TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Increasingly, the U.S. government will both voluntarily relinquish being the
owner of militarily relevant technologies and become a user, licensee, and lessee of
commercially developed systems with military applications.
• The USAF must pursue the exploitation of information and space with the same
fervor with which it has mastered atmospheric flight.
• A revolution in military education (RME) will be required if we are to achieve a
revolution in military affairs (RMA).
If we wish to survive and prosper as a nation and as a service, we need to take
these conclusions, validated in this most recent study, as a guide to action—now. The
future is not about future decisions. It is about the future consequences of current
decisions. We know what has to be done. The test is to take action on these insights to
insure the nation’s security. Horizon 21 is neither new nor distant. It is here—and
now.APPENDIX A: THE CHARGE
The preceding discoveries and recommendations are products of a study, known
internally and initially as “Horizon 21” – the first in an on-going series of long range
strategy and technology studies initiated by the Chief of Staff of the Air Force and AF/A8
called “Blue Horizons.” Horizon 21 sought to capture the knowledge resources of Air
University—its faculty subject matter and research expertise and the student operational
perspective resident in the ten month masters programs at Air Command and Staff
College (ACSC) and the Air War College (AWC)—to accomplish the latest in the series
USAF long range studies. These studies began with Theodore von Karman’s New
Horizons, and progressed through the years with such notable studies as General Bernard
Schriever’s Project Forecast, the Air Force Scientific Advisory Board’s New World
Vistas and the Air University Air Force 2025. But it has been 11 years since the last of
these had been completed, and this gap is effectively widened by the increasing speed of
technological change. Previous long range studies were large, expensive, and infrequent.
This study was conceived as the first part of an ongoing series of smaller, shorter and
more focused studies which would be annual assessments, largely from an operator’s
perspective, of the emerging technologies and strategic challenges of the next 25 years.
The AF Chief of Staff identified specific responsibilities for both the execution
and oversight of the study. The specific charge to AU students and faculty was “to
extrapolate strategic trends, identify capabilities to advance or disrupt air and space
power, and evaluate capabilities’ strategic impact.” Study oversight and guidance was to
be provided by a newly formed Air Force Futures Group (AFFG) drawn from key USAF
planning organizations. The AFFG consists of representatives from A5, A8, A9, the AF
Chief Scientist, the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR), the Air Force
Research Laboratory (AFRL), the National Air and Space Intelligence Center (NASIC),
the Cyber Task Force, and the Center for Strategy and Technology (CSAT). CSAT, as
part of the research arm of Air University, served as the primary organization responsible
for conducting the annual studies. In sum, the AFFG, under the leadership of AF/A8 and
the Air University Commander, was charged with overseeing a series of annual studies to
be known collectively as Blue Horizons, which will present reports to the CSAF after the
close of each academic year.APPENDIX B: RESEARCH APPROACH