Goldfein discusses readiness, leadership at New America conference

By Rachel Cohen / March 21, 2017 at 5:12 PM

The week after the Pentagon unveiled its fiscal year 2017 budget amendment intended to boost near-term readiness, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Goldfein on Tuesday reiterated the Air Force needs to retain the ability to address conflict at a moment's notice.

He stressed the service would be able to maintain its current level of operations over the next decade but warned of “tiered readiness,” an approach used by the Army and Navy that prepares some units for combat more than others as a way to most effectively use limited money.

“You never hear the chief of staff of the Air Force talk about tiered readiness,” Goldfein told attendees March 21 at New America's Future of War Conference. “I can't do tiered readiness because I don't have the time to be able to get that force ready . . . to do simultaneous conflict.”

He said the service hasn't encountered any problems yet due to having few presidential appointees in the Pentagon, but he is hopeful confirmations will start moving through the Senate. President Trump has made clear he does not intend to fill the entire slate of federal political appointees as a way to shrink government's size.

Acting Secretary Lisa Disbrow took over for former Secretary Deborah Lee James in January and will serve until Trump's nominee Heather Wilson, a former congresswoman from New Mexico, defense lobbyist, Air Force officer and current president of the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, is confirmed.

Goldfein said Disbrow received clear guidance from Defense Secretary Jim Mattis not to hold back in her interim duties as secretary.

“There's nothing 'acting' about our acting secretary,” Goldfein said. “Secretary Disbrow is just absolutely spectacular and there's nothing that she's had to hold back. . . . Quite frankly, I have not seen any slowdown in the pace of our being able to move forward since she has come on as the acting.”

He added that the military will be watching how Patrick Shanahan, Trump's nominee for deputy defense secretary, and Mattis work as a team, saying that partnership is more important to service leaders than a nominee's ties to industry. Shanahan currently serves as Boeing's senior vice president of supply chain and operations.

“It's very similar to what happens to a service chief and secretary,” Goldfein said. “How well do we come together as an executive team . . . understanding that there's different perspectives that you bring to the table.”

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