Air Force Global Strike Command’s Post

There's a lot to unpack in this article. My two takeaways: 1. The needed changes that the Air Force is making (and at the pace it's changing) requires an agile mindset unconstrained by our previous experiences and structures. A "this is how we've always done it" mindset will be lethal. 2. We need to go even faster but we need the resources to do so. This is a reminder of the negative impacts of "continuing resolutions" on our ability to compete with our adversaries.

We must continue to educate on the importance and requirement to invest in homeland operations/defense

The increase in incidents with China , and “unprofessional” events, both in the air, and at sea collisions (such as with Philippines) should remind us of how bad it can get. <<<“U.S. and Chinese aircraft have dealt with each other in the Indo-Pacific—the Pentagon revealed in 2023 that Chinese aircraft conducted over 180 risky intercepts of U.S. planes in the past two years, surpassing the total incidents from the previous decade, heightening concerns about China’s unpredictable and increasingly provocative behavior.”>>> Remember this??! https://lnkd.in/eFrU_F23

Australia’s 2023 Defence Strategic Review (DSR) prescribed the ADF a ‘strategy of denial’ using an Anti-Access/Area-Denial (A2/AD) force structure to deny adversaries the ‘freedom of action to militarily coerce Australia and to operate against Australia without being held at risk’. The ADF’s primary area of interest spans from the north-eastern Indian Ocean to Australia’s northern approaches in Southeast Asia to the Pacific. It identified capabilities for denying enemy forces from approaching Australia that include undersea warfare assets, multi-domain long-range strike capacity, multi-domain capabilities for sea denial and localised sea control, as well as air and missile defence (AMD) systems. As Australia’s northern approaches through Southeast Asia and the South Pacific are archipelagic, they are covered with islands, rivers and ocean. Specifically, the DSR gave the Australian Army several force structure priorities, including ‘littoral manoeuvre capability by sea, land and air’, long-range land and maritime strike capabilities and AMD capabilities. Littoral manoeuvre occurs close to shore, with Army intending ‘to achieve control of the maritime domain from the land, as well as projecting and sustaining force ashore’. The DSR also stipulated that the acquisition of medium-range AMD systems ‘should be accelerated’ because these capabilities are needed ‘urgently’, noting that ‘off-the-shelf options must be explored’. The DSR concluded that ‘only by concurrently delivering these capabilities—littoral manoeuvre vessels, land-based maritime strike capabilities and infantry fighting vehicles—will Army be able to achieve the strategic and operational effect required of the ADF for National Defence and a strategy of denial’.

Black Operation A black operation or black op is a covert or clandestine operation by a government agency, a military unit or a paramilitary organization; it can include activities by private companies or groups. Key features of a black operation are that it is secret and it is not attributable to the organization carrying it out. https://lnkd.in/egBCGNx8

I like Admiral Stavridis' analysis and proposed options. But I can't believe that these options haven't been developed and presented. I think the reluctance for the US to acknowledge what is happening in the Red Sea is a clue. If we're not going to even talk about what's happening, are we going to see decisions to respond to it? Highly unlikely. The farther I got in my career, the more I realized the wisdom of the lyrics to "Freewill" by Rush. "If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice." In this case, the decision is to not set a strategy and instead operate at the low operational (though can you be at the operational level of war without a strategy?) or high tactical level of war. If we're not steering the end state, the other side will.

Times are changing… reoptimization is happening this summer. Read below. What Airmen need to know about the Air Task Force: • ATFs will enter the AFFORGEN cycle during the reset phase in summer 2024 and will be prepared to deploy beginning fiscal year 2026 • ATFs will team, train, and deploy together throughout the AFFORGEN cycle • Over time, the elements of the ATF will be incorporated into operational wings

An excellently written example of the Hegelian Dialetic, in a teacup.