Healy stresses Reserve readiness during GPC panel at Air, Space and Cyber Conference

Lt. Gen. John Healy focused his remarks Sept. 18 on Reserve readiness and integration amid the Great Power Competition during a panel held here at the Air and Space Forces Association’s Air, Space and Cyber Conference.

Healy, dual-hatted as the chief of the Air Force Reserve and commander of Air Force Reserve Command, was a featured speaker during the “Exercising for Great Power Competition” panel.

"When I look at exercising, right off the bat I say we don't have enough. First and foremost, we don't have enough exercises in order to be effective," Healy said.

He listed his prior experience running exercises for the European continent, both the supervision of NATO and European Command forces, as the basis for his opening comments.

"We've got warnings out there right now but no resourcing with the warnings associated that those provide to the U.S. military in order to bump up our ability to exercise, plan and rehearse these things."

Additionally, Healy said he looks at the Air Force Reserve's role in exercising for Great Power Competition from the perspective of understanding authorities. Authorities are critical to the Reserve component, he said, because without the proper authorities and the execution of those authorities, the active component cannot access the Reserve in the way it would most want and need.

"So in addition to the exercises we need for certification — think of those major muscle movements — I put a huge emphasis on needing senior-level understanding, planners from major commands and combatant commands understanding these authorities, and our civilian leadership, so that we can normalize the use of asking and executing these authorities in any conflict,"​ he said.

When the four panel members were asked to provide examples of how each command is integrating training and exercises with regional allies and partners, Healy said, "For the Air Force Reserve Command it has largely been targets of opportunity [and asking] 'How can we embark on something which formalizes relationships with allies and partners?'"

When asked specifically about the efforts the Air Force Reserve is pursuing in order to be ready for successful Total Force operations, Healy spoke of the timeline for the stand-up of the first Deployable Combat Wing the Air Force Reserve is responsible for.

"While that's two years and two weeks away for the average human being in the audience, that's 23 drill weekends away for our first deployable combat wing,” he said. “That's 27 weekends to get the training we need that the active component will get in the next two years and two weeks. So we are all about taking risks and leaning forward. It's a culture change within the Reserve. From my position to the staff, the numbered Air Force commanders and the wing commanders — taking risk and making sure we're prepared to get out the door."

In his closing comments, Healy echoed, "For the Reserve we've got to make sure we're prioritizing exercises. We've got to get more out of just exercising to exercise. It's got to be a certification event, it's got to be allies and partners. We're going to continue to press to make sure these are worthwhile exercises that move the ball forward."

In addition to Healy, the other officers on the panel were Gen. John D. Lamontagne, Air Mobility Command commander; Gen. Kevin B. Schneider, Pacific Air Forces commander, and Lt. Gen. David N. Miller, Space Operations Command commander. The moderator was retired Air Force Lt. Gen. David A. Deptula, dean of AFA’s Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies.

During the conference, Healy also joined Chief Master Sgt. Israel Nuñez, AFRC command chief and senior enlisted advisor, for a media roundtable on Sept. 17, and took part in a Congressional luncheon on Sept. 16.