The leadership of the United States Air Force and Space Force announced on Monday that the two military branches will undergo major changes to their force structures in preparation for a future war with China.
According to military officials, these overhauls—16 for the Air Force, 5 for the Space Force, and 3 for the entire joint department—include changes to training, organization, and strategy to ready airmen and guardians for conflict in the Pacific.
“We are out of time,” said Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall in a keynote speech at the Air & Space Forces Association’s Warfare Symposium in Colorado on Monday. “Why do I say that? It’s not that I enjoy sounding like a broken record. It’s because, for at least two decades, China has been building a military that is designed, purpose-built, to deter and defeat the United States if we intervene in the western Pacific.”
According to Military.com, many of these changes are vague renaming and rebranding efforts aimed at “great power competition.” However, Kendall also announced a number of significant short-term goals, including the return of warrant officer ranks, which were removed from the Air Force 65 years ago.
Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Allvin further explained that the return of warrant officers will encourage information technology-focused airmen who want to “code for their country” and function as “network attack people.” Allvin also revealed that the force will be replacing small-scale drills and instead conducting large-scale military exercises.
“Large-scale means multiple weapons systems, multiple capabilities, coming together in a combat-simulated environment and showing our ability to execute the mission that’s going to be expected of us in the high-end conflict,” he said.
Other changes to the two branches will include enhanced training for “contested environments,” a restructuring of the “units of action” that can deploy to a given area, and a new emphasis on “the cadet experience” at the Air Force Academy.
“Xi Jinping has told his military to be ready to take Taiwan by force by 2027, even if the US intervenes,” Kendall said. “Freshmen at both the Air Force Academy and those entering ROTC units will be commissioned in 2027.”
While most of these changes will be done within existing structures to “minimize costs,” leadership warned that additional funding will be required in the coming years to accomplish the long-term goals.
“We have nothing in the ’24 or ’25 budget for any of these changes,” Kendall said. “There’s a possibility that we’ll have some funds in ’26.”
“This will not be easy. Existing habits and structures are well established, but it must be done,” he continued. “No one wants a great power conflict, and no one can predict when one might occur, but come it may and we must be as ready as we can be—now, tomorrow, and every day.”
