Reoptimization for Great Power Competition

GPC Key Decisions

USAF Case for Change

SecAF Memo

Air Force FAQ for Reoptimizing Great Power Competition

“We need these changes now; we are out of time to reoptimize our forces to meet the strategic challenges in a time of great power competition.”

~ Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall

The United States faces a time of consequence marked by significant shifts in the strategic environment. To remain ready, the U.S. Air Force must change.

In early 2024, the Department of the Air Force unveiled sweeping plans for reshaping, refocusing, and reoptimizing the Air Force and Space Force to ensure continued supremacy in their respective domains while better posturing the services to deter and, if necessary, prevail in an era of Great Power Competition. Through a series of 24 DAF-wide key decisions, four core areas which demand the Department’s attention will be addressed: Develop People, Generate Readiness, Project Power and Develop Capabilities.

Today, the Air Force once again finds itself at a critical juncture—an era of Great Power Competition marked by a new security environment, a rapidly evolving character of war, and a formidable competitor. This new era requires understanding its challenges and the attributes needed to succeed.

Embracing change is not a choice; it is a necessity. The Air Force must “reoptimize” into an enterprise prepared for high-end conflicts and long-term strategic competition.

Orient Shield 2019 Awaiting Orders

U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command C5ISR Center

Video by Edric Thompson

Nov. 12, 2019 | 0:04

Co-led by the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command’s C5ISR Center and the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command’s Cyber Center of Excellence, Cyber Blitz is an experiment that informs the Army regarding how to perform evolving Cyber Electromagnetic Activities, or CEMA, across the full spectrum of operations.

Cyber Blitz 19 ran Sept. 4-22 at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, NJ and was executed in conjunction with U.S. Army Pacific’s Orient Shield Exercise in Japan. This marked the first time that the Army combined field based experimentation with an Army service component command tier 1 exercise.

The experiment/exercise pairing gave more than 30 organizations from across the Army, Navy, Air Force and JGSDF a realistic first look at how the Intelligence, Information Cyber, Electronic Warfare and Space, or I2CEWS, formation could fight and win as part of a Multi-Domain Task Force. More