JULY/AUGUST AIRFORCEMAG.COM e Air Force circulated a proposed o cer promotion system
in May, aimed at giving experts in emerging specialties a better
shot at ascending to the top ranks of the service. e current
system lumps 87 percent of o cers into a single promotion
category. at disadvantages those with unconventional ca-
reer paths—frequently those with less common specialties. In
mid-June, Deputy Chief of Sta for Manpower, Personnel, and
Services Lt. Gen. Brian T. Kelly spoke with Editorial Director
John A. Tirpak and Editor in Chief Tobias Naegele about the
new promotion system, the Air Force’s pilot shortage, and a
new expeditionary force presentation construct.
Q. e Air Force is looking at a new way to promote its o -
cers. What are you changing, and why?
A. What we’re really doing is not changing the promotion
system, but looking forward and saying, ‘What do we need to be
as an Air Force?’ And what type of o cers are we going to need
for the future?
e development and promotion system we have today has
served us really well. But as we look to the future, and the National
Defense Strategy, we know we’re going to need a little bit more
agility in terms of being able to develop our o cers in a variety
of ways.
e current system, particularly the Line of the Air Force cat-
egory ... tends to be limiting in terms of developmental agility.
e Air Force has evolved from operating in an air domain to air,
space, cyber, and further; it’s also joint integration with land and
maritime components. So the development paths can be tailored
and look toward what’s required in a variety of areas.
We already do this in many ways. Our chaplains, doctors,
dentists, nurses, and JAG (Judge Advocate General) o cers
are promoted in categories by themselves, which recognize
the need for di erent developmental paths and opportuni-
ties within those categories. e way we educate, train, and
experience o cers in those categories are di erent, and so
we’ve organized them into di erent promotion categories
over the years. As we’ve evolved as a service, the number of
specialty codes has grown signi cantly, and the di erences
in requirements in those areas have also grown.
[Now], we’re looking at whether it’s time to look at di erent
developmental paths for education, training, and experience
in the Line of the Air Force—as leaders or supporters of a joint
campaign—depending on what your specialty is.
e work we’ve done to date has included lots of reviews with
the eld. We’ve talked with folks, starting with [Air Force Chief
of Sta ]General [David L.] Goldfein’s ‘revitalizing the squadron’
work. We’ve reviewed our existing databases and run some mock
promotion boards to look at di erent con gurations.
We’ve come up with six categories that represent the joint
ghting skills we need: air and special warfare operations; space
operations; missile operations; information warfare; combat
support; and force modernization. We think those six categories
will give us the developmental agility we need so we can maximize
capability across the force.
Specialty Officers Needed
Photo: TSgt. DeAndre CurtissQ. Is the idea that some specialties were stunted with every-
body lumped into the Line of the Air Force, and this will ensure
them some progression up through the ranks?
A. e Secretary of the Air Force sets the promotion opportu-
nity, ... which says how many folks are going to get promoted on
each promotion board, based on the needs of the service. ose
are not the same in every category. For instance, promotion to
lieutenant colonel for Line of the Air Force, that category may
be around 85 percent, but that’s not the same for chaplains, the
JAGs, the medical folks.
We would expect that in this future system, the same thing
would occur, but the requirements of the Air Force would dictate
the promotion opportunities in each of these six new categories. It
would be based on the existing inventory and what the Secretary
views as the needs of the force at the time.Q. is seems to expand promotion opportunities in certain
categories, but doesn’t it also cap how far an o cer can go
if they are, say, nonrated? Are you creating more tribes and
con ning people to those tribes?
A. at’s a good question. We hear that a lot. ere’s a basic set
of requirements for being an Air Force o cer today across the
categories that already exist. Now there’s going to be some unique
routes ... or an agile route, for those folks in terms of development.
I don’t necessarily view that agility as creating additional tribes;
even in today’s system, you can have tribes. What creates tribes is
if we do not force ourselves to value integration across the service.
But certainly I would decouple the promotion system from tribal-
ism. What drives tribalism is behavior and processes, and we’ve
got to guard against that, now or in a future system.Q. Is there a way to institutionalize that or will it just be
guidelines to promotion boards?
A. Guidelines will be a big part of it. Boards will have to value
things like being able to understand and integrate across di erent
domains. We’ll ask our boards to make sure the [candidates] have
an understanding of how multi-domain command and control
works. We value people who can successfully integrate air, space,INTERVIEW
QUESTIONS & ANSWERS
Lt. Gen. Brian Kelly speaks at the Air Force Association’s Air,
Space & Cyber Conference in September 2018.