The Air Force Needs to Rework Its Climate Campaign Plan with a Weather Eye
By Tim Gallaudet
July 19, 2023
U.S. Air Force photo by Lauren M. Snyder
Like previous climate-related strategic documents developed by the Pentagon under the Biden Administration, the recently released Air Force Climate Campaign Plan falls far short in directly addressing 21st century warfighting requirements. The dual threats of Russia’s invasion in Ukraine and China’s increasing provocations towards Taiwan have created a dire global security environment, yet the actions put forth in this plan do nothing to diminish or deter them.
Instead, the Air Force has unsurprisingly followed the same climate policy playbook as the Navy, Army, and other departments and agencies to prioritize green energy-based emission reductions and a blanket application of pointlessly vague “climate considerations” across a wide swath of organizational processes and programs.
Consider the plan’s first priority, to “maintain air and space dominance in the face of climate risks.” That is an important priority, and its subordinate goal to make Air Force installations resilient to the effects of climate change is indeed an essential objective. However, totally absent from the plan is any action to advance the Air Force’s operational capability under current and future climate risks. I have previously written about how to make the entire DoD climate ready for modern warfighting, and it applies equally here.
Such is the mission of the 14th Weather Squadron, which is given only lip service in the campaign plan. An even greater omission is the failure to include performance improvement goals for its parent organization, the Air Force Weather Agency. Curiously, the plan makes no mention of the Air Force Strategic Funding Increase (STRATFI) program’s recent award of $19.3 million to deploy the first commercial constellation of radar-equipped weather satellites. Because this constellation will be a critical asset in reducing operational climate risk, this initiative should be front and center in the climate plan.
https://www.realcleardefense.com/articles/2023/07/19/the_air_force_needs_to_rework_its_climate_campaign_plan_with_a_weather_eye_967042.html
