Air, Space, & Cyber Conference: Top Takeaways

The future was the focus of the Air & Space Forces Association’s 2023 Air, Space, & Cyber Conference. Leaders announced strategies and advances to prepare for great power competition, while exhibitors displayed the latest technologies. Here are takeaways from our Booz Allen team.

Throughout the conference, we saw an emphasis on optimizing for faster modernization and tighter collaboration. Here are some themes that stood out:

The need for speed. U.S. Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall said the service will accelerate change to optimize the force for the era of great power competition, with lines of effort around organization, equipment, personnel, readiness, and supporting the force.

Matice Wright-Springer, a Booz Allen senior vice president, noted the call to move faster applied to industry as well as the military. “In sessions I’ve attended, I’ve heard the need for industry to go faster. Nuclear modernization is the topic that stood out to me. When I was running the Office of Industrial Policy 10 years ago, we weren’t expecting the nuclear threat we have today from Russia and China. It’s been phenomenal to hear senior leaders advocating for faster innovation on the nuclear deterrence front. If we can make our adversaries think that today is not the day to advance their nuclear aspirations, that’s a great day for us and exactly how we want our adversaries to think: ‘Not today.’”

Space power for critical missions. Chief of Space Operations General Chance Saltzman said the Space Force’s new mission statement to secure U.S. interests “in, from, and to space” is designed to help unify thought and action for “a purpose-built Space Force for great power competition.” He went on to declare the Space Force needs to provide “global communications, indications and warning, and precision.”

Nancy Cribb, a Booz Allen chief scientist, said the imperative to make the most of technology to give the warfighter a decision advantage—whether with teammates or partners worldwide—was also on the minds of individual defense stakeholders she spoke with at the booth. “There was great energy,” she said. “We saw excitement for technologies like our GENESIS^TM digital environment that connects warfighters and analysts for fast decision making.”

Other initiatives included:

• Integrate and collaborate. Leaders emphasized connecting people and processes. For example: In an update on his 2020 blueprint to accelerate change, Air Force Chief of Staff General CQ Brown, Jr. said, “We must be integrated by design.” Partnership and coordination are key elements in achieving the multicapable forces and tactics required for Agile Combat Employment.
• General Saltzman announced a new African and European Command to "help integrate, collaborate, and cooperate with our joint teammates, partners, and allies in the region."
• The Space Force is creating two provisional Integrated Mission Delta (IMD) units to unify mission readiness for electromagnetic warfare, and positioning, navigation, and timing.

“Seeing all these initiatives with integration at their core shows the services’ determination to accelerate the joint future of defense,” said Chris Bogdan, executive vice president of Booz Allen’s aerospace business. “And I’m glad to see the strengthening partnership between defense and industry.” He noted that at a separate conference that week, General Saltzman announced a soon-to-be-released commercial space strategy.

From both the stage and the exhibit floor, the conference also highlighted capabilities such as collaborative combat aircraft, drones that may fly alongside fighter jets, such as the B-21 stealth bombers now in testing. “Leveraging AI and using more unmanned systems is absolutely what we’re going to have to do to stay ahead of the threat,” said Matice.

Incorporating commercial innovation into defense planning and operations was top-of-mind for attendees. For example, Nancy pointed out that people were interested in demos of an installation digital twin capability that is helping the Air Force rebuild Tyndall Air Force Base.

At Booz Allen’s booth, visitors were also interested in the future of capabilities such as space domain awareness. “At our booth, I noticed two types of visitors—clients and contacts eager to demo our space domain awareness and space traffic management solutions, and those conference attendees who said, “Wow, I didn’t know Booz Allen develops space tech!” said Shane Morris, a lead engineer in the company's machine learning practice.

“One hot topic for DOD is how to get unified data for MDO [multidomain operational] effects. So visitors were happy to discover our flexible app that rapidly shows where adversarial, friendly, and commercial space assets are—delivering an enhanced understanding of the battlefield.”

Brian Zimmermann, a Booz Allen senior vice president, said, “It looks to me like air power is positioned to accelerate. It’s been exciting to see strategic, operational, and technical power connecting at every level—from leaders unifying organizations to people chatting in hallways to technologies integrating aircraft, weapons, and enhanced C2 for faster insights.

We all know the challenges are formidable—but it’s great to see everyone excited about the future of air power.”