CSAF: The time for air mobility is now

  • Published
  • By Cynthia Bauer
  • Air Mobility Command Public Affairs
ANAHEIM, Calif. (AFPN) --  In a major speech to the Airlift/Tanker Association convention here Oct. 31, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. John P. Jumper said air mobility is coming into its own.

“The time for air mobility is now,” Jumper said. “It’s here, and it’s time to take it to the next level.”

Jumper was one of the main speakers to address the 35th convention of air mobility active-duty, Guard, Reserve and civilian people as well as defense contractors.

During his speech Jumper talked about his pride in the air mobility community. He said global mobility is a unique capability for the nation.

“No other country,” he said, “can refuel thousands of sorties in a day, in a conflict … that can bring a B-2 (Spirit) 44 hours and 16,000 miles to its target and back in one mission."

Jumper also focused on integrating operations, calling integration the buzzword for the decade and critical in the joint operations world.

Air Force officials need to work with other services and find better ways to describe capabilities for better integration, Jumper said.

“There’s no reason for all of us to be totally on duty, 24-hours a day,” he said. “There’s trade space there, and we need to take advantage of this.”

That includes the integration of land-, air- and space-based networks to provide a complete picture of joint operations, not only for front-line fighters, but also for air mobility assets, he said.

Contingency response group capabilities are also emerging within air mobility operations, providing nontraditional skills to base opening, Jumper said. Response group airmen attend Army Ranger School and are jump qualified.

“These are skills of the modern expeditionary Air Force,” he said. “We will continue to grow these skills and get the people in these groups that we need to be able to do this in any condition, anywhere in the world. And it’s going to get people’s attention, because we’re going to have jump-qualified engineers, jump-qualified contracting officers, jump-qualified lawyers (and) jump-qualified doctors.”

Jumper said no one can forecast contingencies.

"You have to have the capability to deal with the uncertainties that are before you,” he said.

Jumper gave an example of the Mobility Requirements Study for 2005 that shows the nation will need 54.5 million ton miles a day in airlift capability.

“We have no idea if that’s what the real requirement is,” he said, “but that’s something we have to shoot for.”

He said as the global mobility concept of operations matures and is integrated with the concept of operations of the Army and other services, the Air Force will have a better idea of what the real requirements are.

“In the meantime, we need to press on with the modernization we have ongoing that’s very successful in the airlift forces, and we have to get started on the modernization of the tanker forces and stay on that track,” Jumper said.