We've worked long and hard and taken steps to make the Chief of Staff's Global Engagement strategy, which includes Information Superiority, a working reality.
First, we've streamlined the headquarters to create billet surpluses to be reinvested where we need them most in support of our changing missions. This includes the merger of the Communications and Information Directorate with the Operations Directorate, based on the reality that information operations and connectivity are inseparable. We have also strengthened the Information Operations Center; now the headquarters' 24- hour- a- day nerve center, it provides situational awareness for Lackland's Force Protection Group, Information Operations reachback to customers, and is building an indications and warning set for Information Warfare. Second, following the Chief's Innovation theme, we es-tablished the first of six Air Force Battlelabs. The Information Warfare Battlelab's charter is to think beyond our everyday missions, to originate ideas in doctrine, tactics, organization and training, as well as technology, and then apply them to what we are doing today and to help guide our planning for the future. Our Battlelab will explore innovative concepts for information protect, attack, gain, and exploit, and further prove their practical use for Air Force operations. Third, we are redefining who we are and where we are through embedding and co- locating with our other operational counterparts. Our embedded AIA people at the Numbered Air Forces produce an information lifeline enhancing overall operations by providing an umbrella of information superiority. We'll be visible "at the fight" where information issues originate. Embedding takes deliberate steps to enhance our combat relationship as a full participant in warfighting. In redefining who we are, we have made some significant changes to the ideas of "intelligence" and "operators." Intelligence used to be rather narrowly viewed as threat briefings and aircraft recognition, "beeps and squeaks," and imagery interpretation, all shrouded in a veil of secrecy. Now, intelligence is less about secrets and more about the timely and accurate transfer of information, as well as the discovery that in many contingencies information itself can be the decisive force. The Air Force has embraced the concept that information itself is not only an enabler of operations, but also is a domain within which military op-erations take place, and therefore has added many dynamic features to what we once thought of as "intelligence."The move to "information operators" may have been generated by this agency, but it is taking root throughout the Air Force hierarchy. We are in the midst of redefining who operators are; we've expanded the definition to include those who understand the doctrine and employment of air and space power. In June, Secretary of the Air Force Sheila Widnall spoke at the Air Force Intelligence Awards Banquet and had this to say:
"This [Bosnia] is an information operation. The people executing it are information operators – not intel people, not photo interpreters – they are operators. So I view this operation as a huge milestone along our path to the future. It's a future in which our ability to gain, exploit, attack, and defend information is central to everything we do … Your role is not to support the warfighters – you are the warfighters, integral members of the operational team."These all represent milestone events. We have moved ourselves and the Air Force into a very exciting time of change and discovery, of new strategies and tactics and ways of envisioning the battlespace. I consider myself exceedingly fortunate to have been with you at this time in our journey into the future. You should know that I've been very pleased and proud to be your commander, and I hope to get to see you and work with you on other endeavors, as you are distinctly the best and the brightest! Jeanine and I wish you all God speed and good luck.