US Air Force scraps plan for new capabilities command

The Air Force has scrapped its outgoing chief of staff’s plan to create an independent command focused on developing the service’s future requirements into new systems.

The functions of the provisional Independent Capabilities Command will be folded into a restructured version of Air Force Futures by next April, the department said Wednesday.

“This restructuring will accelerate the delivery of combat power, improve efficiency and shorten the decision timeline,” Air Force Sec. Troy Meink said in a statement.

Last February, former Air Force Sec. Frank Kendall and Chief of Staff Gen. David Allvin announced plans to create the ICC as a key pillar of a vast “reoptimization” of the service to better prepare it for a potential conflict with China.

Allvin wanted the ICC to centralize future requirements planning, instead of having individual commands handle those responsibilities themselves. He further urged lawmakers to fund it so the Air Force could move quickly to set it up.

But lawmakers wanted to hear more about how the reoptimization would work. And as the Trump administration returned to power, new Pentagon leaders were skeptical of the program and put it on hold. Allvin announced his surprise early retirement in August, amid reports that it was prompted by his strong advocacy for the reoptimization that was falling out of the administration’s favor.

Now, the duties of what would have been the ICC will still be done, but not as its own brand new command.

The Air Force said that this change will leverage the work done over the past year and speed up decision making, while cutting personnel and eliminating duplication of effort at echelons of command. It will also cut the number of steps needed to coordinate associated command structures, the department said.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered the Department of the Air Force to review the effort to set up ICC, the department said.

In the process of that review, according to the emailed statement, Meink and Allvin ordered Air Force Futures to be restructured to better align the service’s modernization efforts.

As part of the restructuring of Air Force Futures, the service will create a new Chief Modernization Officer position. That official will be in charge of four main areas: Strategy and force design; mission integration and mission threads; capability development and requirements; and modernization investment prioritization.

Until the ICC is fully folded into Air Force Futures, the department said it will keep working to improve modernization and how it is prioritized, supporting key investment areas and preparing to join Futures.