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.

USACAPOC(A) Change of Command

U.S. Army Civil Affairs and Psychological Operations Command (Airborne)

Video by Maj. Xeriqua Garfinkel

Aug. 13, 2022 | 2:40

The Change of Command is a simple, yet traditional event that is rich with symbolism and heritage. Key to the ceremony is the passing of the unit's colors. From the earliest of times, leaders used a banner, or other symbols, to identify themselves and to serve as a Rallying Point for their men. All others within the organization might perish, but the Colors live forever. It's the Colors. which record the unit's history - its glories... its battles and its campaigns. And so, with the transfer of the Colors goes the responsibility for the accomplishment of the mission and for the welfare of the men. "By authority of AR 600-20 paragraph 2-5, the undersigned assumes command of the United States Army Civil Affairs and Psychological Operations Command, Fort Bragg, North Carolina, effective 13 August 2022. Signed, Isaac Johnson Jr., Major General, United States Army, Commanding," declared Lt. Col. Lauren Sharpless, narrator for the ceremony. And so it passed that Saturday, August 13, 2022, Maj. Gen, Jeffrey C. Coggin relinquished USACAPOC(A) command to Major General Isaac Johnson Jr. while Command Sgt. Maj. Peter Trotter transferred responsibility to Command Sgt. Maj. Daniel Benedict. Maj. Gen. Michael D. Roache, the Chief of Staff, United States Army Reserve, officiated the Change of Command ceremony and Maj. Gen. Darrell Guthrie officiated the retirement ceremony for Coggin. The Army Civil Affairs and Psychological Operations Command is manned, trained, and equipped to provide operational forces with critical capabilities found nowhere else in the Army or joint force. Organized with four Subordinate Civil Affairs Commands, two Psychological Operations Groups and a Theater Information Operations Group and a Headquarters Company, each stood with their Unit Colors on the parade field. The future for USACAPOC(A) is bright, built on the foundation of its people. "We often hear the term "Information Related Capabilities," Coggin said in his farewell speech. "In USACAPOC(A), looking into the future of operating across the Human, Information and Physical dimensions, it substantiates that we are the Army's lead for "Influence and Effects Capabilities." This makes you the experts in transforming information into actions with results in support of Information Advantage and multi-domain operations." More