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WASHINGTON and ORLANDO — After a senior Space Force official appeared to reveal that a dramatic change is coming to the Air Force’s major command (MAJCOM) structure, an Air Force spokesperson walked the comments back, saying the service is still considering its options.
Space Force Lt. Gen. Michael Guetlein told the Space Force Association’s inaugural Spacepower conference in Orlando, Fla., today that the Air Force planned to change its MAJCOM structure as part of Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall’s effort to “reoptimize” the Air Force and Space Force.
“We’re going to transform the entire Department of the Air Force organization to prepare for great power competition within the next quarter. This [is] how transformative it’s going to be. The Air Force is going to get rid of the MAJCOM [major command] structure,” Guetlein said. “Think about how fundamental that is to the way we fight today and the way we’ve always thought about the Air Force. And we’re going to step away from what we know as the current MAJCOM construction, that’s going to be a huge change.”
But shortly after Guetlein’s remarks, an Air Force spokesperson told Breaking Defense that no decision has been made, and that the reoptimization effort “is ongoing as the teams supporting the initiative continue to generate and carefully refine a list of notional solutions.”
“Once decisions related to the reoptimization effort have been made, the Secretary of the Air Force will share them,” the spokesperson added.
In his remarks, Guetlein — the nominee to be Space Force’s next vice chief and one of the few officers still caught up in Alabama Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville confirmation hold — didn’t say how the Air Force supposedly would replace the MAJCOM structure, which organizes Air Force missions by either function or geography. For example, the MAJCOM Air Mobility Command supports missions like cargo transport and air refueling around the globe, but Pacific Air Forces is a MAJCOM focused on the Indo-Pacific. The Space Force also has a similar command structure, but it’s much smaller and not clear if the Department of the Air Force, which encompasses the Air Force and Space Force, is weighing a similar change for the space-focused service.
The reoptimization effort was announced by Kendall in September as part of his long-running push to head off burgeoning Chinese military capabilities. When the idea was unveiled, Kendall said the department-wide revamp would conclude its review by early next year and proceed directly into an implementation phase.
According to Aviation Week, Kendall is considering 10 to 20 changes that will be revealed around February and subsequently implemented over the following two years.
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