Chief of 16th Air Force Future Operations Presents on Information Warfare

The chapter had the pleasure of welcoming Col. Michael Winter, USAF, chief, Future Operations (J-35), 16th Air Force, at this month's virtual luncheon. Information warfare convergence and its associated challenges were the topics of discussion. According to Air Force Doctrine Document 2-5, information warfare is information operations conducted to defend one's own information and information systems or attacking and affecting an adversary's information and information systems. "It is the employment of military capabilities in and through the information environment to deliberately affect adversary and system behavior and to preserve friendly freedom of actions during cooperation, competition and armed conflict," explained Col. Winter.

Throughout history, theorists have been using information warfare to bring about an intentional change with information and strategic messaging. Back then, there were only the domains of land, sea and human domains. In contrast, today, our military has to consider multiple domains of land, air, sea, space and cyberspace. Col. Winter went on to explain the historical trends and differences of both the Eastern and Western warfare philosophies that used differing geographical and cultural influences to determine specific outcomes. "In Eastern warfare, you are pretty much subduing or subverting the enemy and maybe not with lethal force." Planning in this respect is viewed as opportunistic and deliberate using information power, unlike Western warfare, where planning can be viewed as steady state using more physical power. This type of thought basis rolls into how the "game" is played. Col. Winter referred to chess in describing how transparency in the methodology of chess relays to how we play that game. "We see each other's pieces and moves, and it comes down to who is more cunning in terms of using your pieces." Our current adversaries like Russia, he explained, play a game more like poker where there is a lot more bluffing. There is strategic guidance that can help understand where our country is going with information warfare regarding planning and convergence. "We must improve our overall competitive approach when it comes to competition." Much of the work and streamlining within the Air Force's competitive approach manifested in reactivating the 16th Air Force as leaders of the information environment. With the many challenges the emerging information warfare adversaries pose to our nation, 16th Air Force members continue to integrate all of the functional capabilities together to reach that intended goal-denying enemy victory and winning wars across multiple domains.

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