The Air Force is organizing its major commands, or MAJCOMs, into Institutional Commands, responsible for organizing, training, and equipping Airmen, and Service Component Commands, responsible for preparing Airmen for warfighting in a combatant command's area of responsibility.
The changes are part of the Department of the Air Force's Great Power Competition initiative.
"Over the last three decades, our Air Force has incrementally become more fragmented," said Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Allvin. "This gradual diffusion was the result of decisions made in the context of a different strategic environment. After some deep introspection, it has become clear that to dominate in this challenging strategic environment, we must have a force structure that is better aligned, clearly understood, and agile enough to exploit the rapid pace of change."
The current major command structure has significant variances in how the U.S. Air Force organizes, trains and equips, and how it presents forces. Some MAJCOMS have the responsibility of capability development (e.g., Air Force Materiel Command), some strictly for presenting forces as a service component to a combatant command, and some MAJCOMs have both responsibilities. Some service component commands are also Numbered Air Forces, or NAFs, that report through MAJCOMs, while other service component commands are themselves MAJCOMs.
While this has been made to work in practice, it has evolved with new entities being bolted on, instead of baked in. Through the Reoptimization initiative, the U.S. Air Force has the opportunity to reset both definitionally and structurally. The foundation of the senior command structure in the Air Force will consist of two types of commands: Institutional Commands and Service Component Commands.
Institutional Commands will serve as enterprise integrators for capability modernization, acquisition and sustainment, developing human capital and generating readiness, while Combatant Command-aligned Service Component Commands will employ operational forces in pursuit of Combatant Command missions.
Institutional Commands will include the existing commands with the following modifications:
- Air Education and Training Command is expected to evolve into Airman Development Command, which will train and develop Air Force personnel across the entirety of their career.
- The new Integrated Capabilities Command is planned to accelerate force modernization by aligning capability development efforts to a singular, prioritized demand signal for future airpower capabilities, aligned with the Force Design. The transition of capabilities development into one institutional command will enable the service component commands to focus on readiness.
- Air Combat Command will integrate readiness for CONUS-based service-retained forces and prepare and present mission-ready forces to combatant commands.
- Air Force Materiel Command will consolidate and establish new centers to rapidly develop, procure, field and sustain a pipeline of competitive capabilities to deliver decisive advantages to the force.
- Air Force Reserve Command and the Air National Guard will provide strategic and operational depth and surge capacity by developing and managing an experienced, modernized and accessible Reserve Force.
Service Component Commands project air power to the joint force combatant commands through theater-assigned and rotationally allocated Air Force units in each of the CCMDs.
To streamline how the Air Force presents force offerings to Combatant Commanders, the Component Numbered Air Forces listed are planned to become Service Component Commands, reporting directly to the Secretary of the Air Force through the Chief of Staff of the Air Force. This alignment ensures the Air Force better prepares, presents and generates airpower effects for the Joint Force and enables service component commands to focus on preparation and presentation for their combat missions.
- Activate Air Forces Southern
- Activate Air Forces Central
- Activate Air Forces Northern and Air Forces Space
- Elevate and redesignate Air Forces Cyber. Note: The ultimate makeup and structure are still being finalized.
Pacific Air Forces; U.S. Air Forces in Europe - U.S. Air Forces Africa; Air Force Special Operations Command; Air Mobility Command; and Air Force Global Strike Command will be considered SCCs and will retain their current Combatant Command force alignment and readiness-related roles, responsibilities and authorities.
Streamlining Air Force organizations into either Institutional Commands or Service Component Commands will allow them to focus solely on developing Airmen, generating readiness and sustaining and delivering capabilities, or projecting airpower to the Joint Force, respectively.
Air Forces Southern, or AFSOUTH, will become the first Service Component Command under the new construct. AFSOUTH's operational mission as the Air Force Component to USSOUTHCOM will not change. However, as a Service Component Command, AFSOUTH will be better positioned to advocate for service-related matters such as personnel, administration and unit training.
