Leaders announce new core competencies Published Jan. 16, 2003 By Master Sgt. Scott Elliott Air Force Print News WASHINGTON -- The Air Force's senior leaders debuted the service's new approach to describing its core competencies this week.Secretary of the Air Force Dr. James G. Roche and Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. John P. Jumper made this announcement in two separate messages to all airmen. Roche released his first "The Secretary's Vector" Jan. 14, while Jumper's latest "Chief's Sight Picture" was published Jan. 15.The competencies are developing airmen, technology-to-warfighting and integrating operations. According to Roche, these three elements are fundamental to how the Air Force views itself, how it is viewed by leaders and colleagues, and how the service develops its capabilities for joint warfighting."These unique institutional qualities set the Air Force apart from the other services and every other military force in the world," Roche said in The Secretary's Vector. "By identifying and keeping these competencies foremost in our vision, we can more effectively advance these unique capabilities, as well as the ultimate effects we provide to the nation."These core competencies are not new, Jumper said in the Chief's Sight Picture."Rather, they are the unique institutional qualities inherent in everything we've done and continue to do," he said.Core competencies form the foundation upon which the Air Force organizes, trains and equips, and form the cornerstones of the service's strength as a military service, Roche said.Previously, the service had distilled its areas of expertise into the following six distinct capabilities and labeled them core competencies: air and space superiority, global attack, rapid global mobility, precision engagement, information superiority and agile combat support.According to the secretary and chief of staff, the Air Force's very nature of developing and delivering air and space power are at the root of the need to recognize these core competencies."Our systems may change, our threats may vary, our tactics may evolve and our people may come and go, but these three core competencies remain the constants that define our Air Force and enable us to fight and win America's wars," Jumper said.Of the three air and space core competencies, the secretary and chief of staff said developing airmen is the heart of combat capability."The ultimate source of combat capability resides in the men and women of the Air Force," Roche said. "The values of strategy, technology and organization are diminished without professional airmen to leverage their attributes."Technology-to-warfighting involves the tools of combat capability."We combine the tremendous technological advancements of stealth, global communications connectivity, global positioning, and more, to put cursors on targets and steel on the enemy," Jumper said. "It is our unique ability to apply various technologies in unison so effectively that allows us to translate our air and space power vision into decisive operational capability."They believe integrating operations means maximizing combat capabilities."Innovative operational concepts and the efficient integration of all military systems -- air, land, maritime, space and information -- ensures maximum flexibility in the delivery of desired effects across the spectrum of conflict," Roche said.According to Jumper, victory in the 21st century belongs to those who can most quickly collect intelligence, communicate information and bring capabilities to bear against targets around the globe."This is precisely what our Joint and Combined Air Operations Centers achieve," he said. "The result, integrated operations, is our unique ability to ... bring effects on the enemy at times and places of our choosing."By continually striving toward the air and space core competencies, they said, the Air Force will realize the potential of its capabilities."We can achieve success in these six distinctive capabilities only if we're first successful in our three (air and space) core competencies," Jumper said. "Only then do we bring the decisive effects of air and space power into joint warfighting.""Collectively, the air and space core competencies reflect the visions of the founders of airpower ... and serve to realize the potential of air and space forces," Roche said."Our continued focus on and nurturing of these core competencies will enable us to remain the world's greatest air and space force," he said.