The issue with the USAF is more fundamental than that. The bottom line is that the USAF as an institution does not want to change or add anything in its basic mission set. In fact, the USAF as an institution wants to further reduce its mission set to its self perceived traditional “core” missions.

This is, of course, completely delusional behavior. The reason the USAF is in a budget crunch in the first place is the, very accurate, perception that the service has not done much in the war on terror realm. Additionally, as a service it has made the fewest changes to accommodate post cold War reality.

A consistent issue brought up to the USAF, and one their leadership actively chooses to completely ignore, is that a military is valued off of what it does today. Most of the core missions of the USAF fall into the category of contingency capabilities, that have little utility outside of a very narrow band of activity.

The central problem facing the USAF, and this goes back to the heart of your AFSOC question, is that the USAF as an institution does not want to expand its capabilities list beyond what it is currently performing. In fact, it wants to reduce this, but it does not want to cease performing any of its traditional roles as well. In essence, the USAF is engaging in self induced irrelevancy.