Air Force officials last month held the first-ever service core functions symposium at the LeMay Center for Doctrine Development and Education on the grounds of Maxwell AFB, Ala. The event was meant to help USAF define its new core functions and “provide everyone from a new airman to the most seasoned Pentagon veteran an understanding of where they fit in the Air Force enterprise,” said J.P. Hunerwadel, symposium director at the LeMay Center. The Air Force recently approved its list of 12 core functions, which includes nuclear deterrence operations, air superiority, and space superiority as its top three. But the underlying elements intended to tie the core functions to specific Air Force missions and tasks “required further development and refinement,” said Lt. Col. Fred McNeil, the LeMay Center Doctrine Development division chief. The symposium helped to “gain consensus on those missions and definitions,” he said. The service core function missions will now be incorporated into Air Force and joint doctrine once Air Force Chief of Staff Gen Norton Schwartz approves the symposium’s results. (For the complete list of the 12 service core functions, see the Air Force 2009 posture statement.) (Maxwell report by Capt. Jennifer Lovett)
The Air Force has finished modifying and testing the new VC-25B Bridge aircraft that will serve as a temporary Air Force One, the service announced May 1. All that’s left now is to finish painting the jet before it starts flying this summer.