Between the tanker wars, the battles over intelligence and space systems and the recent firefight between the service and OSD its hard to remember that the Air Force actually fights real wars. But the new Air Force Chief of Staff, Gen. Norton Schwartz, knows and, in the first major brief laying out his priorities, Schwartz puts nukes top of the list, then he cites improving joint cooperation.
As part of this, he wants to aggressively adapt AF ways and means across the spectrum (read better balance between special operations and conventional forces). And he defines the spectrum as including command and control, ISR and non-traditional roles.
Next on the list comes that old time religion taking care of airmen. But this includes two warfighting goals that are pretty revealing. Schwartz says airmen must be trained & ready for 21st Century challenges (can you say next war-itis) and he admits the service needs to Reinforce our Warfighting Ethos, expeditionary combat mindset.
Fourth comes reset, or Modernize our aging air & space inventories. And, for better or for worse, acquisition comes dead last.
Read the rest of this story at DoD Buzz.
-- Colin Clark
