New F-16 Electronic Warfare System ‘on Par with Fifth-Gen’ Enters Flight Test

New F-16 Electronic Warfare System ‘on Par with Fifth-Gen’ Enters Flight Test

Sept. 4, 2024 | By John A. Tirpak

The F-16’s new electronic warfare suite, the AN/ALQ-257, has begun flight testing after successfully completing ground tests in an anechoic chamber, Northrop Grumman reported.

The Integrated Viper Electronic Warfare Suite, or IVEWS, mounted in a Block 50 F-16, completed an Air Force evaluation in the Joint Preflight Integration of Munitions and Electronic Sensors (J-Prime) facility—an anechoic chamber—last month, Northrop said. That same aircraft has been conducting flight tests for about two weeks, and will soon be joined by a second F-16, a company official said. Northrop is not yet cleared to reveal the location of testing.

Flight testing to validate what was learned in the chamber will take just a few weeks, and an operational assessment will be completed “by the fourth quarter of this year,” said James Conroy, vice president of navigation, targeting, and survivability, in an interview with Air & Space Forces Magazine. Developmental and operational testing should be completed in early 2025, and based on the results, the Air Force will decide future milestones such as when production and deliveries can begin and when the first F-16 unit is expected to be declared operational, he said.

“We’re going fast,” Conroy said, because the Air Force’s F-16s “don’t have this kind of survivability equipment” and need it to be operationally relevant. The system is an all-digital jammer that has been extensively tested to cooperate with and deconflict with the F-16’s new AN/APG-83 Scalable Agile Beam Radar (SABR), an active electronically-scanned array (AESA) radar. The two systems can be used simultaneously, Conroy said. Both are made by Northrop.

The electronic warfare system is capable of detecting, identifying and countering “the most advanced threats” on the battlefield today, Conroy said, and can perform accurate geo-location of emitters with just a single aircraft. The simulations in the chamber were “intense,” he said.

The IVEWS will be internal to the F-16 and will replace the centerline-mounted AN/ALQ-131 self-defense jamming pod, freeing one external station on the fighter for a fuel tank or weapon. The system will use antennas located elsewhere on the fuselage; the outer mold line of the aircraft hasn’t been altered, Conroy said.   

He declined to characterize whether the IVEWS is comparable to the Eagle Passive/Active Warning Survivability System (EPAWSS) being mounted on F-15Es and F-15EXs, saying only that that they are “both advanced electronic warfare systems” and can work together.

The IVEWS is intended to provide the F-16 with electronic warfare capabilities “on a par with fifth-generation aircraft, significantly enhancing survivability for operations in contested and congested electromagnetic spectrum environments,” Northrop said. “Its ultra-wideband suite can detect, identify, and counter advanced radio frequency threats, including millimeter wave systems.”

The IVEWS started out as a Middle-Tier Acquisition program to achieve rapidly fielding; it became an Air Force program of record in 2019.

Conroy said the system will be especially helpful in coping with mobile anti-aircraft radars and missiles whose position is unknown at the start of a mission and which may turn on and fire on F-16s when directly overhead or nearby.

To reach this point, the IVEWS has undergone three years of testing, both on the ground and in the air aboard Northrop’s Bombardier CRJ, acting as a surrogate for the F-16 in the Northern Lightning 2021 exercise, Conroy said. It has also been tested at Hill Air Force Base’s F-16 Block 50 avionics system integration laboratory.

In the chamber, the IVEWS was “subjected to accurate representations of complex radio frequency spectrum threats,” Northrop said in a press release. It demonstrated “the ability to detect, identify, and counter advanced radio frequency threats while operating safely with other F-16 systems.”

Conroy said the system could permit the F-16 to remain credible into the 2040s, and is being evaluated by a number of F-16 user countries, particularly those buying the F-16 Block 70. Turkey has signed a letter of agreement selecting the IVEWS for its Block 70s.

Guetlein: Space Force Moving to Counter New Adversary Kill Webs

Guetlein: Space Force Moving to Counter New Adversary Kill Webs

Sept. 4, 2024 | By Unshin Lee Harpley

Adversaries are developing increasingly sophisticated networks in space that enable not just kill chains but kill webs, which are “extremely difficult to defeat,” according to the Space Force’s No. 2 officer.  

“A kill chain in its simplest form is a gun fires a bullet, and a bullet hits a target,” Vice Chief of Space Operations Gen. Michael A. Guetlein said at the Defense News Conference on Sept 4. By comparison, kill webs are much more complex networks of sensors, communication systems, and weapons working together across domains to strike multiple targets simultaneously.

“Unfortunately, the adversary is capable of using these kill webs to hold our joint forces at risk across great distances, across multiple domains, and with persistence, this is a very sophisticated and challenging threat,” Guetlein said.

The kill web is a relatively new concept—U.S. military officials only started using it in earnest around 2018. Already, however, leaders are warning that adversaries are employing the idea. Back in March, Chief of Space Operations Gen. B. Chance Saltzman warned that China has launched more than 470 ISR satellites that are “feeding a robust sensor-shooter kill web.”

The sensor-to-shooter kill web speeds up attacks by improving data sharing and automation, enabling strikes in seconds. Guetlein outlined three key Space Force initiatives to counter the threat, including a new technology the service expects to acquire in the coming years.

Moving Target Indications (MTI)

Kill webs have allowed adversaries to push the lines of battle farther from their shores while denying oversight of their territory. “As they’ve done that, we’ve had to go higher and higher to get the same perspective of what’s going on the battlefield,” explained Guetlein. With that, the service is boosting investment in advanced detection and tracking technologies to protect existing capabilities and eliminate the first mover advantage.

“In the future, we plan to see continued investment in areas like Ground Moving Target Indications (GMTI), new investments in Air Moving Target Indications (AMTI), as well as investments in alternative methods to GPS,” said Guetlein. “I would say you’re looking at probably early [2030s] for some of that capability to start coming online, both for GMTI and for AMTI.”

For several years now, the Pentagon has explored the idea of space-based moving target indication, as older Air Force platforms like the E-3 AWACS and E-8 JSTARS are considered unlikely to survive long in a potential conflict with China.

The Space Force’s joint venture for GMTI with the National Reconnaissance Office is gearing up to bring tactical targeting from space into play, using satellites to deliver pinpoint accuracy. In its 2024 budget request, the service outlined plans to spend $243 million on MTI this year, and more than $1.2 billion over the next five years, describing it as “an evolved weapon system.”

“Most of this kit is classified, and a lot of it is focused on defeating the adversaries’ kill webs if necessary,” said Guetlein. While the specifics are under wraps, the approach focuses on enhancing threat detection and protection across all domains, Guetlein added.

Domain Awareness

Situational awareness will also be key to disrupting kill webs, Guetlein said, emphasizing the service’s focus on enhanced capabilities and global partnerships to stay ahead. Programs like the Geosynchronous Space Situational Awareness Program (GSSAP), dubbed a “neighborhood watch station 22,000 miles away in space,” according to Guetlein, are keeping an eye on movements in orbit.

Meanwhile, projects such as the Deep-Space Advanced Radar Capability through the AUKUS alliance bolster this effort by providing 24/7, all-weather tracking of objects in deep space. Last month, following the first radar installation in Australia, the service awarded Northrop Grumman a contract to build a second radar in the U.K. Once the third and final radar is installed in the U.S. by 2030, it is expected to maximize coverage by sharing data and connecting the three sites.

Resilient SATCOM

The service is also driving to bolster SATCOM capacity, another vital element in gaining the upper hand against kill webs.

“We expect a significant increase in demand in the coming years and during times of crisis or conflict,” said Guetlein.

The Space Development Agency (SDA) is currently at the forefront of this mission, having launched 19 communications and eight missile tracking satellites already as part of its Proliferated Warfare Space Architecture (PWSA).

Last month, the agency awarded contracts for the final 20 satellites in the second tranche of its proliferated low-Earth orbit constellation, paving the way for hundreds more to launch in the coming years. To date, the SDA has now locked in contracts for over 430 satellites across Tranche 1 and Tranche 2 of the PWSA, that will deliver secure communications, data transport, and advanced missile warning and tracking capabilities.

“SDA’s next set of 154 satellites are programmed through production and are scheduled to start launching in the upcoming fiscal year,” said Guetlein, stressing that this will make it significantly harder for adversaries to disrupt communications.

USAF Rethinks Whether it Needs a Manned 6th-Gen Fighter for Air Superiority

USAF Rethinks Whether it Needs a Manned 6th-Gen Fighter for Air Superiority

Sept. 4, 2024 | By Greg Hadley

Air Force Using NGAD ‘Pause’ to Reconsider How It Achieves Air Superiority

Hunter: How USAF Achieves Air Superiority in the Future ‘May’ Require NGAD

During Pause on NGAD, Acquisition Czar Says ‘I Wouldn’t Rule Anything Back In’

The Air Force is reconsidering how it gains air superiority—and whether it needs a manned sixth-generation fighter to achieve it, acquisition boss Andrew P. Hunter said. 

Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall said in July the Air Force would take a “pause” on its Next-Generation Air Dominance fighter program, rather than commit to the program as planned. But amid mounting speculation over the program’s future he expressed confidence that “we’re still going to do a sixth-generation, crewed aircraft.” 

On Sept. 4, however, Hunter suggested at a Defense News conference that USAF will use the pause to revisit fundamental questions about NGAD.

“From a requirements perspective, what I would say is we’re going back and starting at the beginning with ‘What is the thing we’re trying to do?’” Hunter said. “‘How do we achieve air superiority in a contested environment?’ would be one way to frame the question,” said Hunter. “A different way to frame the question would be, ‘How do we build a sixth-gen manned fighter platform?’ I mean, those are not necessarily the same question.” 

– Andrew P. Hunter, Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics Photo by Mike Tsukamoto/Air & Space Forces Magazine

Air Force doctrine defines air superiority as the “degree of control of the air by one force that permits the conduct of its operations at a given time and place without prohibitive interference from air and missile threats.” The key to that is the given time and place. Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David W. Allvin said in February it would be “cost prohibitive to be able to say that we’re going to build enough Air Force to do it the way we did before and have air superiority for days and weeks on end.” In May, Vice Chief of Staff Gen. James C. “Jim” Slife added that “our traditional conception of what things like air superiority means have changed.” 

So too has technology, Hunter said. Since “we did the initial analysis of alternatives for NGAD, frankly, our technology base has advanced in ways faster than we anticipated,” he said. “So we see that there are capabilities that we have [now] that perhaps we would want to be part of this mission space going forward that weren’t baked into where we started with the NGAD system.” 

That includes advances in autonomy that is fueling the development of Collaborative Combat Aircraft. USAF wants to start fielding CCAs quickly, through an incremental, iterative approach that leaders argue can more rapidly incorporate emerging technologies.  

CCA are being developed as part of a family of systems under NGAD, and Hunter suggested that with the pause on a manned platform, the Air Force may now tweak the entire family. 

“I wouldn’t rule anything out,” he said. “But I also wouldn’t rule anything back in. What we’ve got to make sure is, as we sum it up into a package that delivers air superiority, that it actually meets the mission need as best we are able to do it, and is affordable at the same time.” 

Speaking on the same panel, Slife spoke of taking a mission engineering approach to the design and fielding of these weapons, one focused less on specific platforms than on systems-level integration.

Such an approach could change how the Air Force moves forward on NGAD, Hunter suggested. “It’s not any individual platform that’s going to deliver air superiority. It’s the entire force,” he said. “And we know that we have many things in our force that we will into the next several decades. We’re going to have an F-35 force. We’re going to have the F-15EX, we have F-22s. And so, what is the role that we need to have to supplement those capabilities that we will know will be resident in our force, to deliver that full capability that we need?” 

Whether Hunter is suggesting the Air Force could keep its F-22 air dominance fighters well into the mid-2030s or longer is unclear. That decision would reverse earlier plans to retire the Raptors by around 2030. But given the pause on NGAD and Raptor modernization plans, it now seems at least plausible that the F-22s remain longer.

Hunter was coy when asked if there was a chance the Air Force could restart NGAD with a contract award as soon as 2025. 

“We’ll have to wait and see what our analysis delivers,” he said. 

Air Force Standing Up New Wing For ‘Doomsday’ Command and Control

Air Force Standing Up New Wing For ‘Doomsday’ Command and Control

Sept. 4, 2024 | By David Roza

The Air Force aims to improve its strategic command and control capabilities by standing up a new wing at Offutt Air Force Base, Neb. The 95th Wing will put disparate command and control units from the Active-duty Air Force, Air National Guard, and Air Force Reserve under one wing to provide a more unified command and better advocate for resources for strategic command and control, the branch explained in a Sept. 4 press release.

“This decision represents the culmination of years of work by the Air Force and the congressional defense committees to ensure the United States is fully prepared to deter and defeat any adversary who threatens our national security,” Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.), a retired Air Force brigadier general who once commanded the 55th Wing at Offutt, said in a statement.

The units involved in the new wing are the 595th Command and Control Group (CACG) based at Offutt; the 253rd CACG, a Wyoming Air National Guard unit based in Cheyenne, Wyo.; and the Air Force Reserve’s 610th Command and Control Squadron based at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Ariz.

No personnel from the 253rd or the 610th will move for the new wing, but about 70 new military job slots will open at Offutt over the next few years, with the first to arrive in spring 2025, the Air Force said in the press release. The wing is expected to be fully operational by 2027.

air force doomsday
An E-4B National Airborne Operations Center aircraft takes off from Offutt Air Force Base, Neb., July 10, 2019. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Jacob Skovo.

The 595th CACG’s job is to make sure senior U.S. officials can maintain nuclear command, control, and communications (NC3) and command conventional forces during a crisis. It flies and maintains the Air Force’s fleet of four E-4B National Airborne Operations Center (NAOC). Also known as the ‘Doomsday plane’, the E-4B is a Boeing 747 hardened against the effects of nuclear detonations, including electromagnetic pulse, and equipped with worldwide communications gear. 

According to the Air Force, the 95th Wing “will provide a unified command path to assure readiness” of the 595th’s NAOC and NC3 missions. The 595th is currently a standalone group under the 8th Air Force, the Active-duty bomber-flying numbered Air Force under Air Force Global Strike Command. Most other 8th Air Force component units are wings, larger organizations that generally receive more resources.

The new wing should also benefit the 253rd CACG and 610th CACS because it will “provide an enterprise view of broad Command and Control, or C2, capabilities and improve the ability to lead, advocate and provide for resources, training and readiness,” the Air Force explained.

The 610th CACS conducts command and control training for multiple combatant commands, an Air Force official told Air & Space Forces Magazine, while the 253rd CACG supports various missions in U.S. Northern Command.

Putting the Reserve and Guard units in the 95th Wing is meant to improve command and control “and normalize funding paths to organize, train and equip units,” the Air Force explained. The service said the new wing is part of a larger reorganization as the Air Force prepares for potential future conflicts against near-peer rivals such as China and Russia. 

“Modern war technologies make defense readiness and command efficiencies more critical than ever before,” said Rep. Adrian Smith (R-Neb.) in a statement. “The activation of the 95th Wing will serve to strengthen American military effectiveness and is aligned with the standout record of service in our state.”

The announcement comes about five months after the Air Force awarded a $13 billion contract to replace the NAOC with the Survivable Airborne Operations Center (SAOC). The current E-4Bs have been flying since the 1970s and are struggling “capability gaps, diminishing manufacturing sources, increased maintenance costs, and parts obsolescence,” according to budget documents. 

In May, the contractor, Sierra Nevada Corporation, announced it had secured five Korean Air 747-8 passenger jets to host the system. The aircraft were built around 2015 and will be about 15 years old when the first ones enter service.

Generative AI is Now in Space. Here’s Why That’s a Big Deal

Generative AI is Now in Space. Here’s Why That’s a Big Deal

Sept. 4, 2024 | By Dan Wald and Karen Fields

This summer, we witnessed an important milestone in the history of human activity in space: on July 11, the first generative AI tool in space began operation. The tool, a large language model (LLM), aims to assist astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) as they perform certain maintenance and repair procedures. 

The project’s primary purpose was to prove that an LLM—and generative AI more broadly—can deploy and operate in the harsh environment of space. Here’s why that milestone is so significant and what it portends for the future.

The Challenge 

First, it must be said that deploying anything into space is enormously complicated and rife with uncompromising constraints. Weight, size, power, and bandwidth requirements must be minimized with ruthless discipline—and AI applications are no exception. They rely on large databases and consume lots of computing and power resources to do what they do, making their presence aboard any spacecraft a challenge. 

In this case, an LLM retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) application was re-architected and dramatically downsized—along with its computing and power needs—for practical use in the sparest of environments. 

It was proved that it could be done, but you may be asking about the why: what benefits are there to having generative AI in space?

Autonomy 

The main benefit is autonomy. Generative AI can enable spacecraft—and their onboard human operators, if they are manned—to be far more self-sufficient. Today, much of the information that spacecraft need to perform their missions is conveyed remotely, via communications links from ground stations or control centers.

Consider a maintenance manual. Enabling an onboard LLM to assist astronauts directly – without the need for directions to be transmitted to astronauts through communications links – delivers greater autonomy to that crew. 

Such autonomy becomes even more important when the information needed is highly sensitive or urgent for real-time operations. For example, what if a satellite is performing a national security mission and requires instructions on how to process certain signals or imagery data it has just collected or on how to act on that information? What if the communications between a satellite and ground station are vulnerable to compromise in a contested environment?

Speed

Space operators understand there are many cases where the latency of a satellite’s communications with a ground station—or even the critical dependency of a satellite’s mission on a communications link—is a serious risk to the mission. There may also be unacceptable cybersecurity vulnerabilities associated with transmitting sensitive information across those communications links. 

When rapid, secure operational performance is critical, a capable, onboard generative AI solution could bring enormous value to a mission. 

Generative AI can also deliver capabilities similar to those produced with predictive AI and machine learning solutions—such as anomaly detection or complex imagery analysis, for example—but with far greater speed and much less cost, size, and power requirements. If developed further, this capability could dramatically improve the ability of spacecraft to maneuver autonomously in orbit to avoid collisions with space debris or to assist dock-and-refuel missions. 

The Future of Generative AI in Space 

It was 120 years ago that the world witnessed the first flight of a powered, heavier-then-air aircraft at Kitty Hawk. The real significance of that event was not the 10 seconds and 120 feet that the Wright Flyer was aloft; it was the demonstration that powered flight is indeed possible and the inspiration that it provided to the Wright brothers and countless other innovators who worked hard to further develop our mastery of air and space in the decades that followed. 

We’ve now seen that generative AI can successfully deploy to space. There is an exciting future in realizing the possibilities that this unleashes. 

Dan Wald is an AI solutions architect for space applications at Booz Allen.

Karen Fields leads the NASA account at Booz Allen. 

US Air Force F-35s Touch Down on a Highway in Finland for ‘Historic’ Landing

US Air Force F-35s Touch Down on a Highway in Finland for ‘Historic’ Landing

Sept. 4, 2024 | By Chris Gordon

Two U.S. Air Force F-35A Lightning II fighters landed on a Finnish highway on Sept. 4, the first time fifth-generation American aircraft have operated from a road—not a runway—in Europe. It is part of the service’s push to operate from more locations with less infrastructure in the face of increasing threats to U.S. bases across the globe.

Two F-35s assigned to the 48th Fighter Wing from RAF Lakenheath, U.K., touched down for a planned “austere landing,” U.S. Air Forces in Europe said in a release. The command said the landing was a demonstration of the U.S. Air Force’s and NATO’s ability to implement Agile Combat Employment, in which air forces will have a greater ability to operate from non-traditional airfields.

The American jets, along with German fighters, are participating in the Finnish Air Force’s annual Baana exercise during which aircraft are using the Norvatie highway in Rovaniemi and the Hosio highway in Ranua as runways. The exercise started Aug. 31 and runs until Sept. 6.

“The successful first-ever landing of our fifth generation F-35 on a highway in Europe is a testament to the growing relationship and close interoperability we have with our Finnish Allies,” Gen. James B. Hecker, commander of U.S. Air Forces in Europe-Air Forces Africa, said in a news release. “The opportunity to learn from our Finnish counterparts improves our ability to rapidly deploy and employ air power from unconventional locations and reflects the collective readiness and the agility of our forces.”   

Though operating from dispersed locations was commonplace in the Cold War, it fell out of favor as Russia receded as a threat. But Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 has shown that air bases and other key military hubs are high-value targets. Russia has pummeled Ukraine with ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, and glide bombs to try to overwhelm Kyiv’s air defenses. Ukraine has responded by developing novel ways of attacking Russian air bases far beyond the front line with its own weaponized drones, as Western countries have not allowed the long-range missiles they have provided to attack targets in Russian territory.

Hecker has pushed for more integration among the U.S. and its partners, particularly as many NATO members are switching to the F-35. While the Agile Combat Employment model is often thought of as a Pacific concept, U.S. forces in Europe are highly concentrated at major air bases, and USAFE is preparing to operate from alternate locations should a base be threatened.

NATO’s two newest members, Sweden and Finland, are used to operating from bare-bones locations. Sweden’s Gripen fighters are specifically designed to have a small logistical footprint, and the Swedish Air Force practices landing on highways. For Finland, being able to turn a road into a runway is a standard part of training for Finnish fighter pilots.

“Since Finland’s accession to NATO in 2023, it has provided U.S. Airmen significant opportunities to learn from Finnish counterparts,” USAFE said in its release.

The Finnish Air Force currently operates the F/A-18 but is scheduled to buy 64 F-35s to replace its aging Hornet fleet. Finland’s government announced on Sept. 3 that it plans to up its defense budget next year, in part to pay for the F-35s.

“In this age, we spend a lot of resources and time to guarantee and build security for our citizens and our home country,” Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo told reporters.

In April, Norwegian maintainers serviced American F-35s for the first time, and the U.S. returned the favor during a one-on-one NATO fighter competition exercise in June. Finland was among the nine NATO allies that participated in that one-day exercise, which was held at Ramstein Air Base, Germany.

It is not the first time an F-35A—the conventional take-off and landing variant—has landed on a runway. In 2023, a Norwegian F-35A operated from a highway in Finland as part of the Baana exercise. The Marines have also operated F-35Bs, the short takeoff and vertical landing version of the fighter, from a closed U.S. highway, and in 2016, USAF A-10s landed on a highway in Estonia.

But now, the U.S. Air Force has taken a major step in its push to be more agile with its most advanced aircraft in Europe.

Two U.S. Air Force F-35 Lightning II aircraft assigned to the 48th Fighter Wing, RAF Lakenheath, U.K., demonstrate landing and takeoff operations during exercise BAANA 2024, Sept. 4, on Hosio Highway Strip, Ranua, Finland. During the exercise the aircraft landed on a highway strip in Finland to practice Agile Combat Employment which increases the ability of our collective partners to collaborate and operate in a joint, high-intensity environment, improve readiness, responsiveness and interoperability. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Scyrrus Corregidor

“These are the things we have to be able to do, and it takes practice,”  Finnish Air Force Col. Saku Joukas, the exercise director and commander of the Lapland Air Wing, said in a news release before the exercise. “Now, the exercise will also have a stronger international element. We will demonstrate our top expertise to our allies, and provide them with an opportunity to learn. In this way, we will also send out a message about the strength of our own defense.”

The watchword for for the Air Force, NATO, and allied officials in Europe is “integration.” The alliance also faces the challenge of operating with a limited footprint. Leaders across the alliance say they are taking working hard at operating from non-traditional environments, breaking down classification and information-sharing barriers, and cross-servicing each other’s aircraft.

“It’s almost back to the future. If you go back 35 years ago, a lot of the ACE concepts were alive and well here in Europe,” Hecker told Air & Space Forces Magazine in an interview in late July. “That’s what we’re building to try to get back to that construct.”

New USSF Officer Training Program Aims to Make ‘Guardians First, Specialists Second’

New USSF Officer Training Program Aims to Make ‘Guardians First, Specialists Second’

Sept. 3, 2024 | By Unshin Lee Harpley

The Space Force started its inaugural Officer Training Course (OTC) at Peterson Space Force Base, Colo., on Sept. 3, a major overhaul in the service’s approach to building a well-rounded officer corps.

Instead of sending Guardians to specialized technical schools or field training, from now on, all newly commissioned officers of the service—including those fresh from the Air Force Academy—will undergo this 12-month, full-time program. The curriculum immerses them in the three core pillars of the service—intelligence, space, and cyber operations—ensuring that all officers emerge as “Guardians first, specialists second.”

“In order to lead effectively, our officers must have a comprehensive understanding of all elements of space power,” Chief of Space Operations Gen. B. Chance Saltzman said in a release. “The establishment of OTC gives every officer the baseline knowledge necessary to successfully lead operations in our technically demanding and highly contested environment.”

The first cohort of about 80 Guardians will experience a blend of classroom learning and hands-on field instruction, Ethan Johnson, Space Training and Readiness Command (STARCOM) spokesperson, told Air & Space Forces Magazine. The officers will face regular tests and exams to ensure a solid grasp of the material. The curriculum focuses on ensuring that everyone is accessed into the service with the same common training code and develops a shared joint warfighter mindset and culture.

Upon graduation, all officers will be qualified to serve in all three career fields of the Space Force but will receive an initial specialty vector based on their aptitude, preferences, and the needs of the service. They will then relocate to their first operational assignment based on that initial vector, but “have the opportunity for new vectors in future assignments,” added Johnson.

The instructors at the school form a diverse team; the 319th Combat Training Squadron (CTS), responsible for training the new officers, includes active-duty military, civilian contractors, and support from the reserve component in the 42nd CTS.

“Collectively, their trainers bring a combination of recent operational experience and decades of military and professional expertise,” said Johnson.

The service first hinted at this initiative back in February as part of a push to fundamentally revamp how Guardians are trained. Previewing changes to re-optimize for great power competition, Saltzman stressed that leaders must master the full range of operations beyond their own areas of expertise, due to the interconnected nature of space. This new method aims to equip Guardians to tackle “the range of complex operational and technical problems central to Great Power Competition,” Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall said in a statement.

“OTC’s fusion of the most critical officer skillsets into one comprehensive program reinforces our commitment to re-optimizing for Great Power Competition,” Maj. Gen. Timothy Sejba, commander of STARCOM, said in a release. “I’m proud and excited to continue training our world-class Guardians in delivering superior space capabilities.”

The service noted that the OTC establishment was accomplished using existing resources, with any additional costs planned to be included in the fiscal 2026 budget or later years.

The OTC is part of the Space Force’s effort to revamp its professional military education as the youngest military branch nears its fifth anniversary. Back in October 2022, the service announced it was partnering with Johns Hopkins University for officer intermediate- and senior-level developmental education instead of establishing a War College.

And starting in 2025, the service plans to expand development opportunities and industry engagement for enlisted and civilian personnel. Last week, Chief Master Sergeant of the Space Force John F. Bentivegna stated that the service is refining its ‘Noncommissioned Officer Academy,’ a new fellowship program for its enlisted leaders. The new model will replace the traditional Non-Commissioned Officer Academy, which was deemed too “Airman-centric” and not adequately tailored to Space Force needs. While the start date is still pending, the fellowship program is expected to focus on “foundational Space Force competencies” and dynamic, hands-on learning for enlisted leaders.

Air Force Investigates 7,000-Gallon PFAS Spill at Cannon

Air Force Investigates 7,000-Gallon PFAS Spill at Cannon

Sept. 3, 2024 | By David Roza

The Air Force is investigating a spill of about 7,000 gallons of water containing firefighting chemicals at Cannon Air Force Base, N.M.

The chemicals are per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances, better known as PFAS. They’ve been used in consumer products around the world since the 1950s and the Air Force has used it in firefighting foam since the 1970s. PFAS do not degrade easily in the environment. 

Though U.S. government agencies are still figuring out exactly how harmful PFAS are to humans, the World Health Organization classified a type of PFAS called perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) as carcinogenic to humans and classified a second type, perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS), as possibly carcinogenic to humans. 

In 2023, the Department of Defense issued specifications for fluorine-free foam (F3), and Tyndall Air Force Base, Fla., became the first Air Force base to transition to it earlier this year. At Cannon, the 7,000 gallons of rinsate, the term for water containing PFAS, had been removed from emergency vehicles as part of that larger effort when the spill happened. 

For scale, a 14-by-28-foot swimming pool contains about 15,000 gallons of water, according to Home Depot, while an Olympic swimming pool has about 660,000 gallons. 

The rinsate wound up in a lined retention pond at the base’s fire training area some time between July 9 and July 15, according to an Aug. 30 press release, but base leadership did not find out about it until early August. The base removed the water from the pond and put it in storage containers, then hired an independent third party to inspect the liner for holes on Aug. 23. 

The third party found the liner “was compromised in several areas with tears of various lengths,” and the base notified the New Mexico Environment Department the next day, the press release states. The base’s drinking water wells “are upstream of the deposit area” and are not affected by the spill, while the U.S. Air Force Civil Engineer Center does not anticipate any off-base wells to be affected either.

Base commander Col. Robert Johnston ordered an investigation into the incident and appointed a task force to “examine and review all current environmental compliance training, policy and procedural guidance to ensure strict adherence to applicable requirements moving forward,” according to the press release.

“We understand the concerns of our community, our Airmen, and their families,” the colonel said in a statement.  “Please know that we are working expeditiously to address the affected area. We are committed to taking all necessary steps to ensure such incidents do not happen again in the future.”

Firefighters with the 27th Special Operations Civil Engineer Squadron test hose water pressure before an exercise Aug. 14, 2015, at Cannon Air Force Base, N.M. (U.S. Air Force photo/Staff Sgt. Alexx Mercer)

In the meantime, samples will be taken from the affected area and studied, and the press release said if any PFAS chemicals do make it into the groundwater, it would be captured by an existing pump and treat system set up at the base’s southeast boundary. 

Cannon’s public affairs office referred to its press release when asked by Air & Space Forces Magazine why the rinsate wound up in the pond; why it took several weeks for base leadership to find out; how much of the rinsate was recovered; and what agency is conducting the investigation.

“Col. Johnston, 27th Special Operations Wing and Cannon AFB commander, has ordered a comprehensive investigation into the cause of the improper deposit, and it is underway,” a base spokesperson said. “We have released all the information we have at this time and we will provide updates as additional information becomes available.”

The spill is the most recent episode in a long-running PFAS saga at Cannon. According to the New Mexico Environment Department, PFAS used at firefighting training areas and other Cannon sites percolated into the underlying Ogallala Aquifer, where it left a plume of contaminated groundwater extending at least 2.5 miles off base.

“PFAS have polluted several off-site wells used for irrigation, dairy, and domestic water supply, sometimes at concentrations that greatly exceed the federal lifetime Health Advisory of 70 ng/L,” the department wrote. “PFAS also have been detected in milk produced by one dairy near [Cannon] causing severe economic impact to that dairy.”

One dairy farmer had to euthanize several thousand cows as a result, according to New Mexico news outlet Source NM. While public drinking water wells supplying the nearby city of Clovis showed no detectable PFAS contamination, in 2018 the department issued a Notice of Violation to the Air Force for failing to take timely action to correct the damage.

As of July, the state of New Mexico was still in court requesting the federal government pay for PFAS clean-up efforts, including $850,000 spent removing thousands of PFAS-contaminated cow corpses, Source NM reported. 

Leaders from the 27th Special Operations Wing, Air Force Civil Engineer Center, and Clean Water Partnership Cannon discuss ongoing PFAS remedial investigation and mitigation efforts with Rajen Dairy owners, Dec. 13, 2021, at Rajen Dairy in Clovis, New Mexico. U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Peter Reft)
SDA More than Doubles GD’s Contract for Ground Ops, Integration

SDA More than Doubles GD’s Contract for Ground Ops, Integration

Sept. 3, 2024 | By Greg Hadley

The Space Development Agency has contracts for more than 250 satellites in “Tranche 2” of its proliferated low-Earth orbit constellation. Now it’s got a $491 million deal with General Dynamics to develop the ground systems and integration needed to capture all the data pouring down from those satellites. 

General Dynamics, which previously won a $324 million contract in 2022 for Tranche 1 of its ground systems, will earn up to $887 million in operations and sustainment through fiscal 2029—making GD one of SDA’s biggest and most important contractors.

Having an effective ground architecture that can connect to all the other contractors’ satellites “really is the most critical element of Tranche 1,” an SDA official told reporters in 2022.

That is even more so today, as the satellite architecture expands from five suppliers of 161 data transport and missile warning/tracking satellites in Tranche 1 to seven contractors providing 264 satellites in Tranche 2. 

“Without a ground segment, our space vehicles orbiting around the Earth can’t really do what we need them to do,” the SDA official said in 2022. “They can do things autonomously, but in order to make things work as a complete network, as a complete enterprise, you really do need the ground segments to manage the enterprise and the mesh and the control of the space layer.” 

Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Space Acquisition Frank Calvelli listed among his nine “tenets for space acquisition” the need to ensure ground systems are complete and ready for operations prior to launch so that users can employ satellite data as soon as the spacecraft reach orbit. 

Last summer, SDA announced its intent to award a sole-source contract to General Dynamics for ground segment operations.

SDA now has two ground control operations facilities, one at Redstone Arsenal, Ala., and a second at Grand Forks Air Force Base, N.D. Officials cut the ribbon on the Redstone facility in May and started operations at Grand Forks late last month. 

Concern expressed in the past about “vendor lock” concerns seem to have faded. In April, DefenseScoop reported that Col. Kalliroi Landry, SDA’s support cell chief, had said “SDA does not want to build a proliferated ground segment to support a proliferated space segment.”