May 5, 2026 Total Force Support to Security Cooperation, Campaigning, and Deterrence How can the military and geographic combatant commands leverage National Guard capabilities and transform initiatives like the State Partnership Program to enhance active campaigning, foster burden-sharing with allies, and establish effective deterrence by denial in the Western Hemisphere and the
May 5, 2026 Weapon System Vulnerabilities Introduced by Cloud Environments and Cyber Survivability How can the Air Force prioritize cyber survivability and streamline disjointed risk authorization processes to mitigate the unique vulnerabilities introduced by the integration of distributed cloud environments into critical weapon systems and ensure mission execution in contested domains?
May 5, 2026 Conventional-Nuclear Integration (CNI), Resource Prioritization, and Allied Capabilities How must the United States Air Force prioritize limited bomber and tanker resources and integrate allied capabilities in conventional-nuclear environments to preserve the survivability and credibility of the nuclear air leg deterrent during prolonged conventional conflicts?
May 5, 2026 Evolution of the Nuclear Mindset, Strategic Stability, and Disruptive Technology How does the integration of emerging technologies like AI and hypersonic weapons into nuclear command and control structures impact the strategic stability of mutually assured destruction, and what adaptations are required to prevent machine-speed escalation and maintain deterrence?
May 5, 2026 NATO’s Nuclear Posture, Hybrid Warfare, and Deterrence on the Eastern Flank How must the United States and NATO evaluate the strategic, political, and operational implications of forward-deploying theater nuclear capabilities to the Eastern Flank to effectively deter Russian hybrid warfare and sub-threshold coercion without accelerating crisis instability or compromising
May 5, 2026 Strategic Basing, Fuel Benchmarking, and High-Fidelity Simulation How can the Air Force leverage high-fidelity training simulations for new aircraft like the KC-46 and F-35 to generate comparative metrics that inform strategic basing decisions while simultaneously establishing reliable fuel usage benchmarks for optimized mission planning and anomaly detection?
May 5, 2026 Impact on Deterrence by Emerging Technology How will the emergence and global diffusion of dual-use technologies capable of strategic effects, such as biotechnology, impact the U.S. deterrence posture, and can international agreements effectively mitigate these new risks?
May 5, 2026 Develop Improved Assessments of Landing Weights What is the full fiscal and maintenance readiness impact of mobility aircraft frequently landing with excessive weight due to carrying more fuel than required, and how does this practice affect both short and long-term aircraft sustainment?
May 4, 2026 Integrated Cross-Domain Deterrence, Space-Based Technologies, and Escalation Management How must the United States construct integrated cross-domain deterrence architectures—leveraging emerging space-based technologies, cyber, and hypersonics—to deter theater-level conventional aggression while effectively managing delicate, cross-domain escalation thresholds with Russia
May 4, 2026 Enhancing Integrated Deterrence and Forward-Deployed Posture in the Indo-Pacific How must the U.S. military integrate conventional, nuclear, and cyber capabilities into a cohesive denial strategy in the Indo-Pacific, and how can leveraging a forward-deployed posture in Japan enhance this integrated deterrence against adversaries like China without inadvertently accelerating