The US Air Force and Space Force announced a plan for a major overhaul of force structures to prepare for a future war with China in the Asia Pacific.
The plan was announced on Monday by Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall and other officials and includes a total of 24 changes, including 16 for the Air Force, five for the Space Force, and three for the entire Department of the Air Force.
“We are out of time,” Kendall said at the Air & Space Forces Association’s Warfare Symposium, which was held in Colorado. “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, the majority of the changes are vague renaming and rebranding efforts aimed at focusing on so-called “great power competition.” But some changes are significant, including bringing back warrant officers, which haven’t existed in the Air Force for 65 years.
The purpose of the warrant officers would be for them to focus on information and technology warfare. Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Allvin said the idea of bringing back the rank is to have airmen who want to “code for their country” and be “network attack people.”
Allvin also said the Air Force would focus more on large-scale military exercises instead of the smaller-scale drills that it has prioritized for the past few decades. “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.
Since taking his post as the civilian head of the Air Force, Kendall has made clear his priority is China. After being sworn in back in 2021, Kendall said: “So what are my intentions now that I have this job? At a breakfast on Capitol Hill shortly after I was sworn in, I was asked by Sen. Jon Tester what my priorities were. My answer was that I had three; China, China, and China.”
While the US is focused on the proxy war in Ukraine and supporting the Israeli slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza, the Pentagon still considers China the top “threat.” US military officials are preparing for a future direct confrontation with China despite the risk of it escalating into a nuclear war.