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The Air Force’s chief of staff says the service must make "a lot of change" to ready the United States for an era of great power competition.
Gen. David W. Allvin added the Air National Guard will serve as a cornerstone of the Total Air Force while it prepares for potential conflict with the nation’s near-peer threats.
"We’ve got to remain credible," he added in an address to the 146th NGAUS General Conference & Exhibition in Detroit. "We are out of time.
"Our actions or inactions will ripple into the future," Allvin argued. "The end state is one Air Force — one Total Force."
Allvin suggested the Air Force now operates in an unfamiliar strategic environment where near-peer threats are pressuring the service to rapidly adapt to new realities.
The Defense Department considers China the nation’s pacing challenge and Russia its acute threat.
"We now have peer threats that can challenge our way of life in a way not many of us have seen in our careers," Allvin said.
"We need to rethink some of our old value propositions," he continued. "Maybe instead of built to last it is built to adapt."
Allvin noted contested environments becoming the norm rather than the exception for airmen is one example of the Air Force’s latest strategic environment.
He also proposed the Total Force might need to operate in "a constant state of readiness" going forward.
"Nobody knows better than this crowd that throughout time you have to adapt," Allvin argued. "Our secret weapon are our Total Force Airmen."
The Senate confirmed Allvin as the Air Force’s 23rd chief of staff in November 2023 after President Joe Biden nominated him for the role.
Allvin answered audience questions after his remarks about topics including the Air Force’s mobility, warrant officers and modernizing the service’s legacy fighters.
Two audience members questioned Allvin about potentially transferring the Air Guard personnel performing space missions into the Space Force.
"Writ large, the entire Space Force is going to grow," he said. "I think where it ends is still a journey that we’re on."
Allvin said today’s era of great power competition differed from earlier national touchstones like the Cold War ending or the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
"This new environment hasn’t come to this very poignant moment where people recognize something has changed," he said. "But it has.
"This pace of change is driving a lot of our thinking as we are doing this reoptimization," Allvin finished.
Allvin's full remarks at the NGAUS conference will be available soon through the association's YouTube channel.
— By Mark Hensch
