Packard: Indispensable ideas for the future
By Gary A. Packard Jr.
Mar 29, 2022 Updated May 6, 2022
I was privileged to attend the Air Force Association’s Warfare Symposium in Orlando, Florida, on March 3-4. The theme of the conference was “Air and Space Power: Indispensable to Deter, Fight, and Win.”
At the conference, I immersed myself in conversations and presentations on the future needs and capabilities of the Air Force and the Space Force. The conference was an opportunity to stay connected to my service, hear from Department of Defense and defense industry leaders, and reconnect with many friends and colleagues from my days in uniform.
I was impressed, as always, with the airmen who are the backbone of our nation’s Air and Space forces. I was also moved by the presentations about the challenges and opportunities facing our nation’s armed forces today. As the dean of the College of Applied Science and Technology, the presentations gave me an opportunity to stay abreast of the latest thinking about 21st century national defense leadership and technology.
I left with many ideas about where our college should be investing our time and resources in 21st century research and education to prepare our students to be focused and career ready.
The conversations about the challenges facing our Air and Space forces parallel the dynamics of living and working in the world today. I went to sessions on topics related to cybersecurity, multi-domain operations, the electromagnetic spectrum, space innovations, data management and accelerating artificial intelligence. I heard from senior military leaders from all services as well as defense industry executives.
Over the course of the conference, eight key themes stood out. These themes apply to military operations as well as commercial and personal success.
In today’s column, I will briefly describe these key themes. Over the next eight months, I will use this column to explore each theme in more depth and share my thoughts about how these themes will affect all our lives in the upcoming years and decades of this century.
Theme 1: Speed and agility
Gen. Charles Q. Brown, chief of staff of the U.S. Air Force, puts it this way, “Accelerate change or lose.” Without exception, every speaker and every vendor emphasized agility and speed as an important aspect of 21st century relevance in all aspects of life.
Theme 2: One team, one fight
Unless we can unify as a nation to focus our efforts on the realities of 21st century living, we will not succeed. Issues such as equitable access to technology, civil dialogue and governance, climate change and immigration were highlighted frequently. In each case, the importance of working together across society was identified as critical to solving the world’s hardest problems.
Theme 3: The digital world as an ecosystem
Technology worming with other technology, humans teaming with technology and humans learning new ways to work with humans all require a rethinking about the relationships in the world today. We exist as a system of systems with the boundary between humans and technology shrinking every day.
Theme 4: Artificial intelligence will change the world
The impact of AI was frequently referred to as “seismic.” Everyone cautioned that no one really understands how changes will occur but all of them warned that we need think differently if we are going to keep up with change. We don’t know what we don’t know, but we need to figure it out quickly.
Theme 5: Applied solutions
We must streamline the process to get ideas from the research lab to fieldable solutions. The basic research exploring modern technologies is needed, but we need more people who can creatively take technological advancements and turn those ideas into meaningful solutions for the nation.
Theme 6: Effective government
The annual federal budget stalemate has led to a Continuing Resolution Authority over nine of the past 10 years. This political stalemate slows vital research and development. We need efficient government if we are to innovate and the speed of relevance.
Theme 7: Synchronization and integration
Rapid change requires common operating concepts, integrated security systems and compatibility across the technology spectrum. Nodes of expertise need to work together. As one speaker put it, we need to move from developing cool aps to focusing on new ways of thinking about the digital world.
Theme 8: Tactical relevance with strategic impact
Whether planning a response to Russian aggression or managing the market impacts of climate change, we need to move away from “check the box” thinking and develop a new mindset toward our relationship with technology as a national imperative.
Whew! That’s a lot and we don’t have much time to just sit around and debate. The College of Applied Science and Technology is building the capability to take on these types of problems right here in Sierra Vista and Cochise County. I look forward to sharing how we are taking on each of these themes in partnership with military, federal agency, corporate and local government teammates.
Gary Packard is Dean of the College of Applied Science and Technology (www.azcast.arizona.edu) at the University if Arizona’s Sierra Vista Campus. The strategic goal of the college is to “develop intellectually fertile ground to infuse the workforce with future thinkers delivering cutting edge breakthroughs in technological, sociocultural, and training domains.”