www.af.mil/vision
To defend the United States and protect its

interests through aerospace power

AIR FORCE MISSION

F. WHITTEN PETERS

SECRETARY OF THE AIR FORCE

MICHAEL E. RYAN, GENERAL, USAF

CHIEF OF STAFF

Foreword

Since early in the 20th Century when the Wright Brothers first took to the skies,

the flight path for aerospace power has been onward and upward. The

pioneers who established the United States Air Force were committed to

achieving aerospace power’s enormous potential to serve our nation. We

continue that journey.

At the dawn of the 21st Century, the Air Force has reached ever higher, faster

and farther. Revolutionary technological developments have been matched by

dramatically improved operational concepts to produce profound increases in

combat capability. As a part of that evolution, past Air Force visions laid

thoughtful foundations for today’s force. This vision, which builds on previous

work and reflects key organizational and conceptual improvements, lays the

foundation for our future force.

The next two decades will present many unknowns. As Joint Vision 2020

suggests, the nation will face a wide range of challenges and opportunities. In

an environment with an uncertain rhythm, we must be prepared to maintain our

strategic and nuclear vigilance while sustaining peacetime operations, ensuring

our preparations for major theater war and conducting the training necessary to

prepare each new generation of airmen to lead.

In a world that is globally connected, national security and international stability

are vital foundations of America’s prosperity. Assuring security and stability

requires global vigilance, reach and power—global vigilance to anticipate and

deter threats, strategic reach to curb crises and overwhelming power to prevail

in conflicts and win America’s wars.

With Global Vigilance, Reach and Power, the Air Force will provide balanced

aerospace capabilities key to meeting national security objectives and realizing

the full spectrum dominance envisioned by Joint Vision 2020. The United

States Air Force is a mission-focused, combat-proven, decisive fighting force.

This vision will guide America’s Air Force in meeting the diverse challenges of

the 21st Century as a part of America’s Joint Military Team.
AIR FORCE CORE VALUES

Integrity First • Service Before Self • Excellence In All We Do

America’s Airmen...smart, sharp

and tough...we will fight and win

wherever our nation needs us.

We are America’s Airmen. We

are warriors...we will fight and win

wherever our nation needs us. The

aerospace realm is our domain, and

we are vigilant in our commitment to

defend, control and use it in our

nation’s interest. We are leaders...we

live our core values. We are a Total

Force—Active, Guard, Reserve, and

Civilian—seamless in providing

aerospace power.

We do not operate alone. Our efforts

are made possible by the great support

of many. Our families, our retirees, the

employers of our Guardsmen and

Reservists, our industry partners, and

the communities in which we live and

work enable us to carry out our

mission.

And we are partners in the Joint

Team...we project aerospace power

anywhere in the world, and operate in

concert with America’s land and sea

forces, and with our allies. Wherever

we serve, whatever we do, we are

America’s Airmen.

We will recruit, train and retain

America’s best young men and women

to provide Global Vigilance, Reach and

Power to our nation in the 21st Century.

We will command and lead effectively at

all levels—with decisiveness and

concern for our people. We’ll provide an

environment that encourages all our

people to achieve personal and

professional excellence, taking pride in

being part of the aerospace force that’s

respected the world over.

We will size, shape and operate the

force to meet the needs of the nation.

We must also manage the effects of

tempo on our people. This is particularly

important for those elements of the force

currently in short supply, but in high

demand. And we’ll continue leading the

way in leveraging the strengths of all our

components to optimize Total Force

effectiveness in peace as well as war.

America’s Airmen will be smart, sharp

and tough. We’ll provide them with the

education, equipment and training to

perform at their best. And we will

demonstrate commitment to our people

and to their families, providing quality of

life that lives up to their trust. Our Air

Force will be worthy of the great men

and women who join us.

The foundation of

the force is our

people...

We will remain

worthy of

America’s best.

FOUNDATION The

Our People & Our Values
...We operate aircraft

and spacecraft

optimized for their

environments, but the

art of commanding

aerospace power lies

in integrating systems

to produce the exact

effects the nation

needs...

We are an integrated

aerospace force. Our domain

stretches from the earth’s surface to

the outer reaches of space in a

seamless operational medium. We

operate aircraft and spacecraft

optimized for their environments, but

the art of commanding aerospace

power lies in integrating systems to

produce the exact effects the nation

needs. To meet this need, we’ve

modified our command organizations

to take full advantage of air, space

and information expertise. We have

implemented an Aerospace Basic

Course that ensures newly

commissioned officers understand

the breadth and value of the different

components of aerospace power.

Our Space Warfare Center now

emphasizes how to leverage the

combination of space and

atmospheric capabilities, and we’ve

added space training to the air

combat training at our Weapons

School. Our information capabilities

support operations across the entire

aerospace domain. And we’re

putting air, space and information

operators into all our key commands

and training courses, focusing on

expanding and cross-flowing

knowledge to maximize

effectiveness.

Operation ALLIED FORCE

demonstrated the power of

aerospace integration. During

combat operations over Serbia,

space sensors identified timecritical targets, allowing airborne

surveillance platforms to pinpoint

exact target locations. The

Aerospace Operations Center

then rapidly directed strike

aircraft to engage and destroy

those targets. Tomorrow’s fullyintegrated aerospace force will

realize even greater potential.

DOMAIN

The

Aerospace

We will continue integrating

air, space and information

operations, while leveraging the

strengths of each. Our airmen will

think in terms of controlling and

exploiting the full aerospace

continuum on a regional and global

scale to achieve effects both on

earth and in flight regimes beyond

the horizon. We will strengthen the

ability of our commanders to

command and control aerospace

forces. Their Aerospace

Operations Centers will be able to

gather and fuse the full range of

information, from national to

tactical, in real-time, and to rapidly

convert that information to

knowledge and understanding—to

assure decision dominance over

adversaries.

To employ these aerospace

capabilities effectively, we’ll continue

to develop commanders who think

in terms of exploiting the whole

aerospace continuum—leaders

able to employ forces that produce

the desired effects, regardless of

where platforms reside, fly, or orbit.

These leaders with experience and

cross-competence in the

increasingly complex range of

military disciplines will lead

aerospace and joint forces to

victory for the nation.
LEAD

WINGS LEADWINGS LEADWINGS LEADWINGS LEADWINGS

AEF PRIME

Operational capabilities not organically 

assigned to AEFs—from regional command, 

control and intelligence...to space 

capabilities...to the umbrella of deterrence.

AEFs

AEFs represent the core of our

deployable combat power and forward

presence capability.

EAF MOBILITY

Provides the ability to deploy and sustain

expeditionary forces.

EAF FOUNDATION

Support capabilities not organically assigned to 

AEFs—acquisition to logistics, health care to 

education and training—that underpin

expeditionary operations.

METHOD

The

Expeditionary Aerospace Force

We are an expeditionary aerospace

force configured for the full spectrum of

aerospace operations. We have returned

to our expeditionary roots in the way we

organize ourselves and present our forces.

This shift provides a unifying structure that

brings all our people together in shared

challenges, shared goals and shared

successes. Airmen from all across the Air

Force contribute to our expeditionary

capabilities—from those who provide the

deterrent umbrella under which we operate,

to those who deploy, to those who operate

the fixed facilities on which we depend

when we reach back for support.

We have constituted ten deployable

Aerospace Expeditionary Forces, or AEFs.

Two AEFs, trained to task, are always

deployed or on call to meet current national

requirements while the remaining force

trains, exercises and prepares for the full

spectrum of operations. AEFs provide joint

force commanders with ready and complete

aerospace force packages that can be

tailored to meet the spectrum of

contingencies—ensuring situational

awareness, freedom from attack, freedom

to maneuver and freedom to attack. They

fit into established theater-based command

and control structures, when such are

available, or bring their own command and

control when needed. In addition, we

maintain an Aerospace Expeditionary Wing,

or AEW, on continuous alert as a “911”

The Expeditionary

Aerospace Force

Operation ALLIED FORCE proved

expeditionary operations work.

Airmen deployed rapidly to

more than 20 expeditionary

bases. In the future, we’ll be

even more responsive. We’ll

be able to deploy an AEF in

48 hours—fast enough to curb

many crises—and we’ll be

able to rapidly deploy

additional AEFs to deter a

major theater war.

The published schedule

provides predictability for

our people and their

families and is key to

Total Force participation.

Airmen from all across the Air Force contribute to our

ability to deploy and sustain powerful aerospace

capabilities whenever and wherever necessary.

force to respond to unexpected

developments, as well as on-call Lead

Wings to open expeditionary bases.

Most important to our people, our rotational

structure provides predictability for their lives

and stability for their training. Predictability

also is key to optimizing peacetime

participation of our traditional Guardsmen

and Reservists who must balance military

duties with full-time civilian employment.

In a smaller-scale contingency, one AEF,

task force-organized, can provide

intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance,

and command and control of aerospace

forces, over an area roughly half the size of

Texas. The AEF can provide air superiority

while striking some 200 targets per day.

One AEF can surge to provide these

capabilities 24 hours a day. More AEFs can

be added, expanding the space we can

control and contributing to our ability to

transition rapidly from contingency

operations to major theater war.

We will continue to improve our

expeditionary capabilities as we become

lighter and leaner—at the same time we

become more lethal. We are already

responsive, but we’ll become even more so.

We will be able to deploy an AEF in 48

hours—fast enough to curb many crises

before they escalate. We will be able to

rapidly deploy additional AEFs—up to 5 AEFs

in 15 days—providing joint force

commanders options to begin offensive

operations and halt and win major theater

wars.

And we will improve the capabilities each

AEF provides. We’ll expand the

battlespace an AEF can control and

enhance our ability to do real-time,

adaptive targeting to dominate that

battlespace. We’ll dramatically increase

the number of targets one AEF can

engage in a day. We will leverage longrange and stealthy assets to ensure we

can access any target—and quickly

defeat enemy defenses to allow other

forces to operate.

We’ll focus on the Expeditionary Combat

Support capabilities that underpin our

ability to operate anywhere. Effective,

efficient logistics will be key to sustaining

expeditionary forces. We will harness

information technology, rapid

transportation and the strengths of both

the organic and industrial logistics base to

ensure responsive, dependable, precise

support. We’ll constantly improve the

skills and discipline to protect the force in

any environment. And we will use the

AEF structure to reconstitute our forces

when they surge, to ensure we regain

and maintain the sharp edge of

readiness.
The ability to control and exploit

information to our nation’s advantage...

The ability to engage adversary

targets anywhere, anytime...

Precision Engagement Rapid Global Mobility

The ability to deliver desired effects

with minimal risk and collateral

damage...

The ability to rapidly position

forces anywhere in the world...

Aerospace Superiority Information Superiority Global Attack

The ability to control what

moves through air and space...

...ensures freedom of action. ...ensures decision

dominance. ...holds any adversary at risk. ...holds any adversary at risk.

The ability to sustain flexible and

efficient combat operations...

...denies the enemy sanctuary. ...ensures unprecedented

responsiveness.

...is the foundation of success.

BUILDING BLOCKS

The

Our Core Competencies Global Vigilance is an Air Force mindset...a commitment that we are always

on watch across our domain.

We are America’s Air Force. We

are focused on the aerospace domain.

Although we make no claim to exclusivity,

aerospace power is our primary mission.

We execute that mission by mastering our

core competencies. These core

competencies are built upon foundations of

world class support across a wide range of

disciplines—acquisition to logistics, health

care to education and training.

We will develop and field the critical

future capabilities to sustain our core

competencies, and the command and

control through which we employ them.

We’ll provide the full range of vigilance

necessary to anticipate and deter emerging

global threats. Enhanced vigilance will be

essential to guard against new threats that

could reach our homeland or impact

America’s worldwide security interests.

We will optimize the great potential of space

systems to provide duration, breadth and

depth of coverage, and of manned and

unmanned atmospheric systems to provide

focus. And we’ll continue to develop the

ability to control space when need be,

assuring our ability to capitalize on space’s

advantages. That will become vital as more

countries enter space and potential threats

to our systems increase.

Agile Combat Support

With advanced integrated aerospace

capabilities, networked into a system of

systems, we’ll provide the ability to find,

fix, assess, track, target and engage

anything of military significance,

anywhere. We’ll transition from the ability

to do that in hours to the ability to do it in

minutes. Information superiority will be a

vital enabler of that capability. We will

continually improve our ability to make

better decisions, faster—faster than an

enemy can react—to assure decision

dominance over adversaries.

We will continue enhancing our reach.

We’ll be able to achieve desired effects

from whatever range we choose.

Aerospace power’s ability to strike directly

from the United States, or from regional

bases, ensures maximum flexibility.

Improvements in standoff and penetration

capabilities will enable us to operate with

reduced vulnerabilities.

Capitalizing more fully on a set of

revolutionary technologies—like stealth,

advanced airborne and spaceborne

sensors and highly precise all-weather

munitions—we’ll operate with great

effectiveness in an environment that

includes not just new adversarial aircraft,

but advanced surface-to-air missile

systems, theater ballistic missiles, cruise

missiles and a multitude of international

space systems. In that challenging

battlespace, our improved capabilities will

provide joint forces with freedom from

attack, freedom to maneuver and freedom

to attack, while denying those to the enemy.

We’ll target with such speed and precision

that we’ll deny an enemy the traditional

sanctuaries of night, weather and terrain.

With advanced sensors and a range of

precise weapons, from large to very small,

we will be able to strike effectively wherever

and whenever necessary with minimum

collateral damage. We’ll harness new ways

to achieve effects, ranging from directed

energy to non-lethal weapons.

We’ll continue improving our strategic

agility, providing the mobility to rapidly

position and reposition forces in any

environment, anywhere in the world. At

the same time, our combat support will

become more agile. We will streamline

what we take with us, reducing our forward

support footprint by 50 percent. We’ll rely

increasingly on distributed (or reach back)

operations to efficiently sustain our forces,

providing time-definite delivery of needed

capabilities. Fast, flexible, responsive,

reliable support will be the foundation of all

Air Force operations.
The invention of mid-air refueling

revolutionized air warfare—shrinking

the globe so we can reach anywhere

from the US in hours.

The spirit of innovation is

embodied in aviation

pioneers like Chuck

Yeager, who first broke the

sound barrier...pioneers

who transformed aviation.

In the Berlin Airlift, airmen did what people said

could not be done...they sustained a city of almost

3 million for a year entirely by air—a humanitarian

operation that delivered the first and most

enduring victory of the Cold War.

A Proud Heritage of Innovation Continues....

The development of the precision bomb

profoundly changed warfare...where it once

took many aircraft to destroy one target,

precision allows us to think in terms of one

aircraft destroying many targets.

Air Force

pioneers

like General

Bernard

Schriever

opened up

the ultimate

high ground

with the

application

of space

and missile

technology.

High-altitude reconnaissance

blurred the line between air and

space...and proved that

aerospace power could be

harnessed to give the warfighter

unprecedented situational

awareness.

We are an innovative, adaptive

force. That’s not new for us. We were

born of change and it remains a part of

our character. We challenge ourselves

after every mission, every day. What

worked? What didn’t? How do we

become better? This kind of continuing

innovation leads over time to dramatic

improvement—sometimes known as

transformation.

Real transformation is not the result of a

one-time improvement, but a sustained

and determined effort. We have been

engaged in that effort for more than ten

years, and it is paying off in the dramatic

improvements in capability that have

been on display in places like the

Persian Gulf and Kosovo. Impressive as

those improvements have been, they are

just the beginning. We recognize that

aerospace power is America’s

asymmetric advantage—and we’re

determined to ensure America keeps

that advantage.

APPROACH

The

Innovation & Adaptation

Revolutionary

technological

developments and

dramatically improved

operational concepts led

to recent successes in

Bosnia, Southwest Asia

and Kosovo...

and promise even greater

potential as we continue

to transform the way we

approach warfare.

We will continue exploring both

science and technology and operational

concepts, identifying those ideas that

offer potential for evolutionary or

revolutionary increases in capability.

We’ll test those ideas rigorously through

experimentation to determine which

have practical application worthy of

development.

We will ensure technological innovations

continue to be accompanied by

innovations in doctrine, organization and

training. These intellectual innovations

will prepare us to conduct and sustain

decisive operations in major theater war

and in other forms of conflict.

We will leverage information technology

as a way to continue transforming our

operational capabilities and command

and control. And we’ll encourage

innovation in our research and battle

labs, our product centers, logistics

centers and warfare centers and across

the force—recognizing that it is in the

imagination of our people that new

concepts and technologies key to future

aerospace operations will be born.
We’re committed to working

effectively within the Joint Team...

COMMITMENT

The

Keeping the Trust

We are partners in our

nation’s security. We dominate the

aerospace domain to facilitate the

effectiveness of the Joint Team. Our

commitment is firm—to work

effectively with soldiers, sailors,

marines and coast guardsmen

anywhere our nation’s interests and

its people are at risk. And as

members of the Joint Team, our

commitment is equally firm to live up

to the trust of our multinational

partners.

We will keep

faith with

America’s

Airmen—and

they will keep

faith with the

nation...

...and with our

Coalition partners.

We will never forget the trust

the American people place in us.

They count on us to protect their

ideals, their security and their

prosperity—and they give us their

finest young men and women to

sustain that effort. We will keep faith

with those young men and women—

America’s Airmen—and they will keep

faith with the nation. Together, we

are America’s Air Force.