Doctrinal Drum Roll, Please

Service leaders will radically streamline Air Force doctrine next year to make it easier to update and more easily accessible to leaders and planners, announced Air University officials. Dubbed “Doctrine Next,” the effort will consolidate 32 current publications into a five-volume compendium, supported by 28 annexes, available on a variety of hand-held electronic devices, according to AU’s Nov. 7 release. “The annexes will be all doctrine, no filler,” said Lt. Col. Brian Thompson of AU’s LeMay Center for Doctrine Development at Maxwell AFB, Ala. “One of the immediate effects of eliminating non-doctrinal text is a 30-percent word-count reduction” across the service’s doctrine library, he added. The five new volumes will be: Basic Doctrine; Leadership and Force Development; Commanding and Organizing Air Force Forces; Operations; and Support. Rollout of the new publications will begin in May 2013 and should be completed next October, according to the release. (Maxwell report by Phil Berube)