Air Force Secretary Kendall's Parting Advice: Military Needs a 'Much More Powerful Space Force'

Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall presents the keynote address for Warrant Officer Training School class 25-01graduation ceremony at Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama, December 6, 2024. (U.S. Air Force photo by Melanie Rodgers Cox)

Posted: January 14, 2025 --- Military.com | By Thomas Novelly

Published January 13, 2025, at 6:11pm ET

Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall has less than a week left on the job and, on Monday, he took the opportunity to offer his vision for that service and the Space Force over the coming decades. The outgoing Secretary called for a bigger Space Force and for major upgrades to training and technology to ready airmen and Guardians to potentially face China in a future conflict.

Secretary Kendall's recommendations were part of a report titled "The Department of the Air Force in 2050," which he publicly unveiled during an event at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a think tank in Washington, D.C.  "China is doing everything it can to exploit the opportunities that emerging technologies are providing to field forces designed to defeat the United States in the Western Pacific, especially in space and in the air," Kendall wrote in the report.

"By 2050, if not well before, the Air Force and Space Force will not be competitive unless we make substantial improvements in how these forces are equipped, trained and operated." The Air Force secretary, a Biden administration appointee, is scheduled to leave his post Sunday after leading the service department since June 2021. He unveiled his report just hours before his farewell address Monday afternoon, as President-elect Trump prepares to be sworn in next week.

In his outgoing report, which was 1^st submitted to Congress last month, Kendall wrote that "space will be recognized as the decisive domain for almost all military operations" and pointed to China and Russia's military and technological focus on space as a major warning sign. "We're going to need a much bigger, much more capable, much more powerful Space Force," Kendall, who as Secretary also oversees that service, told the crowd Monday at CSIS. Kendall also argued that evolving times "demand changes to how we recruit and maintain airmen and Guardians."

Under Kendall's tenure, the service missed its 2023 active duty enlisted recruiting goals for the 1^st time since 1999 but rebounded from the shortfall in 2024. The Department of the Air Force "recognizes the changing nature of warfare requires a different kind of very technical, high-skill talent pool that makes recruiting the right airmen, Guardians and civilians that much more challenging," Kendall wrote.

During his tenure, he took on ambitious reorganization efforts, including bringing back warrant officers, renaming commands and creating new headquarters-level offices and roles. Todd Harrison, a senior fellow who specializes in research on defense budgeting for the American Enterprise Institute, told Military.com that Kendall's vision for the Air Force and Space Force in 25 years seemed to be more pessimistic than optimistic, in his opinion, especially when it comes to acquiring new defense technology and weapons to take on China and Russia.

"His report on the vision for 2050 is a bit curious because nearly everything he mentions are things that the Air Force and Space Force should be fielding now or within the next 5 years," Harrison told Military.com. "The fact that he views these capabilities as being 25 years into the future indicates just how slow he thinks the department is moving -- and if the past 4 years is any indication, he may be right."

Later in the day, during a farewell ceremony at the Pentagon, Kendall's colleagues praised the outgoing Air Force Secretary for working to innovate. General (O10, 4-Star) Chance Saltzman, the Space Force's top uniformed leader, highlighted the outgoing Air Force Secretary's past as an Army officer during the Cold War and said reorganizing the Department of the Air Force to keep China at the forefront of its mission defined his time in the office.

"When I think about what leaders do, that is really the heart of it: the vision, the sense of urgency and the structure to do the work that needs to be done," General Saltzman said. "I think, in a nutshell, that's really what this says you're able to accomplish." In a tearful speech, Kendall said that making sure Airmen and Guardians had everything they needed in their fight against adversaries was a motivating factor in his career. "Everything I have done for a lifetime of public service has been for our men and women in uniform," Kendall said.

"Every trip I ever took, every exercise I ever saw, every briefing I ever received, every story from the field I ever read, every conversation with an airman or Guardian or [Department of the Air Force] civil servant and any of their family members reinforce my belief in you and the importance of doing all that I could do to demonstrate to any opponent that taking on the U.S. Air Force and Space Force would be a major mistake, and to work tirelessly to make that fear more than justified."