FEATURE ARTICLE

April 2005

Air Force Kicks Off Staff Reorganization

by Sandra I. Erwin

Air Force officials intend to have in place by October nine new war-fighting headquarters—one for each of the unified command’s geographic area of responsibility. Unlike the current setup, which varies from one command to another, the new war-fighting headquarters will follow a standard format.

Air Force leaders for years have talked about the need to create standard war-fighting headquarters. Commanders often have complained about having to spend too much time learning how a particular headquarters staff operates, which varies from one theater to the next.

Currently, each unified command has a different type of Air Force organization supporting it. There are numbered air forces, which are large war-fighting units. The 12th Air Force, for example, supports the U.S. Southern Command, and the 9th Air Force assists the U.S. Central Command. Their war-fighting staffs have different job titles and responsibilities than those of U.S. Air Force Europe and Pacific Air Forces.

As a result, “when we stand up an operation, it may be different from others,” says Air Force Brig. Gen. Eric J. Rosborg.

Rosborg leads a 15-person team that was chartered by the secretary of the Air Force to develop the concept and implementation guidance for the war-fighting headquarters.

The chief of staff, Gen. John Jumper, specifically directed that the same standard headquarters organization be put in place in every command.

“They need to look the same,’” Rosborg says in an interview. “We are realigning deck chairs to create a standard approach Air Force-wide.” In the past, he says, “we never developed doctrine, techniques or procedures for the organizations—the commander of air forces, and the staffs that support them.”

The war-fighting headquarters, commanded by a three-star general, oversees an air-operations center—a large command-and-control hub of several hundred people led by a one-star general—and a support staff of up to 500 personnel, organized by functions. The size varies, depending on the intensity of military operations in the area.

The A-1 staff is responsible for personnel issues, A-2 oversees intelligence, A-3 is in charge of air-space operations, A-4 is logistics, A-5 plans and requirements and A-6 runs the communications systems.

The A-1 through A-6 setup already exists at most commands. What will change is the addition of new positions, A-7 for installations and mission support, A-8 for programs and financial management and A-9 for analysis, assessment and lessons learned.

Those new functions currently are performed by the personal staff of generals, a set-up that tends to create confusion for commanders planning an air war, with little time to figure out the bureaucracy.

“Until this concept was approved, we had never had a standard approach,” Rosborg says. “It had been an ad hoc organization.”

Jumper also directed that the war-fighting commanders only be responsible for tactical tasks, and be stripped of management duties. The management tasks will be shifted to the Air Force major command headquarters.

The war-fighting staff would ensure that there is a “seamless transition from peacetime to war,” Rosborg says. “We constructed these so they can easily transition to a joint task force headquarters very quickly.”

The idea is to improve coordination with other services and to be prepared for combat on relatively short notice, he explains. “In conflicts up to Operations Iraqi Freedom, we had months to prepare, to build staff relationships, to think about how to configure the staff. Headquarters must now transition from peacetime to war in hours.”

According to Rosborg, the Air Force headquarters offers a useful model for a joint task-force organization. “We believe we are in the lead in the joint world with the development of a standard approach to building war-fighting headquarters.”

Rosborg’s group also is looking at reorganizing the Air Force’s major commands and air staff. “We have begun to build the foundation to start working the change all the way to the air staff. “The reorganization of major commands and air staff will take a while,” he says. “That’s hard work.”

Many of these decisions will be shaped by the next chief of staff, who will be nominated this summer. The current vice chief, Gen. Michael Moseley, is a key supporter of the reorganization, and is one of the candidates for the top job. It is not clear that other generals in the running would support such drastic changes in the air staff.

The standardized war-fighting headquarters are scheduled to be in place by October at U.S. Northern Command (Peterson Air Force Base, Colo.), U.S. Pacific Command (Honolulu, Hawaii), U.S. Southern Command (Miami, Fla.), U.S. Central Command (MacDill Air Force Base, Fla.), U.S. European Command (Stuttgart-Vaihingen, Germany), U.S. Joint Forces Command (Norfolk, Va.), U.S. Special Operations Command (MacDill Air Force Base, Fla.), U.S. Transportation Command (Scott Air Force Base, Ill.) and U.S. Strategic Command (Offutt Air Force Base, Neb.)

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