Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz and Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Jonathan Greenert attempted to break down the AirSea Battle initiative during a joint discussion at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C., May 16. AirSea Battle is more of a mindset really intended to guide the Air Force and Navy to “unprecedented” levels of collaboration and cooperation that will preserve US access to air and maritime commons, they said. “We’re not thinking about things in the ‘airman’ and ‘sailor’ stovepipes anymore,” said Schwartz. Furthermore, attempts by many to connect the concept strictly to China’s growing military prowess are misguided at best, he added. “This solution should not be hijacked by any particular scenario,” said Schwartz. Greenert said limiting the concept to a particular region would be “short-sighted” and a “mistake.” “We would like to make this cross-domain operation more of an assumption for the future,” he said. One example of such collaboration, said Greenert, could include using a submarine to defeat an enemy’s air defenses, either kinetically or through electronic countermeasures. “The idea is to broaden the aperture and make that the standard approach,” said Greenert. (Schwartz’s prepared remarks) (Brookings webpage with event audio)
As the Air Force struggles to ease its pilot shortage, it can still fill all its cockpits, Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. said June 7. But that has come at the expense of staff jobs normally assigned to pilots, leading the service to reconsider whether those staff…