JULY 21, 2026 – Chief of the Air Force Reserve and Commander of Air Force Reserve Command Lt. Gen. John P. Healy and Chief Master Sgt. Israel Nuñez, senior enlisted advisor to the chief of the Air Force Reserve, met with allied counterparts during the 2026 Global Air & Space Chiefs’ Conference and the Royal International Air Tattoo 2026, July 16-17.
Throughout the events, senior leaders participated in bilateral engagements focused on strengthening interoperability and expanding international partnerships. The engagements included signing Terms of Reference with senior leaders from the United Kingdom, the Philippines and the Netherlands, formalizing future cooperation through the Reserve Allies & Partners Program, an initiative that strengthens relationships among international forces and enhances collective readiness.
Healy emphasized that strong partnerships begin with personal relationships, making forums like 2026 GASCC and RIAT 2026 important venues for military leaders to connect and exchange ideas.
“I get the opportunity to network and have a dialogue with every one of these air chiefs,” Healy said. “It’s a wonderful opportunity to build rapport and coalition, then from there discuss how we can help each other in the future.”
As the Department of the Air Force continues to emphasize Total Force Integration, the partnerships with allied partners create opportunities to share expertise, strengthen relationships and improve participating nations’ ability to operate together during future operations and contingencies.
“The sum of the parts are better than the individuals every time,” Healy said. “Whenever we’re able to build that interoperability, we’re able to leverage what we know and what they know in order to make both of our units stronger and more effective in the future.”
The bilateral engagements also reinforced the value of international collaboration by giving allied leaders an opportunity to exchange lessons learned, share best practices and build on one another’s operational experience.
“We want them to learn from our successes and our failures,” Nuñez said. “We’re not saying what is correct but sharing how we employ in our capacity.”
The agreements mark a step toward institutionalizing long-term cooperation among allied forces through recurring engagements and shared professional development.
“This solidifies a way forward for us to ensure that each year we’re doing exercises and mil-to-mil engagements together,” Healy said. “That same interoperability and those same interconnections we’re trying to solidify to make them deliberate, not accidental.”
By Staff Sgt. Kaitlin Frazier
Headquarters Air Force Reserve Command