BARKSDALE AIR FORCE BASE, La. -- To successfully deter conflict, assure allies and defeat adversaries, the Air Force must optimize its warfighting effectiveness and efficiency for the future high-end fight. Doing so will require strategic vision, critical thinking and creative solutions to maximize the volume of effects created from available resources. Understanding this challenging operating environment, AFGSC is maximizing the lethality, capacity and survivability of the bomber force through an integrated approach to long range strike capability development.
The “Hive” is AFGSC’s strategic think tank, focused on cultivating holistic understanding of dynamic adversaries, an evolving geopolitical and threat environment, emerging capabilities, budgetary realities and projected mission requirements to formulate and communicate the command’s strategy for the force design and capability development needed to compete and win in the future. Informed by strategic national guidance, commander’s intent, the Operational Imperatives and the Joint Warfighting Concept, the Hive team leads a deliberate planning process that leverages subject matter expertise and scenario-based operational concept experimentation to rapidly identify capability gaps, determine warfighter requirements and match emerging technology solutions. By creating connective tissue directly between the operators in the field, the engineers in the lab and aerospace industry partners, this process streamlines coordination timelines and bureaucratic administration to significantly reduce the timeline to identify problems and develop data-informed solution proposals.
Over the past year, the Hive has developed the Integrated Long Range Strike Strategy—a plan for AFGSC to develop the next-generation long range strike force and capabilities to maintain the strategic advantage across the competition continuum into the future. The strategy synergizes future force design and capability development efforts for AFGSC aircraft, weapons and concepts of operations, optimizing long range strike volume of effects and unlocking the Joint Force. It also unifies the command’s messaging to guide all actions of the staff, and establishes effective and unambiguous advocacy positions from its senior leaders. Ultimately, the purpose of the strategy, and the mission for the Hive team, is to establish the goals and priorities for AFGSC’s future—from aircraft modernization, to weapons development, to major campaign planning and nuclear deterrence. This integrated approach ensures AFGSC remains effective, efficient and narrowly focused on maintaining the competitive advantage over strategic adversaries, and sets the tone for the rest of the Air Force.