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Document created: 1 June 05
Air & Space Power Journal - Summer 2005

Air & Space Power Journal

Doctrine NOTAM

Updated Air Force Publication

The U.S. Air Force Transformation Flight Plan, 2004

Mort Rolleston

The Air Force recently released the latest version of The U.S. Air Force Transformation Flight Plan (AFTFP), a reporting document required by the Office of the Secretary of Defense’s (OSD) Transformation Planning Guidance (TPG) that describes the ongoing transformation of the Air Force and the way it addresses the OSD’s guidance. According to the TPG, the OSD’s Office of Force Transformation uses the AFTFP and transformation road maps from the other services and US Joint Forces Command to conduct a strategic transformation appraisal for the secretary of defense. Issues and concerns raised by this appraisal inform the OSD’s Strategic Planning Guidance, which directs budget development for the services. The main body of the AFTFP discusses this process, the way the Air Force defines and scopes transformation, and the service’s transformation strategy and related initiatives. Several of the document’s appendices delineate how Air Force transformation supports the OSD’s guidance.

The AFTFP focuses primarily on the Air Force’s transformation strategy, designed to help the joint war fighter address the anticipated security environ-ment effectively and exploit new, revolutionary information technologies by

• working with the rest of the Department of Defense and agencies outside the department, as well as allies and coalition partners, to enhance joint and coalition war fighting;

• continuing to pursue innovation aggressively, to lay the groundwork for transformation;

• creating new organizational constructs to -facilitate transformation and institutionalize cultural change;

• shifting from threatcentric and platform-centric planning and programming to adaptive capabilities- and effects-based planning and programming;

• developing “transformational” capabilities; and

• breaking out of industrial-age business processes and embracing information-age thinking.

Although significant differences existed between the 2002 and 2003 editions of the AFTFP because of new OSD requirements set forth in the TPG (signed in April 2003), for the most part, the 2004 version (the third edition) simply updates its predecessor. New sections cover the Air Force’s efforts to help US allies transform their air forces, the new Air Force Lessons Learned Office, the Battlefield Airmen initiative, changes in the Air Force concept of operations, and various new business-transformation efforts. Furthermore, a new appendix maps Air Force transformation to the new joint operating concepts approved at the time of publication. The OSD is now updating the TPG, including its guidance to the content and time frames for future transformation road maps.

 To Learn More . . .

“Air Force Transformation.” https://www.my.af.mil/gcss-af/afp40/USAF/ep/home.do?topChannel=default&tabId=0.

The Edge: Air Force Transformation, 2005. Washington, DC: Headquarters US Air Force, Future Concepts and Transformation Division, 2005. http://www.af.mil/library/transformation/edge.pdf.

Elements of Defense Transformation. Washington, DC: Office of the Secretary of Defense, Office of Force Transformation, October 2004. http://www.oft.osd.mil/library/library_files/document_383_ElementsOfTransformation_LR.pdf.

“Officials Release Updated Transformation Flight Plan.” Air Force Print News, 24 January 2005. http://www.af.mil/news/story.asp?story ID=123009672.

Transformation Planning Guidance. Washington, DC: Office of the Secretary of Defense, April 2003. http://www.oft.osd.mil/library/ -library_files/document_129_Transformation_Planning_Guidance_April_2003_1.pdf.

The U.S. Air Force Transformation Flight Plan, 2004. Washington, DC: Headquarters US Air Force, Future Concepts and Transformation Division, 2004. http://www.af.mil/library/posture/AF_TRANS_FLIGHT_PLAN-2004.pdf.

Disclaimer

The conclusions and opinions expressed in this document are those of the author cultivated in the freedom of expression, academic environment of Air University. They do not reflect the official position of the U.S. Government, Department of Defense, the United States Air Force or the Air University.

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