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U.S. Air Forces in Europe in the 21st century
Air Force Speeches, July 24, 2007
Now USAFE maintains a very strong relationship with our host nation. In Germany, the U.S.-German political relationship, I believe, has improved. That improvement translates into support in NATO and other venues. Germany, for instance, contributes forces to the International Security Assistance Forces in Afghanistan and provides training to Iraqi police and armed forces in the region. Of utmost importance to USAFE is that Germany continues to support our gateway missions from Ramstein and other locations. Now gateway missions are not only happening east of the Atlantic, they're also happening west of it. I can recall Hurricane Katrina relief, actually provided by European friends and allies. They used Ramstein as a staging area for all aid sent to the United States. During the Hurricane Katrina disaster, over 20 Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council nations offered assistance during America's time of need, and the NATO response force was there, critical, in bringing that Hurricane Katrina aid from the Ramstein-hub to the United States. Mobility and air power have always been key assets in the USAFE theatre of operations.
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It's imperative that we continue to transform our mobility capabilities and modernize our fleet. We must ensure the continuation of our distinctive capabilities like air and space superiority, global attack, rapid global mobility, precision engagement, information superiority, and agile combat support, and we're going to do that by recapitalizing our aging air and space platforms and sensors. USAFE continues to right-size its force to enable these and other Air Force transformation efforts. As part of the right-sizing effort, we've recently closed Tuzla Air Base in Kosovo and Keflavik in Iceland. Now these closures highlight our commitment to transforming our force structure, but we must also transform how we do business. I see more closures coming, more efficiency. Places like Izmir, Turkey; Bitburg, Germany; and Sembach Air Base (Germany).
The key to this is Air Force Smart Operations, the 21st century initiative that we call AFSO 21 in our Air Force. AFSO 21 allows us to right-size the work for the future workforce, which will then be much lighter, leaner, and more expeditionary. It's really all about lean. I believe we're leading the Air Force in Air Force Smart Ops 21 events. Now, just consider our information technology and centralized help-desk switchboard initiatives: they've resulted in the elimination of 52 manpower positions and a savings of over $20 million across the future years of our defense program. We're also working Air Force Smart Ops 21 transformation plans in other key process areas. We're protecting our hard-dollar savings, cost avoidance, and we're doing manpower savings as a result of these efforts. Manpower reduction with a 440-billet savings so far in Air Force Smart Ops 21 events have occurred just in the first two years, just by smart non-commissioned officers looking at the way we store, maintain munitions, and do we really have to maintain that number? Can we reduce that number? And so, consequently, they are finding ways to be more efficient.
