AURORA, Colo. -- Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Allvin wanted to make it clear: The troops that he oversees will do whatever President Donald Trump wants them to, and they'll be ready for it.
"That is what airpower, anytime, anywhere means. It's not just an aspiration. It's a promise we have to uphold for America," Allvin said during his keynote speech Monday evening at the Air and Space Forces Association Warfare Symposium in Colorado. "We have to sustain and maintain the ability to go anytime, anywhere in the densest threat environment and put 'warheads on foreheads' anywhere the president might want."
It wasn't just the Air Force. Gen. Chance Saltzman, the Space Force's top leader, made it clear during his keynote speech that same evening that Guardians are also "warfighters" who must be ready for conflict, and the service must go on the offensive to achieve "space superiority" against the nation's adversaries.
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"That's what we signed up for ... the challenge, the call to duty," Saltzman said during his speech. "That's what it means to live and work in the greatest military the world has ever seen ... to be warfighters, regardless of the uniform we wear or the job we hold."
This is one of the first major forums the two service leaders -- both of whom were spared from Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's purge last month of top military leaders -- have had since the new administration was sworn in.
Both made a clear embrace of the Pentagon's new priority to "revive the warrior ethos," as Hegseth put in his initial message to the services in January. But delivering on that by providing new technology and weapons for Trump's national security priorities is also at the mercy of looming defense cuts.
Todd Harrison, a defense budgeting expert at the American Enterprise Institute think tank, told Military.com in an interview that the timing of Allvin and Saltzman's comments in the wake of the firings is notable. Trump and Hegseth fired the Air Force general serving as the Joint Chiefs chairman, the Navy's chief of naval operations, and the Air Force vice chief on Feb. 21 without explanation.
"You can't help but think that the firing of the generals a few weeks ago has led to some of the change in rhetoric and behavior from the remaining service chiefs," Harrison said. "They are trying to get in line with the administration's new priorities and its new rhetoric in order to save their jobs."
Allvin did not participate in a roundtable with reporters, a notable absence from what is typically one of the few times where journalists can ask the service's top brass about the most pressing issues.
Notably, as the Department of the Air Force waits for its secretary nominee to be confirmed, all of the service's ambitious reorganization efforts focused on competing with China, many of which were endorsed and pushed by Allvin, have been paused by Hegseth until new leadership can approve them.
A defense official spoke to Military.com on condition of anonymity to discuss Allvin's focus on "lethality," as well as his response to the pause of the reorganization efforts.
"Readiness and lethality are at the core of both the USAF's efforts to realign to the threat environment and the new administration's priorities," the defense official said. "That is why everyone in [the] Air Force is fully onboard and welcomes the incoming civilian leadership team reviewing not only the 'why' behind the warfighters and readiness initiatives, but also the considerable progress made to date."
Saltzman did speak with reporters. When pressed by Military.com on what led to the change in tone in his speech and the call for the Space Force to use means such as orbital warfare, electromagnetic warfare and counterspace operations, the four-star general said it was a natural progression for the service.
"It's more of a maturation of the role and the responsibilities that a new service has and just developing the vocabulary, developing the doctrine, operational concepts, and now the equipment and the training," Saltzman said during the media roundtable. "It is just part of the process, I feel like."
Both the Allvin and Saltzman keynote addresses focused on getting each service more modern and technologically advanced weapons and aircraft to carry out their missions -- a tall order as Hegseth has directed each service to offer up 8% of potential cuts in order to fund Trump's national defense priorities.
"In this dangerous and dynamic time, I want to give the president as many options as I can," Allvin said during his speech. "So that means modernization."
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