Described as the competition force — meaning it is engaging adversaries below the threshold of armed conflict — 16th Air Force combines cyber, electromagnetic spectrum operations, intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, information operations and weather, among others, into a single organization for unity of effort.

The command is experimenting with a nascent initiative to take the convergence of capabilities and authorities to support air components with their operations — dubbed the information warfare operations cell within the 616^th Operations Center, known as the glue pulling information warfare together.

“How can we best support their OAIs [operations, activities and investments] with the IW capabilities and authorities that we have to amplify, to enhance, to produce outcomes?” Lt. Gen. Thomas Hensley, the new commander of 16^th Air Force as of Aug. 1, told reporters Thursday during a media call. “We’ve had a couple of syncs with the air components. We’re going through a crawl, walk, run phase, if you will. We’re now at the walk phase and we have generated some outstanding lessons learned on how we can support the air components all the way from the unit level up to the Office of Competitive Activities level and everywhere in between.”

For example, Air Combat Command, Headquarters Air Force and the Office of Competitive Activities are involved in this process and “we’re making strides every single day,” he added.

The Office of Competitive Activities is a new organization spurred on by Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall’s charge to “reoptimize” the service for great power competition against China, though little is publicly known about it. Documents released when the initiative was announced in February this year indicated that it aims to combine disparate efforts to oversee and coordinate sensitive activities.

From a friendly-force aspect, Hensley said this information warfare operations cell will look to determine how much to reveal to the adversary and how much to conceal.

The common trope from the nuclear deterrence era of the Cold War was that deterrence doesn’t work if the adversary doesn’t know what capabilities friendly forces have. Thus, there is a common balance in deciding what to demonstrate to the adversary and what to keep hidden so as not to expose capabilities to countermeasures.

Meanwhile, the organization is looking at how to expose adversary activity and disrupt it via information warfare.

The inaugural commander of 16th Air Force — Gen. Timothy Haugh, who now commands U.S. Cyber Command and directs the NSA — noted when he departed that the command and IW must scale across the Air Force.

As part of that scaling, 16th Air Force is also working on multiple efforts to improve the synchronization and development of information warfare concepts.

One is to develop an information warfare operations center concept, to more closely integrate capabilities. That involves developing campaign plans and operation designs to better understand who says what and when, what is the target audience for content, how effectiveness is measured, and did the adversary even recognize what the command was trying to do.

That along with other efforts — to include developing roles and requirements for what information warfare means — are being worked across multiple levels of the service from the command, the nascent Office of Competitive Analysis, Air Combat Command and the Air Staff.

A challenge for 16th Air Force’s effort is consolidating and integrating the various capabilities, mission areas and authorities under its purview — a huge portfolio ranging from signals intelligence to U-2 spy plane operations to cyber.

Hensley noted that many of the other services began to replicate the efforts of 16th Air Force in terms of converging capabilities.

“The Marines actually followed suit with what 16th Air Force did. In many ways, we’re working through the same things,” he said, referencing the 2023 creation of the Marine Corps Information Command, designed to more tightly link the service’s information forces — including cyber, intelligence and space — in theater with the broader joint force.

“When it comes to Title 10 and Title 50 and cyber authorities and SIGINT authorities, we certainly want to keep those together in one organization so that we have unity of command, unity of action, so that we can move with speed and agility to produce IW outcomes,” he added.

All these efforts come as Kendall has charged Air Forces Cyber — the cyber component to U.S. Cyber Command that sits within 16th Air Force — to elevate. Details regarding that elevation remain vague, with top officials saying they want to take their time to ensure all the various equities are taken into account.

That effort has been spurred on, in large part, by concerns about China.

“The most important challenge that we face is maybe the general public’s lack of understanding about the gravity of the Chinese threat. As we consider the things the secretary has mentioned, why we’re doing great power competition, reoptimization, revitalization, why we’re doing some of these things, is to posture ourselves for great power competition — and quite frankly, as he said, before possible conflict with China,” Hensley said, suggesting earlier this week that the secretary didn’t think the service was postured and thus asked for a reorganization. “I don’t think the general public really understands the things that [China is] trying to do to advance their government at the expense of democratic governance, processes, institutions.”

Hensley was cagey regarding where AFCYBER’s elevation stands now and what that means for 16th Air Force, despite indicating that an integrated information warfare approach with like-capability organized under the same command is likely here to stay.

“The secretary has said that he wants to elevate ACYBER and we’re going to elevate AFCYBER to be a service component command. But that brings in the question, then, what is the future status of 16th Air Force in its totality?” he said. “The only thing I can offer at this point is that we have some very senior leaders that are going through a very deliberate process to determine what is the right way forward with AFCYBER being elevated in 16th Air Force. I think we’re getting pretty close to a decision on that one, but that’s all I can comment on at this time. We have very, very senior leaders that are trying to determine the future of both those commands.”

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Like the Navy, the Air Force years ago chose to integrate its intelligence function — known as the 2 — and its communications and network function, known as the 6, into the A2/6, led by a three-star general. It also added cyber to that portfolio, resulting in an official title of deputy chief of staff for intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and cyber effects operations.

Now, the service is dividing those functions to elevate the role of cyber and networks in a future conflict.

“The Chief of Staff of the Air Force needs a senior cyber officer to be his advisor. He can’t have a senior intelligence officer be that advisor,” Lt. Gen. Leah Lauderback, the A2/6, said Monday during a presentation at the annual DAFITC conference in Alabama. There should be a “three-star at the Air Staff who is advising the secretary of the Air Force, is advising the chief, is partnered with the [principal cyber adviser], partnered with the CIO, and we are well on our way to making that happen.”

While cyber was born out of the intelligence world and there are significant efficiencies between the two function — namely signals intelligence — the service feels it needs distinct separation between the two going forward.

Lauderback said the hope is to have a three-star confirmed by spring 2025 to establish this new A6. At that point, the A2 will go back to focus solely on intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance matters.

She noted this is in line with Secretary Frank Kendall’s charge to elevate Air Forces Cyber as part of that reoptimization effort for great power competition. Details regarding that elevation remain vague, with top officials saying they want to take their time to ensure all the various equities are taken into account.

“Elevate AFCYBER. This goes along the same theme, as the secretary said when he thought that he needed an A6. The theme is: I need to elevate the 6 community, the cyber community,” Lauderback said. “It needs to be elevated so that it is on par with air superiority, with mobility superiority, with electromagnetic superiority, all of the other mission sets that we have in the service. I think that this elevation of both the 6 and then of AFCYBER is going to put this at the forefront of all of the senior leadership within the Department of the Air Force, so that they understand you can’t work without comms and you can’t work without cyber operations, attacking the enemy and defending from the enemy.”

The effort also appears to be part of a continued consolidation and emphasis on integrated information warfare capabilities. America’s adversaries have emphasized information warfare, a broad swath of related disciplines including cyber, electronic warfare, intelligence, communications and space, among others. They have prioritized these capabilities and organized to integrate them, making significant gains relative to U.S. forces.

Information warfare personnel could help deter actors such as China, according to officials.

“If 2027 is the planning date [for China to invade Taiwan], if we do IW correctly in the information environment and we’re able to deter the Chinese for something they are thinking about doing in 2027, maybe when 2027 rolls around there’s a recognition that it’s not the year to do it. Maybe [the Chinese will decide] ‘We’ll do it 2028, maybe we’ll do it 2029,’” Lt. Gen. Thomas Hensley, who took command of 16th Air Force less than three weeks ago, said at the same conference.

“16th Air Force, IW [numbered air force], we’re in the competition phase right now, where we’re doing things in multiple domains at a threshold below armed conflict to help shape that information environment so that we can deter the Chinese,” he added. “I think that’s the importance of engaging in the information environment with IW and using all the tools to be able to do that.”

However, the service still is not optimized for this fight.

“As the secretary has asked multiple times: Are we ready for a fight with China tonight? Clearly, he’s not comfortable with the answers that he’s getting, so that’s why we’re doing [great power competition] reoptimization, so that we get faster … and we need to do [that] to get ready for a fight with China,” Hensley said.  

Hensley noted that the Air Force needs to invest in more information warfare personnel, known as 14Fs in Air Force personnel parlance. There are currently only about 200. Plans call for having around 500 eventually across the entire service.

“If we’re serious about making information warfare a domain where we want to make a difference, then we’ve got to increase the number of information warfare warriors in our military,” he said.

A recent report from the RAND Corp. highlighted some of the Air Force’ shortfalls, noting it has failed to realize its ultimate vision and much of the reforms made remain largely aspirational.

Other officials pointed to how the reoptimization efforts — and particularly the changes between the A2/6 — will help establish better structures for operations in the information environment.

For example, the electromagnetic spectrum operations team will move out of the 2 function and into the 3 function, which is focused on operations to combine with the cyber effects and information operations portions to create a new directorate focused on IW ops.

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Hensley, who pinned on his third star prior to the ceremony, was previously the organization’s deputy commander.

The ceremony was presided over by Gen. Ken Wilsbach, commander of Air Combat Command — which 16th Air Force currently sits under — and Gen. Timothy Haugh, commander of U.S. Cyber Command and the inaugural commander of 16th Air Force, with several retired military cyber officials from all the services in attendance.

Hensley takes over from Lt. Gen. Kevin B. Kennedy, who came into the job in summer 2022 and is retiring after over 34 years in uniform.

16th Air Force is the service’s integrated information warfare entity, which encompasses cyber, intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, electromagnetic spectrum operations and weather, among others. It serves as the service component to U.S. Cyber Command and the cryptologic component to the National Security Agency conducting signals intelligence.

The organization was created in 2019 to integrate the disparate functions of information warfare across the Air Force, one of the first in a series of reorganizations across the U.S. military to address the growing field of IW and combat similar integrated and reorganized factions of adversary militaries such as China and Russia.

The unit has some unique missions, Wilsbach said. “In fact, there’s some of them that are happening as we speak inside of cyberspace, in the air, with reconnaissance aircraft. And certainly we have analysts, intel analysts, that are looking at collections that we’ve been making over the last few days. They’re doing that right now and they do that seven days a week, 24/7.”

Wilsbach noted that under Kennedy’s leadership, the command established an information warfare operations center to synchronize all the activities associated with information warfare for the air component and combatant commanders and launched something called Project Phoenix that gathers subject matter experts across numerous organizations to improve the way intelligence, cyber and reconnaissance products are delivered.

It has played a critical part in recent operations as the main entity responsible for conducting and planning cyber ops across U.S. European Command, helping harden networks against Russian cyber threats in the midst of the war in Ukraine.

Kennedy “led the longest Cyber Command tenured mission packaging campaign cyber response for Ukraine. They’re doing some amazing work. I can’t tell you about any of it — but amazing work and that’s happening 24/7,” Wilsbach said.

Haugh noted that 16th Air Force supports four separate combatant commands and has played a major role in aiding their efforts:

• European Command: defending networks and supporting Eucom in its efforts to aid Ukraine against “the unlawful invasion by Russia.”
• Strategic Command: defending the highest priority networks within the Department of Defense that relate to nuclear systems.
• Space Command: integrating with the newest combatant command as it grew its headquarters
• Cyber Command: aiding in election security efforts over the last few years to prevent foreign interference.

“Each of those roles take synchronization, it takes time and what it also takes is a really great leadership team,” Haugh said.

One of the issues Hensley will navigate is the elevation of AFCYBER, part of Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall’s sweeping changes to the service as part of a reoptimization plan to better organize the department to fight China, which was first announced in February.

As part of that plan, the Air Force intends to elevate AFCYBER, and while details on that effort have been sparse, it is believed it will be taken out from under Air Combat Command.

“We have some changes that are going to happen with AFCYBER and 16th Air Force that are going to occur in the near future,” Wilsbach said. “If you could pick anybody we would pick [Hensley] to lead us through that transition because he has the expertise and he has the experience too. A lot of joint time, a lot of time overseas, a lot of different missions. So right guy, right time.”

Gen. David Allvin, chief of Staff of the Air Force, told reporters in June that the service is being very meticulous in getting this elevation right.

“We want to make sure we measure twice and cut once because there’s different elements of that with respect to where the manpower belongs and … comes from different sources,” he said.   

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Hensley is currently the deputy commander of 16^th Air Force, the service’s integrated information warfare entity, which encompasses cyber, intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, electromagnetic spectrum operations and weather, among others. It serves as the service component to U.S. Cyber Command and the cryptologic component to the National Security Agency conducting signals intelligence.

The organization was created in the fall of 2019 to integrate the disparate functions of information warfare across the Air Force, one of the first in a series of reorganizations across the U.S. military to address the growing field of IW and combat similar integrated and reorganized factions of adversary militaries such as China and Russia.

If confirmed, Hensley will pin on a third star and take over for Lt. Gen. Kevin Kennedy, who has served in the role since the summer of 2022.

Previously, Hensley has primarily served in intelligence roles, with a recent stint as the deputy director of operations for combat support at NSA, and little to no dedicated cyber roles.

Hensley takes over at a pivotal time for 16^th Air Force. Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall in February announced sweeping changes to the service as part of a reoptimization plan to better organize the department to fight China. As part of that revamp, Air Forces Cyber will be elevated.

However, what that means in practice is less clear, even months later, as the Air Force is still gaming out what that will look like.

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