Ten years from now, USAF’s key competencies will include airlift and aerial refueling, domain control, global strike, and intelligence-surveillance-reconnaissance, according to Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz. “Domain control” is the ability to exert control not only in the air and space realms, but “to some extent, cyberspace,” thereby allowing joint forces to operate “freely and without difficulty from adversary actions,” said Schwartz during his appearance on This Week in Defense News, a CBS TV new show, Sept. 5. He underscored the importance of the Air Force’s global strike capability, which, as he put it, enables the United States to keep “targets, wherever they may be on the planet, at risk,” while keeping ahead of advances in potential adversaries’ air defenses.
The Air Force has begun flying its CV-22 Ospreys again. But that is just the start of a multi-step process to return the fleet to normal operations following a deadly crash last year, the service says.