Accelerate Change or Lose

Abstract

As the 22nd Chief of Staff of the Air Force, I have surveyed the strategic challenges that lay ahead of us. The world is changing in many ways. Today we operate in a dynamic environment with factors that have us taking various actions to continue the mission and take care of Airmen and Families. As a result, we have a window of opportunity. Our Air Force must accelerate change to control and exploit the air domain to the standard the Nation expects and requires from us. If we don't change - if we fail to adapt - we risk losing the certainty with which we have defended our national interests for decades. We risk losing a high-end fight. We risk losing quality Airmen, our credibility, and our ability to secure our future. We must move with a purpose - we must Accelerate Change or Lose (ACOL), and the ACOL paper is the result of my detailed assessment. It outlines why the Air Force must accelerate change in order to remain the most dominant and respected Air Force in the world. We must focus on the Joint Warfighting Concept, enabled by Joint All-Domain Command and Control and rapidly move forward with digital, low cost, high tech, warfighting capacities. Only through collaboration within and throughout will we succeed. The Air Force must work differently with other Department of Defense stakeholders, Congress, and both traditional and emerging industry partners to streamline processes and incentivize intelligent risk-taking. Most importantly, we must empower our incredible Airmen to solve any problem. We must place value in multi-capable and adaptable team builders, and courageous problem solvers that demonstrate value in diversity of thought, ingenuity, and initiative. Our Nation has come to expect much from its Air Force, and we will rise to the challenge of tomorrows highly competitive environment to deliver but to do so, we must accelerate change now! The consequences of failure, and success, are profound.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Aug 01, 2020
Accession Number
AD1109857

Entities

People

  • Charles Q. Jr Brown

Organizations

  • United States Air Force

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • C4I
  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Engineered Resilient Systems
  • Human Systems

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Acquisition
  • Air Force
  • Air Power
  • Attrition
  • Combat Operations
  • Combat Support
  • Command And Control
  • Competition
  • Department Of Defense
  • Deterrence
  • Force Structure
  • Human Behavior
  • National Security
  • Security
  • Space Force
  • United States
  • Warfare

Readers

  • Aerospace logistics and air mobility.
  • Economics

Technology Areas

  • Fully Networked C3
  • Fully Networked C3 - Command and Control