Watch, Read: Chaudhary Delves into DAF’s Installation Infrastructure Action Plan

Dr. Ravi Chaudhary, Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Energy, Installations, and Environment, sat down with AFA’s executive vice president, Maj. Gen. Doug Raaberg, USAF (Ret.), for a Warfighters in Action event. Chaudhary delved into the DAF’s new Installation Infrastructure Action Plan which was released that day. The plan builds on previous efforts under the Operational Imperatives and focuses on three key priorities: better aligning infrastructure with mission critical capabilities, right sizing vital infrastructure, and enhancing resiliency through tailored approaches across our installations. 

Watch the full event or read the transcript below.

Transcript

Maj. Gen. Doug Raaberg, USAF (Ret.):

Welcome to the first Air & Space Warfighters in Action from our studio here at AFA’s new operation center. We’re near the Pentagon and the Air Force Memorial. I’m Doug Raaberg, executive vice president of your Air & Space Forces Association. Thank you to everyone joining us online today. We are once again honored to speak with Dr. Ravi Chaudhary, Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Energy, Installations, and Environment. Dr. Chaudhary is tasked with ensuring both Air Force and Space Force installations are always ready and capable of projecting combat power around the globe.

AFA’s Warfighters in Action is made possible thanks to the generous support of our sponsors listed on the screen. Thank you so much for your continued support. Ravi, boy, what a pleasure. And thank you for joining us today.

Dr. Ravi I. Chaudhary:

It’s awesome to be back with my AFA family for what I believe is going to be a really important hour of discussion and talking about how we can up our game in great power competition.

Maj. Gen. Doug Raaberg, USAF (Ret.):

Awesome. Well, as we always say in parlance: Fight’s on. Here we go.

Dr. Ravi I. Chaudhary:

Sure is. Let’s do it.

Maj. Gen. Doug Raaberg, USAF (Ret.):

Before we started, when you came over here, you were talking about just recently taking an incredible trip that might kind of relate to everything we’re going to talk about today. Fill us in.

Dr. Ravi I. Chaudhary:

Yeah. So just recently I had the opportunity over the holidays to go to India and participate in a wedding. The location was at in ancient palace and overlooking the palace was a fort. Now it’s in the city of Gwalior, which is southeast of New Delhi for folks orientation. Now the important thing, and I see we have the picture up of this fort, it’s an incredible strategic and placement. And so it was built right around the 5th century and it was held by the Rajputs who were the kings in the 10th century. And so it has a little bit of my own namesake into it. It was held by a man, Singh Tomar. The interesting piece about it, if you take a look at the picture, it’s that the incredible placement of such a fort really made a huge impression on me when it comes to installations because it had all the elements of a successful installation.

It was a platform from which you could project combat power. It was a place where you could mass forces, and ultimately ensure commerce proceeded from location to location. And a little bit about the Gwalior Fort is that it was known as the Gibraltar of India because it was a key strategic location from which you could protect commerce in the area. So what does all that mean to me? It made a huge impression on me because when you look at military history. Throughout military history, the principles of war always hold true and the ability to ensure you have the right resources, a resilient location for you to ensure you can project combat power, and at the same time, the geostrategic placement of the location allows you to shape future capabilities and the future of commerce in the region. So think about that and extrapolate that to today and our responsibility to ensure that we are in a place where we can defend installations throughout the challenges of this decade of consequence.

Maj. Gen. Doug Raaberg, USAF (Ret.):

So from 5th century to the 21st century, let’s bridge what you’re talking about because in the 21st century, the strength of our installations is ever important, especially in terms of global competition around the world. So today your office just released a real brand new installation infrastructure and action plan. Describe the thrust of the plan itself? Okay, what makes it important now?

Dr. Ravi I. Chaudhary:

Yeah, well here we are in a decade of consequence in which China is exercising its influence in the Indo-Pacific region, Russia’s aggression in Europe has placed us in a position in which we need to ensure our installations are ready and resilient to meet the challenges of the future. And so we know that over the past decade we have not paid attention to our installations the way we should. So the installation infrastructure action plan is designed to be the most comprehensive and focused initiative to get our installations ready for great power competition. And it all comes from the secretary who said, “Hey, we’ve got to be competitive in this new strategic environment.” So that’s what this plan is designed to do, and it has three main areas.

The first area is to make sure that our installations are aligned to our mission capabilities, runways, operation centers, towers, all those things have to be ready to project combat power when we need it at a time of our choosing. Second, making sure that our infrastructure is sized appropriately for the missions that we have to execute. And thirdly, ensuring that that infrastructure is resilient and survivable and ready to meet the challenges of the future.

Maj. Gen. Doug Raaberg, USAF (Ret.):

Yeah. For our viewers, I would seriously say, look at the plan itself. It’s about 20 pages long. It’s packed with a lot of information. So let me undo a couple of things out of there because I think it’s important because our audience and those that will read the plan itself, which I do highly recommend is, got a lot in there. And I think you can give a little insight on that. So first of all, the report talks about half, the department of the Air Force’s infrastructure is in moderate or high risk condition. I imagine quite a few would agree with you wholeheartedly in that report, but more result of assuming risk in sustainment in the past. So how do you fix this, especially with modernization bills coming due absolutely in the near future. So let’s start there.

Dr. Ravi I. Chaudhary:

Yeah, no bones about it. We need to make sure that we’re directing the right investments in the right locations to ensure that our infrastructure is healthy. So you see a couple of diagrams point to where we’re degrading over time. This is designed to arrest some of that. One, by focusing on the things that are most critical to our mission. So things like munitions and ensuring that our munitions facilities are where they need to be. Again, we’re focusing direction on the things that will best impact our mission facilities. Next, we need to make sure that those facilities are right sized. So we’re going to be doing some innovative things like strategic real estate options. For example, we have a new campus, a cybersecurity campus that we just put an RFI out that is going to reduce the amount of infrastructure we have and reduce vital backlog on our maintenance by ensuring that public-private partnerships can engage on these opportunities.

So we’re doing this within our local communities and in partnership with industry as well too. So we think that this is going to be a winner. We know that it’s going to take some investment, but we want to bring venture capital into this as well too. You may have heard about our recent announcement about our commercial venture at Edwards Air Force Base in housing. That’s exactly it. So if you think about it, the advantage of that is that you don’t have to pay MILCON to build an all new facility. It’ll be a venture-backed effort that could bring status of the art facilities to us right now to date.

Maj. Gen. Doug Raaberg, USAF (Ret.):

Yeah, and that’s a good point because I want to come back to that at the end because especially with venture capital, private equity and so forth, that all plays into this, we’ll call it investment for the future. But one of the things that you found as a key finding is that I’ll just politely say, as you say, “installations are not a monolith” and it should not be treated as such. Especially installations like for my experience, they’re not a fingerprint.

May have nuclear or you may have conventional. You may have cyber, a lot of mixed, they’re all almost in some ways like fingerprints and different. So how are you looking at Air Force bases and Space Force bases or space bases differently?

Dr. Ravi I. Chaudhary:

Yeah, that’s a really, really good point and one of the reasons we launched this effort. As we started our GPC analysis period, which was roughly about three to four months, we came to the conclusion that we have such a wide range of installations. In fact, our installations are as diverse as the missions we execute, and you nailed it. We’ve got Space Force missions, we’ve got air missions, we’ve got ballistic missiles. I mean the full range and gamut is out there. And so after traveling to roughly fifty-odd installations during my tenure, I came to the conclusion that we’ve got to have tailored approaches. And so for a Space Force base, ultimately if you think about it, command and control, making sure that power requirements are met, making sure that uninterrupted power and redundancies are preserved, they view in the Space Force power is their JPA. So making sure that that is robust and ready to me is going to be even more critical going forward.

And that’s new about this plan, we’re going to be focusing on those areas where we haven’t paid as much attention in the past. For example, if you take a look at the report, you’ll see that we found some challenges with utilities.

Maj. Gen. Doug Raaberg, USAF (Ret.):

Yeah. Good point.

Dr. Ravi I. Chaudhary:

And so we’re going to up our game and we’re going to set specific targets when it comes to utilities, and that includes utility privatization, which we know is reducing the amount of power outages at our installations. So we’re going to set specific targets there. We’re also going to introduce new technologies. Microgrids. Microgrids are going to be a huge game changer for us across our installations. And when I say microgrid, what I mean is an effective way to employ power distribution to include storage of power and execution of control systems that allow you to monitor those systems. So by putting these microgrids in at our installations and we’re planning to do roughly 14 in the next four to five years and two at Space Force bases, what we want to achieve is more stability, better power distribution, and get those power outages off our books. So as an example, at Kadena Air Base in Okinawa,

We installed a microgrid there through a third-party agreement, and that third-party agreement allowed us to get savings, purchase the microgrid, and after installing it, that microgrid preserved power on the installations during a typhoon. It was the only installation to do so. So to me, innovative approaches, finding new ways to bring in third-party vendors to allow us to be successful, and then you get an instant cyber protection. So I’ll talk about the cyber piece in a little more detail. We’re actually planning on merging our infrastructure approach with SAF/CN, and so we’ve brought them on board with our infrastructure council and now that crosstalk is going to yield more robust plans and investments. That’s what this plan is designed to do and designed to ensure our installations are more robust.

Maj. Gen. Doug Raaberg, USAF (Ret.):

Yeah, what’s not full in the report, but I thought I would ask is I hear a lot of stakeholders are involved now both internal and external. You were alluding to you internal on a lot of our installations are joint, especially overseas, especially in the CONUS in terms of army, navy components there. But you also have your stakeholders outside the fence, so to speak, let’s say the power companies and so forth. Did you find that you really had to address a lot of stakeholders in developing this plan?

Dr. Ravi I. Chaudhary:

Absolutely. In fact, I just recently had the opportunity to go talk to two important stakeholders. One, our installation commanders. And two, our surrounding communities and industry partners who are engaging on industry third-party agreements that allow us to be successful. So our communities across our installations are going to be so vitally important as we move forward. So you can’t get these done without a full-on effort and participation from our local communities. Here’s why. Our adversaries are not only going to use cyber to affect our installations, they’re going to start with civil disruption.

And That’s going to have a huge impact on our ability to get the jets out of town, which is ultimately what we do or maintain our posture from the Space Force side. So having that entire community mobilized and ready and aware about this to me is very, very crucial. We know that our adversaries are purchasing lands close to our installations. That’s a big challenge. It’s going to take a concerted effort, and that’s why I recently spoke at the Association of Defense Communities to alert all of our communities about this problem. And this strategy is designed to tighten that formation between the community as well as our local inside the wire installation.

Maj. Gen. Doug Raaberg, USAF (Ret.):

Well, it strikes me as a pretty honest assessment because you’re saying 33%, a third of all the Department of Air Force facilities and utilities alone are considered to be in critical condition. About a quarter of them are degraded. In fact, according to your report, this puts them at greater risk for everything from extreme weather to what you just mentioned, cyber attack. So now what is your biggest concern here and how are you going to tackle that problem?

Dr. Ravi I. Chaudhary:

And this strategy is about the why. Why launch an installation infrastructure action plan now that is so far-reaching and so robust? It’s very simple. In a CENTCOM-centric environment, we are pushing for efficiency, particularly one theater of our operations, and we could be relatively confident that ISIS would not pose a major threat to a CONUS installation. And honestly, that goes all out the window now. Our adversaries are going to go after our critical infrastructure and they’re going to do it through non-kinetic means through cyber, making sure that that capability, all of our control systems are robust and ready for this environment is a major, major lift. And so not only do you have to bring the new technology like microgrids in there, you’ve got to train to an all-new standard.

And so we’re going to be executing things called Energy Resilience Readiness Exercises or ERREs, E-R-R-E. Mark that because that’s going to be important, an important aspect, and we’re going to expect all installations to execute these ERREs to ensure that from a power standpoint, we can get those jets out of town. We can make sure that our command and control is uninterrupted. We can make sure that we can launch on demand and across the gamut, ensuring that these installations are as robust as they can be. That’s going to take a heck of a lot of effort. And this plan is designed to focus all that effort on that activity. We’ve been kind of piecemealing it and finding goodness with power redundancies at base-to-base. We don’t have room for any other effort than to do it across our installation.

So I’m really excited about this. I know it’s going to be challenging. None of these things are easy, but the best part of it is, and why we’re launching it now is because it took a few more months to ensure that our MAJCOMS were on board. So having our MAJCOMS support this, get on board and bring their challenges to the table, hash it out and get us moving in the right direction was absolutely critical to me.

Maj. Gen. Doug Raaberg, USAF (Ret.):

Yeah, I can imagine one component of an EERE type evaluation is really storage.

Dr. Ravi I. Chaudhary:

Yeah.

Maj. Gen. Doug Raaberg, USAF (Ret.):

Storage of current munitions, ordinance and so forth. But let’s face it, there’s a lot of new things coming on board and you’re going to have to store advanced munitions. I’m thinking of for example, long-range standoff. That’s an entirely new system. They may require different security requirements for storage. Are there specific munitions or systems that are going to be particularly challenging, especially when an installation’s being evaluated on an EERE? And then I’ll throw another question at you, but let’s take that first of all. What do you see as some of the challenge for advanced munitions?

Dr. Ravi I. Chaudhary:

I’ll answer that with a story. So I recently had the chance to go to Nellis and it was right on the heels of Red Flag. And so I went out to one of their munitions facilities and got a chance to take a look at it and really sit down and talk with some of our troops. Big shout out to the team out there. Because they were not only executing Red Flag, but they were making sure all of our munitions were assembled and ready to go for Ukraine. So they’re doing double duty at these facilities. And I got a chance to take a look at them and roughly I would say 70% of their facilities were workable and a couple of them just did not have the environmental cooling to do the job that they needed to do. And so to me, that was the monster of the fact that we’ve got to get at this, we’ve got to get at it more aggressively. It was really, really cool. They had this big poster up on the side of their munitions facility that said, “we eat no for breakfast.”

And that’s kind of a mantra that we started in our organization in IE to say that, listen, bureaucracy is not going to deter us in this environment. We’ve got to move a lot quicker and a lot faster than the speed of government. We’ve got to move at the speed of need right now, and right now we’ve got to get ready for that 2027 date that the secretary has alerted us to. And so everybody’s all in. It’s our job to make sure that our troops in those munitions facilities have the resources they need. And so we’re hoping for a plus up in this next budget and our fingers are crossed, but we’ve got a good plan put together to get this done.

Maj. Gen. Doug Raaberg, USAF (Ret.):

Yeah, we always say that not all systems are created equal. Say on the same lines of the storage issues, what else needs to be addressed in order to bring these new weapons systems online? Because I’m thinking in terms of everything from special access programs, special access required programs, all the way to literally sustaining and maintaining advanced electronics and being able to make sure that they are ready to go day one.

Dr. Ravi I. Chaudhary:

Yep. I mentioned earlier, we recently released an RFI for the 16th Air Force campus. I recently had a chance to go down there and that facility needs some work. Let tell you. But what it really needs is a new campus. And so we put out an RFI, which we believe is going to be a huge community partnership effort with the city of San Antonio. The mayor came out, he’s really excited about it. All of our ledge folks and CODELS are super excited to support this, but laying down a new campus to include secure facilities that have the capability to ensure they can withstand the types of cyber intrusions is going to be absolutely critical. And so to me, nothing is more demonstrative of that. Now, at the same time, when you do these strategic real estate deals, you get the bonus of not having to put milk on into a facility and you actually get that infrastructure off your books. That’s the strategy we’re trying to employ to get that maintenance backlog down.

And we’ve set a goal in this plan to reduce our infrastructure by at least 3%, if not more going forward. 3% sounds like a small number, but let me tell you, when you talk about the cost to maintain these facilities, it can result in big dollars. So we’re really staying focused on that.

Maj. Gen. Doug Raaberg, USAF (Ret.):

I imagine though since we’ve all experienced base realignment and closure, different stakeholders come to the table with different motivations. And just out of curiosity, what have you found works best for communities that truly want to partner with their installations and their community businesses?

Dr. Ravi I. Chaudhary:

I think having a regular dialogue, and we know that installation commanders are super, super busy. They’ve got to keep those sorties moving. They’ve got to keep mission activities executing at a really, really high level. So it’s hard to do these types of events. What we’ve been advocating for. And what we’ve been recommending to commanders is to take some time and identify a civilian, somebody who has continuity because these enhanced use leases and these community partnership deals, intergovernmental service agreements take time and they take effort to hatch. But I tell you the results are incredible once you hatch them.

For example, at Fairchild Air Force Base, we had a shortage of a shooting range, and so the local sheriff’s department came up and partnered with Fairchild Air Force Base to put together an all new shooting facility, state-of-the-art facility, and guess what? It saved us roughly 30 million in MILCON. That’s how we’re going to get over this challenge of budget. So new thinking, new ways of applying challenges and setting those targets. So my word out to any installation commander out there who’s watching, take a look at what these IGSAs do for you. Take a look at opportunities and enhanced use leases because they can really, really get your work done and at the same time keep that vital budget preserved for us.

Maj. Gen. Doug Raaberg, USAF (Ret.):

Yeah, I imagine the EEREs would also be more of a milestone for improvement, meaning, hey, even though the installation commander may be concerned about their facilities, the department of the Air Force is equally as well as the stakeholders around those facilities. If they could see the report card so to speak.

Dr. Ravi I. Chaudhary:

You hit the nail right on the head. So we’ve got installations out there that have never done an E-R-R-E, an ERRE, they’ve never done one.

Maj. Gen. Doug Raaberg, USAF (Ret.):

Yeah.

Dr. Ravi I. Chaudhary:

Then we’ve got installations who are on round three, and I will do a big shout-out for Vandenberg Space Force Base because they’ve done two and now they’re partnering with a local inter-agency and the joint community to get those vital services and support facilities on board so that you can look at the totality of it. So they’re going to run a joint effort, a joint ERRE, which I call A J-R-R-E, we’ll call it whatever they want. They’re the ones who are leading this effort. But to me, I think that’s absolutely fantastic. We’ve got to get there. Because we’re going to be in an arena in which contested homeland operations are going to be the reality. And so being ready for that, to me, when you look at installations like Vandenberg, they’re doing some amazing stuff. That said, we have installations that have yet to do an ERRE, and that’s what this plan is designed to energize.

Maj. Gen. Doug Raaberg, USAF (Ret.):

Well, thank you. I’ve got my Es now straightened out. One followed by two. That’s good.

Dr. Ravi I. Chaudhary:

Well, we won’t throw out CRREs, WRRES which are Water Resilience Readiness Exercises, Cyber Resilience Readiness Exercises. So we’ve got tons of these in the pipeline and we’re encouraging folks to get moving on.

Maj. Gen. Doug Raaberg, USAF (Ret.):

Well, like you said, it could be even like a joint REE.

Dr. Ravi I. Chaudhary:

Yeah, right.

Maj. Gen. Doug Raaberg, USAF (Ret.):

And the key there is I can see where now you’re actually codifying for again, the Department of the Air Force, but for the joint world as well as the community and their consultants and others who are helping them try to adjust for the Department of the Air Force’s ability to deliver warfighting capability from home and abroad.

Dr. Ravi I. Chaudhary:

I think we’ve just got to get on top of this and really acknowledge since it’s football season, I’m going to throw out a cliche for you that offense sells tickets, but defense wins championships. So our installations are entering an environment in which we need to make sure that we’re ready to meet the challenges of the future, and that’s going to take mobilization of not just the installation inside the wire, but the joint community for our joint bases and the broader civil authorities in there, and they’re willing to help. We’ve just got to get at it. But I’m telling you this, this is an endeavor in which we dare not come in second place and we’re going to be ready. And that’s why we’ve launched this plan.

Maj. Gen. Doug Raaberg, USAF (Ret.):

Timing is everything.

Dr. Ravi I. Chaudhary:

It is.

Maj. Gen. Doug Raaberg, USAF (Ret.):

So the report is out today, but we are right in the face of a new administration coming on board. Within the report, you have goals, you have timelines to accomplish. So any concerns there in terms of actually being able to accomplish some of the objectives you’ve laid out in the report?

Dr. Ravi I. Chaudhary:

Well, as you know, I’m transitioning in January and it’s been a heck of a run. But at the same time, to me, this is about war fighting and nothing else, and making sure that our nation is ready to deter and defend and win decisively. And to me, I don’t see this as a partisan issue. It’s going to be a bipartisan issue meeting the challenge of China. And so I hope the new team comes in, takes a look at it, and you always are open to adjustments when needed. But to me, I think marching down this pathway to ensure that our installation’s ready has nothing to do with politics. It has everything to do with war fighting and making sure we deliver resources and capabilities to our Airmen and Guardians that are befitting of their mission.

Maj. Gen. Doug Raaberg, USAF (Ret.):

Yeah. Well, I think that’s the beauty of the plan because you’ve now said it and you have key objectives that are truly going to be transformational if everybody’s on board to make it happen. That’s the key. So let’s talk about that. How do you plan to right-size some of these facilities and some of the infrastructure, because you alluded to it, but let’s face it, they have footprint that could actually be shrunk or at least optimized. So how do you do that?

Dr. Ravi I. Chaudhary:

Yep. Fact, we’re probably have about 20% more infrastructure than we need for our Air Force right now. And Congress currently does not allow us or there’s no discussions of a BRAC to reduce these installations. Again, that’s what this plan is designed to do, to take our excess infrastructure, identify it, and provide economic opportunity for the localities in which they’re in. And so the San Antonio project is about taking a little bit of our real estate, seeding it, and then allowing it to be developed in a way that allows us to, one, get the infrastructure off the books, but bring in state-of-the-art capabilities. And we’ll look to our local community, we’ll look to our state and local government and we’ll look to industry to make that happen. So coming together to me is the best of both worlds to ensure that we’re as ready as we can be going forward.

Maj. Gen. Doug Raaberg, USAF (Ret.):

So let me bluntly ask, do we need another BRAC?

Dr. Ravi I. Chaudhary:

Right now, I don’t think so, but at the same time, you take a look across our inventory and you’re like, “Well, there’s a lot of concrete out there.” But I will say this, concrete scares our adversaries just as much as fifth-gen fighters because the ability to mobilize and the ability to move a force from point A to point B is going to require concrete. And so when you look at what we’re doing in Indo-Pacific, in locations bringing all new airfields like Tinian, a couple other locations and robusting places like Jaber, places Eielson, that’s exactly what we need to do. I believe we’re kicking off Travis as well too with a runaway. That’s the power of our ability to project air and space capabilities across the globe.

Maj. Gen. Doug Raaberg, USAF (Ret.):

Yeah, in fact, I think you have some B-1 bombers heading further north so they can accommodate the runway at their own location at Ellsworth if I’m…

Dr. Ravi I. Chaudhary:

Yeah, and in many ways we are building almost an entirely new Air Force, so the amount of MILCON that’s going on is substantial, but betting down new weapons systems like the B-21, of course KC-46 continues, F-35, and now CCAs, making sure that we’re providing that capability going forward is going to be critical. So that’s another role that I take on, which is basing, so the amount we’re doing in great power competition, standing up ICC, making sure that our information dominance center is up and running as quickly as possible is going to be crucial. So all that basing goes on at this environment and we’re trying to do it by limiting, while at the same time limiting the footprint as well.

Maj. Gen. Doug Raaberg, USAF (Ret.):

Well, as the SAF/IA over the years, obviously through all your visits and stuff, you probably have been hearing that refrain. We need another BRAC, let’s get the footprint down. But in the meantime, as we’ve already alluded to, communities see it differently. Industry partners see it differently at the local as well as the national level. In the end, as far as they’re concerned, there’s a lot more to, let’s say, base realignment and closure as opposed to understanding the modern installation of today.

Take Tyndall. There’s a virtual component, there’s an electrical, water, and all the things you’ve mentioned. So if you are advising them now or when you travel, how do you help the communities understand the difference between BRAC then and really what really needs to be done today at those installations to make sure it meets your installation plan?

Dr. Ravi I. Chaudhary:

It’s interesting you bring that up because I actually had that conversation with a particular installation and a community group that approached me. What we’re trying to convince them of is that our strategic real estate opportunity program is not a BRAC. It’s not going to be a BRAC. What it is, is a tremendous opportunity for economic development and a way in which we can partner with industry, partner with the local community to provide jobs, to provide opportunities, but in the end, it’s about war fighting and we’re finding a way to get these things done very, very efficiently. And we’ll find that we’re… I think we’re planning, I think, two to three more of these going forward, but the effort in San Antonio is going to be one of the largest we’ve ever done. One of the largest and most complex. And one aspect to that I’ll talk about is the advent of micro nuclear reactors, small modular reactors.

Maj. Gen. Doug Raaberg, USAF (Ret.):

I was hoping you’d get to that.

Dr. Ravi I. Chaudhary:

Yep, absolutely. And if anybody said that infrastructure isn’t sexy, I’m telling you you’re wrong because there are so many folks that have been approaching me. We just had a meeting with an industry partner yesterday that really, really wanted to get into a small modular reactor game as well. as you know, Eielson is something that we’re really, really anticipating for 2027. It’ll be the first in the nation, but we’ve got to work through the regulatory aspect. And we know that in San Antonio there’s a huge need for this capability. And so that’s why part of the RFI is to open up industry opportunities for a small modular reactor.

Bottom line, this is going to be a capability that our nation is going to need. One of the things that’s driving the commercial market, I just recently came to know this, is the incredible growth of data centers. So the amount of data centers that are growing in the United States is going to drive the need for renewable power and clean energy power supplies to cool and operate. And so modular reactors is an incredible solution to that. The key is getting the regulatory piece right.

From a regulatory standpoint, the NRC is following a particular model, and so we want to make sure that we innovate, streamline where we can to ensure that the new safe, small, modular reactor… Mind you, these things are a lot safer than the reactors of the old. So how do we set up a regulatory regime that fits that particular technology? We’re going to be finding that across our environment and we’re going to need to capitalize on it. And I think it’s just demonstrative that the department of the Air Force is the leading institution moving this forward.

We’ve been known for pushing new technologies for the past 77 years. It’s what we do. It’s in our DNA as Airmen to shape the future. Same thing with the blended wing body technology that we’re pushing really, really aggressively. Airmen have been innovating for upwards of a century. So this capability is something that we do and we’re going to be the ones to make it happen for our nation.

Maj. Gen. Doug Raaberg, USAF (Ret.):

What I’ve been hearing so far is the plan itself is actually going to be a living document that there are going to be other inputs from other stakeholders and shareholders and so forth. I’m thinking, for example, the Space Force, the motto of semper super, always above. Well, every installation has some key to precision navigation and timing, especially for advanced systems and everything else. I’m thinking of the Air Force Reserve as they assume, for example, new weapons systems, taking on the F-35, the advanced variants and so forth.

And then I’m looking at the National Guards or the International Guard will also have some kind of a voice to the plan. How do you accommodate them and will they be able to help with the future changes that come to the plan itself?

Dr. Ravi I. Chaudhary:

This is going to be a total force plan. In fact, making sure that we have an entire stakeholder community ready to go and absorbing this direction that we’re taking with infrastructure is vitally important. So making sure that we bring in the total force into this is going to be crucial. In fact, some of our leading microgrid advocates are in the total force across the guard, and they’re the beneficiaries of a funding stream that we’re going to really, really aggressively pursue.

If you’ve not heard of the OLDCC, the Office of Local Defense Community, they are a DOD organization that gives out roughly $100 million for infrastructure projects. And they’re not just for the installation, it’s for the broader community. So we actually shifted in 2024 to submit projects that were resiliency-based, that were survivability-based. And you’ll never guess what happened. We captured 47 million of the 100 million that was available to DOD. Over half.

Maj. Gen. Doug Raaberg, USAF (Ret.):

Brilliant.

Dr. Ravi I. Chaudhary:

And not only that, we got another 50 million in matching from the states. So just think, and these are the things that my boss, the secretary, passed me on the back floor and loves because guess what? That doesn’t affect our TOA. So we go out and get these dollars and we’re improving and making our installations more survivable. And roughly half of those were Space Force installations and the total force. So those opportunities are going to grow. We’ve really, really pushed the office to include more funding in 2025 and 2026 because we’re poised to capitalize on it.

Maj. Gen. Doug Raaberg, USAF (Ret.):

Yeah, again, I probably made over-emphasis, but obviously competing demands, conflicting constraints, each have their different authorities and responsibilities, so forth, and that’s a challenge. That’s why it’s good to know that the plan is pretty malleable to really work the future. And so let’s jump to a different perspective.

We’ve got about five minutes before we throw it to the audience here because I think we need to let them bat a few back at you. So, at this point, where does Air Force material command come into play? Where does the major commands come into play? Competing demands, conflicting constraints, and where do the field commands come into play? What role do they have in all of this?

Dr. Ravi I. Chaudhary:

Yep. They are 100% partners. First of all, it’s AFMC and IE that hatched this effort. So not only do you have a plan, you have a governance structure designed to shepherd the plan through its various process because ultimately, this plan is going to have to be matched to a budget as well. And so we’ve recognized that. And so our infrastructure council, which is consistent primarily of IE, AFMC who I co-chair General Richardson with, and A4 General Miller are major participants. One of the other partners we’ve brought on board is CN. So the cyber piece so we’re starting that merge to make sure that we’re seamless across the important enterprises that are key to this.

Now, the MAJCOMs are probably the determining factor in this because they’re the executors. They’re the ones who execute the mission. So we gave them a voice and we’re going to bring them into that governance, but ultimately, we’re going to make sure that they have a voice in adjudicating this. That’s why this plan took a little bit more time to hatch because we wanted to give them a voice. And guess what, competing demands and questions do come up. Hey, if we have such a big INDOPACOM or Indo-Pacific challenge is you say if you’re going to get shorted, right? How does that balance occur? That’s what this governance is about, to make sure that we make those trade-offs and come up with the right decision.

Maj. Gen. Doug Raaberg, USAF (Ret.):

So I’ve got a feeling some people may misconstrue what the governance may be similar to, and that I’m thinking of rapid capability office governance versus the governance you just described. Because what you really want to do is accelerate decision-making inputs and then decisions, investment, get on with the future of innovation for the installations. So what makes this governance different?

Dr. Ravi I. Chaudhary:

We’re latched to our DAF council, our internal governance that allows us to move decisions to the secretariat quickly. So that direct line, both with the half and the secretariat being co-chairs, we can work through that discussion process very, very quickly. It actually came up last year. We had an issue. We needed to address it. We brought it to the secretary quickly and we moved out. That resulted in an infrastructure action plan that really is executable.

Maj. Gen. Doug Raaberg, USAF (Ret.):

So I promised I’d come back so let’s talk about it. The local communities in their ability to drive innovation. I know that you’re trying to open up the aperture for them, create a bigger field of view where they have to look from space to a lot of domains that actually impact their base, air, space, cyber you’ve already mentioned. So how are you leveraging, again, the private equity, the venture capitalists, the people waiting in the wings, the local businesses from the small to medium to large, the people who are everything from startup to really truly gaining traction in different locations? How do you leverage that?

Dr. Ravi I. Chaudhary:

It comes from engagement, and it’s really our installation commanders that have the stick on this. We coach them regularly to look for opportunities that allow you to partner with the local community. When I say community partnerships, I’m not talking about potlucks. We are well past doing potlucks. We need effective opportunities that allow us to execute our mission in a much more effective manner.

For example, down in Eglin and Hurlburt, there’s a housing shortage. There’s a challenge with housing. So we found that a particular entity reached out to us and said, “Hey, if you ceded a little bit of this range area that is not important to you, can we develop that into a housing complex?” And it turns out we found a way to hatch an enhanced use lease, and now they agreed that this will be of benefit to our men and women in uniform to utilize as another housing venue, make sure they have appropriate rates and opportunity. And then that comes back to the Air Force with the ability to lease that location.

The end result is that it’s an incredible opportunity that was hatched at the installation level and industry was able to partner with this and get some advantage of it as well, all the while providing benefit for our mission.

Maj. Gen. Doug Raaberg, USAF (Ret.):

Well, you’ve had about 45 minutes of good prep voice and everything else, but I think it’s time for us to hand it over to our audience.

Dr. Ravi I. Chaudhary:

Let’s do it.

Maj. Gen. Doug Raaberg, USAF (Ret.):

Let’s get the Q’s from them and see how the A’s come across.

Dr. Ravi I. Chaudhary:

For sure. Let’s do it.

Maj. Gen. Doug Raaberg, USAF (Ret.):

This is from Mike Rogers. He says, “Many aircraft are two concentrated bases with a large portion of a particular fleet.” We’ve been there, done that. “We are one tornado or terrorist attack away from losing a great deal of combat power.” Obviously, Mike mentions JSTARS, of course, the future of JSTARS coming, C-130s and such. So, out of curiosity, let’s pick a very sensitive base. Obviously, Ellsworth of the future, the B-21, you can’t afford Tornado Alley to impact our national treasure.

Dr. Ravi I. Chaudhary:

Yep, making sure that we have the infrastructure that can handle these challenges is going to be vitally important in the future. So the impact of hazardous weather events that are coming to our installations with greater and greater frequency. Tyndall is the one example that I like to talk about as well as Offutt. They had a severe weather event that occurred in the 1819 timeframe. What we’ve done is now enforced stronger codes. For example, now at Tyndall, the facilities there can withstand 170 mile per hour winds.

So making sure that as we build new and more modern facilities with B-21 beddown coming up, making sure that we cross check these capabilities and make sure that the coding is set to a particular condition and adjusted for the new environment is going to be absolutely critical.

So that’s a little bit about what we’re doing to make sure. Now, I can’t predict whether a tornado is going to hit or not, but yeah, if you have a propensity being in Tornado Alley, then you ought to have coding that’s appropriate for those types of environmental conditions to include blizzards and things like that. I’m from Minnesota, so I get it.

Maj. Gen. Doug Raaberg, USAF (Ret.):

Well, by the way, it never takes away from what you and I know is hey, early prediction, better weather models, get out of town, button down.

Dr. Ravi I. Chaudhary:

Absolutely.

Maj. Gen. Doug Raaberg, USAF (Ret.):

Ability to survive and operate, especially while under attack, whether it’s from the heavens on above.

Leah Glanzer asked a good question. She said, “Will industry partners continue to be selected through RFIs and are there other doors of entry?” Because I think you’re getting… A lot of people are very, very interested in participating.

Dr. Ravi I. Chaudhary:

Yes, we’ll have RFIs, but there’ll also be opportunities through OTAs as well. DIU is now starting to get into more third-party financing opportunities. The director for their energy programs, Andrew Higier, he’s really, really excited about providing opportunities for power redundancy, new ways of battery storage. I’ve asked him to take a look at areas in which we can improve storage at our installations that allow us to do those black start exercises like ERREs, and so he’s on board.

So, to me, those solicitations for opportunities via OTAs I think are going to come. We also have pilots that we plan on doing through our Air Force AFSC office, and that is going to be critical going forward. And so, I think there’s going to be more opportunities as opposed to just RFIs coming out. And so, stay tuned, look for those solicitations and we’ll be ready.

Maj. Gen. Doug Raaberg, USAF (Ret.):

Let’s test our new modern studio facility. I’ve got a hand up again from David Rosa.

Dr. Ravi I. Chaudhary:

Hi David.

Maj. Gen. Doug Raaberg, USAF (Ret.):

David, are you by chance now connected and able to speak to us?

David Roza:

I hope so. Can you guys hear me okay?

Maj. Gen. Doug Raaberg, USAF (Ret.):

You are loud and clear. And over to you.

David Roza:

All right, fantastic. Thank you so much, Dr. Chaudhary for speaking with us today. One step for the installation plan is to assess divesting two pilot installations of family housing, permanent party dormitories and community support services. Can you say more about the rationale for that? And if those services and buildings are divested, what’s the alternative there and possibly oversight that’s needed? Thanks.

Dr. Ravi I. Chaudhary:

Already used an example that we’ve already launched, it’s the Edwards privatized housing example. And so, what that is, is recognizing Edwards has had a housing shortage for a number of years, roughly probably 50 years or so. We decided to go with a commercial venture. It’s time to try something new. And so, this commercial venture is venture-backed and they’re going to develop an all-new facility. It’s going to be done through enhanced use lease, and it’ll be right in the center of the base.

What does that do for us? Well, that allows us to divest the need for another facility. And so that absolves us as having to allocate MILCON. That absolves us from another chunk of maintenance and repair facilities that we’re responsible for. It could be much simpler than that. And so, we’re looking at doing a few more of those, and that’s why that target is there. You’ll notice that across the plan, we’re rich with empirical targets. We’ve taken a look at things that we believe are going to work for us, and we’ve done the analysis to say, let’s do five more of these. Let’s up our game in privatized utilities. So you’ll see that consistently throughout the plan. And that’s just one more example.

Maj. Gen. Doug Raaberg, USAF (Ret.):

Michael Costas asked a question more related to the nuclear aspects and all. His question’s, “Are you considering the use of nuclear SMRs?” So I don’t know what SMRs are, but let me ask holistically. That’s a different ball game, but from a plan perspective, your thoughts?

Dr. Ravi I. Chaudhary:

Yes. To put it bluntly. In fact, Eielson is going to be an SMR. It’s going to be a five-megawatt SMR with the option for two more modules at 10 and 15 megawatts. And so, we’re going to do this more. We are, as an air force and Space Force, in the lead when it comes to championing these things. And honestly, we haven’t gotten to the point where the regulatory system has been pressed hard enough to give us a way forward on these. We’re going to do it and working with our regulatory partners across agencies, it’s going to be critical that we carve this path because once we carve this path out, everybody’s going to be doing it.

Maj. Gen. Doug Raaberg, USAF (Ret.):

Leah asked you a good question. I really do want to bring this out. So we’ve talked about local communities interacting and everything else, but are you looking for actual POCs at each installation? And if so, where would you want them to be coming from? Chambers of Commerce or from local business and what, just out of curiosity.

Dr. Ravi I. Chaudhary:

Exactly it. Chambers of Commerce. It doesn’t have to be the Chamber of Commerce. It could be any entity that’s a local and wants to participate with installations. Our installation commanders now know, after I got a chance to brief them at our Wing Commanders course, that these partnerships are absolutely vital for the nation. In fact, if you think more broadly about the China threat, I don’t know how much our nation understands in depth what that implication is going to be in a high-end fight.

Our secretary says that this is going to be a challenge like we’ve never had to face before if it gets to a level of conflict. Now, war’s not inevitable, but our foundation as a military is based upon readiness and being ready. That’s the strongest deterrent we have. So, to me, establishing those relationships locally.

The other advantage that the Chambers of Commerce have is that they have insight into the business that’s being done in and around the installation. And so, they’re going to have eyes on when it comes to entities purchasing land, encroachment issues. Those challenges that are very, very real for installations these days. And they can alert our installation commanders quickly to get the right interagency involvement to investigate them.

Maj. Gen. Doug Raaberg, USAF (Ret.):

Yeah, we have about five minutes, so I really want to ask one more question from our audience, and this is Andy Tennyson. So Andy asked, well, he said, “What planning or actions are underway to enable our air base wing commanders and their installation support teams to adequately defend against the growing UAS threat, both in expeditionary environments and in CONUS?” This is an excellent question.

Dr. Ravi I. Chaudhary:

Fantastic question. In fact, we’re busy putting together what that’s going to look like going forward. We know that doctrinally, the Army has taken responsibility since 1940s for air base air defense. We may have some questions on that. We may want to enter in a broader discussion on what that’s going to look like going forward, because right now, the threats are so localized and so tactical that we may want to have a broader discussion on the importance of air base, air defense and take on some of those mission sets going forward.

So more to follow there, but I just want to let you know we’re talking about it very, very intently and deliberately at the Pentagon to decide what we’re going to do about our installations and this particular challenge. I think we’re going to start thinking more broadly about what contested homeland operations look like. And so look to something coming out in the not too distant future on that.

Maj. Gen. Doug Raaberg, USAF (Ret.):

Well, just being a wing commander of a couple installations, both high and low observable to just basic pilot training. I’m thinking in terms of, hey, if you’re going to defend against unmanned aerial systems, you’re talking about electronic spectrum. You’re talking about literally the ability to physically touch, and yet you’ve got a community all around you, and I imagine that’s a super challenge that you’re going to be dealing with.

Dr. Ravi I. Chaudhary:

It’s going to get complex really, really quick. We have the right organizations that are looking at it, but what I think we need is a strong focus, strategic direction on this particular issue going forward. Our secretary has made a few statements on it that we may be open to taking that mission on in the future. So we’re excited about this, we’re going to talk about it, so more to come in the future.

Maj. Gen. Doug Raaberg, USAF (Ret.):

So we got about two minutes, so really bring it all home to us because you embarked on this plan with a purpose, and the Air Force Secretary Kendall really gave you the direction. It was clear and you took it. So what do you want your audience to really take away from today’s discussion?

Dr. Ravi I. Chaudhary:

It’s pretty simple, and it goes all the way back to Hap Arnold who said that our bases are the determining factor in air operations. Think about that. Going all the way back in military history to the Gwalior Fort and the doctrinal responsibility to ensure you can project power is not going to go away. And so we’ve got to be ready for it.

In this current environment, the ability of our installations to be effective and project power is going to be the margin of victory in great power competition, and we better be ready. We have a plan that keeps us moving forward in that endeavor. But I can tell you it’s going to take a lot of effort. It’s going to take a lot of partnering and a lot of support across our communities to get it done.

Maj. Gen. Doug Raaberg, USAF (Ret.):

Well, Dr. Ravi Chaudhary, I’ve always enjoyed having these conversations with you. I appreciate you being very direct in terms of really bringing out the key points of the plan, and it’s been a pleasure to just be here with you today.

Dr. Ravi I. Chaudhary:

No, it’s been a pleasure. We’ve done about three of these so far, and so it’s always fun to get together with you, Doug, and talk about what’s coming up and what we’ve got to do to make our Air Force and Space Force more effective. So it’s an honor to be here.

Maj. Gen. Doug Raaberg, USAF (Ret.):

And for our audience, I want to particularly thank you for joining us today. And once again, to our sponsors, you’ve been tremendous supporters of the Air & Space Forces Association and our mission, and we can’t thank you enough. So have a great Air and Space Force day. Thank you.