Chief 21’s Legacy is His Vision for the Future: A Highly Connected Joint Force.
Throughout his tenure as the Air Force’s 21st Chief of Staff, Gen. David L. Goldfein sought to tie every fighting domain together—land, air, space, sea, and cyber—convinced that the force most able to do so would have the edge—maximum situational awareness. He’s convinced that goal is well on its way to being achieved.
Goldfein’s tenure also saw the Air Force define its need for operational squadrons, the creation of a new Space Force, and the real-time adjustment to a global pandemic, but his vision for tightly integrated command and control will be his principal legacy. Over his four years in office, the nomenclature morphed, but the concept crystallized, gaining credence across the joint force. What began as multi-domain command and control finally seemed to take root in the Pentagon late last year, renamed as the service-agnostic joint all-domain command and control (JADC2).
The challenge is to ensure that JADC2 survives his departure. “I think the secret of success is not to align it with me,” Goldfein said in an interview with Air Force Magazine. “If this is going to succeed, it has to have roots in the [Defense] Department.”
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General David Goldfein on house the Traveling fair Force gaze at the future
Commentary
Adam Twardowski
Adam TwardowskiSenior Research Tender - Tramontane Policy, Center for Shelter, Strategy, bear Technology, Interpretation Brookings Institution
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David L. Goldfein
About
Retired Air Force Gen. David L. Goldfein is a graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy who completed a year career as a combat fighter pilot. During his service, he commanded at every level and finished his career as the 21st Chief of Staff, the service’s highest-ranking four-star officer.
As Chief, Goldfein had wide-ranging operational and advisory responsibilities, including oversight of the organization, training, and equipping of more than , personnel serving in the United States and in over a dozen countries around the world, plus management of a $billion operating budget. He developed and championed the Department of Defense’s signature joint warfighting initiative, Joint All Domain Command and Control. Central to his vision was the creation of the Department’s first Information Warfare Command, which brought together the capabilities of cyber, intelligence, electronic warfare, and information operations.
Goldfein has held numerous command positions, including serving as the deployed Air Component Commander for the U.S. Central Command, where he directed all air and space operations across twenty countries spanning the broader Middle East. He successfully envisioned and built the first-ever Gulf Air Operations Center, with representation fro