The Air Force should focus on its core capabilities, and invest in them, or it faces an uncertain future where its global role could diminish, former Chief of Staff Gen. Michael Moseley said Thursday. Speaking at an AFA Mitchell Institute for Airpower Studies event in Arlington, Va., Moseley said the United States has a poor record of predicting its security challenges, from the Korean Peninsula to the invasion of Kuwait in 1990 to seeing airliners crash into buildings on 9/11. But, that’s exactly why the Air Force—which is unique among all the military services—is so important, he added. The Air Force is expected to see anything, range anything, and hold any target at risk around the globe. These tenets are the core obligation of the service to the joint force, Moseley said. Investment in the technology and the capabilities to carry these tasks out make the difference between being a global air force and being a regional one he said, adding Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Welsh’s three core priorities (the F-35, the KC-46 tanker, and the long-range strike bomber family of systems) embody this thinking. “You have to go out and defend the faith,” Moseley urged airmen, adding you can’t “take a knee.”
Unlike nearly every other innovative technology throughout history, Maj. Gen. DeAnna M. Burt believes the space enterprise emerged backward. “Every other domain started with an entrepreneur who built something,” Burt, the special assistant to the Chief of Space Operations, told an audience at AFA’s Air, Space & Cyber Conference.