Air Force vision focused on IT

"America's Air Force: Global Vigilance, Reach and Power"

The Air Force has a worldwide reputation for precision bombing, but it's

information technology that will define the service's future, according

to Air Force officials and the service's newly released future vision.

The Air Force on Monday released its vision for the service in 2020. "It

provides a broad outline enabling the Air Force to shape its strategic planning

for the future," said Gen. Michael Ryan, Air Force chief of staff, in an

Air Force News story.

And information technology will be the defining factor in the future, according

to Gen. John Handy, the Air Force vice chief of staff. Handy made his remarks

during a June 21 speech at the TechNet conference in Washington, D.C.

"I firmly believe deep in my heart that this rise in the importance of information

may be the most fundamental change for the warfighter in the new millennium,"

Handy said. "Most people, I think, would talk about precision weapons. They

would talk about high-speed stealth or platforms or space, but I firmly

believe that information is going to be the key to our future."

And that opinion is reflected in the vision document itself, which calls

for a future aerospace force able to "gather and fuse the full range of

information, from national to tactical, in real time, and to rapidly convert

that information to knowledge and understanding — to assure decision dominance

over adversaries."

The Air Force vision places a premium on information systems and information

operations, pointing out that, "Our information capabilities support operations

across the entire aerospace domain" and calling for the full integration

of air, space and information operations.