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.
Trainees in Basic Military Training and technical school no longer have the option to try alternate PT drills if they fail an initial assessment, according to a policy change the Air Force made in April. The move is part of a larger shift out of the classroom and into hands-on,…