Name: U.S. Air Force Secretary Speaks at Fortune’s MPW Summit
Uploaded: 2016-10-18
Duration: 14 min 37 s
Description: Deborah Lee James discusses war in space and North Korea

[ MUSIC ] Good morning. Well, I'm lucky. I got the best job, I think, today. I just ask questions. Obviously, secretary James came today here. So let's get started but I wanna first start with that question. We're not ready? Well, when you talk about readiness in the US armed forces, Greta, you always have to add the phrase ready to do what. So when it comes to being able to do the types of operations that we're doing right now in the Middle East and the Battle for Mosul is now on, we are uber ready to do those jobs, we've been doing them for 15 years. But think about other types of conflicts that we might get into. A conflict that has integrated air defenses up against us. A conflict where we don't necessarily have 100 % control of the air. There's where we estimate that half of our combat air forces are not sufficiently ready for what we call a high- end fight. A fight where the guys on the ground can interfere with us in a big way in the air or in space. And that's what we're worried about and that's where we need to double down our focus on. All right How do you reconcile two mandates? One mandate is from congress which says cut down, cut costs and the others American people that says keep us ready. Well you know congress is not a one mind on this and there are actually many supporters that we have in congress. That are persuaded that we need to robustly fund the military, and there's a lot of people in the American public who are as well. But what we have to do is figure out as a country, how to come together and how to make all the parts of government, be them entitlement programs, be them the tax code, be they the other parts of government funding. How do we compromise and make all of this work? So that we are appropriately fund our military but we have to appropriately fund the other parts as well. [ UNKNOWN ] we can include the audience so make sure you see the microphone has passed along [ UNKNOWN ]. Women, should women be required to register? That's a debate that's going on right now in congress and I suspect when they come back after the elections, we'll get their answer. But I'll give you my personal opinion. I think women should register for the selective service. Just by way of background, we haven't had a draft in this country since the Vietnam war. So it's been a long time but we still have A Selective Service System, where right now today, young men, upon reaching the age of 18, need to register in the system. At the moment, our young women do not. Very recently we brought down all remaining barriers to women being able to serve in all roles in the Armed Forces. So now there is Equality in the armed forces. A qualified person can compete for any job be they a man or a woman and so I think it is time that young women should also register in this database. And of course it's really fun. the first woman to fly in combat fighter pilot Martha McSally is a member of congress. So that's fun. Good for Martha McSally. Excellent. Did you serve? I know you're serving now, but were you in uniform? I have not served in uniform. If you were 18, would you serve? I would seriously consider it and I'll tell you why. The military is unparalleled in my opinion when it comes to educational opportunities. We pay for college We even have a GI bill whereby you can pass on the benefit if you don't end up using it to a spouse or to your children down the line. It's unparalleled for training opportunities. There's opportunities to travel. And very importantly there's opportunities to be part of important matters that are way, way bigger than just you as an individual. And great camaraderie and leadership experience. Speaking of leadership, is there a gender challenge of being [ UNKNOWN ] to the Air Force or are we beyond that? Well there have been two women ever, I being the second, to be in a position of serving as a civilian leader of a military service, so there certainly is no legal obstacle to it. It's not exactly the culture. But at least, to put it, to state the obvious, but for me, it's been just the opportunity of a lifetime. And again, I have worked my entire professional life, which is now about 35 years, in national Security. If it's a president Trump, you're not gonna be secretary of the Air Force, I think that's pretty clear. You came in a Democratic administration. If there's a president Clinton, that's possible. But assuming that there's gonna be another secretary of the Air Force come January, what's your advice to that secretary. What's the biggest challenge that you wish you'd gotten going into this? This? My advice to the next secretary will be really double down on the people issues. So, yes, there's people issues. There's issues of our training and readiness. There's issues of becoming a more modern Air Force because our equipment is aging and we do need to modernize. But amongst all of those issues, I think the people issues are frequently the most challenging, the most important. So if you have to give on something, I would look at giving on some of the other areas, but make sure you double down on people. Like how? Are you talking about more money or more services? What's the element missing on the people issues? We need to make sure that we continue to attract from the widest pool available among the young people across America. So that we continue to get great new young people in our front doors. And then once we have them, we have to develop them. So that they have to feel inspired. They have to feel like they wanna continue with us. Because retention is so important. In our Air Force and our military. We have to make sure there is a culture of dignity and respect for all. We have to continue to fight issues like sexual assault in the military. All of these are part and parcel of the people issues. Proper pay and benefits. That are reasonably comparable. Many, many people issues and as I said people are the bedrock. And we gotta get it right on those issues. Alright, speaking of people issues. How about the people on Capitol Hill? You worked on Capitol Hill at one time. How do you work with these committees and with sort of the diverse opinions about military, about spending? Even particular political issues have made dogs some of these people. How do you work with this? The committees that we work with, for the most part, our two authorizing and two appropriations committees, are actually very, very pro defense. And there's quite a few members on those committees who have served in some capacity. So there is A lot of knowledge there. What our biggest challenge is is talking to the rest of Congress to getting the word out to those people that don't understand or don't know us as much. And of course, members of Congress, Senators and Congressmen, they are dealing with a whole [ UNKNOWN ] Of issues that go beyond defense and so To be able to tell the story, to tell it briefly, to tell it in a persuasive manner. That communication is always the biggest challenge. As a taxpayer, the one thing I always look at is defense spending. And, of course, the media highlights the $ 10, 000 toilet seat on a plane, or something that costs them [ UNKNOWN ]. How are we doing on that sort of efficiency and keeping cost down, avoiding the overruns and really putting some of the lid on it, well of course, not jeopardize the national security? We are doing better but there are still plenty of improvement out there and we have to keep pressing on that matter as well. In fact, I have three priorities. I talked about the people, I talked about the balance of readiness and modernization. The third is what I call make every dollar count. And that gets to the efficiency argument. So we have to continue to attack headquarters spending, which we've done, there's going to be more to follow. We have to make sure that these new weapons systems don't overrun the ways some of the Older weapon systems have been doing in the past. We're trying to create more of a culture within our Air Force where airmen on the frontlines who see how to do their job differently and more efficiently, that they come forward, give us suggestions And if we implement them we are saving more money across the airforce. The savings and energy, these are the varieties we have to keep [ INAUDIBLE ]. You've talked about money lemme ask you about policy how do you address a problem that space which much of our military action is now exploring and doing, it's very congested? How we're working with other nations, cuz we gotta sorta divvy this up and figure out who's doing what. Well, space is not only congested, but these days it's somewhat contested. So that is to say, it is quite possible that in a future conflict, a conflict on Earth could extend into space. Space, just by way of background, is critical for everything that we do in the military. It's what allows us to do precision navigation. It's what allows us to put a bomb very precisely on a target. It is hugely important. So, it's a potential worry that an adversary could take out satellites in order to deny us the ability to do that precision navigation, as an example. So, we have to get our heads around that and, just like every other part of the military, we have to prepare for the eventuality that a conflict could lead into space. Do you feel we're ready for that? Are we ahead of that? Because there are some nations that are rather rogue nations. We have a lot of development in terms of weapon systems. Are we ahead of this that we don't get wiped out on something critical? So we're ahead of it to the extent that we have all sorts of tools in our toolbox. Even if something happens in space, our response doesn't have to be in space. Our response can be any number of approaches. So in that regard, I want to assure everybody. That we are in good shape but our technological prowess, others are catching up with us. And it is a worrisome thing, and so as a leader and a decision maker in government it's part of my job to call these things out. To make sure that we fund appropriately and that we put the appropriate attention on these matters. Best thing, worst thing about your job. The best thing is the Airmen. If you could just go out and see what I see. [ LAUGH ] It's all of the fantastic people in the Air Force. We have 660, 000 people in our Air Force who are active duty, the part time national guard and reserves, the civilians. They are mostly young and they're doing a magnificent job. You would be very, very proud if you could see some of what I have seen in our Air Force. The worst part is the divisiveness of government. And that of course we all know about. It's expensive, but I think it's well worth it. And not to slight the Blue Angels, I love the Blue Angels, but the Thunderbirds they're expensive but they bring a lot to the military don't they? Yes, and you know expensive- The Thunderbirds are the ones that race F- 16 and do the unthinkable things. They don't think it's close to be 18 inches apart, wing to wing, by the way. The Thunderbirds are a demonstration aerial team and so, they are able to go out and do airshows and the number one area where we get leads for new young people who are positively interested in coming to the airforce is through the leads that are created at this airshow So it's a demonstration to the public a little bit about what we do in the Air Force and it helps to breed excitement amongst our young people. Any, off the top of your head, numbers women pilots versus male pilots in the Air Force right now? Very small percentage still of women pilots. All the piloting career fields have been open to women since the 1990s. But, still, for whatever set of reasons, we don't have as many women who go out for these career fields. But we have had women in combat and we've had women flying with the Thunderbirds. It's Coming along. I'm surprised there aren't more women pilots. It's a small percentage. It's on the order of ten percent of pilots. List of planes you've flown in the back seat of. I've had the opportunity to fly with the thunder birds so that's an F- 16. I've flown in tankers. I've flown in the U2 which Is the intelligence and surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft that goes up just to the point, not quite into space but almost, where you can literally see the curvature of the Earth. I've seen tankers that are refueling other aircraft in mid air. Have you been part of a refueling? That's crazy. I have. That's crazy. I wasn't at the controls. No, no, that's even crazier, right? [ LAUGH ] Yeah. No offence. But it's exciting, isn't it? Great job. Very exciting. People don't realize a military career for so many young people it's a chance. It's a chance they wouldn't otherwise have. It really is. You're right. I'm sorry we don't have any questions. Do you have any questions? There we go, right over here. Edit we need a pad over there. One. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] Hi, good morning, my name's Joanna Sejovich, and I served as a naval officer for five years at a time when women were very much the minority. And so we didn't think about job titles and whether they were inclusive of women. But we just had a A deliberate misunderstanding about your term airman, and I know there's a raging debate about reclassifying the job titles to be more inclusive of women, particularly if they're required to register. What's your position on that? First of all, let me just say, and I should have probably said up front airman is a generic term. It means civilians as well, so I am an airman. As a civilian in the Air Force. To be honest, as I've traveled around the Air Force, I do a lot of all hands meetings, all calls we call them, with the people in our Air Force and this is not a matter that has come up that there's a desire for a change. There's a lot of other desires for different types of changes. This has not been one of them. So it is not something that I am particularly pushing for, certainly not in my final months in office. There's just bigger fish to fry in my judgement. And let me just say one last thing. My time is up. How many women here have served besides this woman over here? How many women, raise your hands, have served? [ BLANK_AUDIO ] One, two, that's interesting. Anyway, thank you, Secretary [ UNKNOWN ] Always nice to see you and thank you for your service. Thank you. Thank you for your service as well. [ MUSIC ]

Deborah Lee James discusses war in space and North Korea