The Chief of the Air Staff’s Global Air & Space Chiefs’ Conference 2025

About the Global Air & Space Chiefs’ Conference

The Chief of the Air Staff’s Global Air & Space Chiefs’ Conference brings together global leaders in Air and Space Power with captains of industry and technology enhanced by experts from international academia. 

The conference explores the strategic challenges facing the Royal Air Force and Whole Force partners as well as international partners and global allies through a combination of keynote speakers, presentations and diverse panels formed of military, academic, industrial and other scientific and practitioner experts. The conference annually attracts 550 senior military and business personnel, including over 50 chiefs of the air and space forces and other force commands. It leads into the Royal International Air Tattoo at RAF Fairford.

Held at the Institution of Engineering & Technology, Savoy Place, London, the Global Air and Space Chiefs’ Conference features conference, networking areas and displays and an exclusive reception on the evening of Day One. The conference is also broadcast for virtual attendees.

Conference Theme:
Integrated Air & Space Power in the Evolving Battlespace

Air and space power has never been so important. We face the most challenging strategic environment in decades. Working together by integrating our services, the whole of government, and defence industry as well as allies and partners, is critical for our success today and tomorrow.

With the return of great power competition, this year’s theme ‘Integrated Air & Space Power in the Evolving Battlespace’ will concentrate on the rapid rate of technological change in the battlespace, learning the lessons from today’s conflicts and how new and emerging threats can be countered, in order to succeed in the air and space domains.

‘In 2025, the world remains a volatile place. Now more than any other time in our careers, air and space power are needed to secure our nations, our interests, and our way of life.  We cannot do it alone. We must integrate into one team to meet the challenges of the evolving battlespace.

GASCC25 will explore the challenge and stimulate debate amongst the team who are responsible for developing, delivering, and sustaining global air and space power today, tomorrow and together.  I look forward to seeing you there.’

Air Chief Marshal Sir Rich Knighton, Chief of the Air Staff, Royal Air Force

The conference features the following sessions plus Keynote speeches

1. Setting the Global Stage

The first session will focus on the current global situation, with informed views from a European air force commander and a leading Indo-Pacific expert and broader view of the Future Operating Environment across international regions of interest. The industrial landscape will also be explored  with insights from leading figures.

2. Establishing Control and Building Resilience

The second session will explore the space domain. Following a keynote address,  a panel of space experts and practitioners including UK and international space force commanders will examine how this all-seeing domain can be fully exploited to achieve optimum space domain awareness.

3. Autonomy and 6th Generation Air Power

Embracing autonomy, whilst recognising the need to use it ethically, is the subject matter for the third session. Air Vice-Marshal Jim Beck, Air Capability Director, will chair a panel of AI and ethics academics and practitioners, with valuable input from an international air chief expressing how this technology and new 6th Gen platforms are being used now and how they can contribute to fighting and winning in the future.

4. Countering Emerging Threats

As we see the prolific use of Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) in the Russia-Ukraine war, air power experts must also realise the threat to their use with rapidly developing electronic warfare capabilities. A senior RAF leader will chair a discussion on how these technologies are developing in the rapidly changing conflict environment.

5. Identifying the Correct Lessons from Today’s Conflicts

Finally, the challenges and opportunities of innovating for multi-domain effect will be debated, expertly led by Air Marshal Sir Johnny Stringer, NATO Air Command Deputy Commander, with perspectives from Australia’s Chief of the Air Force, a leading academic and senior industry figure.