This Statement articulates the major elements of our Air Force Posture - our strategy for fulfilling our role in defending the Nation and its interests; our contributions to winning the Global War on Terrorism; our most critical efforts and concerns; and our top priority programs. Three overarching Service priorities serve as the organizing principles for all of our efforts: Winning Today's Fight; Taking Care of Our People; and Preparing for Tomorrow's Challenges. The Air Force's top acquisition priorities specifically begin to address our critical recapitalization and modernization needs the new Tanker (KC-X); the new Combat Search and Rescue Helicopter (CSAR-X); modern space systems to provide capabilities vital to our Joint warfighters; the F-35A Lightning II; and a new Bomber we intend to field by 2018. We will continue our efforts to modernize and protect America's vital air, space, and cyberspace capabilities. We strongly recommend extending the existing C-130J production line. We are also concerned with preserving America's aerospace industrial base. Additionally, we seek relief from restrictions on the retirement of aging, worn-out aircraft which are increasingly unsafe, unreliable, and obsolete. The Air Force is highly engaged in national efforts to assure sustainable energy, and we will continue to push the performance envelope on fuel efficiency and renewable energy technologies. We are committed to the Joint Basing initiative and want to work through the transfer of total obligation authority (TOA) and real property control without impacting command authorities, reducing installation service support, or negatively affecting quality of life. Finally, we will continue our practice of recruiting and retaining the world's highest quality Airmen. We will build upon our successes in achieving Total Force Integration of our Regular, Guard, Reserve, and Civilian Airmen.

America's Airmen and Air Force capabilities play a foundational role in how our military fights and wins wars. The Air Force's agile response to national missions - in the time, place, and means of our choosing - gives our Nation an indispensable and unique advantage that we must retain as we plan for an uncertain future. Whether responding to a national security threat or a humanitarian crisis, your Air Force provides the responsive global capabilities necessary for the joint force to operate successfully. It takes the combined efforts of all of our military Services and the whole of government to deny, deter, and defeat an enemy, and over the last decade this integration has tightened. Just as we depend on our joint partners, every other Service depends on the Air Force to do its job. Whether it is Global Positioning System (GPS) information to navigate waterways, airlift to get troops to and from the fight, manning intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) silos to deter aggression, or reconnaissance and satellite communication to tell forces where enemy combatants gather or hide, the Air Force provides these capabilities, as well as many others. Here at home, our Airmen patrol the skies ready to protect the homeland and are integral to the movement of people and lifesaving supplies when disasters, like Hurricane Sandy or the California wildfires, strike. This capability to see what is happening and project power anywhere in the world at any time is what Global Vigilance, Global Reach, and Global Power are all about. The current fiscal environment requires the Air Force to make some very tough choices. When making decisions about the best way for the Air Force to support our Nation's defense, the abrupt and arbitrary nature of sequestration created a dilemma between having a ready force today or a modern force tomorrow. To best support national defense requirements, comply with the Defense Department's fiscal guidance, and meet defense strategy priorities, as updated by the 2014 Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR), we attempted to preserve capabilities to protect the homeland, build security globally, and project power and win decisively. To do this the Air Force emphasized capability over capacity. We worked hard to make every dollar count so we could protect the minimum capabilities for today's warfighting efforts, while also investing in capabilities needed to defeat potential high-end threats of the future. Moving forward, we seek to maintain a force ready for the full range of military operations while building an Air Force capable of executing our five core missions: 1) air and space superiority; 2) intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR); 3) rapid global mobility; 4) global strike; and 5) command and control, all against a well-armed and well-trained adversary in 2023 and beyond.