Remarks Made At National Security Conference In Washington,
D.C.
The Air Force must be able to operate across a spectrum of
conflicts, using a myriad of warfare tools and tactics, while
keeping up with advancing technologies and the ways the nation's
adversaries use them, the service's top officer said Wednesday.
"This demands that the United States Air Force set a clear
vision of how it will move to meet emerging threats and fulfill
evolving requirements," Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Norton A.
Schwartz said Jan. 20 at the 38th Institute for Foreign Policy
Analysis-Fletcher Conference on National Security, Strategy and
Policy. "We must establish clear priorities for investment and yes,
divestment, all while corresponding to strategic and fiscal
realities."
Schwartz stated his intent for the Air Force to remain agile and
able to act in response to current affairs while being ready and
able to respond to any number of potential contingencies.
Flexibility, he added, is essential to the Air Force's ability to
contribute to the joint team and ensure its success. "While this is
a conference on air, space and cyber power, we must remember that
national defense is a total team effort," he said. "Further joint
integration and interservice cooperation toward enhanced air-land
and air-sea interoperability remains a top strategic
imperative."
Rapidly advancing adversary capabilities and threats that aren't
confined to any single domain pose significant challenges, and only
a coordinated response from all of the military services will
deliver what is required for national security, the general told
the group. "As we further integrate, the benefits are not limited
to a single domain," he said. "Air power makes surface warfare
better, and land and sea power enhance the effectiveness of air
forces."
Schwartz (pictured, left) noted current projects in
which the Air Force and the Navy are working on ways to better
integrate maritime interdiction operations, anti-submarine warfare
and missile defense. "These types of advances represent new
territory into which we will venture to provide battlefield
commanders with even greater capabilities, especially in irregular
warfare environments," Schwartz said. "In this ever-increasing
complex landscape, we must leverage every bit of capability that we
have and that we will develop."
The general cautioned that this capability cannot be taken for
granted, as peers and potential rivals also continue to advance
their capabilities. "We must consider that our advantages will not
be unmatched or asymmetric for an indefinite period," he said. "And
our systems must be more agile and responsive to combatant
commander's needs."
To ensure the continued viability of air and space operations,
the general discussed options for operating from distributed bases
around the globe and for delivering balanced capabilities through
smaller, tailored forces. While forward locations have operated
under relative security over the last 20 years, the general said,
the nation's adversaries actively seek weaponry to threaten that
advantage. "As we move forward, the Air Force must actively protect
itself against emerging vulnerabilities," he said. "Our operations
cannot grind to a halt for want of a degraded or denied system, or
a scarce resource."
For example, Schwartz said, the Air Force's reliance on
information technologies enhanced the service's ability to maintain
unprecedented situational awareness, but also created
vulnerabilities officials must mitigate. In addition, he said, Air
Force Research Laboratory physicists also are exploring new
technologies to move the Air Force toward achieving accurate
navigation systems that aren't as dependent on GPS technologies as
today's systems.
The service's dependence on petroleum is another issue the Air
Force must continue to address, Schwartz said. "The Air Force
consumes more petroleum each year than any other agency in the U.S.
government, and thus is the most susceptible to energy-price
volatility and disruption of logistics lines," he said. "Each $10
increase in the price of a barrel of oil equates to a $600 million
increase in fuel costs to the Air Force."
Air Force engineers have made significant headway and continue
to field innovative technologies to provide energy to bases, reduce
the logistical footprint and research new propulsion systems for
future platforms, the general said.
The Air Force is working hard to meet the growing demand for
near-real-time intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance from
remotely piloted systems and the continued requirement for timely
airlift and air refueling, Schwartz said. "Approximately 75 percent
of our Predator-class unmanned aircraft are currently deployed," he
said, "and we continue to surge more into Afghanistan and Iraq. ...
We're adding another 300,000 flying hours to the 600,000 we have
already accumulated."
The General used the current example of rapid air mobility
response to humanitarian operations in Haiti in his remarks on air
mobility. "I am extremely proud of our airmen who immediately lent
their substantial expertise to help the Haitians regain air traffic
control and manage airfield operations in Port-au-Prince, enabling
U.S. [C-17 Globemaster III and C-130 Hercules transports] and
aircraft from a host of other nations to rapidly deliver vital
lifesaving and life-sustaining emergency supplies," he said. "Yet
again, in critical moments, American air power has made, and will
continue to make, a significant difference."
Schwartz identified the key elements in the Air Force's path to
the future. "Our Air Force has the following overriding
imperatives: to increase our capabilities, decrease our
vulnerabilities and enhance our integration with our joint and
coalition partners," he said.