U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen. Rebecca Sonkiss, who took over as Air Mobility Command’s interim commander earlier this month, addressed servicemembers, industry, and journalists on the state of mobility readiness at the 2026 Air & Space Forces Association Warfare Symposium in Aurora, Colorado, Feb. 24.
Readiness was the central theme throughout the three-day event and amplified by the Air Force’s most senior leaders, including Air Force Chief of Staff, Gen. Ken Wilsbach. He emphasized his back-to-basics priorities for the Air Force, which is to fly and fix to deter and if deterrence fails, to fight and win.
“Flying and fixing is about the maintainers generating aircraft, the weapons troops loading with precision,intelsharpening the picture and defenders securing the flight line,” he said. “It’stankers extending their range, planners stitching the timeline together, command and control assets communicating clearly and providingtimelyinformation to our shooters.”
In addition to individual readiness, Sonkiss relayed the criticality of resourcing and equipping mobility Airmen with what they need to succeed in future conflict, should deterrence fail.
“The things we need to invest in to ensure we can operate in contested environments is connectivity, survivability and modernization,” said Sonkiss. “All of those things are necessary, and we must [rapidly] give those tools to our Airmen, so they can get after exercising with them.”
Sonkiss focused discussion on recapitalizing the strategic airlift fleet, including the need to advance Next Generation Airlift (NGAL), which will eventually replace the aging C-5M Super Galaxy and C-17 Globemaster III strategic airlift platforms.
“I have to modernize the mobility fleet. We must figure out the pathway for C-5 and C-17,” stated Sonkiss. “The strategic airlift fleet doesn’t often gain traction in the narrative of what we need to modernize…but we must come up with what the Next Generation Airlifter is because it is key to the readiness of the Joint Force.”
In addition to advancing NGAL, Sonkiss outlined the imperative to bolster connectivity, not only in mobility aircraft but also across the global air mobility support system, aeromedical evacuation forces and the 618th Air Operations Center. She emphasized the imperative will increase survivability of mobility air assets through increased battlespace awareness while also increasing the joint force’s ability to communicate, inform and re-task assets to execute dynamic and evolving missions.
“What I will tell you that I’m most worried about for our crews remains connectivity for aircraft, your mobility forces are not connected,” Sonkiss explained. “We are on a pathway to get there…If [mobility is] integrated into the scheme of maneuver, I have an increase in survivability, it’s imperative for us to do that.”
Sonkiss provided examples where connectivity created valuable competitive advantages in recent operations.
“We had Midnight Hammer and the [Southern Command] operations as well, where the connectivity in our KC-46 actually played out in being that assured connectivity for our [Joint] partners, where they were able to relay information on the mission and ensure that there was not failure in execution.”
In addition to hardware innovations, Sonkiss outlined how predictive mobilization models can better incorporate Total Force Airmen to ease active-duty requirements. This approach could generate increased availability of active-duty Airmen for future requirements, but it could also provide increased training opportunities for them.
“And what we’ve been trying to do to help increase readiness for the active force—because they’re the ones that are usually the easiest to access—is to build predictive mobilization models where we put the [Air Reserve Component] forward to help give us capacity,” said Sonkiss. “We can do global operations, day in and day out, and preserve some readiness for the next fight.”
In addition to underscoring the importance of readiness, the general emphasized the unrelenting commitment of AMC Airmen.
“Please know that your Airmen in Air Mobility Command are doing amazing work for the nation. You should be really proud of them, I am every day,” Sonkiss stated.
It is impressive to see what they’re doing, not just real time in ongoing operations, but the creativity they have to get after the hard problem sets so we’re ready for the future fight, she concluded.