Two U.S. Air Force leaders addressed the AFCEA Small Business Committee in April to discuss how, similar to small business owners, military leaders must look past what is being built today and focus on developing technologies for 20 years down the road.
Maj. Gen. Ronald J. Bath, USAF, director, Air Force Strategic Planning, and deputy chief of staff for plans and programs, Headquarters U.S. Air Force, Washington, D.C., noted that technologies that enhance stealth, precision and networking are needed most to provide the Air Force’s military counterparts with guaranteed air protection. Although the requirement does not have to be met today, the Directorate of Strategic Planning must plan now so future requirements are met.
The largest investment for the Air Force in the next 20 years will be network-centric warfare, said Col. Allison Hickey, USAF, assistant deputy director, Future Concept Development, Air Force Strategic Planning, Headquarters U.S. Air Force. Gen. Bath said that as an enabler to all services and a major part of transformation, command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance will become the largest budget portion for the Air Force by the end of the decade.
Col. Hickey advised small businesses to make capabilities that work across the services and disregard the proprietary issues, a practice that a larger company may find difficult to stop. The colonel stressed that interoperability is needed not only among the four U.S. services but with the United States’ allies as well.
Gen. Bath added that small businesses have a great advantage in making products and offering services in integrated groups as well as in providing concepts in small packages. He urged small businesses to stay lean, stay small, stay agile, and “give me what no one else can give.”
Small business committee members expressed concern that staying small may not be a conscious choice, but rather that companies' revenue has not increased enough for them to expand their size. They also noted that obtaining a large customer might force them to grow or make them vulnerable to being bought out by a bigger firm. The general proposed sponsoring a strategy session with small business committee members for later this year to further discuss these issues.
The AFCEA Small Business Committee meets monthly at AFCEA International Headquarters in Fairfax, Virginia. For more information about the committee’s activities, contact
Diane Dellen at (703) 631-6119.
