Wild Blue Yonder

June 27, 2024
Australia's Balancing Act: Navigating China's Influence in the Indo-Pacific Region

This essay discusses Australia’s strategic position in the Indo-Pacific, focusing on China’s military and economic ascension. It underscores Australia’s need to balance its military preparedness and economic considerations in response to China. US collaboration is vital for
June 24, 2024
Robin Olds: Finding Guideposts for Mission Command

Is there value in scrutinizing the life of a revered hero?
June 20, 2024
Brave Bessie: Aviation Pioneer and Cultural Icon

The history of aviation is a story of innovation, ingenuity, and courage, starting with balloons and gliders and quickly advancing to combustion, jet, and rocket engines. However, aviation’s glory is not limited to novel feats of propulsion engineering and designs. It is more the contributions
June 17, 2024
USAF Execution of AE, Blood, & Class VIII Sustainment in a Contested INDOPACOM

Imagine an Airman presents on the battlefield in INDOPACOM with a significant limb injury and has profused a lot of blood. Alternatively, a field hospital in the Pacific received several trauma patients with critical injuries, and the hospital has limited supplies, only a small number of
June 13, 2024
Worried about POTUS Nuclear Weapons Authorization? You Need Not Be: The Integrity of Our Military Can Be Counted On

During the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump, some in Congress and the media devoted much time and effort to the question of whether the current process of Presidential authority to order a nuclear attack is appropriate. Critics maintained that the President of the United States (POTUS)
June 10, 2024
USAF Mission Command: Cultural, Organizational and Operational Change to Meet Future Demands

The United States Air Force has adopted the Agile Combat Employment operating model that requires a Mission Command philosophy of command and control to be successful. Mission Command is viewed as a philosophy of leadership that would empower Airmen to operate in uncertain, complex, and
June 6, 2024
Military Spouse Education is a Military Readiness Issue

The Department of Defense (DoD) is modernizing the force and preparing for great power competition with a proposed FY24 budget of $842 billion. Hundreds of billions of dollars are being invested in research and development, procurement, and military construction. Meanwhile, the DoD is
June 3, 2024
Planning to Fail: Operational Persistence through Mission Command

As described in AFDP 1-1, the principals of Mission Command should enable a substantial change in the Air Force’s planning and execution at the operation level of war: they should enable continued airpower effects if the Air Operations Center (AOC) disappears tomorrow – because it
May 30, 2024
Tunisia's Water Insecurity--A Threat to US National Security

Tunisia is a fledgling democracy located in North Africa between Libya and Algeria along the Mediterranean Sea making it a unique nation with an identity that straddles Europe, the Arab world, and the rest of the African continent. When Tunisia sparked the Arab Spring in 2011, democracies including
May 27, 2024
Organizing for Mission Command

What's old is new again.Confronted with numerical inferiority, a contested electromagnetic spectrum, and the lack of safe havens, the USAF is returning to an old concept: mission command.[1] This philosophy envisions small units, operating under commander’s intent, that can maneuver and fight more