Standing up new commands: designing the DAF for Great Power Competition

Published Sept. 20, 2024
By Secretary of the Air Force Public Affairs

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. (AFNS) -- Department of the Air Force senior leaders spoke about the development and realignment of the department’s commands during a panel at the Air and Space Force Association’s Air, Space and Cyber Conference in National Harbor, Sept. 17.

The panel included U.K. Royal Air Force Air Marshal Paul Godfrey, assistant chief of Space Operations for Future Concepts and Partnerships; U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen. Brian Robinson, Air Education and Training Command commander; U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen. David Harris, Air Force Futures deputy chief of staff; and U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen. Dale White, military deputy, Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics.

Initially announced in February, the department will be realigning and, in some cases, standing up new commands to optimize for Great Power Competition. Airman Development Command, Integrated Capabilities Command, and Space Futures Command are part of a larger effort to develop DAF capabilities and maintain superiority against the pacing challenge.

Airman Development Command, set to be the redesignated and reoptimized Air Education and Training Command, will posture the Air Force to quickly shift accessions and training priorities to develop mission ready Airmen at an accelerated rate.

“Frankly, the training never stops. We are constantly training as an Air Force,” Robinson said. “Our charge is to get those skills and competencies ingrained in our folks in an integrated fashion with the entire mission set in mind as early as possible, using the best technologies, techniques and human centered learning that we possibly can.”

Robinson underscored the necessity for an adaptive force development strategy to maintain superiority over global adversaries. He emphasized that the current military training and development framework must evolve to address future operational concepts and battlespace requirements, which involves shifting from a focus on functional stovepipes to a mission-oriented approach.

The recently activated provisional Integrated Capabilities Command will ensure the Air Force modernizes capabilities fast enough to keep pace with the pacing challenge, China, and acute threat, Russia. It will lead Air Force modernization prioritization efforts across several key investment areas, while continuing to develop the framework for the permanent ICC, which is expected to reach final operational capability as a new Air Force’s institutional command in 2025.

“The changes that are being put in place are more than just greater reoptimization. It is really making us one Air Force,” Harris said. “It is much more lethal with a sense of urgency to get after the threat.”

Harris and White, who both worked on ICC, discussed the need for a robust framework to address emerging threats and operational challenges. They noted the importance of linking experimentation, acquisition and operational functions to ensure force development.

“We cannot forget the guiding line behind this is urgency,” White said. “We understand the threat, and we need to be able to task, organize, to urgently address that threat.”

He further noted that the Air Force is trying to have a reinvention of what warfighter integration means and how we employ it.

In addition to the Air Force’s new commands, the Space Force is also standing up Space Futures Command. Consisting of the Space Warfighting Analysis Center, Concepts and Technology Center, and Wargaming Center, the command will support accelerating the transformation of the Space Force into an integrated warfighting service alongside allies and partners.

“It does become the front door, I think, for allies and partners to go and understand where they can contribute, where they can add value to the United States,” Godfrey said. “Ultimately, we can build what’s termed an objective force, that actually has allied capabilities integrated into it.”

Among the 24 key decisions announced by DAF senior leaders in February 2024, the stand-up of these new commands will play a critical part in posturing the services to deter, and if necessary, prevail during an era of Great Power Competition.