Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Goldfein recently told President Donald Trump to boost the service’s readiness so it can perform all the critical missions it is tasked.
Goldfein said Friday that he had five minutes to discuss the Air Force when the Joint Chiefs of Staff, which includes the Air Force’s top officer, met briefly with Trump at the Pentagon Jan. 27 prior to James Mattis being sworn in as defense secretary. Goldfein gave Trump his elevator pitch, explaining what the Air Force does to protect the United States.
Goldfein said the Air Force provides the president with two of three legs of the nuclear triad and, on the nation’s worst day, ensures the president is where he needs to be and has access to nuclear command and control. Goldfein said the Air Force also provides quality decision-making information via 12 satellite constellations and sensors in the air, land, sea, space, cyberspace and undersea. Goldfein said the joint force also achieves air and space superiority through a network of bases around the world.
“We find ourselves, today, as an Air Force that is too big for the resources that we’ve been given and far too small for what the nation demands,” Goldfein told an audience at a Peter Huessy breakfast on Capitol Hill. “In between those two bookends lies risk. ” The problem, he explained, is that these missions are a growth industry as every one of them is in greater and greater demand by the joint force. At the same time, Goldfein said 50,000 airmen have left the Air Force.
Fortunately for Goldfein, Mattis has his sights set on increasing readiness. During a trip visiting Asian allies, Mattis released a memo on Jan. 31 titled “Implementation Guidance for Budget Directives in the National Security Presidential Memorandum on Rebuilding the U.S. Armed Forces.”
