Gen Thomas Bussiere, Commander of Air Force Global Strike Command and Commander, Air Forces Strategic - Air at USSTRATCOM, provided the first of two keynotes on Thursday morning, during which he provided his perspective on EMSO within the command. He provided an historical perspective, describing his experience in the Air Force beginning in the late 1980s and its focus on EW and the high-end threat at the end of the Cold War. He then explained the more permissive threat environments in the Global War on Terror and then described the present challenge of Great Power Competition. "Would anybody here – I'm guessing no – would anyone say that we are not challenged in the electromagnetic spectrum?" he asked the audience.
Responding to questions from AOC President Brian Hinkley, General Bussiere addressed his command's bomber modernization efforts. He said, "We celebrated the first flight of the B-52A model 72 years ago – 72 years ago. We're going to put new motors, new radar, new avionics on that platform and fly it for another 30 years. Think about that. And then we're going to fly the newest airplane, the B-21 Raider, and partner between stand-in and stand-off, whether it's the B-52J … or the B-21, both of those platforms … are going to take advantage of optimizing their capabilities through the electromagnetic spectrum. One's going to be very exquisite, one's going to be more old school. But both are required."
General Bussiere went on to explain the relationship between these capabilities and the development of new operational concepts and the demand signals they create. "There's capability and capacity that both industry and the Air Force are developing that transcend the bomber force that will give us advantages against the threats that we're seeing today. That's specific to electronic warfare, but, as you all know better than most, EMSO requirements transcend military operations. So it's not just the platform that we're concerned about. When we transition from the B-52H to the -J model or the B-1 and B-2 to the B-21, we're embedding that now into the way we develop operational concepts. We're embedding that in the way we develop our demand signals to industry. And probably one area that we need to work on is to develop a capability and capacity to create a demand signal in academics and our labs, as well as our partnerships with allies and partners, to make sure that we all understand our different capabilities and capacities when we're tasked to do operations. It's absolutely foundational and essential to a bomber force.
General Bussiere also discussed the importance of developing more EMSO understanding across his command, as well as the Air Force and the wider DOD. "The preponderance of the [current] force didn't experience, the 80s and the 90s and the transition," he explained. "Really their center of gravity for experience was operating in a combat zone that was somewhat permissive, and they didn't have to necessarily be challenged with all the things that we're seeing today in the threat environment in all domains. But the good news is that there's a realization that the way we operated in the last two decades is not the way we need to operate in the future. And indications to me that we're getting [EW] right is the department's organizational construct. So developing the organizational framework, developing the policy hooks, and then it's incumbent upon the services, all our services, to develop capability and capacity to meet those needs that were identified at the JROC in years past. But that's only a piece of it, right? It's not just developing the capabilities. It's developing the human weapon system that understands how to operate and employ those capabilities that the services will be developing and fielding. And then it's the ability to bring them together in a joint coalition manner to be able to be effective in a time of crisis. With that part, I would say we've recognized the need. The demand signals are there, but the services need to embed the EMSO capabilities not only in new weapon systems, but be able to account for our legacy weapon systems. We don't get the choice on when potential conflict will surface, but we do get to determine how we're going to be prepared for that time. And I'm confident that the leaders in the Department of Defense and the different branches understand the challenges in these domains. The real test of time and what we'll be judged on is how we prepare for that."