defending what we have, we gotta transition to a defendable architecture. And we are moving out to do that. At the same time, we have to build this force. And the reason I’m excited about the Space Force, as a service within our Department of the Air Force, is because we’re being given the opportunity to build something really positive. And we have gotta find the sweet spot, you and I, because most of the Space Force will come out of our service with our joint teammates. Here’s the sweet spot we gotta find. We gotta build this service on a foundation of trust and confidence, while at the same time allowing enough room for this service to develop its own unique culture. So as we organize, train and equip and present ready forces to the combatant commander, we present forces that are space smart across all of the services. Here’s what winning looks like to me. A mission commander walks up on the stage at Red Flag and briefs his or her mission. And they start with the space warfighting integration, cyber warfighting integration and then throughout the rest of their mission. And then everybody goes out and they execute. Here’s what losing looks like. That we allow space to be separated as we build a separate service. So we gotta find this sweet spot and make sure that space is integrated and remains integrated in everything we do. And I will tell ya, as someone who’s, like all of us, is passionate about space superiority, I could not be more excited about our future. When history looks back at this time and all the books are written, as they will be written, here’s what I hope they will say. You know, there was one organization that put its head down and just kept driving forward against the president’s stated intent. They had the analytical rigor behind their recommendations. They didn’t get pulled to the right or to the left, they just stayed true to the business of joint warfighting and they advanced the ball in a mature, thoughtful and humble way. And that organization was the United States Air Force. That’s the opportunity that we have on the table. Our third area of investment is how to project combat power. And that starts with the nuclear enterprise. And none of us can walk out of here today without reminding ourselves yet again that’s job one. Nuclear power underwrites every military mission on the planet and every diplomacy that our secretary of state and our diplomats engaged in. And on our worst day as a nation, our job is to get the commander-in-chief where he needs to be, when he needs to be there, and making sure that he is connected to forces in the field to be able to execute operations and support of General Hayden if called upon. But we also have to have targets at risk anywhere on the globe at a time and place of our choosing. I joke and say if I see one more picture of a country with a big red dome over the top of it, I’m gonna execute choke con on the slide builder. (audience laughing) They can’t put a big dome block of wood over their country. The best thing they can do is put a block of Swiss cheese over their country because there’s holes in it. And guess whose job it is to know where those holes in and how to get in? It’s our job, it’s our job. So you will see a significant investment in our ’21 budget going forward, in our portion of the penetrating joint team so that we can do the five P’s of future air superiority, which is to penetrate, and then persist once you’re inside of enemy airspace. And then protect yourself and everything else that’s inside in all domains. And then proliferate. Because what the enemy may see as one may actually become many. And finally punish by holding every target at risk that we need to hold as risk. A significant portion of this penetrating force is our cyber warriors and the business of information warfare. And so along with the A5 and the A8, we also combined the A2 and the A6, and married that up with the N2 and the N6. And we are now combining 24th and 25th Air Force into a single numbered Air Force focused on the business of information warfare. Cyber, ISR, electronic warfare, information operations. And it will be commanded by a three star. And recently announced, up for confirmation Lieutenant General Haugh. Tim, where are ya? Will be the commander of that organization. One of our smartest cyber intelligence officers that we have in our Air Force. Focused on the business of information warfare and our responsibility of contributing to cyber operations. And we have to assume that our logistics will be under attack and we have got to be able to move to win. That as a land-based force, we can no longer assume sanctuary in any of our bases. That we have to be agile, that we have to be expeditionary and that we’re able to accomplish the five key tasks of a deployed expeditionary wing commander: Establish the base, defend the base, receive follow-on forces, establish your command and control, and fight that base in an environment where you’re likely to be taking losses and you’ll be cut off from higher headquarters based on network attacks. And so our return to our expeditionary roots continues. And so now we will shift from the year of the defender to the year of the integrated base defense. Because as a land-based force that has to protect some of the greatest treasure in our arsenal, we have to be the very best in the world at integrated base defense. So we have been building the foundation for this Air Force over the last three years. So I asked you a question earlier. I said, “What does it mean to be a Bulldog? “What does it mean to be a Cougar?” Let me switch that a little bit and ask you a different question. What do we think it means to be an airman? Let me offer you a few thoughts. I think it means we’re all part of something much bigger than ourselves and that we take serious our oath to support and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic, and that we will preserve this experiment called democracy. I think it means we’re passionate about owning the high ground and we understand what the nation expects of us. I think it means we know that we have to be men and women of impeccable character that are entrusted with the lives of America’s sons and daughters who come and join us. I think it means we understand what we value as an institution, in terms of core competences. I think it means we understand that leadership is actually a gift that’s given to us privileged to lead by those who follow, and we have to re-earn that gift every single day. And I think it means we remember. We never forget those who’ve gone before, like Ollie Crawford and Charles McGee and Whitt Peters and Dylan Elchin and Dick Cole. So most everyone in this room has a favorite song. I’ll tell ya my favorite song. It’s called “We Remember.” And if you’ve ever been to a Heritage Flight demo, you’ve heard it sung. So here’s the story of that song. The lead singer for a band called Little Texas, Mr. Dwayne O’Brien, in our 50th anniversary wrote this song and offered it to the Air Force. It then became our signature song in the United States Air Force and it’s played at every event. And as Dwayne shared with me, he wrote it because he’s passionate about not only our Air Force, but the airmen. And so I wanna close out today, and it’s my distinct honor, to introduce to you Mr. Dwayne O’Brien, who is gonna sing that song for all of us, “We Remember.” (audience applauding) To those who’ve had To fly and fight Who have served their country In the sky With a grateful heart And watchful eye We remember And may the faithful Proud machine Who bore the sword of freedom On their wings Be given the honor Such a burden brings When we remember Keep them flying Keep them flying So that all Who see them will know That our freedom was won By the blood that flowed And remember With a place of honor So deserved For what flesh and blood And steel have earned But may the greatest glory Be reserved For the colors They so bravely served Keep them flying Keep them flying So that all Who see them will know That our freedom was won By the blood that flowed And we remember And we remember (audience applauding) (woman speaks too low to hear) (audience applauding)
Ladies and gentlemen, this is our Air Force. May God bless this nation that we love, this experiment called democracy and those that have, and always will, stand shoulder to shoulder to defend her. God bless you all. Thank you very much. (audience applauding) (heraldic music)
[Announcer] Ladies and gentlemen, ladies and gentlemen, thank you for joining us for the chief of staff update. We will reconvene at 1:15 p.m. Please enjoy your lunch.