New Commands, Ranks, and More: Big Changes for Air Force & Space Force

Wow! A lot to digest here (even beyond Cyber):

1. And this is huge! "The Air Force will create a new Warrant Officer track for highly skilled IT and cyber talent, enabling those Airmen to not only be paid competitively, but to choose a career path that enables them to focus exclusively on their specialties, bypassing the typical officer leadership track." - I watched for decades where the AF would not budge on the Warrant Officer topic. In Cyber it was apparent that they had to make hard choices too. They could not train and produce folks from the enlisted side without a significant impact of retention after they would learn highly valuable skills in the private sector. This made the AF stingy on allowing them to get training and essentially even better at what they do. While the Officer Corps was able to maintain the retention somewhat with the right incentives, by using the Enlisted Corps as the makeup of the operational forces (i.e. the hand's-on cyber operators), Officers got little hands-on experience before they were dragged away from the up-close technical application of cyber, causing many to leave the AF as well. Warrant officers should help this dilemma if they provide the right incentives, train the crap out of them, and allow them to do the operational work.

2. "Cyber and electronic warfare will be elevated—what is today’s 16th Air Force, the information warfare arm of Air Combat Command, will be elevated to Air Forces Cyber, reporting directly to the Chief and Secretary with responsibility for operational cyber, information, and electronic warfare. It will continue to be led by a three-star general as it is today, but its rise to direct-reporting status suggests added stature and visibility." - About time! The problem with Air Combat Command is that it is rightfully pilot driven. Cyber needs its own direct report to the Chief and Secretary, without the pilots reprioritizing their requirements before they get there.

3. "Office of Competitive Activities will oversee and coordinate sensitive programs, and a new Program Assessment and Evaluation Office will apply a common strategic and analytical approach to program performance and associated resourcing decisions." -As long as they can keep up with the ever-evolving world of cyber, hopefully this will enable our cyber operators to get the latest tools and technology. The AF has long been accustomed to the time it takes to plan and build aircraft technology and this is holding cyber back. There needs to be a faster way to identify, test, and get cyber technology to our operators (including the training).