Foundation Forum

General Ralph E. Eberhart
Vice Chief of Staff, United States Air Force
AFA Space Symposium (Los Angeles)

November 13, 1998

"Aerospace Power for an Aerospace Nation"

It is great to be here today. I add my thanks to the AFA national team for another great symposium put on by the Schriever chapter and the California AFA leadership.

Today I feel a bit like the clean-up hitter in the top of the ninth. We are ahead by a large margin. The previous hitters all hit home runs. So I am trying to figure out what do I do to excite the crowd or have them see something that they haven’t already heard or seen today. As I listened to the speeches this morning and I listened to what those well-informed leaders had to say, my speech had already been given. In fact, it had been given many times and, in many cases, much more eloquently than I can give it. I tried to decide then, how do I recover? How do I say something that you haven’t heard. How do I talk about space as was talked about earlier today in terms of political science, not rocket science. I am a fighter pilot not an astronaut. How do I talk to you about space?

I decided the best way to talk to you about space was to just talk to you about how I feel about space, how I view space, how I think about space. It is very simple. In my mind, the key is how do we use space? How do we protect the use of that space? And, if necessary, how do we deny others the use of that space?

Difficult, difficult and difficult, especially the last two. How you view space, just like everything else, depends on where you stand on the issue which, in turn, is affected by where you sit on the issue.

Another analogy could be the sea and how people view the sea. Scientists and others view it for research, for experimentation and certainly some people view space that way. Others view it in terms of commerce, in terms of the economy. Certainly, we have people who view space that way. We in the military tend to view space in terms of military missions and tasks. We know that in accomplishing those age old missions and tasks -- intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, communication, navigation, and weather -- we’ve used the high ground, whether it was a hill, a balloon, an airplane or space. There is nothing new there.

But as we think about using space in the future, we have to broaden our horizons. We have to think about other missions in space, missions we are talking about today. Missions we’ve fully realized the importance of such as information operations, mentioned earlier today; information warfare; theater missile defense; and national missile defense. All these missions are very important as we move ahead.

Space is important to our Air Force. How can we realize our vision of global engagement without harnessing and leveraging this medium? How can we truly say that our core competencies are what they are, without thinking about how space contributes to each of those core competencies? We should not look at space and how we will bring space to the art of warfare through just Air Force actions. More importantly, and we all know this, we should view space through the joint warfighters’ eyes because that is where it is truly important and warfighters from all Services will benefit from what we are doing and what we will continue to do in terms of space.

It’s a tougher issue when we talk about protecting the use of space. Once again, the analogies are age old. The men and women of this great country expect us to protect them and their rights on the sea, on land, an in the air. As they become more reliant -- as our economy, as was talked about earlier, becomes more reliant on space -- they will expect nothing less in space. In my view, we have to think long and hard about that and we have to wrestle with those policy and those legal issues.

Finally, as we step to denying others the use of space, we will be faced with the same considerations. Personally, I believe all that will be the easy part. The technology will fall in line. Remember, that is what General Hartinger said when he established the Air Force Space Command in the fall of 1982. General Hartinger said, we now have the operational pull to go with the technological push to make space work for us. Technology will work and I think the men and women of this great nation and their leadership will come to grips with the policy issues.

What is not quite as clear to me is how we come to grips with the financial issues associated with what we need to do and what we plan on doing in terms of space. I have been involved with the budget, as many of you know -- and you can probably tell it by looking at me -- for about 20 years. In fact, almost exclusively for the last eight. People always have a great idea about how to work the budget problem if they only look at one part of it, if they are not really responsible for the budget. Advocates for more bombers know that there is a way to get more money for more bombers. Advocates for more fighters know the same, and on and on and on. Advocates of space power know there is a way to do this and just can’t believe we can’t figure out how to do it. In many cases, we have tried things in terms of divesting ourselves of some missions and activities. But there is always a vested interest there that precludes us from doing it.

The path ahead in terms of finances is not clear to me. There is no doubt in my mind that if we could fast forward to 2050 and look back to today, we will have made what will have been a revolution in an evolutionary manner. Just as you look back at 1910 today in terms of air power. There were some revolutionary things that happened. But we never thought about it as a revolution, but certainly when you look back, it has been revolutionary.

It is going to take time, even if we do what I think we will end up doing. And we must have the political will to do it, just as we did when we made the investments in our nuclear forces during the Cold War. I think it will take that type of investment to make sure we have no peer competitor during the first half of the next millenium in space. I think we will step up to that table. Not this year or next, but during our lifetime, I predict.

Finally, an area that is maybe a little easier to get your arms around, and that is terminology. Are we an air and space force? Are we a space and air force? Are we an aerospace force?

It probably won’t surprise you to hear that I agree with the Chief of Staff (laughter). We are an aerospace force. This is not a new term. In fact, the first place I can find it written is in the Air Force doctrine manual of 1959, where the word aerospace is used. It goes on to say that air and space are indivisible and that we have to protect our capabilities in air and in space. General White, then Chief of Staff of the Air Force, said that two years earlier, but he did not use the word aerospace. He did say we have to protect our capabilities in space.

In 1968, we renamed the Air Defense Command to the Aerospace Defense Command. So, this isn’t a new term or a new thought. We all will agree as airmen that it is one continuum. That is our story and we’re going to stick with it. It does make sense.

As we struggle with migration over time -- migration from air to space -- migration is the correct way to go about it. There is nothing wrong with migration. Things have certainly -- in terms of missions, tasks, and capabilities -- migrated from air to space. I know of no total migrations, no going out of business sales, in terms of what we do in the air. So, now we have captured, once again, a better term and that is integration. Because, that is truly what it is. That capitalizes on the complimentary nature of air and space. In some cases, when we decide to do so because we can’t accept any risk, it underscores the sometimes redundant natures of air and space. This is what we are committed to, the integration of air and space, aerospace.

I have always been very hesitant to quote someone when they are in the room, because they’ll say, “No, that is not what I said.” But to paraphrase the 1992 Commission which General Moorman so ably led, he said, “It is not out of the question to speculate that in just a few years advocates of air power and of space power will be talking about the same things.” I would suggest to you that we are already there -- we are talking about the same things.

We are talking about how to leverage these capabilities as an aerospace team for the joint warfighter. We are not only thinking strategically, but we are also thinking operationally and we are thinking tactically. That has been so important to make the transition, but it is far from over. If there is one thing clear, it is that space will become more and more important in the future. Not that the air will become less important. I don’t view this as a zero sum game. We ought not view it as a zero sum game. We ought to view it as getting better as an aerospace team. It is just that. It is an aerospace team in terms of the joint command -- the unified command -- that Dick Myers so ably commands and Howell Estes before him. It is an aerospace team with our partners in industry and, more so every year, with our partners in other countries. That certainly is the way ahead.

Will we become the U.S. Aerospace Force? I don’t know if we will or not. I’d be willing to sign up to that, but the Vice Chief doesn’t make those decisions. That is something I am sure will be given a lot of thought in the years ahead.

There is one thing I am certain of and that is to take a page from our 50th anniversary: our future is boundless. Our future is boundless because of the younger people in this room. When you meet and talk with them, here and in places all around the globe, you can’t help but be impressed with the good hands our future is in.

When people talk about the U.S. Air Force of 30 years ago, talk about the frustration of today’s Air Force in terms of dollars, in terms of trying to get Air and Space right, I would offer to you, and I firmly believe this, it is better than it ever has been. And the future will be even better. We are not talking about global war. We are not talking about a peer competitor. We are talking about the world’s only super power. Our challenge is not to drop the ball. I know that with people like you out there, we won’t drop the ball. I feel so strongly about this that I’ve said many times -- and I know people don’t often believe this - I say sincerely to any lieutenant or captain out there, I’d gladly change places with you and do it all over again. Because I think the Air Force of the next 30 years will be even more exciting than the Air Force of the last 30 years -- and these past 30 years have been very exciting.

Once again, thanks to AFA for this great opportunity. My historian saw it a bit differently than Tom McKee’s historian. My historian told me we’d been doing this symposium for 23 years. So we’ll have to have our historians have a history off-site here. For 20 of those years, the major commands came in and gave a stockholders report on their major commands. But for the last three years, since 1995, this symposium has focused on space -- aerospace. What a great place to do this because of the history in the area. The Shriever chapter here in Los Angeles goes back to the WDD, the Western Development Division, established in July of 1954 and first commander by General Benny Shriever in August, 1954. So, what a great place to do this.

I was honored to have him over at the quarters about a month ago with Howell (Estes) and Dick (Myers). All he could talk about was the ceremony during which we dedicated Shriever Air Force Base. He was so pleased about that. That is all he could talk about. What a marvelous individual. Again, like the top of the ninth, to follow up on that analogy, I look around the room. Some of the fans have already left. Others have car keys in their hands. I thank you all. Our friends from industry; those who have gone before, who have given us this great legacy of the world’s most respected aerospace force; and those who serve today in our total force. It is an honor to serve with you. Thank you.

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