Key Air Force C2 authorities collaborate on service, joint tactical, operational issues

  • Published
  • By Bill Dowell
  • 505th Command and Control Wing
HURLBURT FIELD, Fla. (AFNS) --  Command and control of air and space power is a vital core competency of the Air Force.

A key weapon system supporting Air Force, joint and coalition operations is the Air and Space Operations Center, or AOC. One word accurately describes an AOC, the Air Force's most multifaceted weapon system: complex.

Commanders of every AOC, their Air Force Forces, or AFFOR, directors of staff, and representatives from Headquarters Air Force, major commands and National Guard associate units converged on Hurlburt Field, Fla., for an AOC Commanders Conference Nov. 16 through 18.

More than 60 top Air Force command and control, or C2, leaders attended the conference hosted by 505th Command and Control Wing officials. The goal was to harness the collective experience of the key participants to collaborate on solving tactical and operational Air Force C2 problems.

"To my knowledge it's the first time I've seen this many senior leaders -- I'm talking about at the colonel level -- from all the (Component Numbered Air Forces) ever together in one room," said retired Lt. Gen. Joseph Hurd, an Air Force senior mentor. "Hopefully they will come out of this (with the) understanding that they do much better in their requests for resources and support when they all speak in unison with one voice."

"It was an honor and a privilege to host these senior leader warriors from around the globe," said Col. Ed McKinzie, 505th CCW commander.

The wing hosted the event because its mission, to improve warfighter capability through C2 testing, tactics development and training, is critical to AOC and AFFOR staff capabilities of providing air power capability to the joint force commander.

With most of the participants already in one location, Air Combat Command officials also hosted an operational requirements board at the wing Nov. 18.

"We have them here so we're going to leverage their expertise and capabilities all in one," said Col. Bradley Butz, from ACC. "(Conference participants) will now have seen some of the key items the other AOCs, their peers, are experiencing and that will help us all pull it together with a single voice at the end."

On the first day, AOC commanders discussed the hottest issues they face in their respective areas of responsibility and command.

Col. William Golladay, from Headquarters Air Force, said the importance of the conference was for AOC leaders to prioritize their concerns about training, equipment and personnel in order to do the mission.

"In my opinion it solidified and consolidated the issues across the combatant commanders in a prioritized list for air staff and the lead command to work on gaps or capabilities that need to be addressed," Colonel Golladay said. "There were some solutions also given, as far as support to one another for exercises and contingency operations, of working together in the face of budgetary constraints.

Fiscal concerns were stressed throughout the conference. According to General Hurd, different systems scattered throughout the Air Force is "a waste of taxpayer's money." Providing (consolidated) training, like 505th CCW instructors give AOC and AFFOR commanders and staffs, can't be done when different systems are used at different locations, the general said.

According to Colonel Butz, there is a huge problem in the weapons systems right now with funding, manning and expeditionary forces at a time when the budget is absolutely predicted to come down.

"When this all gets briefed to our senior leaders, they're going to be talking about it," said Colonel Butz. "What's our future presentation of forces in the AOC weapons system? How are we going to do this? There are just so many issues that are hanging on the next couple of months. Timing is critical. Decisions made in the next two months will affect us for the next decade, maybe longer."

Those decisions are going to affect how the Air Force executes its mission, which in turn affects combatant commanders and joint operations, General Hurd said.

"It's important to the joint community because we need to deliver big air power in the same methodology in all theaters," the general said. "How you use it depends on the crisis we're reacting to. But our knowledge and how you deliver it should be the same in all communities so that when we talk to our joint bothers -- the Army, Navy and Marine Corps -- they look at us and after a period of time will understand we're presenting air power to the best of our ability and we're presenting it in the same way no matter where the fight is."

Colonel Butz recently came out of Regional Command South, a joint NATO command in Kandahar, Afghanistan, and according to him a big problem the Air Force has is explaining to people from other services and coalition countries what it is the Air Force brings to the fight. He said when funding is cut, training and opportunities to demonstrate capabilities to joint and coalition forces get cut. According to him Air Force leaders need to get back to joint advocacy.

By addressing the issues being brought up at the conference, Colonel Golladay believes coalition and joint force air component commanders are going to have a more lethal capability to bring to the fight. This in turn provides the joint community better interoperability opportunities in joint, coalition and interagency environments.

"Everything on my agenda that I'm working at the air staff-level was brought up," Colonel Golladay said. "We have a series of action items, we have some way-aheads and we have some measurable objectives we're going to go back and work on to fix the problems currently existing."