A Call to the Future....
and a Call to Action
One of the most important responsibilities of a military service is to prepare the force
for the challenges of tomorrow, not just the realities of today. This requires a journey
into the unknown, and Airmen have traditionally been very good at such endeavors.
When Ira Eaker broke ground on New Year’s morning 1929 to conduct the first aerial
refueling, the mission’s success was far from assured. Chuck Yeager had no certainty
as to what was on the other side of Mach 1 when he and the X-1 were released from
a B-29 on an October morning in 1947. Their drive to go farther and faster – to push
into the future and see what was on the other side is at the core of what has made our
Air Force truly great. General Bennie Schriever displayed the vision and perseverance
to deliver an enduring leg of our nuclear triad – the ICBM – as well as the foundation for our military space program. All
this was accomplished during a period awash with uncertainty—technological, bureaucratic, and geopolitical. The attributes
displayed by our Airmen forefathers have never been more important than today, given
the geostrategic uncertainty we anticipate over the next 30 years. The future, with its
myriad of challenges, is fast approaching, which means the consequence of inattention
will be swift and severe. The intent of the strategic vectors in this document is to
guide our human capital management, S&T, acquisition, and requirements disciplines
toward the capabilities we believe will be most beneficial over the next three decades
and beyond. However, we must be resolute and disciplined in our assessment of global
trends, and prepared to reevaluate our assumptions and adjust our vectors accordingly.
This “long look” will necessarily become a more prominent part of our strategic
planning. Our Strategic Master Plan, which will enumerate priorities, objectives, and
goals associated with this strategy, must undergo the same rigorous assessment, as it
will provide the resource-informed plan to guide our investments over the next 20 years.
A constant eye toward rapidly emerging new threats and opportunities, combined with
the agility to respond quickly, will enable us to identify strategic “pivot points” and adapt our concepts and capabilities –
whether fielded or in development – to exploit them. The body of work in our current Air Force 2023 effort provides us a
sturdy foundation from which to launch this strategic effort. It is necessarily very attentive to the fiscal realities of today.
By providing a thoughtful, balanced approach to absorbing the fiscal shock to the system and ensuring the viability of our
contributions over the next 10 years, Air Force 2023 allows us to more confidently cast our gaze further into the future.
Though the 30-year journey is a long one, in our pursuit of agility and inclusiveness
we are not bound by the constraints of uncertainty. The need is clear and compelling.
We must be fearless in our efforts to build agility into our processes, capabilities,
concepts, and thinking – it will become our asymmetric advantage only if we are
bold enough to take the steps necessary to achieve it. We can’t say with certainty
when we expect to arrive at the point at which we are sufficiently agile and inclusive,
but we can – and will – start taking those steps today. Disruptive change is always
difficult, and even more so in an enterprise as large as the United States Air Force.
However, Airmen never shrink from a challenge – especially one as consequential
as this. General “Hap” Arnold proclaimed that an Air Force “is always on the
verge of obsolescence” and must boldly seek to meet the challenges of the future. We will be bold, and commit to the change we
know must occur. True to our heritage, we will shape our destiny and continue to deliver national security through the strength of
our Airmen and the responsive and effective application of Global Vigilance—Global Reach—Global Power for America.