Note from AFA -- Courage, Gen. Loh op-ed

The Air Force has just released its latest “Portraits in Courage.” The Portraits in Courage series highlights Airmen who display bravery and determination in the face of especially challenging or dangerous circumstances. You can find it here at http://www.af.mil/specials/courage/index.html. In our subsequent notes, we will highlight each individual, like Captain Jennifer Curtis, who assisted U.S. Army Special Forces with village stability operations. You can read her story here at http://www.af.mil/specials/courage/10curtis.html.

Secondly, an excellent editorial by Gen (Ret) John Michael Loh appeared in Defense News. In it, Gen Loh, addressing the new “Pivot to the Pacific” strategy, states the Asia-Pacific region, because of its huge expanse, few land operating bases, and many far-reaching potential battle scenarios, will require airborne all-weather sensors for wide-area surveillance, and airborne battle management, command and control (BMC2) centers. Today, there are few aircraft that perform this mission and none planned in the future. He points out the Libyan Campaign had no established command and control center, no nearby bases and no wide surveillance of the battle area until AWACS and JSTARS joined the fight. This campaign underscored the need for these systems in the future. BMC2 is but one new capability the Air Force will need to execute the “Pivot to the Pacific” strategy, and the need comes at a most challenging time for modernization of systems already in the pipeline. You can read the piece here at http://www.defensenews.com/article/20120820/DEFFEAT05/308200009/The-Eyes-Brain-8216-Pacific-Pivot-8217-


Buck

David T. "Buck" Buckwalter
Acting President
Air Force Association