TESTIMONY
OF
LIEUTENANT GENERAL DUNCAN J. MCNABB
DEPUTY CHIEF OF STAFF FOR
AIR FORCE PLANS AND PROGRAMS
BEFORE THE
UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
COMMITTEE ON ARMED SERVICES
SUBCOMMITTEE ON TOTAL FORCE
REGARDING
ADEQUACY OF THE TOTAL FORCE
March 10, 2004
Mr. Chairman and members of
the committee, today I would like to discuss
the requirements, challenges, and
opportunities the USAF faces as it
transforms into a Future Total Force, and
highlight some of the innovative new
organizational constructs that we will use
to meet evolving and future requirements.
The USAF is a team of Active Duty, Air Force
Reserves, Air National Guard, and civilian
personnel brought together to maximize the
contributions of air and space power for the
security of our nation. We look forward to
working closely with you as we integrate
these organizations into a Future Total
Force that is reshaped to meet the demands
and capabilities of the future.
America has entered the 21st
Century as a nation holding unprecedented
military advantages, but at the same time,
we face a security environment of
unprecedented uncertainty. As two-plus
years of a Global War on Terrorism have
taught us, our adversaries are fluid and
adaptive, changing as we change, to present
an ever-moving target to our strategic
planners. To meet these unpredictable and
varied challenges, we are transforming.
We've changed our planning processes to
produce a force based on capabilities. Our
goal is to continue to transform our air and
space forces for flexibility-a force able to
conduct operations across the entire
spectrum of conflict, from peace operations
and homeland security to urban operations
and conventional high-intensity warfare.
Key to our successful military
transformation is producing the Future Total
Force that will man our air and space
forces.
TRANSFORMATION
A successful military transformation also must be a joint transformation. And by "joint," I don't mean the Services transforming themselves individually at the same time-although that is also important. What I mean is that the Services must "close the seams" that divide their capabilities, to provide the joint force commander with the most effective options for any situation, regardless of what the individual Services contribute and how it is all pulled together. The Air Force plays a critical role in this unification of effort, because we provide so many of the joint "enabling" capabilities that all the branches depend on.
For example, during the race
to Baghdad last year, the Marines, Army, and
special operations forces bet their lives on
air and space power in ways they had not in
the past. And these bets paid off better
than anyone expected. They paid off in
responsive, accurate fire support to our
partners on the ground; in a persistent ISR
net which gave us unprecedented situational
awareness and targeting capability; in rapid
resupply and troop transport provided by a
new, nimble use of the C-17; and in a robust
space umbrella which provided the
architecture for unhindered secure
communications and precision navigation that
has changed the face of warfare.
Almost half the Air Force budget is invested
in joint enablers in FY05, and we will
sustain this investment into the future.
The combat laboratories of Iraq and Afghanistan have driven home the message that when we can close the seams, we truly transform joint warfighting. We increase the effects that coalition forces can produce, and we increase the joint force commander's flexibility and rapidity in the fight. This is indeed the end product of transformation.
As the Air Force planner and
programmer, I look at planning our future as
going from strategy to task to
capabilities. To support the national
defense strategy of assure, dissuade,
deter, defeat, what tasks will we need
to be able to perform, and then, what
capabilities will we need to perform those
tasks? So, our approach to planning and
programming looks at building our force with
a capabilities-based process. In the
past, we built our force structure program
by program and platform by platform,
focusing development efforts on making each
individual system go higher, faster, and
farther, with little consideration of how it
would integrate with other capabilities in
the Air Force, in other Services, or with
our allies. We've had to turn this around.
Now we look at our national strategy and
determine the effects the Air Force must
create. We next determine what capabilities
we need to create the desired effects. Only
then do we talk about what platforms, or
combination of platforms/systems, we need to
provide these capabilities. Effects and the
capabilities needed to achieve them became
the drivers for everything we do.
For instance, the joint forces commander may
have an effect in mind, to destroy or
neutralize something, to save something, or
to simply learn more about it. Creating
that effect starts with being able to put
the cross hairs over the target. Now, to
successfully put cross hairs over the
target, many things must happen perfectly.
It is indeed the sum of all the
parts-sensors; command and control net
centricity; decision tools; munitions or
payloads; and access, trust, and training.
We are striving to put the cross hairs over
the target much faster and much more
precisely. And the effect does not
necessarily have to be a JDAM coming through
the skylight. Once we can get the crosshairs
on target, we want to give the joint force
commander a palette of options-to watch and
track the target, to deceive or disrupt it,
to save it, or in fact to kill it.
It is in this context, in our transformation to a capabilities-based, effects-based force, that we are setting the long-term plans for our people. Transformation ultimately is achieved through a marriage of operational concepts, technology, organization, and the people that meld these together. In the end, the process of transformation begins and ends with people.
In the next two years, we
will find ourselves in the midst of "the
perfect storm," with a rare chance to
reshape and transform ourselves as a Total
Force-first through the BRAC, so we can get
our infrastructure right to serve our force
structure, and then through the QDR, which
will cement our approach for how we train,
equip, and organize our force for the
future. We say this is a
once-in-a-generation opportunity.
Two major considerations will dictate how we
reshape the Total Force of the future.
The first is the long-term program for our "iron," our aircraft and materiel. The Air Force's target force structure for 2025 is a product of capabilities-based planning, and as such, we envision a portfolio of military capability that hedges against the uncertainties of the future by investing in new systems and modernizing our legacy systems. We envision a force that capitalizes on the military advantages we enjoy today in stealth, standoff, and precision and one that creates a modernized, balanced, and affordable force that significantly improves the reach, awareness, responsiveness, and execution of joint operations. By 2025, for example, we expect to employ a fighter and mobility force of much more capable platforms than those fielded today. Fleets of modern, more reliable systems, such as the F/A-22 and C-17, enhanced by joint enablers (space, command and control, network centricity, etc.), will be able to deliver more sorties, more munitions, and more tons of cargo per day.
To do so, however, we will need to have the appropriate mix of personnel and adequate "crew ratios" to ensure we get the most out of these state-of-the-art weapons systems-in other words, a cost-effective surge capability necessary during times of increased operations.
Increased investments in unmanned aerial vehicles; intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance systems; and space capabilities, meanwhile, will translate into increased prominence for "reachback" roles and missions. These open opportunities for our Reserve personnel to play vital, front-line combat roles without losing the stability demanded by their civilian lives. Imagine, for instance, a reservist who can fly a satellite for a four-hour period before reporting to work at his or her civilian job, and never having to mobilize.
The second consideration is our maturation as an expeditionary air and space force. With 75% of our Active Duty force now postured to deploy, we have made the transition from a garrisoned, forward-based force to a flexible force based primarily in the United States, able to conduct a wide range of operations throughout the world. We have reorganized our force structure into ten Air Expeditionary Forces (AEFs), working on a 15-month cycle that puts two AEFs on call to deploy every three months. When off the deployment hook, each AEF goes through a year's progression of rest, reconstitution, training, exercises, and spin up for the next cycle. This way, Airmen's lives regain some stability and predictability. This reliability and stability is critical to our ability to retain our great people for the long term.
To fill our 10 AEF "packages" year in and year out requires a concerted, integrated effort on the part of all the Air Force components. Simply stated, the Air Force could not sustain an expeditionary posture without the Guard and Reserve. Today, even prior to mobilization, 20 percent of our AEF packages are composed of volunteer citizen Airmen. Members of the ARC fly 80 percent of Operation Noble Eagle missions, guarding our nation's skies after the attacks of September 11th. And although world events led us to mobilize a portion of our force, again, the lion's share of these citizen Airmen support our efforts in a volunteer status.
We stood up the AEF in 1998;
in practice, our Active, Guard, and Reserve
Airmen had been deploying as a fully
integrated combat team since the early
1990s, when we took on steady-state
responsibilities in Southwest Asia and
elsewhere around the globe. Today, we are
poised to take the next necessary step in
reshaping our force-to further integrate, or
"blend," our Active, Reserve, and Guard
components formally, across the board, in
peacetime as well as in wartime.
We see three compelling reasons for
integration:
First, integration
allows us to balance personnel tempo
appropriately among the components.
In an expeditionary environment, it allows
us to fully resource the equipment we have
and are going to have, providing a
cost-effective force multiplier during surge
operations without imposing unneeded
overhead in peacetime. We are currently
standing up a fully integrated Predator UAV
unit at Nellis AFB, the first of its kind,
with all three components, Active, Guard,
and Reserve, working together as members of
the same unit. This will be the first
cross-border, multi-state unit, with
contributions from the Nevada and California
Air National Guard.
What's more, integration
allows us to rebalance our skill mix to meet
the demands of expeditionary operations.
For example, 600 Air Force Reserve
instructors are integrated into Specialized
Undergraduate Pilot Training programs. They
provide highly qualified pilots to train UPT
candidates, which releases Active Duty
pilots to fill empty weapons system cockpits
vacated by separating pilots. At Offutt
AFB, Nebraska, 80 Air National Guard
personnel are integrated into the 55th Wing,
providing aircrew instructor staff and
augmenting the operations support function.
At the same time, we are migrating stressed
specialties disproportionately represented
in the Guard and Reserve to Active Duty
billets. For example, two years ago the 939th
Rescue Wing, a Reserve search and rescue
unit flying HH-60 Pave Hawk helicopters out
of Portland, Oregon, was serving, de facto,
at a full-time "OPTEMPO." We did the
sensible thing and converted this unit to
Active Duty, moving the aircraft and
equipment to Davis-Monthan AFB, Arizona, to
marry up with an Active Duty wing. Last
December, the Portland Reservists made their
first deployment as the new 939th
Air Refueling Wing-a KC-135 tanker
mission-seven months after finishing their
conversion training. Usually, a newly
converted unit will not deploy for two
years; it's a testament to the skills and
experience of our Reservists that today we
can accomplish these rather seamless
restructurings.
Second, integration plays
to the strengths of each component. Where the Active Duty
provides a guaranteed, on-call resource
pool, the Reserve Component brings an
invaluable experience base. We are
currently studying a concept in which
inexperienced Active Duty fighter pilots and
maintenance personnel are "embedded" into an
Air National Guard unit. This isn't a
new initiative; we've done it before in the
Air Force to respond to manpower
fluctuations. This initiative, along with
the Reserve fighter associate program,
allows young pilots and maintainers the
opportunity to work with truly "seasoned"
Reserve Component personnel, most of whom
have spent significant time on Active Duty
and many of whom are instructor qualified.
Having highly experienced personnel working
side-by-side with the young troops saves
countless dollars in training, seasons our
more junior Active personnel, and ensures
training pipelines continue to flow during
normal deployment rotations.
Finally, integration provides a continuum of
service, an expansion of institutional
knowledge, and preservation of human
capital.
Integration positions us for the seamless
retention of airmen who have decided to
leave Active service, helping us recapture
our personnel investments. Reservists and
Guardsmen bring with them unique
capabilities they have acquired in civilian
jobs, especially in the technology sector,
introducing skills that may not exist in the
Active force. And because Reservists do not
PCS at the same rate as the Active Duty,
they sustain the corporate knowledge base.
This mitigates the effects of the higher
turnover rate of Active Duty personnel.
In some respects, the Air
Force has been integrating since the first
Air Force Reserve associate units stood up
in 1967. At these bases, which exist at
virtually all Air Mobility Command bases
today, associate Reserve units operate and
maintain the same aircraft as Active Duty
units. The increased manpower provides
increased mission capability and a surge
capability in a cost-effective manner, and
takes advantage of Reserve personnel
experience. Another example of integrated
units is the first "blended" unit, the 116th
Air Control Wing at Robins AFB, Georgia.
Over the last two years, the 116th
took integration to the next level, creating
an organization composed of Air Force Active
Duty and Air National Guardsmen. The proof
of the success of this organization was
shown in the crucible of war. When the 116th
deployed to OIF in 2003, it was the first
ever deployment of a blended wing and the
largest ever by the Joint Surveillance &
Target Attack Radar System (JSTARS). 730
Active Duty and Guard personnel flew 191
flights in the wing's nine E-8Cs, providing
over 3,000 hours on station and generating
over 30,000 synthetic aperture radar
images. Because of the contributions of the
116th, the Iraqi military could
not hide from coalition forces, not even in
a sandstorm, and the Race to Baghdad went
spectacularly well for our coalition. Your
Air Force is continuing to examine new
opportunities to integrate various Air Force
units where it is clear that such
integration will produce measurable
benefits, savings, and efficiencies.
To support integration, we
also need to ensure that our people are
ready to provide a balanced set of
capabilities-we need capabilities-based
manpower to complement our
capabilities-based force structure. Through
the new Force Development construct, the Air
Force has a transformed vision of how it
trains, educates, promotes, and assigns the
Total Force in a more deliberate,
coordinated, and connected approach.
Historically, we have measured
the life cycle of our manpower, but not the
outputs the manpower produced or the skills
it was ready to perform. We focused on a
series of transactions throughout an
individual's career (e.g., Squadron Officers
School, Air Command and Staff College, AFIT,
Air War College, Fellowships, Internships,
advanced academic degrees, and key
assignments), instead of managing the career
to produce the outcomes-the effects-needed
to fill future Air Force requirements.
As part of this initiative, we've begun providing the opportunity for our enlisted force to obtain advanced degrees from our highly acclaimed Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT). We're also revamping our personnel assignment system to better develop our future leaders through a purposeful pairing of primary and complementary assignments and experiences. Future plans will expand the Force Development construct to include our Reserve Components, enlisted corps and civilian workforces.
We believe we can successfully integrate by leveraging the unique capabilities and characteristics of each component; however, we strongly intend to allow each to retain its cultural identity. We cannot overlook the fact that citizen Airmen form the backbone of the Reserve Components, and we are highly sensitive to the impact recurring mobilizations have on Reserve Component members and their families, as well as their employers. We believe the synergies achieved through FTF will make the Air Force Team more effective than ever . and the time has never been better. As we continue to reshape our force while managing limited resources, we look to you for help and support; we cannot do it alone. We need your support as we bring our future, reshaped Air Force through the Congress. We also greatly appreciate your past legislative support, such as Section 516 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2004, which you passed last November.
It is critical to the success of the Total Force, for the barriers it will take down for our commanders. In the end, the Future Total Force is about making the most of our most critical resource-our great Airmen. With the support of Congress, we are confident we can put the right people in the right place with the right training-to fight and win our nation's wars.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
2120 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515
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