AROUND THE FORCE

National POW/MIA Recognition Day (Sept 20)

• On National Prisoners of War/Missing in Action (POW/MIA) Recognition Day, we remember the debt we owe to our POWs and MIAs and to their families. We pay tribute an convey eternal gratitude to our former prisoners of war and recommit to the difficult but essential task of seeking out answers for the families of those still missing.
• We will always remember and honor our Nation's prisoners of war and those still missing in action and keep faith with our promise as a nation to bring all our heroes home. Since 1973, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency has accounted for approximately 2,450 service members from World War II, the Korean War and Vietnam. In the last fiscal year, 158 service members have been accounted for.
• The United States is committed to recovering and identifying the nearly 82,000 Americans missing from prior conflicts. The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff outlined this year that trust is the foundation of the profession of arms, and that service members, their families, and the American public trusts that the Department of Defense will do everything in its power to recover missing service members and prisoners of war.

• Theme #1: Great Power Competition (GPC) is the context for the future of airpower and space power. We must reoptimize for GPC now through significant changes in the way we develop people, generate readiness, project power, and develop capabilities. The 24 decisions we announced last February are being implemented aggressively and will continue.
• Theme #2: Investment in key Department of the Air Force capabilities is critical to national security. Senior DAF officials will provide updates on select Operational Imperatives and Cross-Cutting Operational Enablers that protect the United States’ ability to deter conflict and project power.
• Theme #3: To deliver combat-effective, agile, and adaptive airpower at scale, the Air Force is:
  • Focusing on readiness based on overall mission effectiveness
  • Aligning itself to be “One Air Force” to best compete, deter, and if required, win in today’s volatile strategic landscape
  • Developing Mission Ready Airmen, who have the full set of skills needed for GPC and who are instrumental to achieving success and overcoming challenges as we evolve to sustaining a robust, mission-ready Air Force.

• Theme #4: To reoptimize for the high-end fight and enable the strategic advantages the nation and Joint Force rely on, the Space Force accelerating its transformation into a warfighting service, purpose-built service for space superiority, assured space access, and global mission operations in a GPC era.
• Theme #5: Year-to-year budget instability and funding gaps continue to have devastating impacts on the Air Force and Space Force. We need Congress to pass timely appropriations to adequately equip Airmen and Guardians, ensure military readiness, execute new investment programs, and reduce uncertainty with our industry and international partners.

Air Force wants to expand enlisted international exchange program

CMSAF David Flosi announced the Air Force’s desire to expand the international exchange program for enlisted Airmen, starting with Five Eyes alliance nations. The expansion is part of the service’s focus shift from the Middle East to the Pacific theater. “In that environment [the Middle East], we could roll in deep. That environment does not exist in the Indo-Pacific theater. All of those capabilities are contested.” Flosi said referring to the availability of runways, assured supply chains, robust communications networks and complete air superiority.

ANG

• The Air National Guard members will soon host training for Poland’s future F-35 pilots as part of the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) program. “[...] the mission of the 85th Fighter Group is to train foreign military sales customers of the F-35 and bring them up to speed the way the U.S. employs the F-35, training them to US standards [...]most of our allies in Europe are getting on board here is the deterrence factor. I mean it is 5th gen, it is the latest and greatest, it is the best flying platform that there is out in the world today. If there’s 500 or 600 of these in Europe, that’s a huge deterrent...” said Col Nicholas Ihde (85 FG/CC). Ebbing Air National Guard Base was chosen due to the lack of heavy air traffic in the area.
• The Proptoberfest joint exercise bringing together the Illinois Air National Guard’s 182nd  Airlift Wing and members of the German Air Force began this week. The exercise builds on the collaboration during Air Defender ‘23 and strengthens the two nations ability to work and operate together, and emphasizing the strategic importance of partnerships in maintaining global security. “Just like Air Defender, it’s getting together to do all the tactics, techniques and procedures that NATO allies do together,” said Col. Rusty Ballard (182 AW/CC). “So a lot of mission planning, studying tentative threats, formation flying from point A to point B, supplemental fuel operations, air drops and various other tactics,” he added. This is the first year the German Air Force’s A400M Atlas aircraft has participated in the exercise.