Air Warfare Symposium

AFA Members, Congressional Staffers, Civic Leaders, DOCA Members, if you did not go to this symposium last month, you missed a great opportunity to hear AF (and Army) leaders talk about Air Warfare … both today and in the future.

There were a number of notable quotes to come from the presentations. Here are some excellent ones:

“We’ve also added four RQ-4 Global Hawks and graduated our first class of RPA only pilots. Later this year Air Combat Command projects that we will have more RPA pilots than F-16 pilots in our Air Force. To support this expansion we’ve added two new RPA facilities at Cannon and in Syracuse, and the mission at Syracuse is being accomplished by the Air National Guard.”- Honorable Michael B. Donley, Secretary of the Air Force, AFA Air warfare Symposium, Feb 18.

“Therefore, our efforts to protect these interests in space and cyberspace must be as ambitious as our reliance on these domains. We must be able to deter and to defend against attacks on our space and cyber capabilities and fight through any degradation, disruption or even denial of vital capabilities.” – Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Norton A. Schwartz, AFA Warfare Symposium, Feb. 18.

“Certainly our reliance on space and cyber power is well established because our nation’s diverse interests -- diplomatically, financially, economically, and yes, militarily -- exist around the globe. We have an enduring need for robust space and cyber systems and the inherently globally oriented capabilities that they provide. It would be fair to say, I think, that space and cyber power affects the lives of virtually all Americans every day; keeping us connected and shaping the ways in which we all view the world.”– Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Norton A. Schwartz, AFA Warfare Symposium, Feb. 18

My favorite quotes from the event came from MG Curtis Scaparrotti, CG 82nd Airborne and CJTF-82 [in Afghanistan] and Gen Gary L. North, Commander PACAF.

“...the way we operate could only be done with air power, with what the Air Force brings to this fight. There’s no doubt in my mind about it.” – Maj. Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti, Commander, Army 82nd Airborne, AFA Air Warfare Symposium, Feb 18.

“What we want to do is to make sure that those who take off in airplanes against our United States Air Force and particularly if they know the F-22 is airborne or in the future the F-35, they will remember that the most feared words that an enemy pilot will ever hear are “Cleared for takeoff.” –Gen. Gary L. North, Commander, Pacific Air Forces, Air Warfare Symposium, Feb 18.

We have a link on our website to other quotes at: http://www.afa.org/events/AWS/2010/post_Orlando/quotes.asp

Finally, as many of you know, I highly recommend those of you who are serving on active duty or actively in the ANG or AFRES read the speeches of key leaders. It will help you to understand both the public message and what themes/topics are on their minds.

We have put their talks on our website at: http://www.afa.org/events/AWS/2010/post_Orlando/default.asp

For your consideration.

Mike

Michael M. Dunn
President/CEO
Air Force Association