Engineering the Future: Organizing United States Air Force Civil Engineers for Joint Operations and the Projection of Airpower

摘要

The current United States Air Force (USAF) Civil Engineer (CE) organizational structure was put into place in the early 1990s and there have been no significant changes since then. As the military strategic environment shifted from a cold war stance to one of global engagement, peace-keeping, and humanitarian assistance, USAF CE managed to meet its mission requirements, but not without cost. With the advent of the Aerospace Expeditionary Force (AEF), increased humanitarian assistance missions, and increased garrison requirements, USAF CE experienced stresses in several key specialties. These stresses affect USAF CE's ability to meet contingency and garrison requirements. USAF CE analyzed the requirements of the new environment and developed the Civil Engineer Strategic Plan (CESP). The plan outlines the goals, mission essential tasks, and the modernization framework for a 25-year plan to transform the existing organization into an Aerospace Combat Engineer (ACE) force. This timeline is not sufficiently rapid to prevent serious degradation of mission capability in the current environment. In order to remain viable, USAF CE must plan and execute an immediate organizational shift to an ACE force within the next two years to address current pressing concerns with plans for a final organizational shift by 2005.