Is not considering stop loss which is the involuntary extension of service to retain pilots. Held by the Heritage Foundation here in washington this is about 45 minutes. [applause] while ladies and gentlemen. Welcome. Its a pleasure to see these handsome faces out here heritage i will introduce a man who needs no introduction ive down and one for 25 years, 25 years ago this month we were in the throes of amateur a second phase of training and having the times of our lives. General goldfein has flown in combat air he has actually went in from into desert storm and had some Great Stories on that and if you have a moment after this event. He went on to several assignments, commanded a squadron in combat as a squadron commander, led to the highs and lows of that. He commanded a component, which is an air force level. And now we leave the United Force Air force in combat today. It is my pleasure to welcome my good friend and the chief of staff of the United States air force, general goldfein. Lets see how long it takes us before were talking like this. Its broken down already. Are for him from there will be about 45 minutes and and will open it up to questions in the audience and see where it goes. It should be a fun conversation. General goldfein is readiness, the first one on the docket and if one of the biggest conversations on the hill and throughout the United States. In testimony last spring during her confirmation testimony you told congress that less than 50 of combat force was ready to go to war in the fullspectrum combat situation. General nolan about a week and half ago, letter writer on that and said for a 56 squadrons, active duty guarded reserve, were ready for that level of combat. I just return from two weeks in europe and i had the opportunity to spend time on your old stomping grounds and talking to a bunch of Fighter Pilots there. I was really impressed. I thought the Readiness Level and the energy in those guys was just like we knew it way back when. I have the overall impression that the components for safety are doing pretty well but i think its coming at a high cost for the folks here in the states. Could you talk a little bit about how were doing with readiness, youth rates and line for a fight again Fighter Pilot. When you have a discussion about readiness because of the rather complex dialogue you have to start with the answer to the question, ready for what, where, when. The most important part is ready for what. If you were to ask me the question which is something you saw when you were are we ready to continue our Current Campaign against violent extremism, primarily in the middle east and continue at that pace for years to come. My answer is yes. That is my singular focus. If you were to walk, just like what you walk in europe and in korea or by gran in afghanistan, what you would see was high levels of readiness. Our fight tonight forces. We had the appropriate manning and supervision, the parts that we need, the things we need that when you generate for an air force things you have to invest in to generate and sustain readiness are all very high levels. Theres a bill payer. The bill payer very often our faces back home that contribute, backhoe meaning the United States, that contribute to the forces that go forward. Back to the ready for what. I can accept that risk. If thats what my focus is. Once you start heading in the business of simultaneously looking at doing more than one thing, then the Readiness Challenges start to surface. The force that you rely on can go into that next contingency is the one thats generating the readiness that we have forward now. For instance, in the air force, if you remember when we went into desert storm together we had 134 squadrons, not even talking about the remainder of the air force and all of the diverse missions we do. We had 83434 squadrons in the air force and we deployed 34. Today, the grand total active guard reserve is 55. If you take a look at the number of squadrons that we have available to contribute to Global Campaign plans, were at a. Now in the air force where weve gotten so small that the rubber band is stretched pretty tight. I will tell you that since last year, when i testified during my confirmation hearing, we had put a concerted effort at getting at all elements of readiness. Its been our number one priority. Its why you hear me talking so much about people. The reality is as weve gotten smaller over the years, our formations have been doubt and so right now, my number one priority is to move it back to where it needs to be. To increase the numbers we need in our formations to get to the. Where we now have troops to test, assess right relative to what the nations asking us to do. We have seen some improvement. We look better than we did last year. This is very important that as we heard last week and the half hearing that we had, very important to the service chief that request was repealed and that we get a stable budget that we can plan for. That, quite frankly, will be the most important impact you can have on the air force. Thank you for that. The sequestration is a big a big deal. Having the wherewithal to pull back will be to watch and something were pushing for here at heritage. Theres applied here that just went up talking about the pilot one where the demand for pilots across the spectrum military and civilian employment is quite high right now. This shortage of pilots is becoming a large issue. Right now, the latest numbers from general are thousand pilots short of the 3800 pilot requirement. Could you talk a little bit about that for me . And then i may have a followon. Important to note as an air force one of the things im proud of is that were truly one air force. We have pilots edit are in all three of the components that contribute to operations around the world. Quite frankly, as the chief of staff of this one air force, we cannot do the job were doing without our guard and reserve with or with us. I have called it a crisis but i will tell you that it is a National Level issue that im trying to approach from starting off at a National Level. This is just a supply and demand mismatch. The nation, right now, is producing less pilot that we need to service commercial, business, and even naval aviation. You have to start this dialogue at a congress level. On behalf of my fellow joint chiefs, were all affected by this. How do we first to get at this at a level where we can look nationally at incentives to increase the supply to better meet the demand and then you take a look at what were doing with in the military. For me its a balanced approach of quality of service and quality of life. Quality of life tends to be those things that we incentivize family to make them stay with us. Its removing the financial burdens. How we approach the new aviation bonus. Although things that go into sitting around the Kitchen Table and whether or not they have a say. Quality of service is also important. I believe morale is an extra book linked to readiness. If you felt like morale was pretty high when you are walking the lines its because you were able to invest to keep readiness at a high level. Maintainers dont maintain, controllers dont control wont stay with us. Getting to Readiness Levels up so that were able to make quality of service the largest incentive for getting our pilots to stay. Thats where im focus. Theres not going to be one, big program that will do that will make pilot stay with us itll be 100 little things. Itll be be a journey there were on for the next ten years. What i told our team is that there is no such thing as a bad idea. Lets not waste a good crisis. Lets look at every single option and opportunity and perhaps, most formally, listen to the force. Were out there aggressively talking to the force and saying what is on your mind, what is frustrating to you. You know, weve taken a swing at things that i would put a category in additional duties that are piled up on smaller force that actually detracting from readiness, not adding to it. Were going after those. Significant number of computerbased training modules that again, actually doesnt improve your readiness, it detracts from it. Decision authority has been moved up away from squadron command which is the heartbeat of our air force. That we need to push back down and ensure that the force knows we absolutely trust themto make the decisions they need to make. Looking at prescriptive regulations and asking ourselves, how many of those are actually detracting from readiness rather than enhancing it. All those things and more we are not going to start until we get it right. I had an opportunity to talk with 15 of your Fighter Pilot and it was an incredible conversation. You can see the fire in your eyes. We talked about several things and retention was one of them. You have three initiatives that are out right now. First, really caught their attention and you got them. That initiative was to reinvigorate the squadron. You touched on that a little bit and let me add a twist to it. Theyre gonna give you one more assignment, every person thats on the cusp of being able to stay or go, theyre giving you one more assignment because they believe in you but theyre afraid of the meyer and the bureaucracy that is here in the city. There wondering just how well youll be able to get them what they need. Could you talk about, no kidding, things youre going to make happen . One thing that would i would be concerned with. That is that i dont want this to be totally associated with the chief of staff of the air force. Ill keep swinging at it institutionally and i have a pretty good swing. And i wont let up institutionally to make sure we push the change that is required. But you know where the most powerful impact will be . It will be a wing level. Ive got Wing Commander for two days, 273 Wing Commanders. I tell we talked a lot about this whole idea of squadrons and when do we someone who has the potential for command. And then what we do with them . What Development Opportunities do we have . How do we manage . And want to get into command and their leading at the most important level of demand, what are we doing to ensure that they have all the tools they need . That were invested in their success because the mission of the United States air force succeeds or fails. Im at the bottom. Squadron commanders are at the top and everyone else is in support. So, i had all the Wing Commanders together and i want to leave with two messages. I trust you, i completely and totally trust you. We hired you because we trusted in you. Number two because i trust you dont wait for me. Do not wait for the chief of staff of the air force to come get after this. You start swinging away at your level. I send out examples of Wing Commanders who are leaning forward and getting after this and one of the messages that was out was hasty were getting rid of all additional duties that are not directly related to our missions. On page two you will find all the additional duties you will no longer be doing. Questions, call me. He said that out to all the Wing Commanders and said go long. Thats exactly what im looking for. Now we have to be thoughtful about it. But i trust the Wing Commanders were entrusted with the mission to get after this. I dont actually want the force to be relying on the chief of staff of the air force to deliver. I will swing away at it and im swing passionate about it but this will be a fullcourt press across all elements of the chart. I think people will be happy to hear once that statement hits the street. Im in a put up another slide and show how our retention numbers are going to become more challenging over time. 3800 to be the requirement by 150, 160 this year and 160 this year and will end up with a shortage of over a thousand active duty Fighter Pilots. You have this opportunity and the wing and the air force all the way up to your level to make changes and get people to want to stay. If that doesnt work out, there is talk right now, and its the worst kind that you and i have been in the air force when weve executed stop loss. Could you talk to me about stop loss and what would trigger your desire to go to the secretary of defense and say boss, we need help . That the most important part of this discussion. This is not anything that lives within the authority of the chief of service. This is a secretary and president ial decision in times of emergency. So, theres a little bit bit of chatter on the net right now about me considering stop loss. I want to make it as clear as i possibly can everyone here and everyone listening. I am not considering stoploss. I am not considering that. Its a tool in the secretarys tool bag to use when were in a state of emergency, but were not any state of emergency. The reason it got into the news most recently is because there was a discussion it was discussed is one of those tools and that got linked to chief of staff is getting ready to do a stoploss. The reality is this is a great opportunity. Lets not waste a good crisis. This is an opportunity to get out there and went with our ears and listen to the force and figure out what the irritants that keeping them from being the very best they can be and the quality of service that make this business serving in the professional bonds, something that you want to stay in. So much of that is associated with our culture. Our culture is the heart, the heart of our culture is the squadron. Thats where we learn to be an airman. Thats where our airmen learn to be an airman. Thats where they thrive. The commander has the most impact on an airmans life. Its where we generate readiness and innovation. When you hear me talking about revitalizing squadrons and giving squadron commanders and the senior nco, the spouse, the tools and the resources they need to be able to build the culture in their organization where the wrong things are really hard and the right things are easier and it means something to be a thunderbird and it means something to be a thunderbolt and it means something to be a bulldog because the culture means that youre part of something special. We have to remind folks and i dont doubt that this is the case for many of you here but when i talk to folks who work in jobs and work parttime for the air force, the air reserve guard, i often ask, what company do you work for . Show of hands how many of your companies have called and checked in on you or your family when you been on a trip. Rarely, does a hand go up. How many times somebody from your company swung by your house to see how your family is doing. The answer very often is this not always in most the time the answer i get is no, they dont do that. Its not because theyre bad or evil but because its not their culture. Thats our culture. Thats what we we do. I want to make sure the airmen know that the airmans they are right and left and theyre the finest men and women deal of her service. This is a time in their lives when theyre doing something much bigger than themselves and i joke with airman, hey as a rights hiring and training i know that will all be in the mall sunday and its easy to find a retiree because we all put pins on our best, so you and i will be standing in the mall one day and if you walk in to thats talking in the mall, theyre not talking about the kids for the grandkids, theyre not talking about the businesses they started, theyre not talking about other things, the talking worse worries. Why is that . Because that was when they were the most a life that was when they were a part of something big, when they served. They were defending the nation. The calling, the job. If we could capture that, well keep our folks. Fantastic answer. You are a wonderful speaker but i want to go back to talk grow quickly about maintenance and how important this is on the right side of the slide you can see two different graphs, one is in blue and that is during the carter administration. The red numbers are the its basically how often we use a airplane in a given month. Those numbers are starting to come down. Theyre coming down for a couple of reasons come apart in money butthe biggest and you may agree with me on this our incredible maintenance. Were now 4000 people short of maintainers in the air force and training them up to a level where they can actually be supervisors and start signing off on bigticket items, and its a big deal. Could you talk to the audience about what were doing to retain our maintenance . Were doing a lot of the same things that were doing on the pilot force. One of the things were working hard at is one, how do we bring more maintainers in . Theres a fundamental math challenge in maintaining maintainers. When we were fine and young, think about this, wed show up at aircraft and thered be to critique dedicated and then wed taxi to the runway and thered be a Different Team doing last chance pull up tens and we take off to our fire another location and thered be a crew crew there waiting for us. Today, the taxi slow is the same single crew chief has to get to the runway and then fly slow because that crew chief has to get into another plane and fly to the other destination. This is a massive problem. If you go back and look at the stats, did did you take off in time, and did you do that on the backs of the young women who were out there turning wrenches and doing the incredible work on these older airplanes. We have to get more people and get that Cultural Family approach to this business. The other thing that i want to be quick on this has changed a little bit since you and i flew. We have to acknowledge that when you and i flew we went to the simulator to do basic work. Then we got in the airplane to advanced work. This generation aircraft were already starting to see a reversal. I see that simulation and the environment were building in the virtual space is actually becoming some of our most high and training. Were already counting that is part of the number of stories. Thank you. Thats a great answer. Theres been a big transition since i sat on the stage where i went from an observer talking about the air force and this man has put me back up into the using the terms of our. I wanted you to know thank you for being here with us. Nuclear enterprise a completely different subject and this is one where you parked on several forums about the command control infrastructure and how weve got things in our missile silos the go back to the 1960s and the 8. Its an example of no young person today would recognize but its effective. Were getting the mission done, it is secure, could you talk to us about the real impact of having those updated facilities and dated equipment is on air force . We build this in the early 60s and we updated it one time in the 80s. And we havent touched it since. The fact that the bills are coming due to upgrade this shouldnt be a surprise to anyone. We built a Nuclear Enterprise, we didnt have all three legs we came out of world war ii with a bomber leg that we developed a missile leg in the early 50s and that we built a summary leg and each one of those legs of the triad bring a certain attribute, responsiveness, flexibility, survivability and im one that believes that you need all for three legs to have a viable deterrent. Deterrence, while the technology and tools have changed over time, the math equation hasnt. Capability time as well as the math equation. Timing is important in the middle. If it zero, it equals zero. If you look at the Nuclear Enterprise and the investments that we need to upgrade it, again, im one to believe that if you go back and look at history, world war i and world war ii, we lost 75 million people. That adds up to 33000 lives lost every day in those tours. Thats Nuclear Weapons we have not seen that loss of life on anywhere near that scale. We have got and the timeline of the president Nuclear Posture review could it be better. Its time for us to look at this enterprise and the administration to take a look at where it needs to go. You talked earlier about where pilots love to fly and maintainers love to maintain and the pride associated with that. Our missile silos and the missiles themselves are becoming hard to look at, crumbling infrastructure and the like. Can you talk to us about the morale piece . Let me just reassure you and everyone else listening that our job is safe and secure reliable Nuclear Weapons. Despite issues that we have with infrastructure we remain ready today, as we sit here right now, theyre sitting in their garden and responsible for their most destructive weaponry in the planet and theyre ready. The challenge that we have going forward, again, is to ensure that we dont have a gap between what i just said which is job one to ensure that we have a safe secure, reliable nuclear and when the president stays connected to the enterprise. Thats air force responsibility with the navy and the submarine lake. We dont have a gap between saying thats important and not treating it important to the air force. I would argue that morale, right now, is on the rise and i am not willing to declare victory. I think we just have to keep swinging away at this. We have to swing with our ears, listen to our folks and make sure they understand that there are huge value. We have about five minutes of me and you time left. If i could ask a challenging question, theres three areas if you were to look at how we allocate money in any one of the services. Rebuilding readiness, is a pile of money, recapitalization is a pile of money and then theres a Nuclear Enterprise which is a pile of money. I have done a little homework and talk to people on the hill and on your staff investments is staggering. If we would rebuild our infrastructure, our readiness, our Nuclear Enterprise backup to the level where were hitting long balls all the time, were looking at 20 billion a year for each of those areas for seven to ten years. Thats 60 billion dollars for the air force alone in a baseline budget that has just over 600 billion year. Could you talk to me about the financial challenges and your priorities for applying that money . The most important thing that we can get from congress is a budget. Its a budget for a service chief that the sandbox that i worked in his capability and i have to make strategic trades within those three bins to be able to build the best air force i can build. Continuing resolutions, continuation of one year budgets completely undermines a Service Chiefs ability to plan for the future. My job is to be a good steward of mom and dads tax money and produce the best air force i can produce with the resources im given. But if those resources dont come until the last half of every year, and this is been the case now for eight years running, the last two thirds of every year, and ive only got that money in one year increments, you cant plan against that. Thats just what it does to a service chief plan and build a Service Source think about what it does for industry. I tell them im not sure for the sophisticated workforce that you got to have on hand to build a precision guided ammunition, im not sure what i can buy for you next year but im hoping that ill be able to get back into a budget and by this. He is demanding that workforce. It wreaks havoc on a service chief and the cos ability to plan. For me, generally, rather than talking about a specific dollar amount what i talk about first and foremost is weve got to get back to getting a budget. Big ticket item for to walk away from. Got two minutes left of our time. Would you like to talk about space . I dont know if you know this ladle ladies and gentlemen but general goldfein is the king of space. Fire away. The reality is in 2007 china launched an anti satellite and created a debris field that were still living with today. 300,000 individual particles and space on that day became multi congested and contested place. It is a war fighting domain. For a service chief, my job is to organize trade and equip the present ready forces to combat commanders. Those are air force is and those are also space forces. General is the Strategic Command commander for that portfolio of fighting in space should the war extend into space and there is no such thing as wharton space its just war. But we have to be ready if war extend into space. We been doing this since 1954 as the United States air force. Its important to understand not as a competitive dialogue but very often it becomes a competition for resources and thats not where my head is but i look at this as a obligation i have is a joint chief responsible for ponderings of the space force and the space architecture, 12 constellations that were flying right now as we speak. To ensure that we provide those capabilities and we have assured access to space. Within the dialogues that occur are relative to space and all of the stakeholders in space being commercial allies and partners, defense, intelligence that were looking at the first of all, how do we ensure that we have good strategy and policy that can then drive the context of operations that we know as are operating in space for the war to extend into space and from that con ops how do we define requirements and from requirements required exhibition strategy to stay ahead of other adversaries were also in space. For than service chief how do i organize and train and equip ready forces that are prepared to operate and bite in space, should we have to. Those are all things were working on and advancing the dialogue in this town. I look at it, quite wrinkly, as an obligation that i have is a a joint chief most responsible for space to deliver to the joint force. Fabulous. With that we can turn to the audience and does anyone have a question for general goldfein . We have one here in the front row. Hi. Thank you for the talk both of you. My question is specifically general goldfein, how the air force is encumbered by these myriad of small duties of staff morale and reduces readiness and that you wanted to take a swing at it institutionally. What are some of those duties and how would you go about reporting the culture . What happened over time in the air force, if if you look at the last 16 years, we as a nation have been singularly forced looking at violent extremism in the middle east. Since 2014 we have ended up with different kinds of activity. Each service had a had a demand signal placed on it during this timeframe for the air force we had four key elements that we were told to increase on an investment in. Space, cyber, and the Nuclear Enterprise. If youre trying to balance your books and your budget in a timeframe where your budgets are coming down, you have to go somewhere to find the money. Where we consistently went to, year after year and thats strategic trades is people, infrastructure, and conventional airpower. As we got smaller what we did we tended to take groups of individuals and consolidate those smaller groups and removed them out of the squadron at higher levels thats what organizations do. But what happened over time was that the people left but the duties remained on the smaller group. Im looking at the squadrons to say what constitutes a healthy squadron . What resources do we have to give that commander . And what are the duties that we would expect that commander to fulfill that are directly connected to that commanders mission . And there have been additional duties that come along the way. That quite frankly that have been added for good reason but my guidance to commandants is if you cant commit the dots between the duty and your mission, you must remove it. You talked a little bit about the budget. Do you think youve had a chance to look at president thompson budget and does it go far enough to be able to rebuild the military that the readiness . It moves us in the right direction. The secretary of defense has been good and very clear about setting his priorities. We look very closely and 17 at filling the readiness shortfalls. Thats been the priority focus for the department, not only the air force but all services about how to fix the readiness. Then, how do do you balance the force and improving an increasingly validity of the missions that are responsible for. The budget absolutely moves us in the right direction and for a service chief the most important thing rather than the dollar amount is to get a budget. Thats what counts. Weve got to get back into a position where the service chief plan and produce for the nation the best air force i can produce with the resources im given despite the fact that everybody in the United States once a budget it may be that were headed for another yearlong resolution. Can you talk about first the most Immediate Impact on the air force and maybe second what the most significant longterm impact on the air force if we do get another continuing resolution . The air force, 2. 8 billion . 8 billion bill that ive got to find the money for to balance out. The first thing that will happen to the air force that will stop are in strength growth that weve been on and that hits the directly at the heart of our readiness. That the Immediate Impact and thats also the longterm impact because the longer it takes me to bring those folks on, the the longer it takes me to improve readiness for both spectrums which is where the secretary is focused for all the services. Anynew starts will stop. Any of the personnel actions that were laid into that budget, for those that we have committed to, that we wont break faith with our soldier, sailor, airman and marines with pay raises and what have you. Will now be responsible for finding that money and when you add up the things that we have to do to find 2. 8 billion in the remaining year, it starts doingsignificant damage. Good question. We question in the back row. Hi. I wanted to ask about the f35 reviews that are going on right now. Specifically about the cost of the review and the review in response to what President Trump said about potentially finding super hornet. I know that doesnt apply as much to the air force if youre not to be using the super hornet but i was hoping you could give me an update on the status of these reviews and whether it has any bearing on f35, that the everest plans to buy. Thats mandated in every review and were looking at that right now. Hes doing as he often does a more thoughtful look at the entire enterprise. Hes doing a defense strategic interview. Hes also taking a look at having us look at the different weapon systems that are out there. Part of what i hope comes out of this review is that the reality is that we dont send single platforms into conflict anymore. Its actually not a discussion about this platform or that platform. The reality is 21st country warfare is about sending in a family of systems that are networked together so its not just about the f35 versus the s 18 but its about how they complement each other and what it needs to look like. You have to look at the framework of how the Global Campaign and challenges which is used for the four plus one, china, russia, violent extremism, and you look through that lens and you look at the various weapon systems we tie together and for an airman, we can talk aircraft but i will tell you is a joint chief for the joint force, if more for me about how do we tie together a new way things that fly, things in that orbit, things that scheme, things that emerge and how do you tie those together in new ways. Thats also part of our review that were taking. Time for one more question. Yes, sir. Thank you. Can one think you for your service and leadership. When you look at your technology around the world with chinese and we look at our landbased where you have the deteriorating technology and you favor the triad at some. At some. The triad wont exist if we dont something about our landbased missiles. Whats going to happen with that and where does it stand on your priority list . Right now, its top priority. Were looking at the Nuclear Review and i expect to have a dialogue about the triad and where we are with manner of controls and thats what ties it gathers and what Service Responsible for 75 of the nuclear control has to be in the dialogue. I will tell you that theres a broader dialogue which is what is deterrence look like in the 21st century. What does the Nuclear Enterprise look like as you also add to the dialogue our capabilities in cyber and space . And how does that add up to new ways of the 21st century to enhance the way we actually deter bad behavior . And did her potential adversaries were taking a step that would not be advantageous to them . That will be part of the Nuclear Posture review. I do believe that if you take a look at the 400 missiles that we have, missile sites, up in the northern that are spread over thousands of acres it does provide a cost imposing strategy on anybody who might consider taking a son. That will be an important part of the dialogue as we look at all three of the lake. Thank you for your questions and your attention this late morning general goldfein thank you for joining us today at the Heritage Foundation. [applause] with that will adjourn and there should be sandwiches out in the foyer for you all. Enjoy the afternoon, what