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Reoptimization for Great Power Competition

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Department of the Air Force
 

 

 

LATEST NEWS

 

“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
 

Air Force & Space Force announce sweeping changes to maintain superiority amid Great Power Competition

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.

 

JTF GTMO Camp X-Ray
U.S. Southern Command
Video by Maj. Gregory McElwain
Sept. 7, 2021 | 0:20
An overgrowth of bushes and weeds is what remains of Camp X-Ray of Joint Task Force Guantanamo on the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Cuba on Aug. 31, 2021. This location was first used in Operation Sea Signal in 1994-95 and then as a temporary detention facility in 2002. The JTF-GTMO, reports to the U.S. Southern Command, and today oversees the detention facilities, which provide safe, humane, and legal care and custody of a detainee population in support of the global effort to prevent and counter global terrorism. (Photo courtesy of U.S. Southern Command) More


Space Force Great Power Competition

 
Department of the Air Force