WASHINGTON (AFNS) -- Heidi Grant, deputy under secretary of the Air Force, international affairs, released a new approach for Air Force security cooperation in September 2016.
Security cooperation is a complex global effort led by combatant commanders and supported by the joint services. The new document, titled Security Cooperation with the U.S. Air Force, details the partners the U.S. works with, the security cooperation activities employed and the partner capabilities built.
Security cooperation encompasses all Defense Department interactions with foreign defense establishments to build relationships that promote specific national security interests.
For nearly 70 years, the Air Force has built and sustained global partnerships to achieve common security interests, mitigate risks, and share airpower responsibility. The goals of these interactions are to develop allied military capabilities for self-defense and multinational operations and to provide U.S. forces with peacetime and contingency access to those host nations. The service currently conducts security cooperation with 109 countries around the world, in coordination with numerous interagency, joint and industry partners.
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Joseph Dunford recently called on the Air Force to focus greater attention on these endeavors.
“There is another area in the Joint Force where we need Airmen, and frankly it's building the capacity of air forces in places like Iraq and Afghanistan and many other locations,” Dunford said at the 2016 Air, Space and Cyber Conference. “That, to me, is a core function of the United States Air Force.”
Strategic engagement in security cooperation puts this into practice and prepares the Air Force and its partners to meet a growing scope of global threats.
“One of the things our adversaries don’t have is (our) alliances and partnerships,” said Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David L. Goldfein. “That is an asymmetric advantage for us.”
Security cooperation seeks to maintain this advantage, in recognition of senior leaders’ belief that while the Air Force can deliver extraordinary capabilities alone, it is stronger with its international partners.
“As I speak with our international air force partners, it’s clear the already-high demand for the U.S. Air Force is only continuing to grow,” Grant said. “Working together toward common security goals helps us all use our limited resources more efficiently.”
The Security Cooperation with the U.S. Air Force presents the Airman’s approach to building enduring international relationships and capabilities with partners and allies in a responsible, sustainable manner. With trust and mutual understanding firmly established, the Air Force can obtain access and support for the U.S. to secure shared interests, enable partners to operate with the U.S., and enable partners to respond to crises and common threats in lieu of the U.S.
International airmen, assigned to locations all around the world, play a role as the driving force behind successful security cooperation efforts. This approach helps equip them with the foundational security cooperation lexicon to engage with their foreign counterparts and lead security cooperation efforts.
The document is the result of a combined effort from several organizations including the Pacific Air Forces, U.S. Air Forces in Europe, Air Forces Africa, U.S. Air Forces Central Command, Air Forces Northern, Air Forces Southern, Headquarters Air Force Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance, Operations, Strategic Plans and Requirements and Secretary of the Air Force International Affairs.
Its creation is part of the continuous efforts to improve support provided to the U.S. Air Force’s international partners.
“The approach we’ve laid out in (the) Security Cooperation with the United States Air Force, supports our goals for empowering our dispersed team of international airmen,” Grant said. “And it helps ensure the U.S. Air Force will remain the security partner of choice in the world.”