Frank Kendall, secretary of the Department of the Air Force, established the Integrated Capabilities Office, or ICO, in line with efforts to enhance DAF capabilities through modernization.
The Air Force said Thursday the ICO was officially launched on July 19 mainly to modernize the service and preserve its advantages over other countries. The ICO will support the Air Force’s objective of remaining competitive in terms of power projection capabilities in response to the great power competition.
Kendall, a 2024 Wash100 Award winner, stressed the importance of the ICO in the face of rampant military modernization of China and other countries. “The Integrated Capabilities Office will directly support the Department of the Air Force senior leadership team as we develop our integrated modernization plans for the Air Force and Space Force.”
The Air Force identified seven critical areas that needed a boost:
- Resilient space order of battle and architectures
- Joint All-Domain Command and Control
- Moving target engagement at scale
- Next generation air dominance
- Resilient forward basing
- B-21 long-range strike family of systems
- Readiness for wartime posture
The ICO will build on the Operational Imperatives by codifying its achievements. The secretariat-level office will facilitate the Integrated Development Campaign Teams, composed of operational experts from the Space Force Space Futures Command and Air Force Integrated Capabilities Command.
Working on imperative problem sets, the teams are responsible for coming up with data-driven products and services as well as recommendations. The ICO will then add these recommendations to its modernization priority list and work with other organizations on their integration into budgeting process.
