- [Announcer] Ladies and
gentlemen, good afternoon!
Please welcome back to the stage,
AFA's Chairman of the Board,
the Honorable F. Whitten Peters.
(dramatic music)
(audience applauding)
- Well, welcome back for the afternoon.
I hope you enjoyed the tech session.
I hope there was enough lunch,
and we're really happy to have you back.
I'm excited to welcome,
for the first time, apparently,
Matt Donovan, the Acting
Secretary of the Air Force.
I was kidding him because I was once
an Acting Secretary for the Air Force
for 19 months, and then
they made me the real deal,
which is a lot more fun.
Secretary Donovan has a long
history with the Air Force,
including his 26-year
career in the Air Force,
where he was a command
pilot with more than 2,900
flight hours in an F-16
Eagle and F-5E Tiger 2.
You don't probably remember the F-5E,
but it was an airplane,
including combat sorties during
Operation Southern Watch.
Secretary Donovan retired
from the Air Force
as a colonel, and went on to
serve in the defense industry
before transitioning to civil service.
His civil service includes serving
as a professional staff member
for the Senate Armed Services Committee.
As a professional staff member,
he managed all matters for the committee
relating to the Army, Navy, Air Force,
and Marine Corps fixed wing aircraft,
manned and unmanned
tactical aviation programs
and Air Force bomber mobility
and special mission aircraft,
as well as research and development,
aircraft procurement and
sustainment programs.
Mr. Donovan is able to use
his extensive experience
on Capitol Hill to better
serve our Air Force
and our airmen as the
current Acting Secretary
of the Air Force.
Before you stand up, let
me say there's a video.
At the end of the video,
Secretary Donovan will appear,
and we'll go from there,
so roll the tape, please.
- [Male] We're in a competition.
We're leaving the period
of the department's history
where we've been focusing
solely on violent extremists.
- [Male] Steep competition has returned.
- [Male] They're doing things
- [Female] China has had a strong presence
in Africa for years.
- [Male] Vladimir Putin testing
a new intercontinental missile.
- [Female] And this warning about Iran.
- Locked in a bitter standoff
over the now scrapped nuclear deal.
- And so if conflict in
the future is going to be
trans-regional that's gonna extend
beyond the current combatant
commander boundaries and maps.
- [Male] How do we have the right policies
and the right directives,
leveraging the right
acquisition authorities
and unleash this talent
that the hard problems that our Air Force
and our nation faces today.
- [Female] Over the past
three decades our adversaries
have studied how the United
States and its allies
- [Man] Organized train
and equip our forces.
- [Male] It won't be
tanks, planes and ships
that are the essential
differentiators in tomorrow's
conflict, that conflict's
going to be data-centric.
- [Male] They've learned how we fight
and they've invested heavily
in adaptive technologies
- [Male] designed to
exploit our vulnerabilities.
- [Male] AI,
- Yep
- [Male] Is that, talk to
me, is that, that's scary.
- [Man] Artificial
intelligence has capability
to significantly speed
our tactical, operational
and strategic.
- [Man] And so we have to adapt
to these commercial development tools.
- [Male] forced us to change our approach
to how we would then do acquisitions.
- [Male] Drive a consistent demand signal
to our industry team mates.
Does what you're offering
connect across the network?
Air, land, space, sea,
and cyber operations
occurring simultaneously
to achieve objectives.
- [Man] In the early days in the Cold War,
the Soviet Union launched Sputnik and
- [Woman] Space contributions
continue to expand.
- [Man] We must move
fast and we must be bold
in fielding space war
fighting capabilities.
- [Woman] We must prepare
to protect our interests.
- [Man] We're the best
in the world of space.
With the establishment
of U.S. Space Command
we're even better.
- [Man] We're gonna have to
be able to keep building,
keep upgrading, keep sustaining faster
than any adversary we have.
- [Man] An incredible
choreography all coming together
- [Man] Get back to our roots
as being a rapid builder
and fielder of things.
- [Male] As members of the DoD,
of the Department of the Air Force
- [Female] We must be ready
for the great power competition
- [Male] As a fully networked force
in a data-dense environment
in a digital age
- [Man] With the national defense strategy
- [Male] And efforts of our airmen,
- [Man] And I'm seeing that
creativity across the ocean.
- [Female] We will compete, deter
- [Man] And win.
(audience applauding)
- Well thank you folks.
Thank you, please sit down.
Well thank you.
Good afternoon.
Thank you, Whitt, for
that kind introduction.
More importantly, your
lengthy service to our nation
in all your many positions,
but especially as Chairman of
AFA, really appreciate that.
You know I became a life
member of AFA back in 1981
when I was a staff sergeant.
And I guess I should have
looked at the fine print
a little closer because I didn't know
they'd actually have me speak some day.
(audience laughing)
By the way I believe Whitt
still holds the record
for longest tenure as Acting
Secretary of the Air Force
what is it, 19 months?
Well, I've been at it for
almost four months now
and I'm happy to report
that Ambassador Barrett's
congressional hearing went very well
and we're just days away
from her confirmation vote.
So it looks like your record will stand.
I'd also like to thank Sir Richard Branson
for his attendance and
his remarks this morning.
What a great opportunity
to hear from a modern-day
aviation and space pioneer.
When I found out he was
speaking, I had only one request.
Not to follow him.
So thanks, thanks guys.
And of course thank you to Chief Goldfein
and Chief Wright.
It's an honor to share the
stage with you this week.
Okay, we've got a lot of ground
to cover so let's dive in.
Before talking about where
we're going as an Air Force
I'd like to talk about where we are today.
Specifically in the context
of what we've accomplished
over the last year.
The Air Force has spent the better part
of the last three decades
in a readiness decline,
with a shrinking force.
It wasn't until 2017 when
the Trump administration's
request for additional
appropriations was passed
by Congress, followed by
the passing of the 2018
bipartisan Budget Act Agreement,
that we stopped the bleeding from years
of budget declines and uncertainty.
And for the first time in over a decade,
we actually started the
year with an executable
two-year plan that had
steady top line increases.
I can't overemphasize the positive impact
this kind of budget stability
has on our planning,
programming and acquisition efforts,
and ultimately our ability
to start digging out
from this readiness hole.
Because of this in 2019
we made real progress
in readiness restoration
and we're finally able
to start rebuilding the Force.
More importantly we made significant steps
in building the Air Force we need.
But what does this real
progress look like?
What did we, or rather what did you,
accomplish this last year?
As the Chief likes to
say, what does our receipt
to Congress look like?
Well it's pretty impressive
and worth a review.
As we begin to pivot toward the future,
some of this year's
most notable feats came
from our scientists and
research and development teams.
The Department of the Air
Force has been hard at work
expanding our hypersonic capabilities.
This year we discovered new ways
to measure atmospheric
conditions during testing
at the home and high speed test track
and made significant
improvements in our ability
to test the flight characteristics
of hypersonic re-entry vehicles.
Our advances in hypersonics
weren't just theoretical.
We conducted flight
tests with the carriage
of a hypersonic missile from a B-52.
That's right, we used the oldest aircraft
in the inventory to test our
newest kinetic capability.
And it's all tied together
with rapid prototyping
as we increase the speed
of our acquisition system.
Faster, smarter.
Speaking of bombers, I'm happy to announce
the development of the
B-21 Raider is on schedule
and the first aircraft is being built
at the same facility in
Palmdale, California,
as its predecessor, the B-2 Spirit.
The first flight of the Raider
will take it from Palmdale
to Edwards Air Force Base
where the legacy of excellence
will continue with the reactivation
of the 425th Flight Test Squadron.
As we seek to develop these types
of next-generation weapons,
we're implementing ways to streamline
our procurement process such
as with the XQ-58 Valkyrie.
The Valkyrie is a low-cost,
attritable aircraft
that is a test bed for a cost effective
and timely aircraft procurement process.
It's a stealthy, unmanned
aircraft that can escort
fourth and fifth generation
aircraft in combat
acting as a loyal wingman.
Plus it's a great platform to help develop
and experiment with
artificial intelligence
for autonomous operations.
And the most impressive
thing about it was it only
took two and a half years
to go from contract award
to first flight.
The Air Force Research
Lab did this by working
with commercial partners
during the initial development
and it's already paying dividends.
We're constantly developing creative ways
to get after tough problems.
For instance, this past
March we held our first
Pitch Day event.
So far we've had more
than 130 small businesses
and nearly 100 industry
groups participate.
Holding a competition is one thing.
Turning that competition
into successful contracts is another.
And we absolutely nailed
it with our Pitch Days.
We decided to focus each Pitch Day
on a specific area, such
as unmanned aircraft
or special operations
forces and this paid off.
In the last six months
we've awarded 72 contracts
worth $41 million.
As one company said, it was quicker to get
an Air Force contract
than it is to get a beer
in New York City.
That's success.
We're only getting started
with Air Force Pitch Days.
Over the next three months
we'll host five more
in cities like San Francisco and Orlando.
This is just another
way that we're infusing
innovation into our Air Force to make sure
we're lethal and ready, while
being faster and smarter
so we can get to the Air Force we need.
As we bring on new capabilities quickly,
it's important that we
protect the intellectual
properties associated with these assets
from countries that would
like to steal our ideas.
Last year we established
a cross-functional team
made up of airmen with
acquisitions, legal,
logistics and intellectual
property professionals.
The team brainstormed and
developed recommendations
for how we can better protect ourselves.
Ultimately they recommended what we,
they recommended we
create what they call a
smart IP cadre that will
partner with industry
and serve as the Air Force's lead agency
in a whole new government
approach against the theft
of our hard-won intellectual property.
We continue to find new ways to streamline
by utilizing the
authorities Congress gave us
to accelerate acquisitions
and develop programs faster.
One way we've done this
is by aggressively using
Section 804 of the fiscal
year 2016 National Defense
Authorization Act.
The beauty of Section 804
is that you can scribe it
on the back of a bar napkin.
It establishes a series
of common sense reforms,
begin prototyping earlier,
nearly a year and a half
earlier than under the normal system,
which gives engineers
more time for testing
and trouble shooting and
keeps flawed concepts
from entering production and operations.
This alone represents a whopping 70%
of any program's total cost.
In line with this, our
acquisition folks created
a program called the Century Challenge.
Dr. Will Roper, our acquisition
Chief, asked his community
to shave 100 years off the
total acquisition timelines.
They attacked 55 programs
and within a year
they not only met this goal, they beat it.
Now they've set a new goal.
150 years of time savings while ensuring
that rapid and tailored
programs are the new normal
for Air Force acquisitions.
Will is speaking next so stick around
and you can hear more about it.
This really is ground
breaking and game changing.
We've also been looking
for ways to improve some
of the processes you all
face on a daily basis.
Specifically for those who
sacrifice as they support
our airmen, our spouses.
For years, whenever a
family moved to a new state,
they had to pay for professional licenses,
credentials they already
earned and paid for.
Well, we've heard you and
have worked to mitigate
this hurdle to spouse employment.
Now when family PCS's to a new state,
the Air Force will
reimburse them up to $500
for exams, registration
and other costs required
by their new home state so they
can continue their careers.
This is a quality of life
issue designed to help
spouses get back to work
quicker after a move
while keeping money in
our airmen's pockets.
As you can see, we've been
pretty busy this year,
and that's just what we've
been doing here on earth.
We've been just as busy in space.
If you were sitting
outdoors on the east coast
of Florida on August 8,
you may have witnessed
a powerful event as the
engines of the Atlas Five
rocket ignited, a deep rumble
would have reverberated
through your bones as you watched
a 20-story rocket lift off.
That morning the Atlas Five
pushed a communications payload
into space with the help of
1.6 million pounds of thrust.
It was a beautiful sight as
the smoke trail was highlighted
against the perfectly blue Air Force sky.
But the technical aspect
wasn't the most impressive
part of the launch.
Just hours earlier, SpaceX
launched a Falcon 9 rocket
carrying an Israeli-owned
space craft into orbit
from Patrick Air Force Base.
And just like that, the
45th Space Wing launched
two rockets in 34 hours.
This was the first time
our space professionals
at Cape Canaveral had
done this since 1981,
more than 38 years ago.
Speaking of space, you
might have heard a little
something about a space force.
And we might have had
a part in ensuring the
President's vision is carried out.
Our nation needs the
United States Space Force
to guarantee our preeminence
in the space domain
and it must be a new and separate service
to unleash its full potential.
We need Congress to finalize
the necessary legislation
to fully establish the
United States Space Force
as the sixth branch of the armed forces
within the Department of Defense,
and I know they're working hard
in Congress to do just that.
Two and a half weeks ago
the President formally
stood up U.S. Space Command,
the 11th unified combatant command.
General Jay Raymond, our lead warfighter
for the space domain took
the helm as its commander.
This is a critical step
towards meeting the growing
threats posed by our
potential adversaries in space
and will be crucial if
future conflicts start in
or extend into space.
One of my favorite
interlocutors, Yogi Berra,
once said, it's tough to make predictions.
Especially about the future.
But no challenge worth
undertaking is easy,
so our space professionals
at Air Force Space Command
took a hack at predicting
what the space domain
will look like in 2060,
and how we can assure the
United States will continue
to be the leader in space.
These space professionals,
along with experts
from across the DoD, NASA, NATO, industry
and academia developed
eight potential scenarios
for the future of space.
Each scenario examined the human presence,
the economics and the
leadership challenges in space.
On one end of their predictive spectrum,
people are back on the
moon and exploring Mars
but there is no permanent presence.
On the other end of the
gamut we have permanent
outposts on both the moon and Mars.
Regardless, estimates
of the future economic
impact of space range
from one to two percent
of the global economy
to 10% of global GDP.
Either way, we're talking trillions
of dollars in commerce.
I encourage you to read
Air Force Space Command's
recent report, The Future of Space 2060.
I fully endorse the author's
number one recommendation,
that the U.S. must develop a
long-term national strategy
to ensure continued leadership in space.
A whole government effort
is required to ensure
we can defend our national interests,
our commercial capabilities,
and our people in space.
The Department of the Air
Force is leading this effort.
Discuss and debate the future of space.
Airmen have been thinking
about this domain for decades
and we have some of the
smartest people in the world.
The Department of the
Air Force has got this.
In the meantime, we're still
taking care of business
both home and abroad, and
last year was no exception.
In October airmen responded
to the devastation
left behind by Hurricane Michael.
In the true spirit of the
Air Force you came together
as a team to take care of our families.
Within 36 hours of Hurricane
Michael's landfall,
the Devil Raiders from the
621st Contingency Response Wing
had 66 airmen airborne
and headed towards Tyndall Air Force Base.
These forces conducted
an air field assessment,
command and control and
aerial port operations
along with field management
and air traffic control,
all which helped the 325th
Fighter Wing evacuate
the remaining F-22s and then
kicked off recovery operations.
But the Devil Raiders didn't stop there,
they also tasked 22 people to take over
some of the responsibilities
of the devastated 601st
Air Operation Center.
These 22 airmen enabled airlift
from multiple operations
including humanitarian
disaster relief missions
along with FEMA's life-saving efforts.
At the same time, our headquarter
staff was hard at work
ensuring airmen and their families
were taken care of financially.
They linked up with Task Force HARP,
a unit that concentrated on
housing, assignments, relocation
and posture for personnel
affected by the hurricane
to secure entitlements for
11,000 airmen and their families.
This work ensured our
people had money to pay
for the increased housing
costs and non-concurrent travel
so the airmen who were
focused on disaster recovery
efforts didn't have to
worry about how they would
support their families who had evacuated.
They also found a way to cover
family separation payments
for those airmen.
The staff then worked
tirelessly with Congress
to secure a $1.9 billion
supplemental to pay for all this
while also partial funding
recovery efforts at Tyndall
and at Offutt Air Force
Base which received severe
flooding earlier this year.
And with hurricane
season upon us once more,
our airmen are again answering the call.
Just last week a group of rescue airmen
from Moody Air Force Base
in Georgia forward deployed
to provide disaster relief
operations following
the devastation of Hurricane Dorian.
The team saved 54 lives
while delivering critical
medical attention and supplies
to Bahamian citizens in need.
It's a testament to their
dedication as airmen
and the epitome of their creed,
"These Things We Do That Others May Live."
I hope you're starting
to pick up on a theme,
innovation, team work, progress.
And by the way, we're still
in serious conflicts overseas.
This year alone we've
flown over 54,000 sorties,
air-dropped over a million
pounds of supplies,
off-loaded 400 million pounds of fuel,
and released over 8,500 weapons in support
of joint coalition operations to seek out
and destroy insurgent terrorist
networks around the world.
In other words, you all
absolutely crushed it this year.
Each of these examples shows the tenacity
and the grit of our airmen.
Whether it's the Devil Raiders
deploying at a moments notice
and ensuring Americans
AOC didn't miss a beat,
or airmen finding ways
to save time and money
so we can begin to focus on the future,
our airmen are making a
difference for our nation.
This is just a small sample
of what you airmen have
accomplished all around
the globe this past year,
a subset of an amazing
array of accomplishments.
My hat is off to all of you.
Before we start talking about
what the future looks like,
I'd like to take a moment
to pause and pay tribute
to some of the larger-than-life
icons of aviation
we lost this year.
Ollie Crawford, a true
advocate for air power,
passed away at the age of 94.
He enlisted in the Army Air
Corps during World War II
where he trained Chinese
pilots on the P-40.
After the war he was part
of the Air Force Reserve
for 13 years while he
continued to be an advocate
for the Air Force.
He was the driving force
behind the formal recognition
of the Flying Tigers and
worked to ensure the pilots
were awarded Distinguished Flying Crosses
while the ground crews were
presented with Bronze Stars
for their actions.
He also led the effort to
build the Air Force Memorial
on the hill overlooking the Pentagon.
Ollie also served as a president
and then as the chairman
of the board of the Air Force Association
and was its Man of the Year in 1989.
More impressive than
his honors is the fact
that he flew more than 100
different types of aircraft
and racked up 13,000 hours of flying time
during his lifetime.
I first got to know Ollie at air shows
when I was a demonstration
pilot many moons ago,
and he was just a
larger-than-life hero to me.
Lieutenant Colonel Dick Cole was the last
of the Doolittle Raiders
when he passed away
at 103 years old.
Dick was a lieutenant
in 1942 when he served
as Jimmy Doolittle's co-pilot as 16 B-25s
bombed the Japanese home
islands just four months
after Pearl Harbor.
After the raid, thunderstorms
forced the bombers
off course and the crews
bailed out over China
where they evaded enemy forces
until they could return to the war.
Lieutenant Colonel Dick Cole retired
from the U.S. Air Force after earning
three Distinguished Flying Crosses
and the Congressional Gold Medal.
And a few years ago you may
remember that he helped us
dedicate the B-21 named
of Raider in memory
of that historic mission.
Dr. Harold Brown was an absolute genius
who passed away in January.
By the age of 21 he had
earned a Ph.D. in Physics
from Columbia University
and at 23 he was appointed
the director of what's now known
as the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory.
Dr. Brown's penchant for service
continued when at the age
of just 38 he took the
helm as the Secretary
of the Air Force and then
went on to become the first
scientist to serve as
the Secretary of Defense.
Dr. Brown was awarded the
Presidential Medal of Freedom
by President Carter,
who called him one of his
finest cabinet officers.
Lieutenant Colonel Robert
Friend, a Tuskegee airman,
passed away this year at age 99.
He flew 142 combat missions
with the Army Air Corps
during World War II,
and continued to serve
during the Korean War and Vietnam.
While he earned a
Distinguished Flying Cross
and Congressional Gold Medal
for the bravery he exhibited
during his 28 year career,
his lasting legacy will always
be the distinctive red-tailed paint scheme
that he created and painted
on his World War II aircraft.
In honor of Lieutenant Colonel Friend,
I'd like to invite a
special guest up on stage.
Mr. Charles McGee, would
you join me on stage?
(audience applauding)
Mr. McGee is actually Colonel McGee,
a retired Air Force
officer and fighter pilot
who flew more than 400 combat
missions in World War II,
Korea and Vietnam.
In fact, as a lieutenant
during World War II,
Colonel McGee was stationed
with the 302nd Fighter Squadron
as one of the original Tuskegee Airmen.
Flying his P-51 Mustang
named Kitten after his wife,
Colonel McGee kept American bombers safe
and engaged enemy fighters
in the skies over Germany
as part of a greatest generation.
Colonel McGee is joined by other members
of the East Coast Chapter
of the Tuskegee Airmen
seated in the audience today,
and I though it fitting
for these men to help us
memorialize their brother-in-arms.
Please join me in recognizing
these genuine Air Force heroes.
(audience applauding)
(rousing music)
In honor of Lieutenant Colonel Friend,
and as a lasting tribute to the sacrifice
and bravery of all the Tuskegee Airmen,
please turn your attention to the screen
as we introduce the Air
Force's newest Red Tail.
(peaceful orchestral music)
(jet engines roaring)
- [Male] As America enters the war,
these Tuskegee Airmen are ready to fly
into combat with honor.
(audience applauding)
- Ladies and gentlemen I present
to you the T-7A Red Hawk.
(stirring orchestral music)
(audience applauding)
Thank you.
Thank you Colonel McGee.
The name Red Hawk honors the
legacy of Tuskegee Airmen
and pays homage to their
signature red-tailed aircraft
from World War II.
The name is also a
tribute to the Curtis P-40
War Hawk, an American fighter
aircraft that first flew
in 1938 and was flown by
the 99th Fighter Squadron,
the U.S. Army Air Force's
first African-American
fighter squadron.
The P-51 and P-40 are
some of the most iconic
fighters of their time.
Likewise the T-7A will be the staple
of a new generation of aircraft.
The Red Hawk offers advanced
capabilities for training
tomorrow's pilots on data
links, simulated radar,
smart weapons, defensive
management systems
as well as synthetic
training capabilities.
The first T-7A aircraft and
simulators are scheduled
to arrive at Joint Base
Randolph Air Force Base Texas
in 2023 as a replacement
for the venerable T-38C.
And the moniker Red Hawk
is certainly fitting
as that species of raptor,
the red-tailed hawk,
is often seen soaring over
our pilot training bases.
Thank again to Colonel
McGee, let's have one more
round of applause to honor
these true American heroes.
(audience applauding)
(stirring music)
So folks, that literally
brings us up to today,
and today looks a lot
different than it has
over the last quarter
century since the end
of the Cold War.
We are operating in the most
competitive international
security environment in generations.
If this last year has taught us anything,
it's that long-term strategic competition
between nations is back with a vengeance.
This year we have seen
our adversaries continue
to modernize their armed
forces to compete directly
with the United States.
These adversaries, unable
to match us on air, land
or sea, are looking for
ways to exploit our American
way of war with its increasing dependence
on cyber and space.
To put it bluntly, our
adversaries are growing less
fearful of how we would
respond if they were
to challenge the U.S.,
its partners or allies.
They increasingly doubt we
would choose to engage them
in a conventional war.
That would be a huge
miscalculation on their part.
In light of this and guided
by the National Defense Strategy,
the Air Force conducted
an in-depth analysis
on what it would take to
achieve all the missions
laid out in the NDS.
The analysis confirmed
what we already knew.
The Air Force is too small for
all it's being asked to do.
And so last year we laid
out the growth required
for the Air Force we need,
but while we need to get
bigger, we must also get better.
We simply cannot ask for more stuff
and continue to do things
in the same old way.
It's time we truly harness the power
of the information age
and reclaim our significant
competitive technological advantage.
We have entered a new age of
discovery and advancement.
Big data and analytics are transforming
societies and economies.
These advances are fueling
a revolution in how we fight
and evolving the character of war.
Victory in combat will
depend less on discrete
war fighting platforms
and more on the networks,
data and IT infrastructure
that binds them all together.
To address this challenge
we've developed a war fighting
concept that brings the
full strength of the joint
war fighting force to project power.
It's called multi-domain operations.
And if this is the first
time you're hearing about it,
don't fret because you're
gonna hear a lot more about it
during this week.
In fact, the Chief is going to talk
about multi-domain operations tomorrow
so I won't steal all of his thunder,
but going first does have its privileges.
So allow me to tee it up for him.
It will take true team
work across all forces
and domains to meet the
difficult challenges posed
by future adversaries.
That is the power of
multi-domain operations.
In effect, it integrates
and synchronizes military
activities instead of just
seeking to de-conflict them.
This creates simultaneous
dilemmas for our adversaries
overwhelming them with more
challenges than they can deal
with at one time.
The Advanced Battle
Management System, or ABMS,
is our first real step in
operationalizing this type
of command and control required
for multi-domain operations.
Instead of relying on
one specific platform
for future command and control,
we're developing a robust
open architecture family
of systems that includes
air, ground, remotely
piloted and space assets,
and synchronizing them
onto a single network.
The key though is not
the individual platform,
the key is connecting every
sensor to every shooter.
I'll let the Chief take
it from here tomorrow
but needless to say, achieving
multi-domain operations
will not be easy and requires a shift
in the way the Air Force
and the U.S. military
as a whole views lethality.
To help get after this,
we also introduced the
Digital Air Force Initiative.
The Digital Air Force is a
transformation in the way
we employ data, technology
and infrastructure
to remain dominant in the 21st century.
The core of the Digital Air
Force consists of the three
inter-connected and mutually
supporting reform efforts:
IT architecture, data management
and business operations reform.
The Digital Air Force is
really about orchestrating
these capabilities, how
do we develop the app
that sits on the cloud
that's powered by AI,
that's connected to the warfighter.
I'll tell you up front,
the military doesn't hold all the answers.
Gone are the days when the
government would spin off
technology to the private sector.
Think NASA and innovations such as
scratch-resistant lenses
or space blankets.
Today, the government
must spin on technology
advancement from industry
and the private sector.
The same technologies
that are revolutionizing
business and commerce
such as smart phones,
cloud computing and
artificial intelligence
are equally influencing the future of war.
We're heavily engaged
with the commercial sector
as we seek to find solutions
to these challenges.
Just this summer, as an example,
we kicked off an
initiative in the Air Force
working with industry to install
and sustain 5G networks
at 10 Air Force bases
in the southeast region.
It's a win-win for the
military and industry,
industry invests in
infrastructure while we provide
the facilities, land and customers.
And in the end our airmen
have some of the fastest
most reliable network
connectivity in the nation.
And as we rebuild Tyndall Air Force Base
after the devastation
of Hurricane Michael,
we plan to incorporate 5G into the design,
literally from the ground up
to create a 21st-century Air Force base.
Artificial intelligence is another area
of promising collaboration.
We've already begun incorporating AI
into day-to-day operations
such as aircraft maintenance.
It's called condition-based maintenance,
and it uses AI to help determine
if a component is about to fail.
We deployed this technology
in our C-5 and KC-135 fleets
to improve aircraft availability rates,
decrease unscheduled maintenance,
and ultimately save money.
We'll roll this technology
out to our C-135 fleet next
and eventually across the
Air Force in the near future.
To get a sense of how
important a seemingly small
change can be, we estimate
that if the entire
Department of Defense
transitioned to this process,
we could save as much
as $15 billion a year,
savings that could fund
an entire additional
International Guard squadron of F-35s
or an additional active
duty squadron of KC-46s.
We're also looking to
the commercial sector
to help us reform our business practices.
Just like with networks
and big data applications,
industry is leading the
way on digital business
practices for large organizations
in the information age.
With high-speed networks
and the power of big data,
we should be able to wean off
of static Power Point slides
and hook into live data
streams to show the latest
information for a given system or program.
And using digital sandbox
environments we can start
manipulating variables such
as funding and manpower
to see the outcomes in real time.
Data, information, technology.
These are the things that
will ensure we compete,
deter and win against our
great power adversaries.
As General Goldfein has maintained,
victory is not a birthright,
it has to be fought for.
But America has never been satisfied
with bringing a knife to a knife fight.
We're building a 21st century
force for the information age
and we can't do it without you.
Your ideas, your creativity
and your tenacity
are ultimately our greatest advantage.
It's also why we're
committed to making real
and lasting reforms in talent management,
developing the airmen we need
for the Air Force we need.
More to follow on that this week as well.
I hope you're as excited
about this next year as I am.
72 is a pretty impressive year
for the Department of the Air Force
and you can imagine what
sort of historic changes
we'll be talking about
next year at this time.
We may very well have a
new branch of the military
by then and some of you will
be in on the ground floor
of that historic event.
In the meantime, we eagerly
await the confirmation
of Ambassador Barrett
as our 25th Secretary of the Air Force.
It truly has been an honor of a lifetime
to serve with you these last few months
as Acting Secretary, and
I'd be remiss if I didn't
take this opportunity
to thank you for that
and all you do for our nation every day.
Thank you again, thank you Whitt,
thank you General Goldfein,
and most importantly,
thank you my fellow airmen.
(audience applauding)
(stirring music)
- We gave Secretary Donovan
the Will Whilper Award of a
pair of AFA's gaudy socks.
We're trying to have a new competition.
One final administrative
note before we break,
we've had a switch in speech times
for General Ray and General Raymond,
this is gonna be hard folks,
their speeches have swapped days,
so General Ray will be today at 3:40
and General Raymond will
be tomorrow at 3:55.
So with that, enjoy some
coffee and we'll be back
in about 10 minutes for the
next speaker, thank you.
(stirring music)
