RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, Germany -- U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen. Jason T. Hinds, U.S. Air Forces in Europe-Air Forces Africa commander, and Chief Master Sgt. Randy Kwiatkowski, USAFE-AFAFRICA command chief, hosted an all-call with headquarters Airmen at Ramstein Air Base, Germany, Wednesday.
In his first all-call as the commander, Hinds revealed a revised USAFE-AFAFRICA mission statement: To protect the U.S. homeland with Allies and partners; project combat-ready airpower in Europe, Africa and beyond; and to deter aggression and win decisively should deterrence fail.
Similarly, the headquarter’ s vision statement was updated to reflect the changing security environment: Europe and Africa’s most lethal airpower force – forward, agile, ready.
“This is the most consequential time to serve in the command since the Cold War,” explained Hinds. “The team here that I’m looking at has the right people to handle the challenges we face, while harnessing our strategic advantages in the European theater and through the air domain. We are a component major command, helping the Air Force deter globally, and win decisively should deterrence fail.”
While Hinds and Kwiatkowski provided updates to the command’s mission and vision, they emphasized the priorities of people, partners, posture and readiness remain.
“The world around us is evolving quickly, and it’s up to us to ensure that we’re aligned,” said the Chief speaking to a full auditorium. “It is a herculean effort to operate across 104 nations and 19 million square miles of real estate…without you, we cannot enable global reach and power projection across our area of responsibility and demonstrate our capabilities.”
Hinds further explained the transition of the headquarters into a warfighting headquarters that needs to be ready to “fight tonight, fight tomorrow and fight together,” a phrase that will serve as Hinds’ mantra as the USAFE-AFAFRICA commander.
“We have to use the kit we have today the best we can with today's readiness, and we want to be better today than we were yesterday,” said Hinds. “At the same time, we need to be ready to go to fight tomorrow by advancing Air Force design, improving kill chains, fielding better weapons, putting ourselves on the right side of the cost curve for tomorrow's fight so we can sustain a fight better. And last, we have to fight together, which means our uniformed personnel, civilians, contractors, Guard, Reserve, and Joint Force operating seamlessly alongside Allies and partners.”
Hinds also outlined revisions to the command’s operational focus areas, clarifying their difference from priorities and how he views the focus areas as key tasks to get after as a warfighting headquarters.
He underscored that integrated air missile defense remains a key focus area and capability the command provides the European theater and the Joint Force. Counter anti-access/area denial and command and control continue to be essential as well. He went on to discuss intelligence and information sharing now included data sharing through the lens of warfighting functions to improve and operationalize command and control, both of which are foundational to the other focus areas.
Explaining another modification in the operational focus area of readiness, the commander acknowledged and challenged the staff to look at readiness differently compared to how readiness is commonly reported and assessed through legacy systems throughout the service. He defined aggregated readiness as the interdependence that units, main operating bases and forward operating locations have upon each other, and how each contributes to the ability to generate airpower and fight forward.
The new operational focus area Hinds announced was logistics, where he emphasized how logistics underpins everything the command does, and applauded the staff for setting the theater and preparing equipment for rapid deployments at forward operating locations. He also recognized the difficult work of closing gaps in sustainment and connectivity required for flexible and resilient combat operations. And he concluded that by focusing on these outlined areas, the command would be more than just a warfighting headquarters.
“You have warfighters down to the tactical level who understand their why,” said the commander. “They’re backed up by us at the headquarters with the top cover, resources, logistics, intelligence they need to present the right forces to deter. And should that fail, to win decisively”
After a candid Q&A session where Airmen took the opportunity to directly ask leadership questions spanning a range of topics on their mind, the leadership team closed with comments of gratitude and reflection over the past few months.
“Thank you, first and foremost, for who you are and for everything you do every single day,” said Kwiatkowski as the event closed. “It's your unity and purpose, cause and belief that enable us to do what we do and move at the pace of relevance to the demands of this theater. Continue to do all that you can do to ensure our formations are technically, mentally, physically, and spiritually ready to do the things that our Air Force and our nation, called them to do.”