By Cheryl Pellerin
DoD News, Defense Media Activity
WASHINGTON, Sept. 17, 2014 – The Air Force’s dominance in
the skies, space and cyberspace is the backbone of the military's global reach
and U.S. commitments around the world, a senior Defense Department official
said here today.
Frank Kendall, undersecretary of defense for acquisition,
technology and logistics, delivered this morning's keynote address for Defense
Secretary Chuck Hagel at the Air Force Association’s 2014 Air and Space
Conference in Maryland. Hagel was scheduled to speak, but was called to attend
a meeting with President Barack Obama and other administration officials at
U.S. Central Command at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Florida.
The undersecretary had read Hagel’s prepared speech before
the event and said he was moved to pass the secretary’s message along. As he
did so, at times he added his own thoughts.
And before beginning the presentation, Kendal told the
audience that Hagel wanted to recognize the sacrifice and achievements of all
airmen and women in ongoing and recent military operations.
Broader spectrum of conflict
“Today our military as a whole, and the Air Force in
particular, are being tested by protracted budget uncertainty, technological
and commercial transformations, and the changing character of war,” Kendall
said. At the same time, he added, the nation continues to call on its airmen and
women to respond rapidly to new sources of instability across the globe while
preparing for a broader spectrum of conflict than they faced over the past 13
years of counterinsurgency operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“The Air Force's charge today,” the undersecretary said, “is
to ensure that America's air power is unrivaled for the next generation, and to
do so with fewer resources but more numerous and more sophisticated
competitors.”
The Air Force is the military service most closely
associated with cutting-edge technology, he added, but all airmen know that the
ability to recruit and retain exceptional people is the foundation of the Air
Force's extraordinary capabilities, Kendall said.
Vanguard programs
To compete with commercial competitors, especially in space,
cyber and other high-technology areas, the Air Force is working on vanguard
programs that other services should strongly consider, the undersecretary said,
such as encouraging breaks in service that let airmen gain diverse work
experience, establishing specialized career tracks that allow for promotion,
and education and training that span a lifetime of service.
“The Air Force must also continue to move beyond tribal
cycles of promotion, moving beyond bomber or fighter generals and instead just
promoting generals -- leaders who are also world-class strategists, managers,
innovators and problem solvers,” Kendall said.
The Air Force also must continue taking steps to expand and
diversify its international partnerships.
International partnerships
“The United States and the U.S. Air Force do not fight
alone,” Kendall noted. “In space, the Air Force is operating a military
satellite program with Australia, Canada, Denmark, Luxembourg, the Netherlands
and New Zealand. And it maintains a joint strategic airlift capability in
Hungary with 10 NATO allies and two NATO partners.”
The Air Force also has established a NATO MQ-9 Reaper Users
Group to enhance alliance intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, or
ISR, capabilities.
“In the aftermath of Typhoon Haiyan last year, decades of
Air Force-led training and exercising enabled the coordinated response of
C-130s from countries that included Australia, India, Indonesia, Japan,
Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand, along with other
aircraft from 24 nations,” Kendall said.
Especially in times of constrained resources, he added, such
partnership initiatives are vital and should deepen and broaden going forward.
Foundation of U.S. national security
Addressing Air Force capabilities, Kendall said the nuclear
deterrent is the foundation of U.S. national security.
“Earlier this year, following revelations about troubling
lapses and poor morale, Secretary Hagel traveled to see missileers at F.E.
Warren [Air Force Base in Wyoming] and talked to launch control officers
underground at Malmstrom [Air Force Base in Montana],” Kendall told the
audience. Hagel also ordered comprehensive internal and external reviews of the
nuclear enterprise spanning the Air Force ground- and air-based nuclear
deterrent and the Navy's submarine-based systems, he said.
Today, Hagel is in full agreement with DoD senior leaders
that America's nuclear deterrent is a safe, secure, effective and reliable
force, Kendal said. But it has become clear to Hagel and the leadership that a
consistent, long-term lack of investment in and support for the nuclear forces
“has left us with little margin to cope with mounting stresses,” he added.
Support for the nuclear forces
“The fundamental problem has not been a lack of rhetoric or
top-to-bottom reviews,” Kendall said. “It has been a lack of focus, attention
and resources, and it has been a pervasive sense that a career in the nuclear
enterprise offers too few opportunities for growth or advancement.”
Kendall said that is something Hagel knows well from his
conversations with personnel within the nuclear enterprise.
“We will fix this,” he said. “DoD will ensure that our joint
nuclear enterprise attracts the best people and that it is coherent,
integrated, synchronized and on a sustainable path to modernization.” Under the
leadership of Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James and Air Force Chief of
Staff Gen. Mark A. Welsh III, he added, the Air Force already has taken
significant steps in the right direction.
“I was with Secretary Hagel when he visited Kirtland [Air
Force Base in New Mexico], and I was with him when he went to F.E. Warren, and
I will tell you that he takes this very seriously,” Kendall said. “I’ve had
enough experience in the Pentagon – I’m speaking for myself now – to know how
seriously your national leadership takes the nuclear mission.
“I had a chance to have dinner with Secretary Hagel in a
small Mexican restaurant in Albuquerque after we visited the site at Kirtland,”
the undersecretary continued. “We talked a little about the emotional impact of
seeing that vast amount of power in such a small confined space, and what it
meant to the nation to have responsibility for that enormous destructive
power.”
Absolute commitment
“It’s not a small thing to our national political
leadership,” Kendall said. “It’s not a small thing to the Air Force, and there is
absolute commitment to this. It is our most important mission. … I want to
reinforce that message on Secretary Hagel’s behalf this morning. He is very
serious about this. We will do what needs to be done.”
Beyond the nuclear enterprise, he added, the Air Force is
responsible for maintaining America's air superiority in any operation, now and
in the future. Preparing for the decades ahead requires careful planning and
investments and hard choices, he said.
Cutting-edge technology
Savings achieved by retiring older platforms will help the
Air Force maintain and acquire more cutting-edge technology and weapon systems,
Kendall said.
“That is why the president's budget protects investments in
next-generation jet engine technology,” the undersecretary said, “as well as
priority modernization programs including the new long-range strike bomber, the
KC-46 tanker and the F-35 joint strike fighter.”
High-end platforms like the F-22 and F-35 have a vital role
in the fleet, he added, and the F-22 will underwrite America's air dominance
for a generation.
“The F-35, with its unique networking capabilities coupled
with its electronic warfare, advanced sensors, stealth and advanced weapons
systems, will enable the United States and its closest partners and allies to dominate
in the air and conduct joint operations more effectively than ever before,”
Kendall said.
A primary mission of fighter squadrons is to open the door
for the rest of the air fleet and the military to enable less-sophisticated
platforms such as the Air Force’s remotely piloted aircraft, to operate freely
and successfully, Kendall noted. The demand for remotely piloted aircraft has
grown from around 7,000 flying hours in 2001 to more than 300,000 last year, he
said, adding that this year they will account for 15 percent of all Air Force
flying hours, and that the number would only increase.
In space, the undersecretary said, the Air Force must adapt
to a new environment in which space is no longer a sanctuary, but instead is
contested by other nations, an environment in which next-generation space
architecture is being deployed by the private sector rather than by
governments, and an environment in which resilience is becoming as critical as
capability.
“We can't predict the direction of technological change,”
Kendall said, “but imagination and vision and the innovation, operationally and
technically, that must accompany them are what Secretary Hagel calls on the
next generation of airmen and women to reach for in the years ahead.”
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