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.

Technology: Battlefield Assisted Trauma Distribution Kit (BATDOK) Software

Air Force T3

Video by Oswaldo Delacruz

Feb. 11, 2021 | 8:02

Invented by researchers in the Air Force Research Laboratory, Airman Systems Directorate, BATDOK software is a point-of-injury software tool. It enables medics to wirelessly monitor multiple patients’ vitals simultaneously at the point-of-injury, to capture a complete history of patient medical treatment from point-of-injury through medical evacuation, and follow-on transfer to the next level of care.

Refined with many iterations of medic use feedback, BATDOK leverages operator-centric, intuitive, easy-to-use mobile interfaces to facilitate maximum awareness and documentation of in-field patient care. BATDOKTM hosts a variety of multimodal covert/overt notifications, alerting the medic when patients cross predefined, user-set health thresholds. BATDOK can reference offline, current standard medical care procedures/guidelines through a drop and drag file structure accessed with single-click actions. Moreover, BATDOK was designed as an open architecture system to easily incorporate existing/emerging FDA wireless sensors, allowing the medic to select desired sensors for their unique mission. BATDOK is sensor and wireless protocol agnostic, allowing it to scale as new sensors and communications protocols come online. More