Airmen employ the Air Force’s other four interdependent and enduring core missions through robust, adaptable, and survivable command and control systems. Using the specialized skills of over 53,000 command and control Airmen, the Air Force provides access to reliable communications and information networks so that the joint team can operate globally at a high tempo and level of intensity. Air Force command and control systems give commanders the ability to conduct highly coordinated joint operations on an unequaled scale using centralized command, distributed control, and decentralized execution.

Pervasive and highly interconnected, command and control networks will be extremely contested. The capability to deliver airpower is intimately dependent on the ability to operate effectively in cyberspace, a domain in and through which we conduct all of our core missions and which is critical to many of our command and control systems. Operations in cyberspace can magnify military effects by increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of air and space operations and by helping to integrate capabilities across all domains. The use of cyberspace to conduct missions is certainly not exclusive to the Air Force; however, it is an essential component of how we bring innovative, globally focused “airmindedness” to ensure our warfighting advantage.

Getting the right information to the right person at the right time is essential to the American way of war. The Nation’s advantage in command and control is under constant attack with new and more capable threats emerging daily in the areas of cyber weapons, anti-satellite systems, and electromagnetic jamming. Our adversaries are also making advances by electronically linking their own combat capabilities, which creates new military challenges that our forces must be prepared to address. To counter these challenges, the Air Force will field advanced command and control systems that are reliable, resilient, and interoperable. More importantly, we will recruit and train innovative Airmen with the expertise to build, manage, secure, and advance our complex and diverse command and control systems, while at the same time making them easy to use for our own forces.

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