USAF Considering Overhaul, Doing Away With Major Commands

ORLANDO, Florida—The U.S. Air Force is considering a major overhaul to its structure and doing away with its major command model as part of a review led by service Secretary Frank Kendall focusing on the service’s ability to fight a major conflict after decades of lower-intensity fights.

Lt. Gen. Michael Guetlein, commander of Space Systems Command, said during a Dec. 13 speech at the Space Force Association conference here that Kendall will make the change as part of the effort, which began this fall.

“The Air Force is going to get rid of the major commands 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 majcom structure. That’s going to be a huge change.”

Following the speech, the Air Force clarified that the major command change is predecisional and only a potential option as part of Kendall’s overall review. In a follow-up briefing, Guetlein clarified his remarks and added that the plan is not “concrete.”

“Right now, nothing is sacred,” he told reporters. “We’re looking at everything. But, I made it sound like decisions have been made. There have been no decisions made.”

Kendall, in a September speech at the Air Force Association conference, said the Air and Space Forces need to change or “we’ll fail to prevent, or lose, a war.”

The Air Staff, Space Force leadership and the secretary’s office are looking at five specific areas for the review: how the Air Force is organized, how equipment is provided to the overall force, how it recruits and retains personnel, how it can create and sustain readiness, and how support organizations function.

“The Air Force and Space Force are incredibly capable, but we need to reoptimize the department for greater power projection and for great power competition,” Kendall says. “The war we need to be most ready for, if we want to optimize our readiness to deter or respond to the pacing challenge, is not the type of conflict we have been focused on for many years.”

In a Dec. 2 interview with Aerospace DAILY, Kendall said he has set up a four-month “sprint” for this effort to identify major changes to be made. This will include about 10-20 significant changes, which will be rolled out in February and put in place over the next two years, in alignment with service chiefs.

“I, for one reason or another, may not be in this job in another year-plus, but the chiefs are going to be here for quite a while,” Kendall says. “So this is going to be something that they’re 1,000% behind and we’ve talked about it every day basically.”

The Air Force has nine major commands, though a total of 27 have been designated over the history of the service.