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        Policy UpdatesNewsroomReoptimizationBIOGRAPHIESAF Senior Leaders      The Enduring Importance of AirpowerThe Enduring Importance of Airpower
                        
                        
                        The Enduring Importance of Airpower
                
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The Enduring Importance of AirpowerPublished Aug. 15, 2013
            In January 2013, the United States Air Force released a vision statement that focuses on “Airmen, Mission, and Innovation.”
In addition to recognizing Airmen as the power behind the Air Force and acknowledging the importance of innovation to
our story, the vision encourages Airmen to understand and explain their role in producing airpower for America by telling
the story of the Air Force through their own unique perspective. Building upon the vision, this paper defines the Air Force’s
five enduring core missions—air and space superiority, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR), rapid global
mobility, global strike, and command and control—and explains how innovative Airmen bring them together to provide
*Global Vigilance*,*Global Reach*, and *Global Power* for America.

The 21st century is a time of unusual volatility due to the spread of advanced technology,
global economic and energy pressures, and the evolutionary forces of social change.
Accordingly, despite the best analyses and projections by national security experts, the
time and place of the next crisis are never certain and are rarely what we expect. In
addition, our military has an imperative to spend its resources in a fiscally responsible
way. This means that our Nation requires not only a flexible, precise, and lethal force that
is capable of rapidly responding anywhere on the globe to protect and advance America’s
interests, but also one that can do so at a relatively low cost in relation to the return on
investment. The Air Force meets this need and offers freedom of action to our joint and
coalition partners through our ability to integrate our core missions to provide *Global
Vigilance*, *Global Reach*, and *Global Power*.From the earliest days of organized warfare, controlling the high ground has been vital to
successful military operations. Early airpower advocates, such as Brigadier General Billy Mitchell, understood that aircraft can influence events through “the ability to do something
in the air”—something we still do as an Air Force. But how the Air Force provides airpower has evolved significantly from
its early days. By integrating airpower capabilities within and across the air, space, and cyberspace domains, Airmen bring
to life the Air Force’s core missions. And those core missions are indispensable to our Nation’s ability to conduct military
operations successfully.

Today, Airmen are exploiting and
mastering emerging technologies not
only in air warfare, but also in space and
cyberspace, giving the Air Force the
ability to project global military power
on a scale that our adversaries cannot
match. Exploiting such technologies is
not unique to the Air Force, but we are
the only Service that brings them together
in ways that allow our sister Services the
freedom to maneuver in their respective
domains without fear of attack by enemy
air forces. The air arms of the Army, Navy,
and Marine Corps are supremely capable
at what they do—facilitating their parent
Service’s respective mastery of operations
on the ground, at sea, and in a littoral
environment. However, America has only
one Air Force that was specifically designed
and is precisely employed to exploit the
unique global advantages realized from
operating in air, space, and cyberspace.
Air Force airpower gives America the ability to control and exploit this ultimate high ground that is essential to winning
our Nation’s wars. No other Service, or combination of Services, can deliver the capability and capacity that the Air Force
provides to the warfighter in our core mission areas.
 **RELATED 'AIRPOWER FOR AMERICA' CONTENT**

Click here to go back to the Airpower for Airmen PageClick here to go to the Power of Airmen PageClick here to watch the Global Vigilance, Global Reach, Global Power for America VideoAir Force Vision 



Vision Statement 



Air Force Senior Leaders 



CSAF 



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