CANNON AIR FORCE BASE, N.M. – Air Force Special Operations Command hosted the annual Technology, Acquisition, Sustainment Review summit at Cannon Air Force Base, N.M., Sept. 27-28, 2023. 

The Honorable Andrew Hunter, Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics, Air Force Materiel Command commander Gen. Duke Richardson, and different senior leaders from these organizations obtained briefings and demonstrations highlighting particular operation forces capabilities on the twenty seventh Special Operations Wing. 

TASRs are Air Force-directed annual tri-chair summits designed to make sure AFMC is assembly warfighters’ wants. Lt. Gen. Tony Bauernfeind, Commander of AFSOC, facilitated the engagement to allow alignments on the strategic-enterprise degree and guarantee selections are made concerning useful resource allocation agreed upon by Air Force senior leaders.  

“We’ve received to get lighter and leaner for the long run struggle,” stated Bauernfeind. “We need to accelerate concepts to see their capabilities, to see if they work.”  

During the two-day summit, Cannon Air Commandos showcased AFSOC’s pathfinding legacy via operational functionality demonstrations. TASR attendees noticed how AFSOC methods and tools, like ahead arming and refueling level groups and the Compact Loading Adapter and Wench System, are key to constructing a resilient and prepared Air Commando pressure.  

Attendees had been additionally flown to Melrose Air Force Range on an MC-130J to look at the Adaptive Airborne Enterprise (A2E) idea, which expands the Air Force’s use of the MQ-9. Historically used to collect intelligence and as a precision strike platform, A2E will allow the MQ-9 to behave as a node in distributed command and management, furthering AFSOC’s energy projection capabilities.  

While at MAFR, the twenty seventh SOW Mission Sustainment Team demonstrated AFSOC’s means to deploy scattered groups of cross-functional Airmen which can be unbiased of principal working bases, enabling specialised airpower in contested strategic environments. 

TASRs supply constant, one-on-one, strategically tailor-made communications. The agendas are completely mapped out months prematurely in order that particular considerations obtain the eye they want from the Air Staff and AFMC. 

For Bauernfeind, occasions like TASR give Air Commandos the chance to point out Air Force senior leaders how AFSOC is quickly pathfinding and adapting airpower to proceed outpacing adversaries. 

“This event put on by the 27 SOW was absolutely exceptional in showing AFMC and our mission partners what AFSOC can do and where we are headed. The current and future operating environments will be demanding, but we will succeed because of our competitive advantage…our Air Commandos.”