A group of men in military uniforms standing next to each other.
Maj Gen John Klein, U.S. Air Force Expeditionary Center Commander, speaks to a group of Airmen assigned to the 728th Air Mobility Squadron (AMS) at Incirlik Air Base (AB),Türkiye, Feb. 25, 2023. Klein visited Incirlik AB to see the efforts Airmen assigned to 728 AMS provide in support of the Turkish government’s response to the Feb. 6, 2023, earthquakes. USAF photo by SrA David D. McLoney
A group of military vehicles driving down the road.
Field Craft Hostile (FCH) students engage with hostile forces during a field training exercise at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, NJ, Nov. 19, 2021. FCH places students in realistic and strenuous training scenarios used to teach skills such as weapons control, combative techniques, communications, mounted and dismounted individual and team movements, and land navigation. USAF photo by SrA Bryan Guthrie
A group of soldiers are in the woods with guns.
Field Craft Hostile (FCH) students engage with hostile forces during a field training exercise at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, NJ, Nov. 19, 2021. FCH places students in realistic and strenuous training scenarios used to teach skills such as weapons control, combative techniques, communications, mounted and dismounted individual and team movements, and land navigation. USAF photo by SrA Bryan Guthrie
A group of men walking on the tarmac near an airplane.
Airmen assigned to the 305th Air Mobility Wing conduct an Engine Running Crew Change during exercise White Stag at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, NJ, March 8, 2023. USAF photo by SrA Sergio Avalos

Strategies for Success

By MS. ARYN KITCHELL, STAFF WRITER

Current and future warfare is changing, and Air Mobility Command (AMC) is working to change with it. All domains are becoming more competitive, and the competitors have greater capabilities than ever before. Without a change in the status quo, our assets could be stretched, creating an allocation crisis. The solution is innovation and adapting to win in any future fight. As AMC adapts and ushers in innovation, they are also taking purposeful steps to foster minds, bodies, and craft to prepare Airmen across all domains.

In September of last year, the commander of the U.S. Air Force Expeditionary Center, Maj Gen John Klein, released a new strategy for the U.S. Air Force (USAF) Expeditionary Center with a primary focus on preparing for any future fight through organizing, training, and equipping Airmen for expeditionary warfare. The strategy marked the beginning of a 365-day campaign that will end with Exercise Mobility Guardian 23, which will be used to demonstrate the progress made on the initiative.

“The U.S. Air Force Expeditionary Center Strategy†was released to work in conjunction with the new “Air Mobility Command Strategy†released in March 2022. “The U.S. Air Force Expeditionary Center Strategy†was also published a month before the release of “The Mobility Manifesto†by Gen Mike Minihan in October 2022.

Airmen are the most effective weapon system in the USAF, and both the strategy and the manifesto focus on ensuring Airmen are prepared to win. In addition to the strategy and the manifesto, AMC’s Warrior Heart campaign hopes to develop “personal, intimate, ‘in-your-face’ leadership†to further prepare Airmen for the future fight. This campaign acknowledges the reality of the possibility of a difficult and violent fight, but by preparing our Airmen and promoting the Warrior Heart culture, AMC can ready minds, bodies, and craft so that any fight can be won.

The USAF Expeditionary Center plans to ensure Airmen are prepared for expeditionary warfare: wars fought and—more importantly—won on foreign shores. This strategy refocuses on the threat of the pacing challenge.

The year-long campaign will allow the USAF Expeditionary Center to fill in capability gaps and begin making improvements to prepare for the next fight. The strategy has three main lines of effort: organize, train, and equip Airmen for expeditionary warfare.

To organize Airmen for expeditionary warfare, the USAF Expeditionary Center seeks to build readiness and strength. They particularly highlight mental and physical fortitude, tactical and technical competencies, and unit identity. Included in this effort are purposeful steps toward securing cross-functional talent who will act as well-rounded mobility leaders.

Next, Airmen must be trained for expeditionary warfare. Preparing Airmen to fight not only includes physical readiness but mental and spiritual readiness as well. According to the strategy, training should cover “the fundamentals of physical fitness, dress and personal appearance, customs and courtesies, and good order and discipline.†By encapsulating these requirements, Airmen can embody readiness for exercises and the literal fight.

Finally, Airmen need to be equipped with both resources and knowledge for expeditionary warfare. This effort will require creativity to use our currently available resources and deliver “the trust, doctrine, policy, authorities, materiel, and manpower†that will be essential to fight—and win—future conflicts.

As a whole, “The U.S. Air Force Expeditionary Center Strategy†can be visualized as three groups—the air base wings, air base groups, air mobility operations groups, and Expeditionary Operations School; air mobility operations wings; and the Contingency Response Wing—all coming together as one entity to do their parts in organizing, training, and equipping Airmen who, at the center of the strategy, are the heart of the success of AMC.

Like the strategies, the Warrior Heart campaign from AMC is focused on supporting Airmen who make up the foundation of the Air Force. The campaign seeks to find those Airmen who embody a warrior’s heart and lift them up to empower them. Another focus is ensuring leadership and wingmen focus on healing those who need it. The possibility of violence should not be ignored, and Airmen and leadership should expect to have frank conversations about challenging experiences. It is no light matter to be ignored, and part of readiness of mind and body means Airmen should be open to these conversations.

Minihan’s efforts are creating a path toward preparing Airmen for the realities of a high-end fight and using every available advantage that can deliver devastation to our enemies. With Warrior Heart, AMC is taking nothing for granted; existing procedures that are standing in the way of the Warrior Heart ethos will be challenged.

As Minihan in “The Mobility Manifesto†explains, “We will trust our Airmen to take risks, to try, to fail, to learn, to recover, to succeed, to win. This will require a change in mindset and a shift to solution oriented culture with a hunger for maximizing the tools we currently have and how to apply them in today’s environment.†By using a critical advantage—Airmen who usher in creativity and innovation—AMC is preparing for victory no matter the circumstances.