The Air Force has decided to reinvent the long-time Air Staff operational planning cell called Checkmate as an independent strategic studies group. Checkmate has been around since the 1970s and in the 1990s had a brief resurgence with the initial air attack plan for Operation Desert Storm. In an Air Force release, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Michael Moseley said the new group of 15 to 20 military and civilian members will “serve as an incubator—not just for new ideas, but also for future leaders and strategists for the Air Force and Joint community.”
The Air Force’s nascent KC-Z program, aimed at developing a next-generation family of systems for aerial refueling, will look to launch its analysis-of-alternatives study in 2024, years earlier than originally planned. Originally, the analysis of alternatives for KC-Z was set for “maybe in the 2030s,” Paul Waugh, program executive officer…