Monday, September 19, 2016

Goldfein's gambit: Former Air Force chiefs weigh in on his ambitious plans

New Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Goldfein’s plans to overhaul the structure of squadrons, improve command and control, and strengthen how the service develops joint leaders are on the right track, former Air Force leaders say, but turning them into reality could be tricky.

During a Sept. 11 address at the Baltimore conference of the National Guard Association of the United States, Goldfein outlined those plans, which he called his top three goals. “My intent is to pull these forward, and to focus on them the next four years,” he said.

At the Air Force Association’s Air, Space and Cyber Conference, Monday to Wednesday outside Washington, the chief of staff's priorities will be a prime topic of discussion. He also plans to issue three short papers on the priorities, which draw upon ideas from the service’s strategic master plan and Air Superiority 2030 flight plan.

“I think they are not only the right moves, but they are inevitable,” said retired Gen. John Jumper, who was chief of staff from 2001 to 2005, in an interview Thursday. “We’ve entered a new era of warfare. We’re responding to a different concept of operations on the battlefield than we have been in the past.”  more