Air Force weapon system roadmap released

  • Published
WASHINGTON (AFPN) --  Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. T. Michael Moseley has released the Air Force's weapon system "roadmap," a long-term plan for providing Air Force capabilities the nation needs in the 21st century to meet threats to the nation's security.

As part of the Air Force's strategic planning efforts, senior leaders from the active-duty Air Force, Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve gathered in early December to discuss this plan and collaborate on this "roadmap" for the nation's Air Force, a roadmap designed to meet one of the nation's most pressing needs: recapitalization and modernization of its aging Air Force fleet.

"Our nation's competitors know that our Air Force provides America its decisive advantage," said General Moseley. "We need to prepare today for tomorrow's challenges. We need one vector to best meet the warfighting requirements of our nation."

General Moseley's roadmap outlines where future advanced weapon systems could potentially be based in the continental U.S., Hawaii, Alaska and U.S. territories. The plan calls for Air Force officials to evaluate installations which currently house legacy weapon systems forecasted for replacement by future systems.

These "next-generation" capabilities are required to fight and win America's wars, and the roadmap represents a total force -- active-duty Air Force, Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve -- approach to the beddown of weapon systems. Current and future requirements to build the capabilities of international partners also will be considered as part of the beddown decision process.

"We're simply promising a look at these systems and installations as our planning continues," added General Moseley. "This is the Air Force's planning process for the future, for providing the required force structure that will give our nation capability for vigilance, reach and power across the globe, to reassure allies, to deter, dissuade and defeat adversaries and to protect the homeland."

The roadmap represents a more efficient and flexible force structure. Although the Air Force will have a smaller total aircraft inventory, overall Air Force capabilities will increase with each next-generation weapon system. In numerous instances, the potential locations will capitalize on Total Force Integration efforts, creating innovative organizational arrangements among active-duty Air Force, Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve components. This effort takes advantage of the inherent strengths of each of the three components.

Installations that meet preliminary objective requirements then will undergo thorough environmental studies in accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act. NEPA mandates environmental analyses and impact studies which are critical factors in determining final beddown bases in the U.S. as suitable locations for weapon systems.

These major studies take time, may consider either one or several installations in a single study and may not be initiated at every potential location. The findings of these environmental studies, and the results of required fiscal and operational analyses which will be conducted over the next several years, will determine the final beddown plan and phasing.

This roadmap does not include possible basing initiatives on foreign soil. Overseas basing of Air Force future weapon systems will be accomplished in partnership with allies using normal consultative planning venues.

Airmen provide the nation with Global Vigilance, a system of "eyes and ears" to see and sense anything on the face of the Earth from the vantage of air, space and cyberspace. Airmen watch and listen across the electromagnetic spectrum, and put that information into context, providing decision-quality intelligence to political leaders, joint and combined commanders and combatants the world over.

Airmen provide the nation unrivalled Global Reach throughout the world.
They deliver the goods, the gas and their fellow warfighters beyond oceans, in hostile territory and across the last tactical mile, relying on the range, payload and speed of mobility aircraft. The Air Force's Global Reach allows joint military forces to hold targets or activities at risk and to communicate, command, supply, rescue, support or destroy them; and to reach into the far regions of space and cyberspace with a variety of payloads.

Airmen deliver the nation's Global Power with unique speed and precision, serving to deter and dissuade future foes before combat is ever joined. Global Power extends beyond kinetic strikes. Airmen also deliver critical non-kinetic effects, such as the searching for and rescuing isolated personnel hundreds of miles behind enemy lines.

In addition to the current beddown, U.S. locations recently added or planned as possible contributors to Global Vigilance, Global Reach and Global Power, by weapon system, can be viewed on the Air Force Roadmap Web page. 

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