 Good morning everybody. Thank you for joining us and sticking with us. Yeah, this is our introduction. I suppose this is I'm Kevin Baron. I'm the executive editor of defense one And this gentleman next to me you all know is general Dave Goldfiend the chief of staff of the arm of the Air Force Excuse me. We were just talking with General Milley backstage or General Milley was talking at us backstage as he does So defense one is the media partner for The event here today and for the future of war series with new America if you haven't already Please go to the defense one comm and you can see us a long series of Articles and commentaries from the future of war roster Ranging from everything from cyber to space to you know all sorts of all sorts of questions a lot of which I think we're gonna get into here today. We have 45 minutes I've asked the group to give us a little more time for audience questions because we know this event You guys have good questions. I'd like to hear more from you. I think more from myself for sure And we'll get some good answers. We hope from the general I'd like for us here to kind of to do a bit of around the world But to keep it at the 40,000 foot level to use my first Air Force metaphor I promise the general we talk a lot more about global strategy and and in Russia topics like that and I will not use the phrase block by or get into any type of Acquisition nitty-gritty as usually I think he hears from from that press corps. So Let's let's kind of start at the top and move our way down And you've got some opening marks too to talk about What's on your agenda? Well, let's do that first. Why don't you get a starter with that? You had to say and then we'll we'll get going. No, thanks And I always love following General Mark Milley. He warms up a crowd like nobody else and And he's a good friend. So it's great to be here and again, thanks for having this conference I thought I what I might do is just spend a few minutes Opening up and talk a little bit about what it is your Air Force does every day around the world Because one of the challenges that we have as an Air Force is quite frankly We do so much and what we do is so broad that very often it's below the radar You know, I liken it to to you know, these lights in the room You know, so I'm a I'm a philosophy major right from the Air Force Academy that took six years to get through a four-year Institution, right? So so I mean I tell you I don't even actually know how these lights work, right? I think there's bulbs involved in electricity and wires, right? But here's what I know without question My entire adult life when I've walked into a room and flipped a switch lights come on So I've come to assume that lights which is equal light And I share that analogy with you because very often things that the Air Force does for the nation become similarly assumed That we can just expect that that it's always going to be available and always there So let me just walk you through very quickly what it is that your Air Force is doing right now As part of this joint team and then open up very quickly to a good dialogue Because to understand your Air Force you got to think look at it through actually two lenses You've got to look at it to the lens of that which we do deployed here in the homeland In support of defense of the homeland and in support of the global challenges we faced And then you've got to take an equivalent lens and then look at what we do when we are deployed forward As we look at assuring allies and partners deterring bad behavior Shaping the environment and then responding to crisis as required So for that first lens what do we do here in the home when it starts with nuclear deterrence So your Air Force working side by side with the navy Has two-thirds of the nuclear triad two legs of the triad and on our worst day as a nation Our job is to make sure that the president is where he needs to be And that the commander-in-chief is connected to his nuclear enterprise So first and foremost for us begins the nuclear enterprise and our responsibility for nuclear deterrence And as you know, we're going to be going into a nuclear nuclear posture review and npr I'd love to talk about that Then you got to take a look at what we're doing in space 12 constellations in space that not only does the joint force rely on but I would say Nationally and internationally we rely on space capabilities Then space has become both a contested and a congested place And so as the stewards of space since 1954 we take very Very strongly our responsibility to the joint force for For leading in terms of our capabilities relative to the space enterprise And then it leads into intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance. How do we sense the globe through six domains air land sea space Cyber under sea and how do we knit that capability together into a common operational picture for decision makers? And so whether you want to talk about what we do remotely from places like Creech air force base flying sorties overseas and places like Syria and Afghanistan and iraq or whether you want to talk about the enterprise that takes the ones and zeros and turns us into Decision quality information. That's a big part of what our air force does and then the final piece I would talk about is what we're doing in the cyber domain And this is all the services contributing cyber talent and building our cyber pool to both defend the nation Relative to cyber threats and thrive or attack but also to bring capabilities that are non kinetic in the business of war fighting And so that's just that lens of what we do Both here and then you take a look what we do forward and for an air force that starts with air superiority Ensuring that we have freedom from attack and freedom to attack and freedom to maneuver And that's not an american birthright and it takes that we take that very seriously We were just talking talking previously with gilmilli, you know when a soldier sailor airman or Marine or on the ground and they hear jet noise. I don't want them looking up ever I want them to always know it's me So they can keep their eye on the enemy and do what they have to do And so that requires us to have air superiority And once we gain and maintain air superior we work through a series of bases That are global in nature and we provide air power and that starts with our global reach capabilities And so about every two and a half minutes even during this during this dialogue An aircraft is going to be taken off somewhere on the planet delivering supplies or personnel where it needs to go Very often in in bases that are not in the most secure locations and our special operations forces are deployed for to make that happen And then when you talk about global strike I can't give you a better example than what we did with the b2s at a white man And when we send them 34 hours round trip to hit a target within 10 seconds of their planned time over target And not only that but 16 tankers that had to refuel them there and to get them back And so not only do we fight the the base i.e. white man air force base to get them airborne But also all the things that go into making sure a global strike happens And then finally to ensure that we're continuing to attack the enemy in this hot fight that we're in Um, you know, we you know, we very often look at that through the lens of the end game I what happens when a bomb actually hits the ground or we take out an enemy But quite frankly you have to look at the entire enterprise and the family of systems that come forward From the bases that we fly off of to the tankers that then refuel them to the command and control to the isr To everything coming together and connecting that to space to ensure that we're doing the nation's business forward So that just gives you a snapshot Of what it is your air force is doing every day both deployed at home and deployed forward And I look forward to talking about any of those capabilities or others as we go into questions Okay, that's you know, that's a nice uh sweep around the world of of what the air force does And I would guess you're right that a lot of the audience or you know, this audience But the general public is less aware of those actions and daily capabilities than what we hear in the press more of On the ground fighting. Um, so let's let's start. We we spoke backstage We're at the start of a new administration. We have a new president you and the other joint chiefs have had a few meetings with him already You know, tell us what's this new commander in chief like what what does it like to interact with him? When you're presenting your plans and what is what kind of questions is he asking of you So far my impression in the couple meetings that I've been in with him as is first of all very thoughtful a good listener and I've been impressed with not only the quality of the questions, but also the quality of the team he's put around him So it's early to tell for all of us. We're watching to see sort of how things settled in the administration. We're we're power centers We're still watching to to see and understand better how What's his decision calculus and how does he make decisions? How do we present best military advice to him and his team? In a way that can allow them to make the decisions in a You know present enough information That he and his team are comfortable Being able to provide a decision and then give us guidance that we can execute on And so so far I would I would describe the environment that I've seen so far as being I think we're all very optimistic I'll just give you one Vignette that was pretty telling for me so When the transition team was going through transition each of the chiefs had one on one time With the transition team and then we had a larger group discussion And we were in the dialogue and the larger group discussion and and and one of the transition team members Brought up a question. He said well, wait a minute. He goes have you thought about you know doing this a little bit differently? Maybe you can consider and just about that time the team lead Who was a retired general Kellogg who's now in the national security agency? national security advisor Chief of staff he stopped him He said stop and he looked at me. He says hey chief Pardon me for a minute. I just got to reset the room a little bit and he looked at the transitioning team. He says we're not here To offer ideas on how to mitigate risk We're here to listen and understand Exactly what this chief and this service Is telling us so that we can help craft the president's 100 day plan And I I was actually really impressed with that focus You know, so I'll just give you that just give you that one vignette in terms of at least what we've seen so far From a retired general. Yeah. Yeah In the team. All right. That's I think that's good insight. So if you how what's the status of New strategy coming out. We we know there's a new counter ISIS plan on the table That's we're we've heard it's there, but we don't know but even beyond that Usually the way it works with the new administration or a new four-year time We get a we get a national security strategy out of the white house There's a defense version strategy of it or if it's a qtr year at the pentagon that the secretary has to put his thumb pin on And then Correct me if I'm wrong, then it gets to the chiefs who can then decide how we're offer up their advice How to staff it equip it make it happen. Yeah Is that the order of things right now? Uh, somewhat. I will tell you that in in preparation I give a lot of credit to jill dunford In terms of where he has focused the joint chiefs because with his his authority is is a convening authority Of the joint chiefs and so within the tank, which is the It's a conference room that the chairman owns where we all meet he's he's been very focused on establishing the joint chiefs as Architects of global campaigns Uh, when I say architects, obviously this is about best military advice, right? So clearly not saying that we have decision over authority on strategy or policy But rather that we look at the global challenges we face Acknowledge the fact that each of these global challenges that we're looking at are transregional in nature I mean they don't live Within the confines of a combatant commander map Right or or or our maps that that the russia challenge is actually not Well, it may be a lead u-com Challenge It's not just the u-com commander that's driving to work worried about that challenge It's actually a you know simultaneously a u-com african strat calm North com south com sent com You know trans com. I mean each one of these combatant commanders Drives to work concerned and thinking about their role In supporting a global campaign relative to the russia challenge as one example And so where general dunford has focused the joint chiefs is to look at these trans regional challenges and Work with the combatant commanders to develop these global campaigns that we can then present to the secretary defense And then the secretary defense at the same time is doing a strategic defense review And that strategic defense review is looking at not only the global challenges, but also each of the services And and and where we sit right now relative to our readiness relative to our current makeup of what we bring To the fight what we are focused on relative to roles and missions And so he has that going on and our hope is that what we have what we have worked on will actually feed into that review So that's really sort of where we sit right now So it's not necessarily an out of order No series of events to Just because I we've heard you and we've heard all the chiefs frankly since I think the fall have put forth either Documents or op-eds or made public appearances Everyone's asking for more everyone wants more soldiers more airmen Everyone wants more aircraft and more ships and everyone wants to be more forward deployed Nobody's waiting around for the for the white house to say here's trump's vision for the world Which frankly we haven't heard in any details yet from that administration Yeah, but you got to remember that for In the business of best military advice I believe it's my responsibility as the chief staff of the air force because as a service chief You know primarily my job is to organize training equipment present ready forces to a combatant commander So that combatant commander can accomplish that mission that that he or or or she was given So in that regard and understanding what objectives the The strategy is asking us to achieve My job along with all the other service chiefs is to tell you from an air component standpoint This is the force required to accomplish those objectives And then it's the secretary defense that then looks at all of the forces together and says all right Well, here's here's what we think we need to actually accomplish the strategy So I don't think we're out of order at all as a matter of fact, you know Planning is a journey. It's not a destination Right. We're we're always you know us I mean, we're always in the business of planning's and you know, I get emails of all the Yeah, well, I mean think about doctrines and the in the play. Yes, sure for sure And then and you know, whoever said it is right, right? Sometimes the value of that endeavor is not the plan. It's the planning Well, how does that play into so that if there's a there's a there's a current public worry that there's there might be too much Control going to generals in this administration because of how the difference it seems whether it was You know appointing a like a Mattis or Kelly or because this is a you know, president that comes from a different world It's not part of the Washington establishment this idea that He's just going to you know, give that give get sent com or control of ops Give, you know, the chiefs more control over everything. They just have a little too much trust I mean, I'm asking a general. Do you think you have too much control right now or it's trending your way too much No, it's a good. No, it's a good question actually because I do believe that it's it's it's important for us to remember in terms of being Military service chiefs and members of the military in general that it's my obligation. I actually during a confirmation hearing Swore that I would give my best military advice And speak truth to power even if it didn't agree with the administration at the time, right? So it's my obligation to give best military advice But I gotta I gotta make sure I remind myself that it's actually not The civilian leaderships were responsible to take my advice And that's an important distinction right because when I think about national security Here's my window. I'm looking at it from a how do I assure allies and partners? How do I deter but had be bad behavior? How do I shape the environment? How do I respond to a crisis if I need to right and so I'm thinking about you know, this from from a military operations Let me describe for you. What's not on my radar? Wall Street I don't think about wall street from a national security. It's not in my job jar Amtrak I don't drive to work thinking about Amtrak. I don't think about our airports Now I don't think about the electrical grid running our cities. It's not my job jar So when I offer best military advice I got to understand walking in that I'm going to have this discussion with folks who have a much broader Perspective relative to the business of national Security and sometimes my best military advice is going to fit and sometimes it won't and I got to be I got to be okay with With that and understand that I also got to understand. I think we need to understand that But as long as it's respectful creative tension based on the culture that each of us brings based on our background Our experience or you know, what our organization is You know, I would offer that you and I probably have a different approach To the same problem if if that bottle is something that we need to remove You and I are going to approach that differently I'm going to approach it from my background and perspective You're going to approach it from yours as long as you and I can have a Respectful dialogue about our different approaches to that We're actually going to come to a better solution having that dialogue Then if you're not in the discussion or I'm not in the discussion So in terms of the you know, do we have too many generals not enough generals? What have you I would just offer you that as long as we have got respectful tension And we have the right cultures represented in the team that's bringing the president options We're going to be just fine respectful tension. I have to remember that that's a good one And the time is eating away. I want to get to some more topics. Um, let's From what you said that you mentioned before about your forces Right now we're in a state where we're hearing again That either Either the military is in a state of disrepair and it needs rebuilding from one perspective or from as we heard in A million speeches last year from the secretary of defense. It's the world's greatest Fightest fighting force the world is ever known You can't be both. Can you well, you got to understand them again them the which is the obligation It's actually not a one or a zero discussion. I would argue It's not a it's this is not a black or a white discussion because imagine that yeah because but here's why it's important All right, so back again My job is to organize train equip present ready forces I'm also an international air chief And so to our allies and partners some of them who are in this room I have an obligation as an international air chief to be thinking about My partner air forces and how we help build partner capacity And learn from each other and share information into those things and I remember the joint chiefs So When it comes to are we ready as a military service today to take on the Challenges and win the answer to that is yes Absolutely We will we will win it may take us longer than we'd like We may have You know challenges in the opening days, but there ought to be no question Anybody's mind who may be listening both internal to this room and external audiences that The joint force will win now But you're short 700 pilots or 1,000 pilots, which is it now that what's the so this is the next piece of it now Would you ever want me as a chief? To represent the air component and a member of joint chiefs To not be thinking about this is the last week of peace that we have And preparing the force for for conflict the future of war Absolutely, you would expect me to be laying out. What are the what is it that I got to do to move forward? What comes next? How do we ensure that we're always moving forward that we're thinking about procurement in new ways in the information age That we're thinking about how do we connect? You know all the different platforms and sensors and apps and apertures and things that we As a joint force bring to the fight. How do I continue to think about the connective tissue? That brings it all together because the the reality is we don't send. I mean one of our great advantages As a joint force and a coalition force. We don't send silver bullets to a fight There's not a single platform you can talk about in any of the service chiefs you're going to have sit here That is going to be the one Piece of the joint force that's going to dominate and win the reality is we are completely interdependent, right? This is an air land sea space cyber force that goes forward And so For us, we're always thinking about what it is our shortfalls. How do we how do we move forward? How do we ensure they have the size force we need to be able to dominate in all those those domains? Especially in the global security environment that we just described Right. All right. So we're going to move to q and a from the audience now and I encourage everyone to think about because I still want to know the status of russia and these flybys China's pushed in in moving them moving their dominance area beyond their shores and About your what you said and we were down in Orlando at the air warfare conference and I'll I'll lead in the first question to this At that conference. I heard several Of the your subordinate commanders or I guess the guys from pack f and you say fee and others saying We need to push more forward more forces forward. We need to be more forward deployed We need to be places where we're able to respond more quickly And I asked it then in a very but I'll ask for Here the same kind of question is is this new is the air force asking for a global war footing? And is is a direct response to russia to china? Why are we hearing this now? Probably for a number of reasons first of all though It's I think it's important to look at the framework through which we As joint chiefs are looking at the global security environment and we call it the four plus one Jill milley may have talked about it. Which is the china russia ron north korea violent extremism, right? No particular hierarchy there, but these are the five Global challenges that we believe that we have to be ready to Do those things which a military does right because I walk you through and for we got a first of all assure allies and partners They have to have confidence that we are there that we're with them That will meet our obligations that we have the capacity the will Everything we need to do right to be able to to assure our allies and partners The second thing we need to do is deter bad behavior and deterrence the math equation hasn't changed over time its capability times will And if the times is important because of either of those on each the side of the equation or zero it equals zero Right, so we got to make sure that we we are out there and we are deterring bad behavior And then we are shaping the environment and that shaping the environment is quite is is a whole of government approach It's the military element when combined with the economic Aspects of what we do as a government. It's when we bring our diplomatic core into place So it's shaping that environment and then If required we have to be ready to respond to crisis The first three are actually very artful if you think about how we do that and very often I think what you find from us is that to do that most effectively you've got to be there You got to be forward, right? You know the the daily negotiations that we have With the japanese government at yakota Relative to how we fly where we fly how we integrate with the japanese defense forces all those things That's probably that daily dialogue Is probably as important in the business of confidence building and assuring allies and partners as anything else we do So I wouldn't I wouldn't Say that what we're looking at is a war fitting I think what we're acknowledging is the importance of being there to assure deter in shape It's going to cost more money to not just there's an ask for more forces and an ask for more equipment Putting them out there rotating them more that adds to the equation. Let's move to the audience questions if we can We have right here in the front collin clark from defense breaking defense Collin clark breaking defense morning, sir You mentioned the broader perspective that civilians bring to Their jobs There are only two civilians in the pentagon right now who've been confirmed and the rule is if you're an acting You don't make decisions. You just keep things moving along Is this becoming a concern to you? On the policy side and the acquisition side. Do you need people in? Yeah, thanks color and I would say not yet But I'm hopeful that we can start seeing some confirmations come through I'll just give you an example within the air force. There's nothing acting about our acting secretary the secretary dispro is is just absolutely spectacular and There's nothing that she's had to hold back And in fact, she received fairly clear guidance from the secretary of defense that That she was not to hold back in terms of her responsibilities and her role as the secretary So when you when you if you were to come into a meeting Within air force spaces in the pentagon There's no acting She's the secretary and we're moving things forward quite frankly I have not seen any slowdown in the pace of our being able to move forward Since she has come on as the acting I can't speak for all the departments, but that's what it looks like in the air force How about the student nominee for depth sec death? Patrick shanahan I believe they're from bowing and what's what's your take on him and As also to that there's a There's a I mean do you have experience and then let people know One of the immediate reactions to that from you know from the twitter sphere was of course a guy from bowing It's a big industry and then you're just going to be in bed with big industry What is that is that the reality or is that is that more of a myth? Yeah, I'd say it's more of a myth. You know first of all actually we don't have any background. I don't I don't I don't think You know I've had a chance to meet And I'm looking forward to meeting him and obviously give him And hope that the confirmation process goes well for him You know more important for the service chief quite frankly is the is what is how The secretary defense and the under secretary come together as an executive team Because it's very similar to what happens to a service chief and a secretary right How well do we come together as an executive team with again a little bit of that creative tension We talked about beforehand that helps move the organization forward Understanding that there's different perspectives that you bring to the table So I'll I think for us we'll be watching more. How does that team come together? You know the good news is You know I had the privilege of serving under general mattis when he was the cent com commander and I was his lead airman and he gave us Some pretty clear guidance as you know as secretary mattis now is This Does and he I remember when he when we had our first meeting he said look he said First thing I'll tell you is doctrine is interesting. It's a start of the dialogue But we're not going to get locked into service doctrine here We're going to figure out how to fight together And the second piece of guidance he gave us is and I expect vicious harmony amongst my component commanders And he got it that's good and And many of us now are serving together in different roles that were combatant who were component commanders at the time so No surprise, you know secretary mattis has brought in the same kind of very clear Intent and guidance to the department, which is look, you know, we've got This is a tough global security environment And it's going to require some vicious harmony with that creative tension that we talked about to be able to bring the commander in chief options That he can then look at and make a decision on which way he wants to go forward So I think from uh, I'm not actually as concerned about what company a person came from or whether they're Industry or not more interested in how do we come together as an executive team? All right This is harmony and creative tensions. Yeah, but we're at uh, don't uh, you know I mean harmony is not all seeing kumbaya as you run off the cliff together I was going to say it sounds like one of tom rick's you know military bands that yeah, no No, this is not this is this is speaking truth to power. This is having a this is having a good honest debate I have a question this summer in the blue shirt on the aisle. Do you have the microphones? Yeah Right there. Thank you general appreciate it. Um You're uh, your friend, um just spoke. Oh, I'm sorry, uh, jordan barth american university Your your friend just spoke a little while ago about The need for for new talent and the need for recruiting In the future what? Um, what is the air force going to be doing in the future? To recruit and and nurture millennials and the people who Take the places of those serving good question those those those lazy needy millennials are here so much about How are you? How are you going to use them in in the air force? Some of them might be in the air force already? Yeah You know, I'll tell you what we're all we're all in competition for talent Out there and what we need to continue to Focus on You know if you'd go to a high school and you look at you know line up the kids in that high school And ask yourself the question who joins each line Who joins the line to become a marine who joins the line to become a soldier who joins the line and and And the reality is I believe That those great young Americans who choose to come forward Are looking to find themselves in the organization They're trying to find a culture that they fit into And as an airman, I think of the air force as the big tent service in many ways Because as these kids line up, I'm gonna have a kid get to that front of that line and say I want to be a jay-tac I want to I want to you know I want to join and I want to be able to be in there and call in air power I want to be right there with my light infantry counterparts the entire way. That's a certain kind of kid All right, and and that kid's got to find Himself or herself inside the air force and as and as a good fit and then right behind that kid is a summer that says I want to be I want I'm fascinated with cyber And I want to join the cyber mission team and be able to go out there and think about the future of cyber And you know what that kid's got to find themselves inside the united states air force and our culture's got to welcome them And make them feel like they're part of it and right behind that kid There's another kid who comes says I've always wanted to be an astronaut And if I can't be an astronaut, I want to be an engineer and I want and that and that kid's got to find Himself or herself inside the united states air force. So where we are focused is Ensuring that we're we are a force that these kids want to join That you know, I'll give you one quick thing yet. So, um General John heighten when he was air force space command drove into a parking spot At joint base lewis mccord up in washington state And the car pulls in right next to him and it's a tesla s And out of the tesla s jumps a senior airman And general heighten called him over said hey airman. So tell me How is it that A senior airman can drive a tesla s And the kid was a little bit older than usual and he says well, he said i'm a I'm i'm a reservist. I'm part-time and in my full-time job. I'm the director of security for uh A major You know amazon google right. I mean the director of security Is a senior airman In the air force reserves Serving in the united states air force. We don't pay that guy tip money Right, so why in the world would he want to give up his weekends? He wants to serve He wants to be part of something bigger than themselves. He wants to protect the nation And so we got to be a service that's that that can go out and get these kids to come in. That's the that's the competition we're in Excellent here in the front row Such to this side. I'm trying to come back Hi, i'm pat host with defense daily General you talked about these intimate confidence building measures What other nations are you involved in this right now and what kind of costs are incurred with this? You know air force doesn't have an unlimited budget Maybe what other areas of the service are you making sacrifices to pursue more of these measures? Yeah, so we you know the reality of coalition Warfare when you bring a coalition the willing together Is the same challenges very often that we face in our discussions about You know boots on the ground right how many times have we had the discussions about This number of soldiers that many soldiers that may this right so we so those conversations that we have here Are replayed in many of the countries That we go to to ask them to join a coalition the willing because of our common interests Unless these countries have access to ports very often they don't procure navies So what most countries actually have when it comes to offering the military component of a coalition Is an air component because it's not geographically bounded And they will normally procure an air component to defend their borders their sovereignty and to provide security for their nation Right so so through that lens is where I look at my responsibility as an international air chief So How do we as an air force ensure that we are continually improving our ability to Build partner capacity to build partner air forces and help sustain partner air forces that can then become part of a coalition I mean right now general hirigian Has 16 nations that are fighting together in the air Over iraq and syria And so every day coming together and putting that Choreography together is again. It's sort of like a light switch Right. We assume that coalition warfare is something that's you know rather simple to do but it's anything but And we you know haparnold during the darkest days of the daylight bombing campaign in world war two had a fascinating quote You know when we were losing up to 20 30 percent of our force on a given mission He said you know the problem with air power was we make it look too easy I often wonder what would haparnold think today You know because we do make it look fairly easy when it's anything, but So through that lens of my responsibilities as an international air chief is how I view the whole how do we engage with partner air forces Right to ensure that when the commander-in-chief is looking to You know operate by with and through That we have any number of nations that are available that have that bring capability That they bring readiness and that we're interoperable when we go forward Well, what I'll bring the question more to a pinpoint then for the isis war and for the expanded war on terrorism across african and sencom You know there's an expectation that's going to keep going at the level it's at if not more I mean perhaps the air campaign specifically over iraq and syria is winding down in the future But this is a much larger geographic area Do you have the the forces and the equipment? Especially isr to cover that area right now or is that a is that a real concern for any Any request to increase it depends on what else we're doing You know when we have the discussion about uh, give me a say your readiness I I always have to come back and say if we're gonna have if we're gonna have an informed discussion about readiness You have to first answer the question ready for what and when Because until you actually understand those two components of the question You really can't give a good answer. So if the answer would be Do I have the force that's required to sustain the current fight? And it's current operational tenpo for the next 10 years and that was all I was doing. My answer is absolutely yes I can sustain this. I've got the force I need now when you walk the line at bagram And when you walk the line, right at al-yudid What you're going to see is my highest level of readiness You're going to see parts on the shelves. You're going to see supervision forward You're going to see 100 manning. You're going to see us hitting aircraft failability rates that uh, that I I would never build it but there's a bill payer And the bill payer to get that level of readiness forward is all the bases that we have here that That contribute the force is required to get that level of readiness If you then walk the line at shah air force base and dais air force base You would see significantly lower readiness But if that's all I'm doing I can accept that risk Now if what you're asking me is are you ready to continue to sustain that op tempo? Well at the same time ensuring that we have a safe secure reliable nuclear deterrent, which I will never back away at inch from While you also now ratchet up homeland defense and general robinson asked for more forces To be able to defend the homeland because if something's going bad abroad We have to assume that we're going to have more requirements at home But you're pushing more f-22s into japan and sending bombers over korea. That's right So it's it becomes a simultaneous discussion. Uh-huh at what point is are we now having a dialogue of Not are you ready to do just what's going on in the middle east? But are you ready to be able to do that? Simultaneously with the fact that from an air component standpoint an air force if you study as you study the operational plans upwards of 80 percent of the air force goes forward in the first in the opening weeks of any campaign So that's why you never hear the chief staff of the air force talking about tiered readiness I can't do tiered readiness because I don't have the time To be able to get that force ready to meet the combatant commander requirements forward So you don't have the forces to to do more to go after rush simultaneous to do simultaneous Conflict is where you start finding us having challenge now going back to one of the questions you asked me before right, which is You know, how how can you be? How can you say that you're ready to win today, but you don't have what you need for the future? It depends on which rheostat you're turning Right if you're starting to turn simultaneous rheostats on this force It only has a certain capacity and you do get to a readiness stop At which you no longer can can support simultaneous activity on the globe But you got to you you got to drive into the ready for what and when to have a Meaningful discussion sounds like a lot of work for congress head. Let's get this gentleman in the front has What has had his hand up? We'll do the last question. We're under two minutes So make it really fast and we'll ask the general to make it as fast as he can fly Chris Miller Air Force Academy Chief if I could ask you to put your organized training equip hat back on and go 20 to 30 years in the future To the future of war What do you see airmen? systems Con Ops, etc So the I think the and I think the key on this chris's network How do we network? military capability So that we can first of all create this common operational picture for a decision maker So we can achieve a decision speed that our adversaries can never match And then part of that decision speed is I can create multiple dilemmas From all domains as a global chess master As a global superpower That that in itself becomes a deterrent force And that we have built this into an An environment where we build enough resiliency in the network So that if a portion of it is taken away from us, which we have to expect Our answer is bring it I've got all of this other capability over here that you can't touch And so the key for me as chief staff of the air force Is how do we think about this in terms of a network? How do we move beyond a discussion about trucks and cargo? And actually have a meaningful discussion about the highway it rides on And how do we connect military capability in a way that can produce Effects at a way that no enemy on the planet can ever counter that to me is the center of mass for the future General we're at the end of the time and thank you and I want to apologize I know you wanted to talk about space. It's one topic I didn't get into but I'll I'll plug Everyone should go read the latest David Ignatius piece in the Washington Post It was an interview with the general in his office specifically about space policy and what's happened It's it's a it's a good kind of roundup of what we've heard from from you guys before Thank you for your time. Thanks to the new america from new america group I hope you have a great conference round of applause for the the general please. Thank you