Wild Blue Yonder

March 18, 2021
Organizational Innovation to Achieve JADC2

The US military is banking on technological solutions to usher in the future of effective military command and control in a joint and all-domain combat environment. While much has been written about the Air Force’s technical development of the advanced battle management system (ABMS), given the
March 9, 2021
Better Models for Specialized Career Fields

It’s no secret the Air Force is currently unable to fill cockpits for its aircraft due to a pilot shortage.1 Even with COVID-19 increasing retention from 46 percent of pilots to 51 percent, the service is still 2,000 pilots short, with no end in sight.2 The Air Force is attempting to fill the
March 5, 2021
Contingency Basing for Great Powers Competition

This Air University Advanced Research paper focuses on applying the new context created from Great Powers Competition to military contingency basing. The broad scope of this paper relates the emerging concepts of adaptive operations and Agile Combat Employment (ACE) to the challenge of basing
Sept. 29, 2020
Book Review: Space Warfare in the 21st Century: Arming the Heavens

Author: Joan Johnson-FreeseReviewer: Forrest L. Marion, PhD---In Space Warfare in the 21st Century, Joan Johnson-Freese seeks to persuade the incoming Trump administration to change the nation’s space policy that, in her view, has been mostly on the wrong track especially since 2006. The author is a
Sept. 29, 2020
Conflict and Controversy in the Space Domain: Legalities, Lethalities, and Celestial Security

This article assumes the inevitability of space exploration—including celestial body resource exploitation, weapon research and developments, and the human colonization of Mars—in an attempt to answer the question of how important the role is for American leadership of human expansion into space.
Aug. 17, 2020
A War by Words: Language and Cultural Understanding in the Age of Information Warfare

This article analyzes the historical role of language in China’s interactions with the outside world and the role language plays in modern US–China competition. It explains how the Air Force can use the Language Enabled Airman Program (LEAP) to bolster the ability of the 16th Air Force
June 22, 2020
Island Hopping—Feet Dry!: Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance Indications and Warning in Austere Environments

To increase technology’s capabilities and how it can be used requires innovation. Identifying how to fit emerging technology into the mission construct can be viewed as limiting; however, there has to be a starting point. The fictional vignette illustrates how such innovation might play out in
June 8, 2020
The Case for Missile Defense and an Efficient Defense of the US Homeland

In May 2019, the Pentagon first announced a pause on the years-long troubled efforts to redesign the Exoatmospheric Kill Vehicle (EKV) of the Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) system’s interceptors. Since 2004, the GMD system’s mission is to defend the United States from ballistic missile
May 11, 2020
What Exactly is Venture Capital, and What Does It Have to Do with the Air Force?

The initial cohort of AFVentures fellows recently finished their six-week immersion in Silicon Valley. This article outlines that experience and the lessons applicable to the Air Force writ large.
April 27, 2020
Reorganizing Missile Security at Malmstrom AFB: 341st Security Forces Group and the Missile Security Operating Concept

From August 2017 through January 2019, the 341st Security Forces Group (341st SFG) planned and executed an internal reorganization of its missile security forces called the Missile Security Operating Concept (MSOC). By standing up the 841st Missile Security Forces Squadron (841st MSFS) and creating

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Wild Blue Yonder Articles

Organizational Innovation to Achieve JADC2

Better Models for Specialized Career Fields

Contingency Basing for Great Powers Competition

Book Review: Space Warfare in the 21st Century: Arming the Heavens

Conflict and Controversy in the Space Domain: Legalities, Lethalities, and Celestial Security

A War by Words: Language and Cultural Understanding in the Age of Information Warfare

Island Hopping—Feet Dry!: Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance Indications and Warning in Austere Environments

The Case for Missile Defense and an Efficient Defense of the US Homeland

What Exactly is Venture Capital, and What Does It Have to Do with the Air Force?

Reorganizing Missile Security at Malmstrom AFB: 341st Security Forces Group and the Missile Security Operating Concept