Air force transformation--phase II.

Secretary of the Air Force James G. Roche 

Remarks to the Air Warfare Symposium, Air Force Association, Orlando, Fla., Feb. 12, 2004

Good afternoon. I'm pleased to have the opportunity to kick off the 20th Air Warfare Symposium, and to share the stage with our Chief of Staff and my partner, General John Jumper, as well as the other distinguished Air Force leaders who will speak with you today and tomorrow.

I'm pleased also to look out and see some of the retired leaders of our Air Force--Generals Jimmie Adams, Chuck Homer, Joe Ashy, Fig Newton, Tony Robertson, and Jack Gregory. Thank you gentlemen for your contributions to the AFA and for your continued service to our Air Force and our nation. You helped build the Air Force of today; and for that John and I--and the American people--will forever be in your debt.

Thank you, Peto, for your kind introduction. Let me begin by commending you for your superb leadership of the Air Force Association, and the great work your team has been doing in advancing the interests of the Air Force. The success of our Air Force mission has rarely been as important as it is today. As we develop strategies appropriate to this new era, the Air Force Association continues to make an invaluable contribution to further an increased understanding of air and space power.

The American people trust the military more than any profession in the United States. They trust our competence in conflict. And, they are keenly aware of the skill of our airmen, as well as the contributions of airmen to our joint military successes in the first Gulf War, in the Balkans, and in Afghanistan and Iraq. The Air Force Association has stood by them in each conflict, and in peace. As a result, our airmen benefit from increased pay and improved quality of life. While many have contributed to these outcomes, the great job you've done in working our issues is a big part of the equation. On behalf of the 700,000 active, guard, reserve and civilians who proudly call themselves airmen, thank you.

We can never forget that, today, we are a nation at war. Since we last gathered in Orlando, we have fought another major campaign in our ongoing war against terrorism. As we discuss our way ahead in preparing our Air Force for the future, we must keep in mind the uncertainty and dangers in this new era, and recommit ourselves to preparing for the challenges that lie ahead. As your theme suggests, one way to do that is to apply what we've learned so far, and to keep in mind that we are engaged in a continuous learning process.

In Operation Iraqi Freedom, we experienced the great benefits of teamwork and trust. As (Defense) Secretary Rumsfeld likes to point out, our joint and coalition forces are no longer deconflicting our efforts in combat, as we once did. Today, we cooperate, from planning to execution. It is this cooperation--built most recently upon the lessons we learned in Afghanistan--that produced the desired effects we achieved in Iraq.

This was the most rapid and precise display of combat power ever witnessed in history. Within 21 days, our coalition had effectively broken coherent resistance in Baghdad and collapsed the regime's control. Five days after that, we occupied the last major Iraqi city--Tikrit. The former regime has been replaced, and 25 million Iraqis now know liberty--and are having to learn the responsibilities of liberty. There still is a lot of work to do. And, while there will be challenges, and days like today that bring news that saddens American families, it is clear the vast majority of the Iraqi people are better off today than they were a year ago, and that the United States is free from a threat to our interests, our allies, and our citizens.

Our successes are not limited to Iraq. The Islamic Republic of Afghanistan has a constitution and is on a path to claim its place as a sovereign member of the community of nations. We have captured or killed 45 of the 55 most wanted in Iraq, and close to two-thirds of known senior al-Qaeda operatives. We have disrupted terrorist cells on most continents, and we have prevented additional terrorist attacks. These are dramatic achievements. They demonstrate the professionalism of our armed forces, the effectiveness of our interagency counter-terrorism effort, and, most important, they communicate to the world the efficacy of our strategy.

Ladies and gentlemen, these military successes are not accidents of history that might have been different had a battle or two gone in the favor of the enemy. On the contrary--in the first Gulf War, in the Balkans, in Operations Southern and Northern Watch, in Afghanistan and now again in Iraq, we displayed over a decade of unparalleled air and space dominance. For those who profess an interest in the study of warfare, they have been privileged to witness the discipline of our airmen, their dominance in warfighting, and the decisiveness of our combat forces in conflict. The dominance we enjoy today is the product of a sustained investment--an investment in the airmen who fight, in superlative airmen who lead, in the technology of warfighting, and in our concepts of operation that guide our integration efforts.

Adapting the Air Force--An Activist Agenda

Our service men and women are winning the global war on terrorism--day by day. Our airmen, however, also are providing General John Jumper and me with the ideas we need as we work to continue to adapt our Air Force. We are working hard to come to grips with the rapid advances in technology, the proliferation of challenges to democracy, and the radically-altered global environment that threatens us and our allies.

That's why the President charged us with a mission three years ago when he took office--to challenge the status quo, and prepare our armed forces to meet the new threats our nation would face as the 21st century unfolds. Secretary Don Rumsfeld took up this challenge.

Across the Department of Defense, we have done much in this regard. We have fashioned a new defense strategy, and developed a new approach to balancing risks. We have fashioned a new Unified Command Plan, and taken critical steps to attract and retain talent in our armed forces--including targeted pay raises and quality of life improvements for the troops and for their families.

In the Air Force, I have had the unique privilege of working closely with John Jumper for all but three months of my tenure. He is a spectacular officer, and he is the guiding intellect behind our focus on concepts of operation and a truly "expeditionary Air Force." John and I have developed a close partnership that has produced a synergy of ideas, perspectives, and energy on ways to adapt our force--and, we ain't done yet! So, fasten your seatbelts, gang!

In the last couple of years, we have made a great deal of progress, all the while building on the thinking and great efforts of our predecessors:

* We've refocused Air Force strategic thinking on core competencies, concepts of operations, and doctrine consistent with the joint character and asymmetric nature of modern warfare 

* We've restructured the force and focused our training to support a series of missions, including homeland defense, a renewed focus on Close Air Support, close partnering with SOF, the Army, Navy, and Marine Corps in joint operations, and space support to the warfighter

* We delivered a transformed Air Force to the battlefield, with Armed Predators, Global Hawk, bombers working with our Battlefield Airmen on the ground to support the CAS mission, new tactics that enable rapid engagement of Time Sensitive Targets, networked Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance, and advanced capabilities in our Combined Air Operations Centers

* Let me say a word about the team we refer to as Battlefield Airmen -A-10s, C-17s, F-15s and F-16s and others have airmen engaged on the battlefield. Our focus on Battlefield Airmen is the on those on the ground. More on that later.

* We consolidated the B-1 Bomber fleet, achieving the highest mission capable rate in the aircraft's 20-year history. We've modified its employment, tailored its weapons to exploit its advantages, and will upgrade it, the better to capitalize on it

* We transformed the F-22 to the F/A-22 by integrating new avionics and weapons that will make it the Air Force's premier air-to-ground strike system in heavily defended areas, as well as being highly effective against cruise missiles

* Thanks to Pete Teets, our Undersecretary, we increased the unity of effort among the Air Force and the National Reconnaissance Office, bringing a joint perspective to our role as the DoD's Executive Agent for Space

* We fostered enhanced civil-military integration among Air Force Space Command and the Intelligence community, and we are working to fully integrate space into our operations; we are one Air Force

* We've engaged with industry to stabilize production of critical capabilities--the C-17, Predators, Global Hawk, and other systems

* We've expanded our pool of deployable airmen to 75 percent of our active force, from something closer to 35 percent just two years ago

* We've adopted a new Force Development program to provide focused education, training, and experience for our officers, enlisted, and civilians across the Total Force

* We've worked hard at adapting to the demands of this new era, adjusting our skill mix to reduce demand on particular specialties, and initiating an effort to return to our authorized end strength

* We are working even more closely with our Guard and Reservists as part of the Total Force

* And, throughout, we have made the point that we are one Air Force. Whether our airmen are in strike, space, mobility, support, or special operations, we are guided by our common values. We are one Air Force.

We are now well on our way in what we view as the initial phase of our transformation. The first step in making change is recognition of the need to do so. Across the Air Force, our airmen understand that we must adapt to this new environment. The second step is to take the terrific work of our CONOPS and Capabilities Review and Risk Assessment teams and develop strategies for reinvigorating those existing mission areas needed for the future, or those new mission areas we need to develop to assure future combat success. John and I want to discuss some of these areas with you today.

Special Operations

One mission area that demands our increased attention and investment is Special Operations.

In Afghanistan, we saw the true global reach of Air Force strike operations. Precision weapons from the air coupled with U.S. Special Operations and indigenous forces on the ground were highly successful. As Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz has pointed out, the real success was not limited to our ability to fly bombers halfway around the world, but that we had "brave men on the ground to direct that airpower"--our Combat Controllers, one of the specialties in our Battlefield Airmen community.

In Iraq, our Special Operations capability proved even more effective. In the north, 1,400 SOF operators working with airpower paralyzed 11 Iraqi divisions. Not only did they virtually "hold terrain" with a minimum footprint, they ensured that the 3rd Infantry Division's drive to Baghdad was significantly easier than it would have been had those Iraqi divisions moved south.

We also witnessed a successful counter-SCUD fight in the west using a unique command relationship. In this branch of the overall war plan, the CFACC was the supported commander, and the Special Operations Task Force commander provided the human sensors to identify targets, control attacks, and assess results. These Special Operators were highly effective, controlling large areas with limited forces and the strength of tailored, coalition airpower. They were a light, yet dramatically lethal force, and were undeniably joint in how they operated.

Special Operations in our Air Force is not and cannot be a peripheral capability. While we can't predict the next battlefield for our armed forces, I can assure you that wherever we fight in the future, the capabilities of our Special Operators will be integral to our success.

As such, our Special Operators deserve Air Force focus and attention. We need to provide them with the modern systems and advanced capabilities required to continue their transformation into the specialized force of airman who support our Special Operations Combatant Commander, but who at times also support the Joint or Coalition Force Air Component Commander. We cannot expect more from them if we aren't willing to make a greater investment in them and their warfighting systems.

We now recognize, for example, that our Combat Search and Rescue force is an Air Force Special Operations as well as an Air Combat Command capability. Our special operations missions will benefit from the expertise, training, and tools of our professional CSAR force, and CSAR will benefit greatly by being part of AFSOC. John and I are very proud of General Hal Homburg, the Commander of Air Combat Command, and General Paul Hester, our AFSOC Commander, and their teams for bringing this critically important military capability together in one house so quietly and professionally.

As we integrate CSAR into AFSOC, we need an investment strategy for the people and systems that will ensure our success in their mission area in the future. For instance, we need a new, medium lift personnel recovery vehicle to replace the aging HH-60G fleet. This future vehicle must be manned and equipped for rapid deployment, and must be capable of recovering possibly injured personnel in all terrain and weather conditions.

There are commercially available platforms that, with appropriate modifications, could fill a number of our Air Force vertical lift requirements, including CSAR, ICBM security, and other necessary missions. We are working with the joint community--especially the Marine Corps--on a smart modernization strategy. The O-6 POM is the right time to begin this modernization. Let's get on with it.

Further, we need to modernize our vertical heavy lift, infil/exfil systems, and our venerable special operations C-130-based fleet.

The MH-53M Pave Low is nearly 40 years old and will be phased out of the inventory without a service life extension by the end of this decade. We have Pave Lows in our active fleet today that flew in the Son Tay raid into North Vietnam in 1970; and we should all take note that some of our MH-53s flew C-SAR missions in that conflict as well. We look forward to the CV-22 to replace the MH-53s. The program is making progress. It is now a Marine Corps program, managed by the Navy, with a U.S. Air Force Colonel as the Program Director working with assigned AFSOC airmen as well as Marines. If that's not joint, I don't know what is.

If it works out as well as we hope it will, the CV-22 will provide an attractive capability we've never had before in the Air Force. It is a rapid, self-deployable, vertical lift aircraft with twice the speed of conventional rotary wing aircraft. We will explore how to capitalize on this new system. For example, it may give us an expanded mission set that includes long-range CSAR, infil/exfil of special operations forces, and support of other offensive operations. But, it won't be a gunship, and it can't substitute for the lift capability of the C-130s; nor could it be an effective helo tanker. But, it will be armed and will give our special operators a swift and lethal vertical capability. We need to build systems and let technology take us wherever it takes us.

The seven variants of our aging C-130 fleet should be replaced in time by new aircraft. However, each time we study this issue with a fresh sheet of paper, we come up with solutions which are very, very interesting--but simply not financially viable. We need some smart thinking on a way forward, and we are doing that. And, if the answer is new C-130s to bridge us to some distant future, then we will do that. It is our intent to build a portfolio of capabilities for our future Special Operators.

For instance, we envision a future that includes unmanned aerial vehicles and remotely piloted aircraft playing an expanded role in special operations. The next gunship capability may work out to be a family of platforms that fuse manned and unmanned, lethal and non-lethal fires and state-of-the-art ISR technologies. In the near term, we hope to continue to improve the tactics, techniques, and procedures that link strike systems, gunships, and RPAs to our Battlefield Airmen and the troops they support. When we do, this will expand the battlefield support we provide to both conventional and SOF land forces in multiple scenarios.

Close Air Support

Another mission deserving our special attention is close air support. This reflects our desire for full integration with land forces, to include SOF, Army, Marines and coalition forces.

Our airmen on the ground have been the key to many of the combat successes we witnessed in Afghanistan and Iraq. Through their "eyes on target" assessments, they provide one of America's significant asymmetric capabilities, and dramatically increase the effectiveness of our support to land forces.

That is why John and I are committed to our Battlefield Airmen project. Before we began this effort two years ago, the Combat Controllers' gear lagged well behind current technology. Their standard kit weighed as much as 160 pounds, and they were forced to use outdated mapping, plotting, designation and communications equipment.

The Battlefield Air Operations kit under development, and partially deployed, is already reducing the weight of the gear by 50 percent while machine-to-machine equipment interfaces reduce the time it takes to link sensors to shooters by 40 percent; and we will equip these airmen with gear for every environmental extreme. We are investing in man-portable, tactical UAVs to extend their sphere of influence, and greatly increase their situational awareness. We are committed to providing them with power sources which last far longer and are significantly lighter. And, John and I see a near-term future where they can designate a target up to 10 kilometers away, automatically communicate precise targeting coordinates to our aircraft, and receive an expected time of "weapons arrival" in a confirmation message.

Further, we will work to get all of our Battlefield Airmen into a family of warfare specializations. This is a very important point--it is, in many respects, a new way of thinking: just as we have a family of airmen we call "pilots," with a variety of specialties--helicopter, fighter, tanker, airlift, bomber--we need to start thinking about these specialized warriors, these "Battlefield Airmen," in similar terms. We need to consolidate our Battlefield Airmen--combat controllers, pararescuemen, combat weather, special tactics, TAC-Ps, etc.--under a common organizational and training structure, and strengthen the combat power they bring to the battlefield, whether they bring it in ACC, or in AFSOC. Among other reasons, we should do this to provide career-based, tailored Force Development for each of them.

This focused investment, these new approaches, and new ways of thinking with enable us to produce a set of capabilities that will expand our Air Force portfolio of military advantages. As important, this focus will help us support what we see as the fundamental rationale behind our integration efforts--we are all on the same Air Force team. We are one Air Force. And we exist to produce effects on the battlefield as part of a joint warfighting team.

Yet, it would be shortsighted of us to make a concerted investment in the airmen who bring air and space power to bear on the battlefield without making a similar focused investment in the systems that deliver those capabilities.

For my entire tenure as your Secretary, you've heard me speak metaphorically about returning to the era of Patton and Arnold, to an era where our focus was on building the strategies, concepts, and capabilities to integrate air and ground forces that would enable us to produce decisive and compelling effects against our enemies. John has noted often that our Air Force future is closely tied to the future of our land forces. We have done a good job in making this shift. CAS from 40,000 feet is truly transformational. But, we can do even better.

Beyond establishing and maintaining air dominance, there are initiatives where we are pressing forward with families of UAVs and RPAs, many of which will support land combat directly and in real time. And we continue to develop some exciting GMTI capabilities, as well as new Integration and Battlefield C2 capabilities. All focused on dramatic support of land forces.

But, we must do more. Our A-10 fleet has served us well. Our ground forces appreciate its capabilities and the airmen who bring these capabilities to their fight. Its ability to be based in proximity to land forces in battle, often in unimproved circumstances; its resistance to FOD; its robust self protection; and, the skill of the airmen who fly it close to their ground colleagues in direct support of fire fights are good reasons why it is appreciated. It is right, then, for us to commit to the near term improvement of a portion of this fleet, and to evolve this mission area over time.

So, we will cull from the A-10 force some as yet to be determined number of aircraft in the best condition for sensor system upgrades, re-enginning, and service life extension to bridge the force to the new F-35 CAS fleet. It also is our intent, as we go through the PPBS process and working with the Congress, to equip this future CAS force with the STOVL variant of the F-35, with an emphasis on STOL. These aircraft will be as special to our ground force colleagues as are the A-10s today. We believe that it is important that our land forces see us demonstrate our commitment, our obvious commitment to air-to-ground support, both deep interdiction and CAS. We intend to be fully integrated with them, whether they are SOF, Army, Marines or coalition forces. With this strategy, we will solidify our goal of developing evolving joint air-ground doctrine, tactics, techniques and procedures. The STOVL variant will complement the CTOL variants which also will serve in the air-to-ground mission.

And, let's keep in mind that the F/A-22 will serve to support distributed ground forces deep in enemy territory, as well as assure air dominance, attacks against moving targets, and cruise missile defense--all critically important to ground operations. We also will work more mundane issues like common definitions of kill boxes and map grids. In moving our Air Force into the STOL and STOVL world for CAS, we will look for training efficiencies to be gained by working jointly with the Marine Corps on facility use and course development.

All of this will be done with a Total Force approach. Thus, in addition to our Reserve units, we will look to blend Active and Guard units, where it makes sense to do so, to increase our combat crew ratios and expand our wartime surge capability. With our strike and special operations units, among others, already populated by active, guard, and reserve airmen, these relationships will only be enhanced by our CAS strategy. All this will take time as we work programmatic issues through the normal planning, programming and budgeting process. But, we need to set our sights on the future we want to bring about. And that is what we are committed to do.

And these efforts are just a part of our broader strategy to adapt our Air Force. Each and every year, we will get better and smarter.

Since I have you captive, let me pause here, with your indulgence, to shift gears and try to dispel some of the mythology which seems to have grown about the term: "MC2A." So, please standby to copy. From the first time I met John Jumper, through hours of discussions with Lincoln Labs and the creation of the Paul Revere test bed aircraft, MC2A always has been thought of as an integration and BMC2 system; it is sensor independent; it is platform, independent.

Meanwhile, there is MP-RTIP which will give us a far better GMTI and SAR capable radar. This radar program was started as a spiral development for the Joint STARS system. Early on in the development, it was noted that, if we could expand the height of the MP-RTIP aperture from roughly 2 feet to 4 feet, we could make a major contribution to cruise missile defense. But, a 4-foot gondola (or canoe) can only fit on a wide body aircraft. Put MP-RTIP, with a 4-foot aperture, on a wide body aircraft, and there is lots of room for the MC2A joint battle management and integration module! Thus, the E-10A.

Put a new AMTI system with the MC2A, and you have the E-10B, a potential follow-on to AWACS; Rivet Joint and MC2A yields the E-10C. All variants will provide sensor fusion, UAV/RPA control, and battlefield situational awareness. There you have it: an E-10 series, each of which would share a common integration and BMC2 suite--the MC2A. I hope my contribution to our dialogue helps and doesn't cause more harm.

Now, back to the future. We will continue to invest in families of sensor pods to maximize the strike capability of all of our air-to-ground systems. We are developing families of UAVs and RPAs to enhance ISR, strike and close air support. We are investing in new space systems to increase the precision and lethality of our strike systems. We are investing in new methods of organizing, communicating, and sharing information to increase our awareness of the enemy, to predict the dynamics of the battlefield, and to assess the results of our operations. We are continuing to develop our airmen with new expectations of international skills, technical proficiency, but always a commitment to our core values.

In short, ladies and gentlemen, we are as committed as ever to our vision of an Air Force respected widely for its excellence, for its leaders, for its esprit, for its effectiveness, and for its devastating lethality. One Air Force. John and I may be getting older; we may be a bit bruised and battered; we may be a little short on tankers; but, we are not slowing down--not for a minute.

It is now my sincere privilege to turn the podium over to a great American patriot, the Chief of Staff of the U.S. Air Force, and my good friend and partner, General John Jumper--to really stir you up and get this AFA symposium off the ground. I'll be back later to take your questions along with John. Thank you very much.