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Air Force releases Strategic Master Plan
By Secretary of the Air Force Public Affairs
WASHINGTON — The Air Force of-
ficially released the Strategic Master Plan
May 21, which is the latest in a series of
strategic documents designed to guide the
organizing, training and equipping of the
force over the coming decades.
The SMP builds on the strategic impera-
tives and vectors described in the capstone
document, America’s Air Force: A Call to
the Future, released last summer. From this
guidance, the SMP articulates 12 strategic
goals for the institution, with supporting
objectives and tasks laid out for each goal.
Primarily written for Air Force plan-
ners, this document bridges the gap be-
tween broader ideas and activities required
to realize the strategic vision. The Air Force integrating all elements of the Air Force
chief of staff lauded the document as the
first of its kind in its comprehensiveness
and relevance.
“One of the most important things
the Strategic Master Plan accomplishes is
tightening the alignment of our planning
activities across the Air Force toward a
common set of goals,” said Air Force Chief
of Staff Gen. Mark A. Welsh III. “The out-
come of this integrated planning activity
COMMANDANT, from page 1 ___
“A lot has happened over the past
two years to improve this school, and
I promise I’m not going to rehash all of
it; if you’re here you know what you did.
You all have done a ton of work to make
it all happen. The course delivers a better
graduate for our Air Force and our warf-
ighting capability because of your exper-
tise and your dedication,” Spain said.
“It’s been the honor of my professional
RPA, from page 1 ______________
incredible,” said Gen. Hawk Carlisle, Air
Combat Command commander. “RPAs
fulfill critical demands in every theater 24
hours a day, 365 days a year.”
Operating at a surge capacity for nearly
a decade has taken a toll on the force. In
order to meet combatant commander
requirements, and in response to SECDEF
direction, the Air Force surged MQ-1/9
combat air patrols nine times in the last
eight years, and has sustained those op-
erations to date, according to Air Force
officials.
In April, Secretary of Defense Ash Cart-
er approved the reset of the CAP planning
guidance to reflect a drop in CAPs from 65
to 60. This initiative was designed to allevi- capacity and continues to explore options
ate the state of constant surge experienced
by the RPA community.
Air Force leadership recognizes the
stakes of not properly balancing mission
demands against the needs to develop the
force and the potential risk assumed in
News
will be options for concepts, capabilities
and policies that will deliver the force we
need for the fast-paced future within a
resource-constrained plan. If we can’t af-
ford it, it doesn’t go in the plan.”
In addition to the core document, there
are four distinct annexes that provide more
in-depth and specific planning guidance:
Human Capital Annex, Strategic Posture
Annex, Capabilities Annex and Science &
Technology Annex.
The Human Capital Annex addresses
recruiting, retaining and developing Air-
men, as well as talent management — all
with an eye toward the future that will de-
mand increased diversity and inclusiveness
to achieve collective innovative potential.
In addition, it continues the emphasis on
total force in an effective manner.
The secretary of the Air Force said she
appreciates the utility of such a document,
and recognizes an opportunity to affect
real change for the future.
“The Human Capital Annex captures
our efforts to think strategically about our Team investigating air superiority options
Airmen and posture them for success in a
dynamic, uncertain future,” said Secretary
of the Air Force Deborah Lee James. “The
life to have served as the commandant
of the Weapons School with you. Thank
you for the privilege and for making it
even more rewarding than I could have
ever imagined.”
After Spain’s speech, the two colonels
joined Short center stage for the official
guidon passing, signaling the official
start of Drowley’s command. The US-
AFWS flagship was then renamed and
Drowley — who served at Nellis AFB as
a USAFWS instructor in 2004, the 57th
areas such as retention, training, manning,
and combat capability.
“Maintaining operational success and
fulfilling combatant command require-
ments for a sustained period of time has
impacted our ability to train the force and
risks the health and long-term viability of
the enterprise,” said Gen. Mark A. Welsh
III, Air Force Chief of Staff. “Current
demand put requirements for active-duty
RPA pilots at about 300 per year. However,
our current active-duty training produc-
tion output is only 180 pilots per year. The make use of an array of resources.
new plan aims to add more than 100 ad-
ditional pilot graduates per year.”
To address concerns, the Air Force
launched several initiatives in January 2015 port to bring relief to the active-duty force.
to deal with the growing strain on RPA
to fix manning challenges.
In January, James took immediate ac-
tion to increase RPA pilot Aviation Pay
from $650 to $1,500 a month. Now the
service is developing plans for a longer-
term RPA pilot retention bonus for fiscal
ideas in the annex will not only serve our
Airmen but we foresee the opportunity to
integrate our efforts with (Defense) Secre-
tary Carter’s ‘Force of the Future’ initiative
that is just getting off the ground.”
The Strategic Posture Annex describes
how the Air Force will enhance its ability
to present forces, project power, increase re-
siliency in its installations and strengthen
international partnerships — all necessary
to succeed in the future environment.
The classified Capabilities Annex iden-
tifies the enterprise-wide capability gaps,
prioritized and sequenced over time, that
drive Air Force-wide planning activities.
The annex also reinvigorates development
planning — a process by which concepts
that span several functional areas can be
explored and war-gamed; and robust ex-
perimentation, modeling and simulation,
rapid prototyping and demonstrations will
deliver evidence-based, fully vetted capa-
bility options for senior leaders to consider
for investment.
This process is currently underway, with
an Enterprise Capability Collaboration
for 2030 and beyond.
The S&T Annex is also classified, and
WG’s chief of fighter standardization and
evaluation in 2006, and the commander
of the 66th Weapons Squadron in 2011
— gave his first remarks as commandant
of the Weapons School.
“I especially want to thank (Spain)
for the size 15 shoes you’ve left to fill.
You’ve set an amazing vector for the
Weapons School and I’ll do my best to
make sure that vector stays on track
and we continue to execute the mission
that you’ve laid out for us,” Drowley
2016 release and is actively advocating for
new incentives.
“We’ve improved the Aviator Reten-
tion Pay bonus for traditional pilots flying
RPAs, making their bonus consistent with
other stressed rated officer communities,”
said James. “We are also committed to
improving Aviator Retention Pay bonuses
for traditional pilots electing to fly RPAs.”
In order to enable force development
and necessary training the Air Force will
“In an effort to further improve the
health of the force, we will leverage the Air
Reserve Component and contractor sup-
This will allow manning to be reinvested
into the RPA training pipeline,” said James.
Additionally, to bring relief to the active- port global and theater requirements in a
duty force, the Air Force plans to mobilize
reserve component forces to take on three
combat air patrols.
The service is also working on funding
actions to relieve stress across the RPA
enterprise. The Air Force recently moved
3May 29, 2015
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describes the major efforts underway, as
well as their linkage to capability gaps and
potential “game-changing” concepts for
the future.
The release of the SMP is the culmina-
tion of nine months of development and
collaboration across the Air Force. The
process was overseen by the Office of the
Deputy Chief of Staff for Strategic Plans
and Requirements (A5/8). The plan will
be updated every two years to reflect ap-
propriate changes and/or progress toward
the Air Force strategic goals.
The Air Force describes the process as at
least as important as the product.
“This first version of the Strategic Master
Plan is by no means perfect, but it provides
the foundation upon which we can build
a powerful process,” said Maj. Gen. David
Allvin, the director of strategy, concepts and
assessments. “We’ll learn as we go, and every
revision will be better than the previous one.
“The result — if we stick with it — will
be a plan that evolves with the strategic
environment into a logical, defensible, con-
sistent path to develop an agile, inclusive
force to deliver Global Vigilance-Global
Reach-Global Power — now and well into
the future.”
said. “I want (everyone) to know you’ll
get 110 percent from me to serve you
guys in accomplishing the mission and
building humble, credible, approach-
able graduates, building teams and
leading from our instructor cadre, and
transforming and inspiring our combat
power … Thank you for everything you
do every day and thank you for every-
thing you’re going to do as we join this
journey together. I can’t wait to get on
board with you guys.”
$7.8 million into the RPA program to grow
school house capacity, increase reserve
component manpower augmentation
days, and contract some downrange and
recovery efforts.
“We’re redirecting funds into the RPA
community and will request support from
within the Department of Defense to cover
additional requirements,” said James. “This
is an absolutely critical mission set and
investment is required to ensure its long-
term viability. We’re committed to getting
this right.”
The service recognizes the demand for
ISR and RPA pilot skills will remain.
“The demand for ISR capability will
always exist,” said James. “We are focused
on developing and managing ISR assets
to be agile and responsive enough to sup-
seamless manner while at the same time,
managing the stress on Airmen. We are
taking action to provide near-term opera-
tional relief while addressing quality of life
concerns.”