JULY 18, 2024 – Leaders of the U.S. Air Force, U.S. Space Force and the Royal Air Force have renewed their Services’ commitment to bolstering air and space integration at the operational and tactical levels.
U.S. Space Force Chief of Space Operations Gen. Chance Saltzman, U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Allvin, and Royal Air Force Chief of the Air Staff Air Chief Marshal Sir Rich Knighton signed a Shared Vision Statement on Combined Air and Space Power in the 21st century at the RAF’s Global Air & Space Chiefs’ Conference in London, United Kingdom, July 17.
The endeavor is a successive step in a long history of security cooperation and collaboration between the two nations and recognizes the need to rapidly adapt to a changing operational environment.
Three critical lines of effort were included to drive continued partnership and support responses to global defense challenges and threats — Operational Harmonization, Capability Integration and Collective Space Dominance.
“Among great powers, space is the linchpin,” Saltzman said. “We’re part of a growing group of allies and partners that enhance our collective security through resiliency, redundancy and interoperability. Collaboration between the U.S. and the U.K. is essential to maintaining our combined force’s competitive advantage across all domains.”
As the NATO alliance celebrates its 75th anniversary, this shared vision exemplifies U.S. efforts to work with NATO allies and European partners to adapt and modernize its approach to challenges in an era of Great Power Competition.
It also emphasizes that building upon existing common ground and shared perspective is a key component of shared success and serves as a foundation for closer cooperation.
“No nation can successfully confront today’s dynamic security environment alone,” Allvin said. “By increasing our integration with the Royal Air Force, we are enhancing our collective ability to address the threats we face. We will continue to invest in partnerships like this to build enduring advantages while simultaneously strengthening deterrence.”
The statement also reaffirms the long and historic partnership between the U.S. and one of its closest and most capable partners and strengthens the allied strategic advantage across all domains.
“Through working together, we continue to build our long history of close military security co-operation as two NATO partners,” Knighton said.
Secretary of the Air Force Public Affairs