Reoptimization for Great Power Competition

GPC Key Decisions

USAF Case for Change

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.

Survey of Meteorology Concepts: Validation Strategies

Air University Public Affairs

Video by Mike Tate

Dec. 7, 2023 | 9:58

Daniel O’Keefe, Louis Cascino, Christopher Francis, Wilson Gonzalez-Espada, & Kimberly de La Harpe

Misconceptions are inaccurate conceptual understandings and cognitive structures rooted in students’ thinking but deviate from the conception described by experts in their field, even after traditional instruction. Misconceptions influence how students receive and process new ideas and can interfere with their ability to form a meaningful understanding of complex concepts. Although researchers have explored misconceptions in several meteorology topics, there is a dearth of comprehensive, valid, and reliable questionnaires that can identify persistent misconceptions. Being well-informed, understanding the nature and impact of hazardous natural events, and implementing appropriate responses is essential for national security. The purpose of this study was to develop the Survey of Meteorology Concepts (SMC) as a literature-based, psychometrically valid, and reliable meteorology questionnaire. Although this is still a work-in-progress, the researchers
would like to discuss the validation strategies, which can be implemented in other surveys and classroom-based assessments. These include (a) Item Response Theory, including reliability coefficients, item difficulty, and item discrimination; (b) Differential Item Functioning, a set of methods that can help identify disparities by sex, ethnicity, age, or education among cadets of the same ability; and (c) Distractor Analysis, a deep-analysis of all the alternatives in a multiple-choice question that, in association with a Certainty of Response Index prompt, can identify to what extent distractors are plausible, and which could represent an actual lack of knowledge of a topic, or a misconception. More