WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump has formally selected Air Force Gen. Kenneth Wilsbach to serve as the next Air Force Chief of Staff, according to a congressional notice.
Breaking Defense on Sept. 26 first reported that Wilsbach was Trump’s choice to replace Air Force Gen. David Allvin, who unexpectedly announced last month that he would retire as the service’s top uniformed officer in November, halfway through his four-year term.
Wilsbach’s path to chief of staff has been unusual compared to the typically rote and bureaucratic nomination process, starting when he stepped down as the head of Air Combat Command in August. The four-star general announced at the time that he planned to retire, though when Allvin announced his departure days later, Wilsbach subsequently emerged as the frontrunner for the job.
The general’s candidacy then appeared stalled after social media accounts decried Wilsbach’s previous statements on diversity, equity and inclusion, boosting Air Force Global Strike Command chief Gen. Thomas Bussiere for the service’s top job instead. Bussiere was previously tapped to serve as the Air Force’s vice chief, but Aviation Week reported his nomination has since been pulled.
The unprecedented campaigning for the Air Force’s top military role became the talk of the Air Force community, and was a hot topic among attendees at the Air and Space Forces Association conference last week. Air Force Secretary Troy Meink in a briefing with reporters on Sept. 22 downplayed concerns that the service would be left leaderless in its top uniformed position, saying “the bottom line is we will not not have a chief.”
Then on Sept. 26, sources told Breaking Defense Wilsbach’s chief of staff candidacy had broken through the logjam and that the general’s nomination for the post was expected in the coming days. The Senate formally received his nomination Monday evening, the congressional notice says.
Wilsbach is a fighter pilot by craft, having flown aircraft like the F-22 Raptor, F-15 and F-16. If confirmed, he would guide the Air Force through a series of transformations underway with the Trump administration and serve during a critical window, as fears mount that China could invade Taiwan and invoke a US response. In his own right, Wilsbach has commanded forces amid what he called “completely unprofessional and totally unsafe” intercepts by Chinese pilots.
Data overload threatens decisionmakers as autonomy expands
Reducing cognitive overload on warfighters while improving “time to trust” for autonomous systems is a matter of design.
“What’s disturbing is … their typical response is, ‘This is your fault, because this wouldn’t have happened if you weren’t here,’” Wilsbach told reporters in September 2023, regarding cases where American officials have been able to confront their Chinese counterparts on the intercepts.
“Do it safely, do it professionally and everybody will be okay,” Wilsbach said. “We won’t have a miscalculation. We won’t have a disaster.”