President Joe Biden has tapped Gen. David Allvin as his nominee to function the following Air Force chief of staff, the White House announced Wednesday.
That puts Allvin, who has served as Air Force vice chief of staff since November 2020, in line to guide the service within the midst of a large paradigm shift to organize its troops and equipment for a brand new era of war.
If confirmed by the Senate, the profession mobility pilot and strategist would replace Gen. CQ Brown, the present Air Force chief of staff who’s nominated to chair the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
RELATED
![Air Force Vice Chief of Staff Gen. David W. Allvin speaks with civic leaders from South Carolina during a meeting at the Pentagon, Arlington, Virginia, June 8, 2022. The group discussed local initiatives for Joint Base Charleston. (Eric Dietrich/Air Force)](https://www.defensenews.com/resizer/wdl9yaN9qWBsQgm9-sJOUBPlSHg=/800x0/filters:format(jpg):quality(70)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/archetype/IDFYO2KFEBD2XOIBTGNPP3FAXQ.jpg)
Air Force Times first reported in May that Allvin was the Air Force’s internal pick for chief of staff, the frontrunner amongst candidates that included U.S. Transportation Command boss Gen. Jacqueline Van Ovost and Pacific Air Forces boss Gen. Kenneth Wilsbach.
Sources described him as a well-read, professorial leader with the self-discipline and Washington know-how to make an impact.
As head of the third-largest branch of the armed forces, Allvin would manage a $180 billion budget and 689,000 uniformed and civilian employees around the globe over the course of a four-year term. He would also hold one in all eight seats on the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
The Air Force is asking Congress to grant it a $185 billion budget in fiscal 2024 and green-light the following phase of a sweeping plan to retire lots of of older aircraft that leaders say will probably be ineffective in future wars.
Allvin will inherit “a variety of the identical problems” that Brown has faced, one retired four-star told Air Force Times, “that are primarily methods to persuade the system that, after 30 years of underfunding the Air Force, it’s going to take some fairly drastic measures to allow them to meet up with the efforts China has made.”
The brand new chief will even play a key role in reversing the Air Force’s struggle to recruit and retain airmen — particularly pilots, maintainers and cyber operators.
The four-star earned his officer commission from the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado in 1986, in accordance with his official biography. He learned to fly cargo aircraft before becoming a test pilot, training wing commander, and head of the 618th Air and Space Operations Center — Air Mobility Command’s hub for tasking tanker and airlift missions around the globe.
Allvin has also risen through command jobs and strategy and planning roles on the Pentagon, Air Force headquarters, U.S. European Command, the United Nations and NATO. He has amassed greater than 4,600 flight hours in nearly a dozen airframes.
It’s a very good yr for the vices: Each of Biden’s nominees to guide the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps currently serve because the No. 2 officer of their respective branches.
Air Force Times previously reported that Lt. Gen. Jim Slife, the Air Force’s deputy chief of staff for operations and a frontrunner within the special operations community, was also on deck to switch Allvin as vice chief of staff. It’s the primary time in greater than a decade that neither the Air Force chief of staff or its vice chief would hail from a fighter background.
Still, it’s unclear how soon Allvin may have the option to take the highest job. He joins nearly 300 military officials who’re ensnared in Alabama Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s monthslong hold on Pentagon nominees in protest of the department’s abortion-related policies.
The Air Force and the White House didn’t comment on the nomination by press time.
Rachel Cohen joined Air Force Times as senior reporter in March 2021. Her work has appeared in Air Force Magazine, Inside Defense, Inside Health Policy, the Frederick News-Post (Md.), the Washington Post, and others.