Maj. Gen. Steven Kwast, the Air Force’s representative to the upcoming Quadrennial Defense Review, said Friday the QDR should force the Air Force to do some soul searching on how it prosecutes its core missions, regardless of the resolution of budget matters in the sequestration debate. “Adaptation is the foundation to survival,” Kwast told attendees of AFA’s Air Warfare Symposium in Orlando, Fla. The “tapestry of capability” that the Air Force currently fields is “unsustainable” in the long-term strategic environment, he said. “I see creative approaches we have not yet embraced,” said Kwast. For example, service officials should divorce the idea of global vigilance from the assumption that a platform or aircraft solution is needed, he said. Further, new technology could enable new approaches to global reach and getting items delivered faster and more affordable than before, he said. This QDR, added Kwast, is a great opportunity for the service if it can grapple honestly with all of these issues and concepts.
The Air Force awarded a $13.08 billion contract to the Sierra Nevada Corporation on April 26 for its Survivable Airborne Operations Center aircraft, the successor to the service’s E-4B “Doomsday” plane. Like the E-4B, officially called the National Airborne Operations Center, the SAOC will be meant to withstand a nuclear attack and keep…