MAXWELL AIR FORCE BASE, Alabama – On Nov. 10, military officials, civic leaders and community notables from around Montgomery, Alabama, gathered to watch Lt. Gen. Steven Kwast take command of Air University, the center of education for the world’s largest Air Force.

Although it's a scene oft-repeated throughout the service whenever one commander leaves and another takes over, this handover may represent more than just a change on the masthead. If Kwast succeeds, it could represent a turning point in how the service relates to Air University, or AU, a crucial part of the Air Force often regarded as a backwater by the Beltway crowd.

Gen. Mark Welsh, Air Force chief of staff, charged Kwast with changing how AU connects back to the rest of the service, broadening military education while tapping into the reservoir of thinkers.

"I asked Lt. Gen. Kwast and his leadership team at AU to harness the significant intellectual horsepower of the various classes at Maxwell AFB to ensure that we use both their experience and IQ to help address today's Air Force issues, not just tomorrow's," Welsh told Defense News.

"One of the specific things I've asked them to do is try to develop the concept of America as an aerospace nation," he said. "The intent is to highlight the benefits and the opportunity that the aviation industry presents for our country, as well as the benefits of the airpower it allows us to develop."

Kwast elaborated on that notion during an interview with Defense News at Maxwell.

"It is really about taking a reinvented educational construct that can educate more people more deeply and then making it congruent and chasing the strategic problems of the day," he said. "We have got to start thinking differently about how our resources are applied to the foundation of thinking."

Matthew Stafford, vice president for Academic Affairs at Air University, cites Welsh as a major influence on how AU will move forward.

"We have a chief of staff at the very top who wants to reinvigorate education," Stafford said. "He's got a vision that Air University could be a think tank and producer of ideas to guide us into the future."

That includes making AU, with its 10 branches of educators and researchers, into something that feeds directly back to decision-makers in Washington as they weigh everything from strategy to budget decisions.

"[Welsh] would like this place every year to have certain projects that are connected to the most urgent strategic problems," Kwast said. "And the evidence that builds over time on those strategic problems influences the guidance to building the POM [program objective memorandum]. It influences the strategic choices that are part of the POM and corporate process. And it influences the adaptation and shaping of the strategy, each and every year."

That sounds like a no-brainer, but in many ways, AU has become a forgotten corner of the service, an obligatory stop on your career rather than a resource.

This was made clear when Kwast was tapped to take over the LeMay Center for Doctrine Development and Education after his time running the quadrennial defense review (QDR). The consensus in Washington was that he was being exiled due to his willingness to challenge long-held notions during the QDR.

Instead, Kwast argued the connections he made during the QDR process will help AU create ties across the service and change that perception.

"It is just a matter of connecting those dots," he said. "In a big bureaucracy, that is sometimes hard to do, especially when you are so busy with so much work and so few people."

Rebecca Grant, a former Air Force official and president of IRIS Research, said Kwast's QDR experience was "the ideal background of the mission he's set to accomplish [at Maxwell]."

"I'm a big fan of Kwast," Grant said. "I think he's a brilliant iconoclast and absolutely tailor-made for taking over that job right now."

But, Grant said, changing AU's role in the service isn't a new idea.

"There have been a lot of previous efforts to link AU more closely to the airpower arena in Washington," she said. "It's kind of an ongoing goal for the Air Force to do that. It comes and goes, and it looks like they are set to try again to use AU as an intellectual resource."

Small Dollars, Big Opportunity

The first challenge on Kwast's plate? Getting a bump in the budget.

Speaking days before he handed control of AU over to Kwast, Lt. Gen. David Fadok said AU officials are lobbying for a modest increase in their slice of the fiscal 2016 budget.

"We're not asking for much," said Fadok, who is retiring. "We're asking for about an additional 25-30 faculty and about $2.5 million a year [over the fiscal 2015 request] in operations, maintenance and sustainment costs. I am absolutely convinced that if the Air Force decides to resource it, and it's looking promising, the return on investment would be huge."

For context, operation Inherent Resolve averaged $8.3 million a day from Aug. 8 to Nov. 11. In other words, less than a third of a day of operations in Syria and Iraq could change how military education is done in major ways.

That money would go primarily toward increasing how long-distance education is conducted, Stafford said.

"It's a sizable investment, a sizable increase in people," he said. "The fact it hasn't been killed yet in this lean time shows the service gets the need for military education."

That proposal was presented at the last Corona commanders meeting and not rejected. The next hurdle comes in January when it is brought before budget officials.

Another area that could receive a funding boost is the Air Force Research Institute, a series of small, focused study centers comprising AU's research arm.

Led by retired Lt. Gen. Alan Peck, the institute offers specialized knowledge in a variety of topics, from non-traditional weaponry to languages. And if funding can be found, Peck would like to see a new center started up, one focused on China.

"There's been some discussion on the Air Staff that says, 'We need a place that's thinking a little bit more deeply about China,'" Peck said. "So we're in discussions about the possibility of standing up a center that's focused on China, and I think this would be a good place to do it."

That center would not just focus on research, but would also have a teaching aspect, giving officers a venue to learn more about the history, people, military and strategies of what many view as America's biggest competitor. To get it going, however, Peck said, "we need a little help on resourcing."

Once again, the funding would be relatively small, but the rewards could be exponential. Peck said cost for the potential center would be low, covering three to four faculty members and a decent-sized travel budget — all likely under $1 million total, a tiny figure compared with the overall service budget.

To Grant, things like a China research center and an emphasis on greater education ties into the larger strategic plans the Air Force has been developing.

"You look at the emphasis on human capital in the Air Force's long-range plans, and a very important part of that is the education piece," Grant said. "And that is something the Air Force senior leadership needs to keep vital, and really give back to its airmen if there are opportunities. So I see Welsh and Kwast's mission with AU very much tied to the corporate emphasis on human capital." ■

Email: amehta@defensenews.com.

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