Reoptimization for Great Power Competition

“I’m extremely proud of the Space Force and all the good it has accomplished. But, as good as we are, as much as we’ve done, as far as we’ve come, it’s not enough. We are not yet optimized for Great Power Competition.”

~ Chief of Space Operations
Gen. Chance Saltzman

The establishment of the U.S. Space Force was a direct response to threats arising from Great Power Competition in the space domain. Nevertheless, our legacy roots leave us sub-optimized for the security environment confronting us today, and we must finish fine-tuning the service to continue meeting its National Defense Strategy responsibilities

In early 2024, the Department of the Air Force unveiled sweeping plans for reshaping, refocusing, and reoptimizing the Air Force and Space Force to ensure continued supremacy in their respective domains while better posturing the services to deter and, if necessary, prevail in an era of Great Power Competition. Through a series of 24 DAF-wide key decisions, four core areas which demand the Department’s attention will be addressed: Develop People, Generate Readiness, Project Power and Develop Capabilities.

The space domain is no longer benign; it has rapidly become congested and contested.

We must enhance our capabilities, develop Guardians for modern warfare, prepare for the high intensity fight, and strengthen our power projection to thrive and win in this new era of Great Power Competition.

Video by Tech. Sgt. Kathrine Dodd

DPAA performs disinterment ceremony for USS Oklahoma unknowns

Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency

Sept. 21, 2016 | 2:28

A joint service detail assigned to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) participates in a disinterment ceremony Honolulu, Hawaii, July 13, 2015. The ceremony was part of a six-month effort by DPAA, with the help from the Department of Veteran Affairs, to exhume 61 caskets containing up to 388 remains of unidentified service members lost on the USS Oklahoma during the attack on Pearl Harbor Dec. 7, 1941. The detail escorts the caskets from their plots at National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific (NMCP) and loads them onto trucks for transport to the DPAA Laboratory at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam. The mission of DPAA is to provide the fullest possible accounting for our missing personnel to their families and the nation. (U.S. Air Force video by Tech. Sgt. Kathrine Dodd)