CQ Brown is Biden’s pick for next Chairman of the Joint Chiefs – here’s how he might approach the role

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden today officially nominated Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. CQ Brown as the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, setting up a Senate confirmation vote for Brown to take the reins as the nation’s top military advisor.

The widely-anticipated move, which was first reported by Politico, comes at a critical juncture for the Pentagon. The department is attempting to shift from its War on Terror assets and training into a military focused largely on China — known within Pentagon parlance as the nation’s “pacing challenge” — as well as countering what officials call the “acute threat” posed by Russia in Europe.

Speaking in the Rose Garden, Biden this afternoon praised Brown as a leader who has built a reputation as an “unflappable and highly effective leader.”

“He gained respect across every service, from those who have seen him in action and have come to depend on his judgement,” Biden said as Brown stood at his side. “More than that, he gained the respect of our allies and partners around the world, who regard Gen. Brown as a trusted partner and a top-notch strategist.”

Brown’s tenure will undoubtedly be dominated by Beijing. Should Brown be confirmed, by the end of his four-year tenure in 2027, officials have said Chinese President Xi Jinping has instructed his military to be prepared to invade Taiwan. 

As a former commander of US air forces in the Middle East and Indo-Pacific with previous stints in Europe as well, Brown has seen first hand how older platforms have performed well in uncontested environments flying sorties over places like Afghanistan but could be ill-prepared to survive the kinds of integrated air defenses that have proven their worth in the ongoing Ukraine war. 

Brown would be the first Air Force officer to hold the post since 2005, following what many viewed as a snub by then-President Donald Trump of former Air Force Chief of Staff David Goldfein. Brown would also be the second Black man confirmed to the post after previously serving as the first-ever Black man to lead a military branch, and would join Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin as the first pair of Black men to lead the DoD. 

Austin today praised Brown’s nomination, saying in a statement he “enthusiastically” supports Biden’s pick and said Brown “has developed the expertise, the vision, and the warfighting acumen to help the President and senior DoD leaders navigate today’s toughest national security challenges.”

Brown may face a rocky path to the job, as military nominations are currently mired in the Senate thanks to a de facto hold by Sen. Tommy Tuberbille, R-Ala. While the chairman’s job is important enough that it will receive a push from Democratic leadership, the process could drag, particularly if Republicans, heading into an election year, attempt to use Brown as a target for fights over social issues.

Wide-Ranging Perspective

In his nearly four decades of service, Brown has racked up posts across the globe, amassing a wealth of experience along the way as he stands poised to take on the job as the nation’s premier military officer. 

A fighter pilot by trade — who Biden said once had to eject from his jet over the Everglades in Florida — Brown previously served as aide-de-camp to former Air Force Chief of Staff Ron Fogleman in 1994, his first Pentagon post. Through that position and one years later as part of the Air Force’s budget staff, Defense News previously reported, Brown learned the ins and outs of military bureaucracy alongside managing relations with stakeholders like Congress. 

Brown earned his first star in 2009 while commanding the 31st Fighter Wing stationed at Aviano Air Base in Italy, according to his service biography. Four years later, he pinned on his second star as the deputy commander of US Air Forces for Central Command (AFCENT), whose area of responsibility largely concerns the Middle East.

Brown then hopped back over to Europe as the director of operations for strategic deterrence and nuclear integration in March 2014 at headquarters US Air Forces Europe and Africa, but just over a year later, he was plucked from Ramstein Air Base in Germany to move back to AFCENT, assuming the post as its commander with the rank of Lieutenant General. Following the rise of the Islamic State in 2014, Brown prosecuted air campaigns to roll back the insurgent state’s gains, part of the larger military effort the Pentagon named Operation Inherent Resolve. 

Striking ISIS targets required more precision munitions than officials originally predicted, Brown was reported as saying at the time, a key lesson for combatant commanders whose heavy reliance on smarter and more accurate bombs in some ways presaged the heavy expenditure of those munitions in Ukraine. 

Following a two-year post as Central Command’s deputy commander, Brown was then chosen in 2018 to lead US Air Forces in the Pacific (PACAF), where he attained the rank of full general in the process. 

His previous role as PACAF’s commander was seen as a leading factor in his nomination to serve as the Air Force’s chief of staff in 2020, as the pivot towards the Pacific was already underway. In that region, the service will be challenged to operate at greater distances against formidable air defenses that particularly threaten less survivable platforms like tankers and cargo jets. 

Writing in the Journal of Indo-Pacific Affairs in Spring 2020 [PDF], Brown, then-PACAF commander, quoted the DoD’s previous Indo-Pacific Strategy report that identified the theater as the top priority for policymakers. 

“That sentiment is my belief and, for obvious reasons, my current focus,” he wrote.

Emphasis On New Techniques And Technologies

Shortly after becoming chief of staff of the Air Force, Brown unveiled his defining motto, known as “Accelerate Change or Lose.” The phrase served as shorthand for recognizing that the Air Force has a rapidly closing window to adapt to new tactics and technologies to counter the growing threats posed by Russia and China, he argued in a brief paper [PDF], warning that the service “risk[s] losing a high-end fight” if the necessary changes aren’t made.

The catchphrase took on new life when Brown was joined in 2021 by Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall, whose seven operational imperatives, a list of priorities for the Department of the Air Force that seek to tackle key challenges for fighting a conflict in the Indo-Pacific, lined up nicely with Brown’s own ideas. 

One notable concept championed by Brown is what Air Force officials call agile combat employment, an idea that emerged from PACAF to make operations more austere and dispersed to ensure bases don’t become single points of failure if they fall under attack. Brown formally signed off on the doctrine in December 2021.

To adapt to warfare against a peer adversary, service officials have additionally lobbied Congress for leeway to junk their aging weapon systems, some of which have already been sidelined by obsolescence challenges. Many of these assets — particularly older fighter jets — won’t be called upon in a conflict with a peer adversary, officials argue, and getting rid of them frees up budget space to spend on next-gen tech. 

Perhaps the poster child for that strategy is the retirement of the A-10 Warthog, which lawmakers blocked for years amid a mix of parochialism and concerns about replicating its close air support capabilities. Last year, Capitol Hill finally relented, in what service leaders described as a win for their modernization strategy.

Laying out the reasons for why the service is moving away from the platform, Brown predicted that future conflicts will probably involve fewer close air support missions, underscoring the need for multirole fighters that can meet combatant commanders’ wider needs. 

“The challenge is we’re going to be in more contested environments in the future,” he said.

Commitment To Diversity

As Chairman, Brown’s primary job will be providing military advice to the president. But he also serves as an important symbolic role for the uniformed community, and is keenly aware of what having a Black man as the top American officer may mean. 

In June 2020, as the nation reeled from the murder of George Floyd, Brown spoke directly to the airmen under his command about the unrest gripping the country, as well as the plight faced by people of color.

“As the commander of Pacific Air Forces, a senior leader in our Air Force, and an African American, many of you may be wondering what I may be thinking about surrounding the tragic death of George Floyd,” Brown said in a video that went viral. 

“I’m thinking about a history of racial issues and my own experiences that didn’t always sing of liberty and equality,” he explained, detailing his own personal history with racism, both before and during his time in uniform. “I’m thinking about wearing the same flight suit, with the same wings on my chest as my peers, and then being questioned by another military member, ‘Are you a pilot?’”

Brown’s impassioned video at the time was somewhat of a risky move. With his nomination for Air Force chief of staff pending, the general risked being accused of politicizing his role and potentially jeopardizing his nomination, as well as implicitly rebuking the commander-in-chief who tapped him for the post. It also came on the heels of calls by some lawmakers to send in troops to quell the spreading unrest prompted by Floyd’s murder. 

Days after Brown’s video was published, the Senate unanimously confirmed him as the Air Force’s top officer by a vote of 98-0 on June 9. Today Biden said Brown’s video “took real backbone.”

Since then, Brown has defended the Pentagon against accusations by conservative lawmakers that the military has embraced a “woke” agenda, a catch-all term for initiatives aimed at fostering greater diversity and inclusion in the armed forces. 

During a hearing before the House Armed Services Committee in April, for example, Rep. Matt Gatez, R-Fla., grilled Brown on a slideshow pulled from the Air Force Academy that instructed cadets on alternative terms to address caregivers, who may not always be moms or dads. The congressman asked whether the ideas in the slide put “downward pressure” on recruiting as the military faces a critical shortfall of new members.

“No, I don’t,” Brown responded. In follow up questions from another member, Brown stood firm, stating “What I’m saying is be respectful and get to know your airmen before you just assume,” he said in a following exchange with Rep. Cory Mills, R-Fla. 

During his June 2020 video, Brown indicated his approach consists of listening to those affected, while making clear that action is needed to confront the United States’ long history of racism. 

Without “clear-cut answers” to address centuries of racism and discrimination, “I just want to have the wisdom and knowledge to lead during difficult times like these. I want the wisdom and knowledge to lead [and] participate in necessary conversations on racism, diversity and inclusion,” he said during the video.

“That’s what I’m thinking about,” he concluded. “I want to hear what you’re thinking about, and how together, we can make a difference.”