Gen. David Allvin gets nod to be next Air Force chief of staff
Gen. David Allvin, currently serving as Air Force vice chief of staff, has been nominated for the service’s top military post, according to a notice posted on Congress.gov.
If confirmed by the Senate, he would succeed Gen. Charles “CQ” Brown, who has been tapped to be the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
President Biden’s nomination of Allvin for Air Force chief of staff, which was quietly sent to the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday without fanfare from the White House or Pentagon, continues his trend of picking the services’ No. 2 officers for promotion to the top slot.
Last week, Biden announced that he will nominate Adm. Lisa Franchetti to be the next chief of naval operations. She is currently the vice CNO under Adm. Mike Gilday. Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George has been chosen to succeed Gen. James McConville as chief of staff. Gen. Eric Smith, who was serving as assistant commandant of the Marine Corps, has been tapped to be the next commandant — he’s already been performing the duties of commandant since Gen. David Berger’s retirement earlier this month as he awaits confirmation to take the position permanently.
It’s unclear when Allvin, Franchetti, George and Smith might be confirmed. Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., has put a blanket hold on senior military officer confirmations in protest of the Defense Department’s abortion policies.
If confirmed, Allvin would lead the Air Force as it pushes forward with a variety of modernization initiatives including new drones known as collaborative combat aircraft, a new Air Force battle network, a next-gen stealth fighter and B-21 stealth bomber, IT upgrades, hypersonic weapons and others.
In his current role as vice chief, he’s a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Requirements Oversight Council and the Deputy’s Management Action Group.
According to his official bio, he’s had a slew of joint assignments including Chief, Organizational Policy Branch, Policy Division, Joint Staff; Special Assistant to the Director, Joint Staff; Commanding General, NATO Air Training Command-Afghanistan, NATO Training Mission-Afghanistan/Combined Security Transition Command-Afghanistan, and Commander, 438th Air Expeditionary Wing, Kabul, Afghanistan; Director, Strategy and Policy, Headquarters U.S. European Command; Vice Director, Strategy, Plans, and Policy, J-5, Joint Staff; Director for Strategy, Plans, and Policy, J-5, Joint Staff; and Senior Member, U.S. Delegation to the United Nations Military Staff Committee.
Allvan, an Air Force Academy graduate, is also a command pilot with more than 4,600 hours, including 800 flight test hours and 100 combat hours in Iraq and Afghanistan. He has flown the C-12F, C-141A/B, KC-135R/T, C-17, C-130, C-130J, C-23, F-15, F-16 and T-38, according to his bio.
