In April 2021, the U.S. Air Force Doctrine Development and Education Center officially released “Air Force Doctrine Publication 1: The Air Force” (AFDP-1) (March 10, 2021 Edition), completing a major update to the Air Force Basic Doctrine Volumes 1 and 2, which serve as the most fundamental doctrine of the U.S. Air Force and will guide the combat operation for a long time. In the updated AFDP-1 doctrine, it is clearly stated that the mission-based command should be regarded as the basic concept of the air force command and control, and the traditional principle of "centralized control and decentralized execution" should be replaced by "centralized command, distributed control and decentralized execution", in order to accommodate the continuous evolution of operational concept, system architecture and equipment form, and lay the foundation for gaining advantages in major power competition and strong enemy confrontation. In view of such significant changes in the fundamental doctrine, this paper will conduct an in-depth analysis from the aspects of background and motivations, principles and implementation of mission-based command, and its relationship with traditional command paradigm, and gain the insight into the connotation behind such transformation. This paper summarizes the enlightenment and significance brought by this change, which will provide a reference for the future development planning.