How the Pentagon’s Weapons ‘Production Diplomacy’ Is Helping Arm Ukraine

Sept. 10, 2024 | By Chris Gordon

The U.S. is pushing to expand the production of key munitions for Ukraine, the Pentagon’s top weapons buyer said recently.

The weapons include AIM-120 Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missiles, AIM-9X Sidewinders, and PAC-3 MSE surface-to-air interceptors.

“From an industrial base perspective, it’s largely been a battle of attrition,” William A. LaPlante, the undersecretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment, told reporters while traveling last week to a meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group (UDCG), which coordinates aid for Ukraine in its fight against Russia.

LaPlante co-chairs the National Armaments Directors forum with Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister retired Maj. Gen. Oleksandr Serhii. That forum has met 12 times since being established in September 2022, and includes officials from some 40 countries, NATO, and the European Union.

“It’s really all about getting delivery,” LaPlante said Sept. 5. “Getting things to Ukraine, getting it faster, and making sure we’re helping each other deliver to Ukraine.”

“We call it production diplomacy,” he added.

Russia has turned to several partners to boost the arsenal since the start of its invasion of Ukraine. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Sept. 10 that Iran has begun to send short-range ballistic missiles to Russia in addition to drones. North Korea is providing aiding Russia with ammunition and ballistic missiles.

China, while not providing weapons, has provided vital components for Russia’s defense industry so Moscow can make its own arms.

LaPlante has been on the front lines of the West’s response as it has scrambled to provide Ukraine with enough artillery and air defenses to keep up with the threat.

“National armaments directors are helping to translate Ukraine’s needs into expanded production lines around the globe and into accelerated deliveries of key capabilities,” Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III told reporters after the UDCG meeting on Sept. 6.

The U.S. imposed fresh sanctions on Iran for its recent provision of ballistic missiles to Russia, which the Pentagon said have a range of around 75 miles.

“What this does is it would enable Russia to employ this capability while preserving its longer range capabilities for use throughout the battlefield, thus deepening Russia’s arsenal,” Pentagon Press Secretary Air Force Maj. Gen. Patrick S. Ryder told reporters Sept. 10

Ukraine must be focused “protecting close in, but you’ve got those broader threat rings in terms of medium- and long-range. You’re also protecting strategic centers of gravity … population centers, energy infrastructure, defense capabilities,” Ryder added.

Ballistic missiles are challenging to intercept, especially since Moscow is trying to saturate Ukraine’s air defenses. The Russian threat is complex, from small quadcopters to Iranian-designed one-way attack drones to Russian stand-off cruise missiles, glide bombs and aircraft. Ukraine has taken down 97 Russian combat aircraft since the start of the war, Austin said in remarks at Ramstein.

“We have defenses against all of those,” LaPlante said. But the challenge, he said, was “matching the right defense, that’s the right cost point, to the right capability, and making sure that we continue to provide the Ukrainians with this with the equipment.”

One key air defense munition that will continue to be in high demand AIM-120 AMRAAMs.

Variants of the AMRAAM are used as interceptors for Ukraine’s National Advanced Surface-to Air-Missile (NASAMS) air defense systems.

AMRAAMs will also be employed by Ukraine’s new F-16 fighters.

The armament directors forum has already worked on the “integration of thousands of air-to-ground munitions donations for employment from Ukraine’s current aircraft and donated F-16s,” according to a Pentagon fact sheet.

AMRAAMs are a mainstay of U.S. and Western air forces’ fighter payloads to take down aerial threats. The U.S. recently reached an agreement with Japan to step up the co-production of AMRAAMs on a July trip Austin and Blinken made to Tokyo.

“They’re not just an air-to-air weapon. They are an air defense weapon,” LaPlante said. “And so once you realize that the demand, the worldwide demand for this is going to be high, and it’s going to be high for a long time, then it’s a prime system to do co-production.”

“We want to up the production because up until now, AMRAAMs are only produced in the United States, and that’s going to change,” he added.

Defense industry officials say they are in conversations with the U.S. government, including LaPlante’s team, about possibly expanding production.

“I think that there’s a lot of nations that are getting concerned today, as they’re seeing ongoing, the expenditure of all their stores, all the different weapons, are probably at a higher rate than what they had planned for,” said Jon Norman, vice president of requirements and capabilities for air and space defense systems at Raytheon.

USAF Launches Air Task Force Under New Deployment Model at Scott

Sept. 10, 2024 | By Unshin Lee Harpley

The Air Force stood up one of six Air Task Forces—the 12th Air Task Force—at Scott Air Force Base, Ill., last week, starting the next wave of change for its deployment model.

In the past, the Air Force “crowdsourced” deployments, sending individuals or small groups of personnel down range to meet in the field. Air Task Forces are part of a new approach meant to create and strengthen teams of Airmen who train together before deploying, reviving a Cold War-era practice of building trust before facing a new theater.

“The way we organized, trained, and deployed over the past two decades to fight the war on terror was efficient but not effective to endure global competition,” Lt. Gen. Randall Reed, Air Mobility Command deputy commander said, as he handed the leadership of the 12th Air Task Force to Col. Gabriel Arrington.

The hope is that with more built-in familiarity amongst Airmen, ATFs will have better readiness and performance from the get-go.

Yet the task forces are only a midway point in a changing model. Last fall, the Air Force started deploying Expeditionary Air Base squadrons, drawing together Airmen from U.S. bases in the same region to train and deploy together as a team for setting up a base, establishing and supporting operations, and providing leadership.

Air Task Forces are the next step, centralizing the command and base support layers are one base. Service officials have said this model is a “pilot program” for future operations, setting the stage for entire Combat Wings that can pick up and deploy from a single base.

“The Airmen who make up this task force will be able to train and deploy with greater efficiency and be more mission-ready than ever before,” Arrington said in a release.

Col. Gabriel Arrington, incoming 12th Air Task Force commander, speaks at the activation ceremony for the 12th ATF at Scott Air Force Base, Ill., Sept. 4, 2024. As commander, Arlington leads the establishment, training, certification and deployment of 2,500 Airmen from multiple host wings and major commands in the formation of the ATF combat employment model. (U.S. Air Force photo by Jacob Silva-Dreyer)

Scott is one of six sites selected to host Air Task Forces, along with:

Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Ariz.

Joint Base San Antonio, Texas

Dyess Air Force Base, Texas

Fairchild Air Force Base, Wash.

Seymour-Johnson Air Force Base, N.C.

These bases were chosen for their ability to accommodate the new forces, their proximity to training areas, and their readiness without additional construction. Like Arrington, other ATF leaders will also be colonels, handpicked by the service’s Chief of Staff, Gen. David Allvin.

Each ATF will have a command level with about an expeditionary A-Staff of about 50 people, as well as a Combat Air Base Squadron (CABS) to provide base operating support, mission generation force elements, and attached Mission Sustainment Teams (MST) to facilitate Agile Combat Employment, Air Force spokesperson Lt. Col. Phillip Ventura told Air & Space Forces Magazine.

But the overall size of each ATF will vary from hundreds to thousands of personnel. For instance, an ATF unit may include a single fighter squadron or several, depending on the specific demands of different missions.

Under the new Air Force Force Generation Model’s four phases of six months each, the first three task forces are set to deploy in October 2025—two to Central Command and one to Indo-Pacific Command. After six months, three new task forces will take their place in April 2026.

The previous system pulled Airmen from around 60 units at times, across more than a dozen different Air Force bases. ATFs streamline resources into only a handful of key components to make deployments simpler.

“The ATF model enables teams of roughly 400 Airmen to train together at two to four separate bases, and then come together as a larger team for collective training and certification during the six months prior to deployment,” said Ventura.

Another Air Task Force is likely standing up soon—to gear up for the upcoming 13th Air Task Force activation, a Combat Air Base Squadron (CABS) was rolled out at Luke Air Force Base, Ariz., last month as the main support hub. With 340 personnel stationed at Luke, Ellsworth Air Force Base, S.D., and McConnell Air Force Base, Kan., the 13th CABS will establish Combat Service Support Teams at each base. These teams will back up the ATF and are prepared to support up to 2,500 deployed personnel.

“This concept, apart from contributing to more predictable deployment schedules, could also help build better professional relationships among the team,” Senior Master Sgt. Olufemi A. Owolabi of the 13th CABS said in a release. “And when the time for deployment comes around, we are already familiar with the various Airmen from other Air Force specialties attached to the squadron from different bases, because we have been preparing together and taking care of each other from the beginning of the deployment cycle.”

New Fighter Drones Will Go on Display at AFA Conference

Sept. 10, 2024 | By John A. Tirpak

The Air Force’s newest aircraft—and the first in the new category of autonomous Collaborative Combat Aircraft—will be on public display for the first time at AFA’s Air, Space & Cyber Conference Sept. 16-18 at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center in National Harbor, Md.

The Air Force Research Laboratory will position full-scale replicas of two CCA designs, one in each of two AFRL booths at the show:

Anduril Industries’ “Fury” Collaborative Combat Aircraft Increment I will be at AFRL’s booth No. 503 and

General Atomics Aeronautical’s Increment I CCA at AFRL’s CCA booth, No. 1834. The model will represent the air-to-air Gambit version of its CCA family.

And General Atomics will display an actual XQ-67 aircraft in its booth at the show, according to a source close to the company. General Atomics has said its air-to-air CCA offering is based on the XQ-67 platform.

The Air Force’s CCA Increment I program is focused on air-to-air combat; crewed fighters will be able to designate targets for weapons carried by the CCA, expanding the volume of weapons available to pilots on a combat mission. CCAs are envisioned as costing under $28 million apiece, a fraction of the $80 million to $100 million cost of a crewed fighter jet.

“If you come to the Air Force Association meeting next week, you’ll see two full-scale models of the aircraft that we’re building,” said Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall, speaking at the Aerospace Summit in Washington, D.C., Sept. 10.

“These will be ‘loyal wingmen,’ and they will be controlled by a crewed fighter, either an F-35, in all likelihood, or possibly NGAD [the Next Generation Air Dominance fighter] when we define what NGAD is,” Kendall added.

NGAD and CCA are closely aligned in Air Force plans; NGAD was defined as a family of systems, and CCA were funded out of the NGAD budget line. But Kendall recently said decided the Air Force should “pause” to rethink NGAD, driven by cost, rapidly changing threats, and new concepts for how USAF can achieve air superiority.

The Gambit model AFRL will display is closely patterned after General Atomics’ XQ-67A Off-Board Sensing Station.

C. Mark Brinkley, senior director of strategic communications and marketing at General Atomics, said the company has “a lot of surprises” in store for the show, but would not confirm that the XQ-67 would be on site. That aircraft has already flown, a clear distinction between it and the Anduril model. Exactly how different XQ-67 is from the Gambit is unclear.

Anduril and General Atomics were selected to build their respective CCAs in April. A subsequent effort, Increment II, is still in competition, and companies not selected for the first iteration can compete for the second.

In a press release, AFRL said it is displaying the two aircraft “in partnership with the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center,” whose directorate for fighters and advanced aircraft manages the program. The CCAs on display are “uncrewed weapon systems leveraging [Department of the Air Force] investments in autonomy and crewed-uncrewed teaming to project power against adversaries.”

Faster, Better on the Edge: Mercury’s Embedded Advantage

Sept. 10, 2024

Mercury Systems Chief Operating Officer Roger Wells talks with Air & Space Forces Magazine Editor-in-Chief Tobias Naegele about the latest advances, opportunities, and needs for edge computing and how Mercury’s systems can provide processing power for the Air and Space Forces.

Kendall: ‘One Size Doesn’t Fit All’ for Deployment Cycles

Sept. 10, 2024 | By Greg Hadley

The Air Force is making sweeping changes in how it deploys Airmen, but the differences among the major commands’ needs are creating problems in the quest to define a single new deployment model as top commanders push back the idea that one system will work across the entire force.

“The problem with implementing [AFFORGEN] that I’ve seen – and I think it’s widely recognized now – is that one size doesn’t fit all,” said Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall in a livestreamed Facebook discussion Sept. 6. “Every unit doesn’t have the capability, just because of its mission requirements, to do that sort of a model cycle.”

Kendall and Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force David A. Flosi discussed the new force generation model, known as AFFORGEN, and the drive to change from deploying individuals to deploying wings, as the Air Force’s “units of action.”

AFFORGEN

The AFFORGEN cycle consists of four six-month phases: deploy; rest and reset; prepare; and high-end training to get ready for the next deployment. Officials say the model will help articulate capacity, risk, and readiness to the joint force, make rotations more predictable for Airmen and families, and enhance unit cohesion during deployments.

“Part of our discussion with the MAJCOM commanders … was, ‘We’ve got to have a standard model that we all use, that we can talk about, and be on the same page, particularly as we talk to the Joint Staff,’” then-Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. said in 2021.

But Airmen at multiple levels pushed back. In July, before he retied from commanding the 18th Air Force, Maj. Gen. Corey J. Martin told Air & Space Forces Magazine that mobility Airmen would need a modified AFFORGEN because of continuous high demand for airlift and refueling.

“Our Airmen don’t necessarily have the luxury of having a six-month reset in the traditional sense that it was designed,” Martin said in July. ”I understand why we have it, but for the 18th Air Force, as it was designed, it is probably not sustainable, because of the amount of operations we continue to do in that reset band.”

Kendall told the Facebook audience that commanders will be able to tweak the model to fit mission needs.

“What I think [Chief of Staff Gen. David W. Allvin] and I have been encouraging people to do is figure out what kind of a readiness creation and expenditure cycle makes sense for what you do, and then tailor around it,” he said. “So don’t use just the one model and feel like you rigidly have to follow that or force it into your place where it may not be compatible.”

At the same time, Kendall reiterated his belief in AFFORGEN’s “underlying concept”: giving Airmen time to rest, reset, and train after deployments, and that doing so can build back readiness after years of stretching troops and equipment to the breaking point.

Units of Action

Ongoing operations in the Middle East led to the Air Force “crowdsourcing” deployments—sending individuals or small groups from dozens or even hundreds of different units, who to met down-range and had to become a unit instantly. Instead, leaders want to move back to a fight-how-you-train model where Airmen go through workups as a group, first as “expeditionary air bases,” then as task forces, and eventually as wings.

Getting to that system, however, has involved a series of overlapping changes.

In 2022, Air Combat Command started designating “lead wings,” with the idea that squadrons would be assigned those wings, sometimes only for a time. The combined units would then train together in anticipation of a large-scale conflict that would require massive deployments.

Expeditionary air bases started deploying in October 2023, drawing together Airmen from U.S. bases in the same region to train and deploy together as a team for setting up a base, establishing and supporting operations, and providing leadership.

That was followed by Air Task Forces—essentially a command staff and a base support team, all at the same base, with attached Mission Generation Force Elements and Mission Sustainment Teams. The Air Force announced six Air Task Forces in May, and the first one, the 12th Air Task Force at Scott Air Force Base, Ill., stood up Sept. 4.

Deployable Combat Wings represent the next phase of this development. The DCWs would deploy as a “unit of action,” with the goal of having some ready to go by the fall of 2026.

“This is a transition period, and we will stay in a state of transition, which is driving multiple methodologies being in the field at the same time,” CMSAF Flosi said, acknowledging the service has disparate plans in place at once.

Adjusting individual rotations to the new schedule will not be instant. Some Airmen have been selected for assignment, deployment, or to relocate in the middle of their AFFORGEN cycle, forcing them to leave their teams in mid-stream.

“We have put people into the lead wing process in the cycle, and they’ll also get tapped for an out-of-cycle deployment, or they will get tapped for PCS four months before the deployment window,” Flosi said. “We are working our way to get much better at that.”

Flosi said personnel specialists are working to prevent such occurrences.

“The codes are coming to stabilize them through the cycle,” he promised.

USAF-Funded Tilt-Duct Aircraft Makes First Flight, Could Be Future Autonomous Rescue Platform

Sept. 10, 2024 | By John A. Tirpak

Piasecki Aircraft, a firm known for its rotorcraft, conducted the first flight of its uncrewed tilt-duct vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) aircraft Sept. 6, partially funded under a contract from AFWERX, the Air Force’s innovation arm.

The aircraft is envisioned as a possible autonomous evacuation and rescue craft or a battlefield resupply platform.

The two proof-of-concept demonstrations on the same day—the first for an autonomous tilt-duct aircraft—were flown with the aircraft tethered to the ground at Piasecki’s Essington, Pa. facilities. The first flight was flown with Piasecki’s Aerial Reconfigurable Embedded System Demonstration Vehicle (ARES–DV) alone and comprised a minute of hovering flight. The second flight mounted the Army’s Mobile Multiple Mission Module (M4), and again achieved a minute of hovering flight. This second flight demonstrated “the ability of its triplex fly-by-wire flight control system to sustain a stable hover in multiple configurations and a dynamic ground environment,” Piasecki said in a statement.

The current propulsion configuration is “two turbine engines feeding a combiner gear box (via driveshafts to right angle duct gearboxes, which drive rotor shafts),” a Piasecki spokesperson said. “Future configurations will use a propulsion system that best fits customer mission and needs.”

The Air Force has been looking at technology concepts that could extend the reach of its combat search and rescue aircraft and reduce the number of personnel exposed to fire while recovering downed Airmen close to or behind enemy lines. The tilt-duct aircraft is one such concept; it is being pursued under a November 2023, $37 million joint Air Force/Army Strategic Funding Initiative program. The Air Force element is being conducted under AFWERX.

In addition to ARES work, the contract called for Piasecki to demonstrate VTOL aircraft powered by hydrogen fuel cells.

The company said the Sept. 6 demonstrations are “the first step to demonstrate the potential of ARES to revolutionize autonomous airborne casualty evacuation [CASEVAC], cargo resupply, and provide other multimission capabilities in support of small, distributed combat units. The flight represents the beginning of the experimental flight test program. The company was not immediately able to expand on how many flights are expected or over what timeline. It also did not disclose the ARES’ takeoff weight or potential operational range.

“From this milestone, Piasecki will continue with flight envelope expansion to demonstrate performance hovering in and out of ground effect and low-speed maneuvering before moving into transition flight test points and eventually forward flight testing,” a company spokesperson said. “Upon completion of flight envelope expansion, the team will simulate a casualty evacuation (CASEVAC) mission with the M4 module.”

The tilt-duct concept allows operation from areas without the need for a runway and could work well with the Air Force’s Agile Combat Employment model of operating from large numbers of dispersed and austere locations, supported by small numbers of resupply/logistics aircraft.

Ground crew illustrates the scale of the Piasecki ARES vehicle with the Army mission module attached.

The ARES-DV was initially developed by Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works under a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency program, but is now continuing development under Piasecki.

The ARES can be operated as uncrewed aerial system or with “an optional manned flight module,” Piasecki said. Its small landing footprint would enable “shipboard and expeditionary operations as well as provide embedded multimission C4 [command, control, communications and computers], ISR [intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance] combat and logistics support to small, distributed combat forces operating over extended distances and in complex terrain.” The vehicle is meant to be “rapidly reconfigurable” with mission payload modules supported by a common flight module. This approach is intended to “reduce overall logistics footprint and cost.”

John Piasecki, CEO of the company, said the project has progressed “since its origins as a DARPA conceptual design through years of research and development … to mature the technology leading up to today’s landmark achievement,” which the company called an “aviation milestone.”

He said that after “successfully expanding the aircraft’s flight envelope, we will implement modifications to enable flight demonstration of a fully autonomous CASEVAC and logistics resupply capability.”

Barth Shenk, Air Force Research Laboratory program manager for ARES, said the aircraft “creates a new baseline for VTOL technology applied to heavy-payload, time-critical logistics crucial for dispersed operations.”

Honeywell Aerospace provides the ARES’ compact fly-by-wire integrated flight control system, which Piasecki said is “designed to fit into the limited space available on smaller aircraft.”

The system provides “safety-critical flight control capabilities typically found in much larger airliners and advanced fighter aircraft,” Piasecki said, enabling “precise handling and stability across a wide range of flight conditions.”

Piasecki acquired Lockheed’s Sikorsky Heliplex in Coatesville, Pa., in mid-2023, planning to convert the facility into a state-of-the art development and testing site for VTOL and uninhabited aircraft.

The Air Force has also pursued electric VTOL capabilities through its Agility Prime program, also through AFWERX, purchasing aircraft from Joby Aviation and Archer Aviation.

Space Force Studying How It Will Bolster GPS: Vice Chief

Sept. 9, 2024 | By Unshin Lee Harpley

Despite the Space Force’s “laser-focused” effort to accelerate an initiative to bolster its GPS constellation, the service’s No. 2 officer said the effort is mostly in the study and analysis phase.

“I don’t think we’ll ever move fast enough,” Vice Chief of Space Operations Gen. Michael A. Guetlein said at the Defense News Conference last week. “There is an enormous amount of attention from the White House on position, navigation and timing (PNT) and how to shore up those signals, looking at alternative capabilities. Is there another way we could be doing this, that’s more resilient, more survival against the threat? I would say we could be doing more in this area.”

One of service’s main efforts in the area is dubbed Resilient GPS, or R-GPS. The idea is to add around 20 small, cost-effective GPS satellites to the existing 31, addressing rising concerns about over-reliance on the existing satellites and the possibility of an attack on them.

The initiative first emerged in February when Space Systems Command began exploring the commercial market for a constellation of GPS satellites, seeking “ways to reduce lifecycle cost and increase the pace of GPS satellite development, production and on-orbit deployment.” In April, the Department of the Air Force revealed it had chosen the program as one of the first to take advantage of its new ‘Quick Start’ authorities.

But the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense turned down the service’s request to reprogram $77 million for Resilient GPS in the 2025 budget in June. They cited unclear benefits, questioning whether the additional satellites would better protect against GPS jamming compared to other methods, and noted the program for focusing solely on satellites while overlooking the need for the M-code equipment—an encrypted GPS signal essential for jamming resistance. They also questioned whether the program should have followed the regular budget process.

While details on the R-GPS program’s direction is scarce, experts share lawmakers’ reservations regarding the new initiative.

“Whatever solution the Space Force pursues, it must address the variety of the most likely and most dangerous threats, such as jamming, cyber and potential threats to the on-orbit architecture,” said Charles Galbreath, senior resident fellow at Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies. “But if the resilient GPS architecture that they’re putting forward does not address all these concerns, the service may need to rethink their strategy to gain Congressional support.”

The question centers on whether the new system will simply add more of the same GPS satellites or include satellites with different waveforms to better counter jamming. Guetlein noted that the service is currently exploring these areas of concern, with the Space Warfare Analysis Center leading the effort.

“What can we do to shore up the civil signal and the military signal on GPS, to get more resilience during times of crisis—that study is going on right now,” said Guetlein. “We’re looking at, can we proliferate it? Can we disaggregate it? Or is there an alternative, technically, that we should be pursuing? Those studies are ongoing, the discussions are happening in the Pentagon as we speak.”

Guetlein noted that should be GPS be disrupted for even just 15 minutes, the U.S. would face a $1 billion hit to the economy, and that it would “dwarf anything that we’ve seen since COVID.”

“If we lose GPS in this nation, we can’t get crops out of the field, we can’t get goods off the shelf or off the boat, we can’t get ambulances to your house, and you can’t travel,” Guetlein warned.

The vulnerability of GPS could seriously amplify the chaos in a conflict. If the Space Force’s constellations face interference, similar to what China, Russia, and others have demonstrated, it could disrupt U.S. military logistics and navigation on land, sea, and air. This would also hurt the accuracy of GPS-guided munitions, leading to more flights needed to hit targets and putting additional American and coalition aircrews at risk, while also raising the chance of collateral damage.

“We are laser-focused on guaranteeing space capabilities will be there when needed, which means we need more SATCOM, more resilient position navigation and timing, or GPS,” added Guetlein. “We’re waiting on the 2025 budget on the Hill to see what that shakes out.”

How a New Organization Is Helping Tie the Air Force Together with Software

Sept. 9, 2024 | By Greg Hadley

TINKER AIR FORCE BASE, Okla.—Just a few hallways removed from the massive industrial floor of Building 9001, where technicians, welders and mechanics grind away to keep Air Force planes flying, a highy skilled team is solving crucial problems without bending metal, changing fluids, or fiddling with wires.

The Air Force Sustainment Center Software Directorate, barely one year old, was established in summer 2023 to unite three software engineering groups, a total of 5,000 engineers spread among a dozen locations. Their work here is a sign that the Air Force’s coding efforts have grown since USAF stood up its first software factory less than a decade ago.

As part of the Sustainment Center, the Software Directorate is among the Air Force’s largest software-focused organizations, yet typically flies under the radar.

“We’re creating software all the time,” Michael E. Jennings, senior leader for the directorate, told Air & Space Forces Magazine. “We’re not called the Software Sustainment Directorate. We are the Software Directorate within the Sustainment Center. And so our mission really is probably much bigger than a lot of people realize.”

Jennings and his engineers focus on the future, trying to see what new advances and improvements they can program into software to enhance aircraft performance.

“We are constantly very aware of what the threat is from our adversaries … being able to create software very quickly in a DevSecOps environment, to be able to take software and put software on a platform very, very quickly, to be able to handle whatever threat is out there,” Jennings said.

The team’s involvement in a weapons system depends on who owns the data rights. The Software Directorate is almost entirely responsible for the software on the F-16 and A-10, for example, while providing supplementary code for the F-35, Jennings said.

Older aircraft like the B-52 or E-3 are also getting updates. “You absolutely have strong software systems that can be put on a lot of these systems,” so as long as they can keep flying.

Integrated

But even more than platform-specific code, software that is applicable across platforms and enables better technical integration is where Jennings focuses his team.

“We’re not winning against our adversaries with one single airplane anymore,” Jennings said. “We’re winning it as an integrated system. And the way it’s an integrated system is through software. It’s that software that’s talking to all of these systems, whether it’s an up-front F-35 using its sensor systems to understand what the battlefield looks like and connect that with an F-22 and to be able to connect that back to a B-52 to be able to engage weapons.”

What that looks like is a common, government-owned standard interface, through which any aircraft system can exchange data. Such Open Mission Systems have been a holy grail for years for program executives.

Jennings’ crew works with the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center and Air Force Materiel Command’s new Integrated Development Office to prioritize work. Together, they share recommendations, priorities, and then take action, depending on whether the aircraft’s software work is led by the directorate or industry.

“As we talk about the systems of systems, we’re really laying out that framework for how we connect together and really create the next generation of the standard architectures for how we interconnect together,” Jennings said.

Now the Air Force is pushing to modernize battle management and command, control, and communications—the systems acquired and developed for that effort need to be able to work together to transfer data at the speed the service needs, and common software can help that. To that end, Jennings said his team regularly works with C3/BM czar Brig. Gen. Luke Cropsey to ensure they are on the same page.

Federated

“We need to be able to be better and design more what I call federated systems, in regards to how the systems are set up to be able to make rapid changes to mission computing while leaving the flight stuff, alone,” he said.

Changing software code in one area can impact other parts of the code, affecting flight safety, so changes must be rigorously examined and tested—slowing the pace of upgrades. In the future, Jennings wants the software controlling different functions within the aircraft to be more separate and distinct, so that an update to one will not affect other aspects.

“It’s like Legos, right? It’s creating a system of Legos,” Jennings said. “Some Legos, you’re leaving alone. You’re leaving those structures apart, but you’re allowing these systems to be able to talk to each other and integrate each other to be able to function and to understand where each other are at. Making sure we have the right radios on the systems to be able to communicate, to be able to pass data, to each other, and to be able to trust that data is so important.”

How Fast Can They Go?

Federating systems within aircraft should accelerate updates. Already, speed is improving, even if it’s not as fast as many would like.

“Most of the changes we’re measuring on the F-16 are now in months and not years,” Jennings said. In future systems, updates could be much faster. But in older ones, the limitations on speed remain.

“When you talk about DevSecOps in its purest form, you’re pushing stuff out there, like, on a daily basis,” Jennings said. “You can’t do that with a B-52 because of the way it’s architected, but I can still create changes to that.” It’s all just a matter of time.

First AC-130J Arrives at Kirtland in New Chapter for Gunship Training

Sept. 9, 2024 | By David Roza

Late last month, Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico welcomed a new resident: an AC-130J Ghostrider flying in from its old home at Hurlburt Field, Fla.

The arrival, celebrated with an official ceremony Sept. 5, marks a new chapter for Air Force gunship aircrew training, which is currently split between the two locations. By bringing AC-130J training under one roof, planners hope to make the training pipeline faster and more efficient.

“The training quality has been outstanding,” Lt. Col. John Barringer, commander of the 73rd Special Operations Squadron at Kirtland, told Air & Space Forces Magazine. “We’re focused on being able to reduce the timeline, get that standard of training that the AC-130 community has established, and then get them [aircrew] to the operational unit faster.”

Under the status quo, AC-130J student pilots complete their initial qualification training at Kirtland for about four to six months. That’s where students learn to fly the C-130J, the four-engine transport plane of which the AC-130J is a variant.

Once they complete initial qualification training, students move to Hurlburt to start mission qualification training, which is where they learn to fly the AC-130J, a ground attack platform with two cannons sticking out the left side of the fuselage, the ability to drop a range of bombs and missiles, and a crew in back who operate the aircraft’s weapons and sensors.

Mission qualification training “really familiarizes them with how we employ the AC-130J Ghostrider,” said Lt. Col. Joshua Martin, operations officer for the 73rd SOS. “That is more like the mission sets that we accomplish, how to integrate with the crew for the mission.”

An AC-130J arrives at Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M. after departing its previous home at Hurlburt Field, Fla. on Aug. 27, 2024. Photo via Facebook/58th Special Operations Wing

The problem with the current arrangement is the transit to Hurlburt: paperwork, finding lodging in Florida, and travel itself stretches the pipeline by about a month.

“It’s a break in training for at least a month, if not more,” Barringer said. “We reduce that month gap immediately by moving them right to the flightline as soon as they’re done with the initial qual.”

The move will also benefit the rest of the crew, as the 73rd will conduct all initial and upgrade training for pilots, combat system officers, weapons system operators, aerial gunners, and other positions, Martin said. The current arrangement for those other crew members is more disparate, with some Airmen training at the 19th Special Operations Squadron at Hurlburt.

The journey back to Kirtland also streamlines things on the organizational side of the house. Under the status quo, AC-130J crew training takes place under both Air Education and Training Command (AETC), which oversees the 58th Special Operations Wing at Kirtland, and Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC), which oversees Hurlburt Field.

Putting all training activities under AETC helps centralize training resources and expertise, which lets AFSOC focus on operations, Barringer and Martin explained. The 73rd SOS used to be an operational squadron stationed at Hurlburt Field, but it was deactivated in May and then reactivated a month later as a training squadron under AETC.

“They [AETC] are the experts on educating and training Airmen,” the squadron commander said. “So moving the training of all AC-130J aircrew into this major command—to me, that’s probably the biggest thing I’m excited about. This entire office, this entire organization is focused on training, and that’s it.”

“That allows AFSOC to focus on deployments, preparation for deployments, and readiness, while we focus on those training objectives,” Martin added.

The 58th Special Operations Wing trains about 10,000 aircrew every year for special operations, rescue, VIP airlift, missile site support, and other missions on a range of helicopter, fixed-wing, and tilt-rotor aircraft.

During an aircraft arrival ceremony, Col. Joshua Jackson, 58th Special Operations Wing deputy commander, and Patricia Knighten, Team Kirtland Wingman, cut the ribbon to the first AC-130J aircraft at Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M., Sept. 5. U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Karissa Dick

The Road Ahead

The plan to consolidate AC-130J training at Kirtland was first announced in 2020, with the first aircraft and Airmen scheduled to arrive in fiscal y2023. As it turned out, the first AC-130J did not arrive until Aug. 27, near the end of fiscal 2024.

When asked what caused the delay, Barringer and Martin said the answer was above their pay grade, but they acknowledged that military basing decisions are complicated processes involving a lengthy environmental study and other factors. It was not until May 2023 that Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall formally signed off on the basing decision.

The squadron will eventually host six aircraft and 299 people including aircrew, maintainers, and support staff. The goal is to be ready for student training by April 1, 2025, and right now the squadron is on pace to meet that goal, Berringer asked. Some temporary facilities will have to be built and other buildings updated to handle the new mission, but most of those projects are nearing completion, he added.

Coming to Kirtland also marks a new base for the AC-130 community, which previously was limited to Hurlburt and Cannon Air Force Base, N.M.

“Now we have three bases that folks could potentially rotate to,” Martin said. “It provides new opportunities for our folks to crossflow and to get some new experiences with formal training schoolhouses in AETC. So more opportunities there and a new community we can be involved with.”