Air Marshal Stephen Chappell, DSC, CSC, OAM
Air Marshal Stephen Chappell, DSC, CSC, OAM was appointed Chief of Air Force in July 2024. He has outlined his intentions for the Air Force during his tenure.
15 October 2024
We are currently in a period of strategic autumn, facing the most volatile regional security environment since the Second World War. Increased competition between great powers is reshaping our geopolitical landscape, compounded by complex challenges such as climate change.
In this context, the threat of entering a strategic winter—a period of great power conflict—exists. However, conflict is not inevitable. Defence’s role, as a collective, is deterrence. We must deter the decisions, in the minds of malign actors that would take us from autumn into winter.
Our mission is clear: to generate and deliver highly effective air power as part of an integrated and focused force. This is our key contribution to deterrence across time. It requires deliberate integration with our whole of government partners, our industry partners, and internationally with our allies and partners.
We pursue this mission by sharpening our focus on our people, our purpose, and our preparedness.
We will prevail by applying our key to success.
Our People
Our people are our greatest capability. The combined efforts of our aviators, public servants, and industry colleagues are essential to our mission. We will embrace the lessons provided to us from the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide, and commit to improving support for current and former service members, and their families.
We will drive systemic change to ensure Air Force offers a positive and consistent experience to all aviators. This will challenge our culture, beliefs, and priorities, requiring us to better understand the impact on our personnel. All aviators – regardless of rank or specialisation – must embrace this opportunity for improvement.
Our Purpose
Our mission requires us to shift from service-centric approaches towards true collaboration with other Defence elements. We must connect all our aviators, and our APS and industry colleagues in the Air Domain team, to the fact they all contribute to the generation and delivery of airpower each and every day.
We will continue to build integration into our daily activities. This will enhance our ability to fight and win if we are called upon to defend our nation and its interests. To succeed, we must build capacity early by prioritising our time and efforts effectively. We will critically evaluate our tasks to ensure they remain relevant to our contemporary strategy and prioritise activities that allow our aviators to recover and build team cohesion.
Our Preparedness
Our force generation delivers preparedness. It also contributes to deterrence – by emphasising our ability to deliver, to disrupt, to degrade, to destroy, and to defeat. We will demonstrate: we are ready, if called upon, to generate and deliver highly effective airpower with enhanced lethality and survivability; how our capability is amplified as part of the integrated force; and how it is further enhanced when working with allies and partners.
As we prepare we will explore how Air Force can exploit depth in time, space, and posture. We will pursue agility and asymmetry in all that we do. This approach to preparedness will leverage our unique geography, culture, and character to support National Defence. We must continue adapting our organisation, mental models, and relationships to build a better Air Force for the future.
Our Key to Success
As the highest priority our commanders and leaders at all levels must preserve the health and strength of our Force.
There are many demands on us – but we will fail ourselves and our nation if we are exhausted or broken. We are likely to be in autumn for some time. We must calibrate our tempo, and modulate our ‘throttle settings’ to first and foremost preserve our health and strength. This will require active, curious and sound leadership, judgement, and communication – up, down, and across.
My Privilege
It is my privilege to be Chief of Air Force at this time in our history – and I am honoured to be serving alongside you.
Per ardua ad astra.