In this episode of "At Altitude", AFSOC commander and special operations lifer, Lt. Gen. James Slife discusses new technologies, capabilities and priorities as the United States shifts focus from decades of conflict in Afghanistan, Iraq and the War on Terror to countering peer adversaries; Russia and China.
Air Force Special Operations Command has a history of agility and resilience in executing highly specialized mission sets as strategic requirements quickly shift since long before there was an AFSOC, or even a United States Air Force. The first Air Commandos were specialized U.S. Army Air Forces groups conducting unconventional warfare in the China, Burma, India theater of WWII.
Today, changes in strategic focus have dictated that AFSOC must, once again, do what has done throughout special operations history – pivot mission focus, embrace new technologies and capabilities and build a corps of Air Commandos with multiple skill sets to prosecute those missions regardless of rapid changes in the battlespace.