The Senate on Tuesday confirmed Air Force Gen. Charles Brown to become the next chief of staff by a vote of 98-0, ensuring Brown becomes the first African-American to lead the service.
Brown currently serves as the commander of Pacific Air Forces, the air component command commander for U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, and the executive director for Pacific Air Combat Operations Staff at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii. He will become the 22nd Air Force chief of staff, succeeding Gen. David Goldfein in a swearing-in ceremony Aug. 6.
Goldfein issued a statement of congratulations to Brown Tuesday afternoon following the confirmation. “There is no more seasoned warfighter in the U.S. Air Force than CQ Brown, and no leader has been better prepared for this job than him,” he said.
The Trump administration formally nominated Brown to lead the Air Force on May 2. Brown’s confirmation had been held up by Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska), a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee. Defense News reported June 3 that Sullivan placed a hold on the nomination, waiting on several answers to questions he had following the committee’s May 7 confirmation hearing for Brown, and that he had since lifted the hold.
During his confirmation hearing, Brown asserted his priorities as chief of staff would include the Pentagon-wide effort of joint all-domain command and control (JADC2), a focus on maintaining space superiority, and better partnership with both traditional and non-traditional defense industry members. He advocated for the Defense Department to receive steady funding of 3% to 5% real growth per year to keep up with modernization efforts and readiness goals.
Vice President Mike Pence presided over the Senate vote Tuesday afternoon. As vice president, Pence also serves as the president of the U.S. Senate.
Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman James Inhofe (R-Okla.) congratulated Brown on his “historic promotion” in a Tuesday statement.
The Air Force operates the airborne leg of the U.S. nuclear triad, which includes B61 gravity bombs and Air-Launched Cruise Missiles carried by the B-52H bomber. The Air Force is certifying the F35A Block IV version of the Joint Strike Fighter to externally carry a pair of B61-12 bombs later this decade. The Air Force has also tested B61-12, a homogenized version of four previous bomb designs slated to go into production around 2022, from the B-2 bomber. Eventually, the planned B-21 Raider bomber will be the only weapon to carry nuclear gravity bombs and cruise missiles.
As it works on the B61-12, the Department of Energy’s semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration is also preparing to modernize the W80 warhead that tips the current generation of AGM-86B Air Launched cruise missiles. The revamped W80-4 will be for the Raytheon-built Long-Range Standoff weapon to be deployed on B-52H around 2030.
This story first appeared in Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor affiliate publication Defense Daily.
