The “pacing threat” from China, coming at the same time as profound financial austerity within the Pentagon, played a big role in the Air Force and Navy establishing the new AirSea Battle concept, said Lt. Gen. Herbert Carlisle, deputy chief of staff for operations, plans, and requirements, Thursday. After concluding his speech at AFA’s Air Warfare Symposium in Orlando, Fla., an audience member asked Carlisle why it has taken so long for the two services to pursue this sort of collaboration. Carlisle responded that there had previously been no real incentive for them since the end of the Cold War to align their plans and methods so closely. But in forging AirSea Battle, Carlisle said the services have gotten truly intimate. Indeed, a group of officers from each branch has been cleared to see “all the black programs,” or classified projects, of the other to look for duplicative efforts, he said. Carlisle said the USAF Chief of Staff and Chief of Naval Operations “are very close” to signing a document that will make “round one” of AirSea Battle initiatives binding. The release of a public document explaining the concept in detail will occur “possibly within two weeks,” he told the Daily Report after his speech.
The top Air Force commander on on the Japanese island of Okinawa has clamped down alcohol and issued a curfew for junior enlisted Airmen and Guardians at Kadena Air Base for the next month. The order came roughly two weeks after a U.S. Marine was arrested for allegedly robbing and…