SCOTT AIR FORCE BASE, Ill. —
Air Mobility Command brought more than 100 senior leaders together to discuss AMC’s next steps to reoptimize for Great Power Competition during an offsite October 16-17, 2024, at the Duane H. Cassidy Conference Center, Scott Air Force Base, Ill.
The leadership team addressed several high-interest areas concerning GPC and conducted working groups to develop operational priorities relevant to the command’s challenges in the future fight.
Gen. John Lamontagne, Air Mobility Command commander, provided opening comments including a command status update and what he wished to see from the offsite.
“I’m excited to roll up our sleeves and do this important work,” said Lamontagne. “I expect candor from the wings as we smartly get after the Air Force’s reoptimization strategy and figure out what right looks like.”
In February 2024, the Department of the Air Force announced 24 major actions to reoptimize for Great Power Competition. “To forge ahead, we must prioritize organizational alignment, streamline decision-making and place mission outcomes above narrow functional competence,” Chief of Staff Gen David Allvin wrote in his Case For Change at the time.
AMC senior leaders were broken out into six working groups to brainstorm projected challenges and potential solutions for posturing mobility forces for Great Power Competition. Topics discussed included identifying AMC’s nominations for Deployed Combat Wings, reorganizing the Numbered Air Forces to optimize command and control efforts, and develop the Command’s operational priorities.
Operationally, the Air Force says reoptimizing will “create coherent, standardized and well-defined “Units of Action” to present a clear and cohesive structure for effective combat operations and force presentation … These wings will prioritize readying whole units that can be combat effective on Day One of a conflict. They will train together and, as applicable, deploy and fight together — enhancing their ability to provide direct support to combatant commanders.”
While the work continues, the command made significant strides during the summit.
“Make no mistake, there is no other Air Force in the world that can do what you do. Period. Dot,” said Lamontagne. “We will continue to make that asymmetric advantage a slam dunk for this Nation.”
