A microphone. Verbatim. Air Force Magazine. Cornelia Schneider-Frank/Pixabay
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Verbatim

Subordinate’s Intent

Air Force Association

One of the things I’ve always done as a senior leader and as a commander…[regarding] asking for permission … [is tell the boss] ‘Here’s what I’m planning on doing. And here’s when I’m planning on moving out.’ So I don’t have to wait for a response. If they don’t respond—I’d give them at least 48 hours—if they didn’t respond, I was going to move out. That’s the same kind of approach I think our Airmen need to take. … Communicate what their intent is, and then wait a little bit of time, give their supervision a chance to respond. If they don’t respond, they need to move.Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., USAF Chief of Staff, speaking with Air Force Magazine Editor in Chief Tobias Naegele after his speech at the Air Force Association’s virtual Air, Space & Cyber Conference (vASC) in September.

Voice Lessons

None of you will be left out of the conversation. None of you will be treated like a number. None of you will face times when you’re not included. None of you is more important than any other. Nobody in the Space Force has a reason to sit back and be unheard. Nobody in the Space Force has an opinion that I don’t want to know. This really is your service, and our size and scale gives us an advantage, a level of intimacy that nobody else can have.

Space Force Senior Enlisted Adviser Chief Master Sgt. Roger A. Towberman at vASC.

Peace Portal

Tia Dufour/White House

This could lead to peace, real peace in the Middle East for the first time. … We’ve taken a very different path. You could say it’s a backdoor, but I call it a smart door, not a backdoor.President Donald J. Trump after signing the Abraham Accords with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the foreign ministers of the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, entering into the normalization pact with Israel and regarding how the Palestinians may now also negotiate a peace deal [Politico, Sept. 15].

An Offer You Can’t Refuse…

The only thing that’s going to be worse than fighting against AI is fighting without it.Will Roper, Air Force acquisition executive, on the imperative to employ artificial intelligence to accelerate decision-making in future conflict.

AI in Action

USAF

You’re not supposed to be able to shoot down a cruise missile with a tank. But, yes, you can, if the bullet is smart enough, and the bullet we use for that system is exceptionally smart.Will Roper, telling reporters about the Air Force’s most recent Advanced Battle Management System on-ramp held in early September.

Chill Out, China

Those who play with fire will get burned.Col. Ren Guoqiang, Chinese defense spokesman, explaining why China sent jets into Taiwanese airspace during an exercise. He accused the U.S. of trying to use Taiwan to “control China,” while Taiwan relies on “foreigners to build [itself] up.” The flights were a protest against a senior U.S. State Department official’s attendance at a former Taiwanese leader’s funeral.

Howling at the Moon

NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University

If you look at the orbits of the stuff that’s going around the Moon, it looks like a drunken sailor wandering around as compared to the orbits that we’re used to describing closer to the Earth.Col. Eric J. Felt, head of Air Force Research Laboratories Space Vehicles Directorate on the challenges of defining routine cislunar operations
[Sept. 21].