As our nation's Air Force celebrates its 50th anniversary, it is fully committed to supporting America's national security objectives. In peacetime, in times of crisis and in war, the Air Force makes a valuable contribution to joint military operations. The air and space capabilities, the air power we bring to the joint team -- all military services: active duty, Reserves and Guard are in greater demand now than ever before.

The Air Force has worked diligently to maintain these capabilities, even while reducing our overall force structure. Our new strategic vision -- Global Engagement -- sharpens our focus on our core air and space contributions to national military strategy. Plus, our air power contributions allow us to prioritize modernization efforts and shape the force drawdown.

Airpower has been the mainstay of our capabilities. Even in the 1950s British Field Marshall Montgomery told an American audience:

"The greatest asset of airpower is flexibility. The main factors in determining the degree of flexibility are the methods of command and control, the range of aircraft and the mobility of supporting equipment."

 

Now as the Air Force shapes its vision for the 21st century, Montgomery's observations are valid even today. However, we have expanded what airpower contributes to the joint team. These contributions are:

• Conventional and nuclear deterrence
•  
• Long-range, sustainable, lethal combat power
•  
• Rapid global mobility
•  
• Information dominance
•  
• Worldwide engagement
•  

Today I will talk about each of these contributions and how they form the building blocks for planning and programming our future forces.

Nuclear deterrence remains the cornerstone of our national security. America's triad of bombers, land-based missiles and sea-launched missiles remains the strongest and most adaptable form of sustained deterrence.

The Air Force contributions to this triad are our nuclear-capable, long-range bomber force, a ready and responsive force of intercontinental ballistic missiles; a reliable warning network; a secure and survivable command and control capability; an effective capability to assess attacks; and dependable strategic reconnaissance platforms.

With an increasing focus on regional crises and conflicts, conventional deterrence has taken on greater importance. The Air Force provides a strong, credible deterrent. Our fighters and long-range bombers can deliver conventional munitions that will stop aggressors in their tracks. Our bombers can employ while other U.S. forces are still deploying.

Upgrades to the B-1, B-2 and B-52 -- combined with the acquisition of advanced smart munitions -- will enable the Air Force to attack:

• Anywhere in the world
•  
• In good weather or bad
•  
• At any time, day or night
•  
• Within hours of initial tasking
•  

Our advanced space and mobility forces also provide key elements to deterrence. Air Force capabilities enable the president to act quickly and decisively during fast-breaking crises. As a member of America's joint military team, the Air Force often provides forces with the quickest response and the longest range. The Air Force can deter, deploy for influence or employ with lethal force anywhere in a matter of hours.

This rapid presence enables us to gain air superiority and to conduct precision attacks that are vital in fighting and winning when crises erupt. Air superiority provides the shield under which all other operations can take place. It also includes our ability to protect our forces from ballistic missile attack. Precision attack is the combination or precise target acquisition, munitions and weapons delivery.

In this area, the Air Force currently is upgrading its conventional bomber force, adding stealth and precision attack platforms, and improving our capability to directly feed real-time intelligence to warfighters in the air and on the ground.

The F-22 currently being developed incorporates revolutionary advances in airframe, engine and avionics technology and will ensure the Air Force retains its critical edge in air superiority.

The Air Force must ensure U.S. military forces have access to and freedom of operations from space. Space offers an unsurpassed vantage point and the possibility of access to any point on the earth's surface in a matter of minutes.

Control of space allows crucial surveillance and reconnaissance, missile warning, precise navigation, communications and other commercial and military missions.

The Air Force provides global situation awareness through our assets in space. The intelligence, reconnaissance and surveillance we collect are available to military commanders around the world, 24 hours a day. This superior capability compels any potential adversaries to hide, to restructure and to otherwise react to our presence.

One of the Air Force's key space-based platforms is the Military Strategic and Tactical Relay system. MILSTAR provides a global, anti-jam communications capability for U.S. warfighting forces. The system features satellite-to-satellite crosslinks that result in a low probability of intercept and detection.

For the Air Force to continue exploiting our access to space, several upgrades are necessary. The Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle will provide affordable spacelift for military and commercial uses. The Space-Based Infrared System will allow us to meet the increasing demands of theater ballistic missile warning. And, our Global Broadcast System will fulfill the wide-band communication requirements for all Department of Defense users.

The Air Force will play a key role in establishing the DOD Space Architect, which will work closely with the Intelligence Community Space Architect to develop a fully integrated space capability for the nation.

America's air mobility fleet gives our nation the speed and agility to respond to a full range of contingencies around the world. We can quickly airlift or airdrop troops and equipment during crises. We can deliver supplies to a nation devastated by a natural disaster. No other nation in the world has this capability.

The combination of airlifters and tankers offer the U.S. military commanders the ability to influence operations throughout their geographical areas of responsibility. By using these aircraft, we can rapidly deploy fighting forces around the world. They also permit us to transport the resources necessary to sustain the operations of all branches of the U.S. armed forces. Tankers enable support forces to remain airborne longer and combat forces to strike deeper. Airlifters also provide emergency aeromedical evacuation.

The Air Force is upgrading its mobility fleet to maintain this important capability. The C-17 is our highest priority near-term modernization program. We also are working to improve the performance, reduce the necessary maintenance and reduce the operating costs for our KC-135 air-refueling fleet and C-5 transport aircraft.

Dominating the information spectrum during modern conflict has become just as crucial as occupying the land or controlling the air has been in the past. In military operations, information is a weapon used not only to support other operations, but also to attack the enemy directly.

Within the information domain, events are seen and felt at the speed of light. If we can analyze, assess and act faster than our adversary, we will win.

Space platforms such as MILSTAR and the Global Positioning System play a key role in this effort. Aircraft such as the RC-135, U-2, joint surveillance and target attack radar system, airborne warning and control system, and unmanned aerial vehicles also are crucial in the information dominance capability the Air Force is building.

These assets, hooked into state-of-the-art automated air campaign planning and information distribution tools, provide our nation's leaders with the information necessary to anticipate and monitor a crisis and to act with a decisive information advantage.

The Air Force also is adapting its organization to reflect the importance of the information dominance mission. The 609th Information Warfare Squadron at Shaw Air Force Base, South Carolina, will work for a joint forces air component commander, coordinating a vast array of information requirements within a theater of operations. The Air Force Information Warfare Center at Kelly Air Force Base, Texas, and the Air Force Space Warfare Center at Falcon Air Force Base, Colorado, will also play important roles in this process.

Air Force global power also includes the capability to use our resources for diplomatic and humanitarian purposes or to support other international objectives. Recent examples of humanitarian air include relief operations in Somalia and Rwanda.

Our flight operations over Bosnia helped bring warring factions to the negotiation table -- which incidentally, was set up at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio. Our airlifters and tankers transported American troops and equipment to the former Yugoslavia to conduct peace enforcement efforts.

Global access and influence ultimately depend on the bonds of alliance and international cooperation. Forward stationing of our forces and on-going contingency operations provide numerous opportunities to strengthen alliances and project U.S. influence. Security assistance, exercises with partners, military-to-military contacts and foreign military sales are all part of the Air Force's global commitments.

These activities pay direct dividends by building trust and cooperation with America's friends and allies, expanding on the national strategy of engagement and enlargement. It calls for the United States to engage around the world in an attempt to enlarge the family of democratic nations. Airpower is a critical element of this national strategy.

So you see how Air Force contributions play a major role in joint military operations during peacetime, crisis situations and war. We will continue to maintain our air and space capabilities to ensure the Air Force is prepared to meet our nation's needs.