The report lays out a framework for modernizing that the Air Force can use to develop new operational concepts in the context of joint-service requirements, to organize analyses for assessing capabilities, and to effectively advocate Air Force programs to "deciders' in the Office of the Secretary of Defense and Congress. The work builds on earlier work on a strategies-to-tasks framework, concept development, and up-front planning. The broad conceptual framework promotes innovation and modernization of Air Force capabilities and is consistent with the chief-of-staff's emphasis that capabilities be developed and fielded in a timely manner. The framework offers a clearly defined set of relevant terms applicable at several levels of operation; it identifies (generically) the principal actors within the Air Force who are guiding and promoting innovation; it lays out a process governing the interactions among these principal actors; and it lists operational capabilities, derived from the defense strategy and from joint-service employment concepts, that could be used to organize modernization efforts.