Russian Air Force Trades Efficacy for Survival Over Ukraine, USAFE Boss Says

Sept. 14, 2023 | By Chris Gordon

The Russian Air Force has substantially revised its tactics in Ukraine and is holding down its losses by carrying out less effective bombing runs, Gen. James B. Hecker, the commander of U.S. Air Forces in Europe-Air Forces Africa said Sept. 13.

At the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Russian warplanes flew into the thick of the Ukrainian air defenses and took serious losses, according to Western officials and military analysts. More than 75 Russian planes were shot down, Hecker said at AFA’s Air, Space & Cyber conference.

“When it first started out, they were flying right into the surface-to-air missile engagement zones of the Ukrainians,” Hecker said in an interview with Air & Space Forces Magazine. “So they now don’t fly in those rings, or if they do, it is for low altitude for very quick moments and then they go back out.”

The switch in tactics, however, has required a tradeoff.

“That’s adapting for saving aircraft, but obviously it doesn’t bode well for dropping bombs and trying to gain air superiority,” Hecker said.

Restocking and improving Ukraine’s air defense has been a top focus of Western aid to Kyiv, a decision Hecker supports and one that aligns with his separate mission as NATO Allied Air Commander to bolster the alliance’s air defenses.

Russian have forces suffered major losses following their February 2022 invasion of Ukraine. According to a Western defense official, Russian forces have suffered over 270,000 troops killed and wounded and lost more than 2,000 tanks and 4,000 armored fighting vehicles.

Though Russian air operations have also come at a cost, the Russian Air Force is largely intact, Hecker added.

In terms of precision munitions, Hecker noted, Russia has sought to preserve its inventory. Yet Moscow still appears to have adequate supplies of AS-23 and AS-4 cruise missiles as well as one-way attack drones supplied by Iran.

“We’re still seeing those on a regular basis, and those are fairly precise,” Hecker said. “When it comes to doing [things] like close air support for some of their army folks that are on the ground, there it is primarily non-precision weapons.”

While Ukrainian drone attacks against air bases inside Russia had prompted the Russians to disperse some of their aircraft, they have done little to reduce Moscow’s long-range strike capability, Hecker said.

The Russians have also put tires on the wings of some of their bombers to protect the planes against drone strikes and perhaps reduce their thermal signature.

Commercial satellite images provided to Air & Space Forces Magazine by Maxar Technologies indicate that the Russians have placed rows of tires on the wings of Tu-95 and Tu-160 bombers at their Engels air base. Social media images also show tires on a Russian Su-34 fighter-bomber.

“There’s been some successful attacks inside of Russia from Ukraine that have taken out some of their long-range aviation assets,” Hecker told a media roundtable at the conference. “But in the big scheme of things, their air force is still fairly intact. Not the case as much with their army.”

Four More Guard Wings Tapped for Upgrade to C-130J

Sept. 14, 2023 | By Greg Hadley

The Air Force has selected four more Air National Guard wings to transition to the new C-130J Super Hercules, a key inflection point as the Guard modernizes.

The C-130Js feature a roomier, “stretched” fuselage, more powerful engines with composite six-blade propellers, and digital avionics and mission computers. That means J’s can fly faster, higher, and farther than the C-130H.

The four wings receiving new C-130Js in place of H-models:

103rd Airlift Wing, in Connecticut

120th Airlift Wing, in Montana

133rd Airlift Wing, in Minnesota

182nd Airlift Wing, in Illinois

Each wing is getting eight C-130Js, with the timeline to be determined, according to a release. Final approval of the plan is pending as the Air Guard awaits completion of an environmental impact study no later than fiscal 2025.

Six other Guard wings are already flying or scheduled to receive the C-130J:

123rd Airlift Wing, in Kentucky

130th Airlift Wing, in West Virginia

136th Airlift Wing, in Texas

143rd Airlift Wing, in Rhode Island

146th Airlift Wing, in California

165th Airlift Wing, in Georgia

Additionally, the Arkansas Air National Guard’s 189th Airlift Wing has been selected to host the Guard’s C-130J Formal Training Unit, gaining four C-130Js in addition to its existing C-130H schoolhouse.

The 165th Wing in Georgia is the latest unit to make the transition to the J model. Its last C-130H departed Savannah Air National Guard Base, Ga., on Aug. 18, and the newer aircraft are slated to start arriving in December.

Once the latest four wings receive their new airframes, the Guard will have more J-models than H’s, with just five units still flying the older model:

139th Airlift Wing, in Missouri

152nd Airlift Wing, in Nevada

153rd Airlift Wing, in Wyoming

166th Airlift Wing, in Delaware

179th Airlift Wing, in Ohio

The Guard is catching up to the Active-Duty force, which has already completed its transition from the C-130H.

First EC-37 Delivered for Testing; CCAs Will Complement It

Sept. 14, 2023 | By John A. Tirpak

The first of 10 EC-37B electronic warfare aircraft has been delivered for Air Force testing, BAE Systems and L3Harris Technologies announced Sept. 12. Gen. Mark D. Kelly, head of Air Combat Command, said the aircraft is arriving not a moment too soon and will not be made obsolete when Collaborative Combat Aircraft with electronic warfare/electronic attack capabilities come along in a few years.

The Air Force needs the EC-37B to succeed the aging EC-130 Compass Call “yesterday,” Kelly told reporters at AFA’s Air, Space & Cyber Conference. Both aircraft carry that mission name.

The first EC-37 aircraft will undergo a combined developmental and operational test program—similar to what the Air Force is doing with the Boeing F-15EX fighter—made possible by the fact that the aircraft largely uses electronic equipment ported from retiring EC-130s, whose operations are well understood.

The EC-37B mission hardware is built by BAE at its Hudson, N.H., facilities; the Gulfstream G550 business jet platform is made in Savannah, Ga.; and the aircraft is modified at L3Harris’ Waco, Texas, plant. Testing is likely to be conducted at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., and the EC-37B fleet will be based at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Ariz.

“It’s all about the mission systems,” Kelly said of the testing.

“When we dial up the jamming power or ask for a specific waveform, that waveform needs to come out exactly [with] the amount of … power and [at the] frequency we asked for,” he said. Testing will ensure that the integrated core processors on the aircraft can “talk to” the mission systems, and that “when you ask for a certain amount of jamming, that’s all you get. And when you turn it off, it turns off.”

Like the EC-130, the EC-37B will be able to conduct jamming of radars, electronic systems and communications. The aircraft will also play a role in the Suppression of Enemy Air Defenses (SEAD) mission by disrupting an enemy’s ability to coordinate sensors and command-and-control weapon batteries that target friendly aircraft.

The first EC-37 Compass call delivered to the Air Force for testing next to an EC-130 Compass Call. Image courtesy of L3Harris

The G550 can operate at higher altitudes than the C-130, and its higher speed means the EC-37B can move around more quickly, Kelly said. The EC-37B’s ability to fly at 40,000 feet and 600 knots—versus the EC-130’s ceiling of 25,000 feet and 300 knots.

Combined with the new aircraft’s reduced need for maintenance and greater reliability, the Air Force will get a leg up in electronic warfare, Kelly said.

“Most of what it does is highly classified and so I’m limited in what I’m going to say about it,” Kelly noted. “But, bottom line is, we needed to enable our ships and aircraft to get closer [to an adversary] by electromagnetic protection and…electronic attack, to make it more difficult for adversary ships and aircraft to operate across” the electromagnetic spectrum, or EMS.

Kelly said the operating concept between the EC-130 and EC-37B is “not overly different,” and in fact, the EC-130s not yet being retired have been updated with new gear so that their “techniques [can] catch up with what will be on the EC-37.”

Kell said the EC-37 will not be rendered obsolete by CCAs, the autonomous drones the Air Force plans to pair with manned aircraft—electronic warfare has been identified as one of first missions for CCAs.

“I see it as complementary,” he said, noting the EC-37’s abilities will also complement Block 4 of the F-35, which will also has an extensive electronic warfare suite. It will also work with the F-15’s EPAWSS, or Eagle Passive Active Warning Survivability System, but Kelly cautioned that all of these need to be harmonized so “they don’t have electronic fratricide on each other.”

Col. Joshua Koslov, commander of the 350th Spectrum Warfare Wing, told reporters in a separate press conference that he does not see CCAs displacing existing electronic warfare aircraft.

“I think they’re not going to be a replacement for any of the big electronic platforms,” Koslov said.

“They’re not going to replace the [Navy EA-18G] Growler or any of those systems. I think they’re going to complement our strike packages, and provide that ‘fullback blocking package for the running back,’ basically, and they’re going to work in concert with our weapons and our fighters,” he added.

Koslov also said the electronic warfare CCA mission “will come to us when that program is ready to go, and we’ll be the guys to fill in those capabilities.”

Space Force Looks to ‘Build Upon Momentum’ to Solidify Its Unique Culture

Sept. 14, 2023 | By Unshin Lee Harpley

Looking to fight “inertia,” Space Force leaders said at AFA’s Air, Space & Cyber Conference they want to build on the young service’s momentum and keep building a culture unique among the military services.

Chief of Space Operations Gen. B. Chance Saltzman has made “Amplifying the Guardian Spirit” one of his key lines of effort for the service, and in a Sept. 12 panel discussion, deputy chief of space operations for human capital Katharine Kelley said the use of words like “amplification” and “spirit” speaks to the need to keep moving forward and not get bogged down by standard Pentagon bureaucracy and conventions.

“There’s much inertia institutionally against startups. We need to continue and build upon momentum as a new service,” said Kelley.

Earlier this month, the Space Force announced its new mission statement, formulated with direct input from Guardians: “Secure our Nation’s interests in, from, and to space.” The process and end result were both emblematic of USSF’s distinctive culture and identity, but the youngest branch of the military still has some challenges and opportunities for securing its own path forward.

One of the most distinctive and high-profile examples of the way the Space Force has sought to build its own culture is its “patching ceremony”—Guardians at Basic Military Training are gifted patches and personal notes from a Guardian who wore that patch, building morale, tradition, and lineage.

86 Guardians assigned to the 1st Delta Operations Squadron Detachment 1 recived their Space Force Patch during a private ceremony on June 20, 2023. Lt. Gen. Stephen N. Whiting, Commander, Space Operations Command, Peterson Space Force Base, Colorado, reviewed the ceremony. U.S. Air Force photo by Daniel Cruz

Even the way that tradition came about is indicative of the Space Force’s unique spirit, said Chief Master Sgt. James Seballes, senior enlisted leader of Space Training and Readiness Command, because it doesn’t stem from the leadership but rather emerged as a grassroots initiative from Guardians themselves.

“That was the team that was planning and building the curriculum that came together. That was not just enlisted Guardians, that was also civilian and officer Guardians that helped come up with the idea,” Seballes said.

Seballes’ reference to civilian Guardians spotlighted another unique aspect of Space Force culture—its inclusion of civilians and contractors who work for the branch. Leaders said they recognize every decision made impacts the entire force, especially due to the relatively small size of the branch.

This can be beneficial, according to Maj. Gen. Steven Whitney, director of staff. Whitney pointed out the personalized mentorship and one-on-one conversations that characterize the service’s approach to leadership development. This personalized feedback, which goes both ways, ensures that leaders are not only imparting knowledge but also learning from their subordinates.

Leaders hope such development will help the service in retaining talent over time. In addition, Seballes said Guardians may be more likely to stay based on the Space Force’s focus on giving members a voice and streamlining processes for quicker problem-solving. In this regard, its small size can be another significant advantage.

“For instance, I’ve seen things that take lengthy amount of time to be processed in other branches but in our department is a lot shorter process. That saves a lot of time and energy and resources for problem solving,” he said.

Kelley also noted the service hopes to boost retention by investing in Guardians. This includes designing ecosystems to assess individual skills and determine suitable career paths, whether within the branch or as civilians. Kelley pointed out that continuous learning and skill development are vital components, and she stressed the importance of amplifying the expertise and unique experiences of each role within the USSF to create a stronger and more cohesive team.

‘How We Train and How We Operate’ in the Arctic Can Get Better, Generals Say

Sept. 13, 2023 | By Unshin Lee Harpley

A combination of perilous conditions and growing threats are making safeguarding and monitoring the Arctic all the more difficult, top Air Force and Space Force officials said Sept. 13 at AFA’s Air, Space, & Cyber Conference.

Just last month, Russian military aircraft flew near Alaska and Russian and Chinese warships conducted joint exercises near the Aleutian Islands in the span of about two weeks, highlighting the threats that need to be tracked in the region.

At the same time, the U.S. needs to prepare troops for the extreme and often unpredictable weather conditions, said Lt. Gen. David S. Nahom, head of Alaskan Command.

“We frankly don’t do a good job in terms of training. We’re not just training aircrew how to fly but (wanting) everyone in the command to learn how to fly. The conditions require for that. How we train and how we operate can be improved,” Nahom said.

Gen. Glen D. VanHerck, the head of U.S. Northern Command and North American Aerospace Defense Command, has long been an advocate for the Arctic receiving more funds and attention from the Pentagon, and he echoed Nahom’s assessment.

VanHerck also emphasized the nation’s need to detect and track potential air and missile threats to the homeland even before they are launched. To accomplish that, he stressed the urgency of leveraging commercially available data and communication to enhance data collection and analysis capabilities.

However, integrating platforms and sectors could also increase data vulnerability, and VanHerck cautioned against the potential for individuals with political motives to compromise or steal classified information. The “policy aspect of that needs to happen right now, to ensure the security. We must be more aggressive and bring the lawmakers to the table and have them discuss this as well,” VanHerk said.

Maj. Gen. Gregory Gagnon, deputy chief of space operations for intelligence, agreed. He said that commercial entities complement, rather than replace, the military’s capabilities. However, he pointed out that many areas of policy concerning data and autonomous systems remain unclear, hindering collaboration.

“Policies around autonomous launch were not clear four years ago, and now, four years later, our space ports and the volume of autonomous systems have greatly expanded. So now it’s really a policy fight because policy hasn’t developed much since four years ago,” Gagnon said.

The current challenges and security threats in both the Arctic and space domains require enhanced training and operational strategies, while urgently calling for a concerted effort to establish detailed policies and foster cooperation among various stakeholders.

VanHerck and Gagnon both reiterated how critical it is to refine homeland defense strategies to safeguard vast geographical landscapes and air and space domains, underscoring that cooperation with the nation’s allies and government agencies is essential for perfecting these approaches.

US Has Resumed Drone Operations Out of Niger, Top General Says

Sept. 13, 2023 | By Chris Gordon

The U.S. has resumed drone flights out of Niger “within the last couple of weeks” despite a coup that overthrew the democratically elected president, the top U.S. Air Force commander for Africa said Sept 13.

America had halted drone operations after the July coup, Gen. James B. Hecker, commander of U.S. Air Forces in Europe-Air Forces Africa told reporters on Sept. 13 at AFA’s Air, Space & Cyber Conference.

“We’re continuing to do the mission now,” Hecker said.

Some 1,100 U.S. troops are based in Niger, and now U.S. manned and unmanned platforms are back to more normal operations. That has allowed the U.S. to regain some visibility into a region that has long been a focus of counterterrorism efforts. However, Deputy Press Secretary Sabrina Singh said on Sept. 14 that the U.S. has “not restarted counterterrorism operations” in Niger.

“We can confirm that U.S. forces in Niger commenced ISR flight ops to monitor for threats for purposes of force protection,” Pentagon Press Secretary Air Force Brig. Gen. Patrick S. Ryder said in a statement to Air & Space Forces Magazine Sept. 13. “We have secured approvals from appropriate authorities. The United States always reserves the right to conduct operations to protect our forces and personnel, if required. We have not restarted security force assistance training or counterterrorism cooperation with Niger.”

Ryder declined to comment on specific operations “for security purposes.”

The U.S. has taken a wait-and-see approach since the junta’s takeover, which risked jeopardizing U.S. counterterrorism missions in much of Africa and raised questions about America’s ability to carry out military operations in that region. The Biden administration has not officially declared the removal of President Mohammad Bazoum a coup, a legal move that would require the U.S. to cut off military assistance under U.S. law.

Since the coup, current and former U.S. officials have stressed that there might still be some hope the U.S. could reach an agreement to resume counterterrorism efforts.

“If Western operations are significantly impacted by this, it’s going to be bad for the Nigerien people,” retired Army Gen. Stephen J. Townsend, who led U.S. Africa Command from 2019-2022, previously told Air & Space Forces Magazine. “It’s going to be bad for the region. It’s going to be bad for Europe before it’s bad for America, but it’s going to be bad for everybody.”

Led by the State Department, the U.S. was able to calm tensions and regain its ability to use the country as a vital drone base, Hecker said.

“They were able to turn that around fairly quickly where we didn’t have to totally evacuate everything out there,” Hecker said of the State Department’s efforts.

The U.S. did move personnel from Air Base 101 near the capital of Niamey to Air Base 201 over 500 miles away in the city of Agadez on the edge of the Sahara desert. “But we did take some things and personnel, and we moved them to 201, which is a base which isn’t under as much pressure, if you will. And we hope that that’s going to be maybe a temporary thing, and things will calm down as they appear to be,” Hecker said.

The Pentagon acknowledged the movement of U.S. forces from Air Base 101 to Air Base 201 in “a precautionary measure,” Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh said Sept 7.

Hecker said that while aircraft are still flying, the distance between the two bases did have an operational impact, as many targets of surveillance are farther from Air Base 201 than Air Base 101.

“You’re doing the mission, but you’re not getting as much data because you’re not overhead for as long just because of the gas it takes to get there and back,” Hecker said.

This article was updated on Sept. 14 with comments from Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh.

Gen. James B. Hecker, Commander, U.S. Air Forces in Europe-Air Forces Africa at Air & Space Forces Association’s 2023 Air, Space & Cyber Conference on September 12, at National Harbor, Maryland. Photo by Mike Tsukamoto/Air & Space Forces Magazine

B-21 Still on Track for First Flight This Year. But Are There Enough in the Pipeline?

Sept. 13, 2023 | By John A. Tirpak

While the Air Force eagerly awaits the first flight of the B-21, there aren’t enough Raiders behind that first aircraft in the pipeline to do everything the nation needs the bomber fleet to do, a top analyst said Sept. 13 at AFA’s Air, Space & Cyber Conference.

As a result, USAF’s bomber fleet, already smaller than it has ever been, could get even smaller if the Air Force doesn’t ramp up B-21 production or extend the service of the B-1 and B-2 fleets, said Mark Gunzinger, director of future concepts and capability studies at the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies during a panel discussion on the B-21.

Northrop Grumman’s aeronautics president Tom Jones, also on the panel, said the first B-21, now being readied for flight test, is still likely to fly by the end of the year—and delays to this point are only a sign that it is being readied in a deliberate fashion that will ensure a quick succession of follow-on flights.

Gunzinger said his analysis of USAF aircraft inventory plans shows the bomber inventory will decline early in the next decade, at a time when its importance is only increasing.

“According to DOD’s own unclassified report to Congress of aircraft inventory, it looks like the B-21 acquisition rate is going to top out at around 10 per year sometime in the 2030s,” Gunzinger said. That level would be “half the max rate that we planned for the last four bomber models” and not enough to prosecute a campaign-level air war.

Also on the panel were William D. Bailey, the head of the Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office, which is developing the B-21; Jones; and Brig. Gen. Ty Neuman, the Air Force’s director of concepts and strategy in the Air Force Futures office. None disputed Gunzinger’s assessment.

To deter China from attempting an invasion of Taiwan, “we have to bring mass,” Gunzinger said. “We have to bring precision plus mass over long ranges to strike a … landing wave, surface action groups, and other targets that would be the core of China’s offensive strategy.”

Carrier air wings will have to stay too far away from China because of long-range ballistic missiles, Gunzinger said. “So we need our bomber force now more than ever.”

At 141 aircraft, today’s bomber fleet is smaller than at almost any time in USAF history. “We’re sized for the wars of the past and not the operating environment we’re in today,” Gunzinger said.

Various analysts peg a mixed fleet of 300 B-21s and B-52s as the minimum needed to carry out such an air campaign, but the Air Force doesn’t have the resources to do that because, for 31 years, it has received less funding than the Army or Navy.

A suggestion from former Chief of Staff Gen. David Goldfein that the Air Force move toward 225 bombers is a “step in the right direction,” Gunzinger said.

“We need to grow the size of our bomber force as quickly as possible, he argued. “And that means the acquisition rate of the B-21 should be maximized.”

In the meantime, “our force is going to go down before it goes up,” Gunzinger warned, explaining that DOD’s aircraft plan puts the bomber fleet at 133 tails. “It might actually be worse than that,” because the Air Force doesn’t have the money to keep the B-1 and B-2 bombers flying while bringing on B-21s.

Jones said the first B-21 test aircraft, designated T-1, is not a prototype and was built largely as the first production aircraft, P-1, will be.

“The jet that’s going to fly this year, for all intents and purposes, is a production jet,” Jones said.

“It’s got all the coating, it’s got the mission systems. It was built using factory processes. It was built with regular work orders by regular factory technicians, not engineers doing a bespoke first article. It was built with original tooling,” said Jones. While it will be a flight sciences aircraft, the B-21 contract calls for making the test airplanes into operational models later on.

As lessons are learned in testing, Northrop is applying adaptive processes, “which means we’re going to get to stable, steady production rates faster,” Jones promised.

Additionally,, B-21 sustainment was a foundational design factor, which means testing will move out rapidly and early production aircraft will be able to operate as “daily flyers” soon after reaching the force, he said.

Neuman said the Air Force is “thinking very differently” about how the B-21 will be employed versus previous bombers.

“It’s not about force packaging,” he said. “It’s about providing complicated scenarios that the adversary has to plan for,” as part of a “cost-imposing” strategy.

Bailey agreed that the B-21 is “still on track” to fly by the end of 2022.

“The aircraft is performing well,” he said. While the team is looking forward to first flight, in a meeting last week, they “wanted to talk about second flight up to the 20^th flight. … We’re looking downstream all the time.”

The challenge, he said, “is to stay focused. We need to be ready on day one to operate this aircraft.”

Getting Agile in the Pacific: Clearing WWII Airfields, Adding More Vertical Lift

Sept. 13, 2023 | By Greg Hadley

To make the Air Force’s concept of Agile Combat Employment work across the vast reaches of the Indo-Pacific, the head of Pacific Air Forces wants to clear jungle that’s overgrown World War II-era airfields while the Air Forces top special operator wants faster vertical lift to move about the theater.

Gen. Kenneth S. Wilsbach, head of PACAF; Gen. Mike Minihan, head of Air Mobility Command; and Lt. Gen. Tony D. Bauernfeind, head of Air Force Special Operations Command all highlighted ACE-focused initiatives during a Sept. 13 panel at AFA’s Air, Space & Cyber Conference.

The Indo-Pacific’s vast scope, ocean distances, and small islands has the Air Force looking to maximize every bit of concrete it can. “A lot of our strategy there is taking some World War II airfields that frankly are overgrown by the jungle, and there’s still concrete or asphalt underneath that jungle,” Wilsbach said. “We scrape the jungle away and now we have an airfield … So we’re not making super bases anywhere. We’re looking for a place to get some fuel and some weapons, maybe get a bite to eat and take a nap and then get airborne again.”

In recent years, Wilsbach said, PACAF studied “every single piece of concrete” across the Indo-Pacific that could be used for ACE operations. The command has also invested in bare-bones facilities like those on the island of Tinian, in the Marianas chain, which were crucial to the U.S. in World War II, with multiple scattered throughout the Pacific.

Yet even if PACAF does not find enough airfields, AFSOC is preparing to operate without runways at all, said Bauernfeind.

“We’re leaning into the acknowledgement that’s been discussed here that our forward operating bases and our runways will be under stress,” Bauernfeind said. “And so we’re approaching this acknowledging that we have to have runway-agnostic capabilities.”

Those include an amphibious MC-130J—a project the Air Force has pursued off and on over the last several years but which Bauernfeind said is “continuing forward” in the engineering phase. It also includes a collaboration between the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and U.S. Special Operations Command to develop the Speed and Runway Independent Technologies (SPRINT) program, envisioned as a high-speed aircraft that does not need a runway and could one day replace the CV-22 tiltrotor aircraft, said Bauernfeind.

Gen. Mike Minihan, Commander, Air Mobility Command Gen. Kenneth Wilsbach, Commander, Pacific Air Forces Lt. Gen. Tony D. Bauernfeind, Commander, Air Force Special Operations Command at the Air, Space & Cyber Conference on September 13, 2023, at National Harbor, Maryland. Photo by Mike Tsukamoto/Air & Space Forces Magazine

Such an airframe might be especially necessary in a scenario where runways are destroyed either by adversaries or severe weather. Such a scenario played out this May when Super Typhoon Mawar hit Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, causing roughly $5 million in damage to the airfield, said Wilsbach, who called it a “perfect” ACE exercise.

“I told the 36th Wing team at Guam when I went and visited after the typhoon, I said ‘think about a potential attack by somebody with ballistic missiles and how much damage could happen in one day on the island, and compared to what you experienced with the typhoon, which one would be greater do you think?’” Wilsbach said. “And the typhoon clearly did more damage than a fairly extensive attack might do.”

That typhoon swept through less than two months before the start of Mobility Guardian, AMC’s massive Pacific-focused exercise this summer that also practiced elements of Agile Combat Employment, Minihan noted.

Yet despite these efforts, Wilsbach indicated there is much to do before he would be ready to declare PACAF at full operational capability for ACE.

“Initial Operational Capability, we didn’t have much in the way of bases that were contested,” Wilsbach said. “So the distance wasn’t really contested, the comms wasn’t contested, and you weren’t having to work through [Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear, and high yield Explosives] types of activity while you were executing ACE.

“As we move closer and closer to FOC, those are the sorts of things that we will ask our Airmen to be able to fight their way through. … You’re going to have logistics challenges, you’re going to have comms challenges. You’re going to have a challenge just surviving on the base from the attacks. And so we’ve got to be able to do all of that, and as we go forward in time, those are all things that we’re practicing.”

Furthermore, Wilsbach said the entirety of PACAF—every base and wing—will need to embrace ACE before he declares full operational capability.

“I asked the Wings to make a ACE a part of their everyday activity in some way, and that’s the way that we will achieve FOC, is if it’s not a special thing that we do every few weeks or every few months, but that we do it every day, and it’s just muscle memory,” said Wilsbach.

CMSAF Warns Airmen About ‘Being Used’ By Artificial Intelligence

Sept. 13, 2023 | By David Roza

The top enlisted Airman warned her fellow service members of the perils of information warfare and artificial intelligence, urging them to think critically to avoid becoming casualties of attacks in the digital domain.

“Our role is in the ethical and responsible development of AI” and it cannot be overstated, Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force JoAnne Bass said during her keynote address at AFA’s Air, Space & Cyber Conference on Sept. 13.

“Instead of avoiding it, we probably better figure out how to educate our force about the difference between using these platforms and being used by them,” she added. “And we better figure out how to do this fast because our adversaries are already there.”

Bass’s remarks came a week after Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. warned Airmen about attempts by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army to “exploit your knowledge and skill to fill gaps in their military capability.”

“Foreign companies are targeting and recruiting U.S. and NATO-trained military talent across specialties and career fields to train the PLA abroad,” Brown wrote in a Sept. 5 memo, which was posted to the Facebook page Air Force amn/nco/snco and subsequently verified by the Air Force. “By essentially training the trainer, many of those who accept contracts with these foreign companies are eroding our national security, putting the very safety of their fellow service members and the country at risk, and may be violating the law.”

Attacks via information warfare may be even more subtle. Bass warned that adversaries “understand the power of information and they seek to exploit it, weaponize it, and use it against us. They aim to sow discord, erode trust, and destabilize nations through the spread of disinformation and propaganda through emerging technology.”

That paragraph was written by ChatGPT, Bass said, demonstrating the power of artificial intelligence to create convincing, possibly deceptive, information. While information warfare has existed for millennia, new tools could make it even more powerful, she warned.

“There are armies of bots, swarms of trolls, legions of sock puppets, strategically manipulating the information that we see to achieve their own objectives,” said Bass, whose own Facebook page has been impersonated by scammers many times over the years. “This is unrestricted warfare and it comes with minimal to no physical force.”

China analysts share her concerns about the use of ChatGPT and similar technologies for information warfare. Josh Baughman, an analyst with Air University’s China Aerospace Studies Institute, said in an August paper that PLA writers have discussed using AI in the cognitive domain to “destroy the image of the government, change the standpoint of the people, divide society and overthrow the regime” through an overwhelming amount of fake news, videos, and other content targeting human fears and suspicions.

“That is not something years in the future, it is something they can do today,” Baughman told Air & Space Forces Magazine at the time, “and the scale that they could do it at is just unreal.”

Surviving such warfare will require critical thinking. Indeed, the Air Force Culture and Language Center (AFCLC)’s free and open-to-the-public Culture Guide app features a four-part video series on detecting, evaluating, and combating manipulative information. Dr. Elizabeth Peifer, AFCLC’s associate professor of regional and cultural studies (Europe), led the development of the series.

“Strategic competitors like Russia and China, as well as violent extremist organizations and non-political disruptors, use misinformation and disinformation campaigns to recruit members to their cause, divide our society domestically, and create rifts between allies and partners,” Peifer said in a press release when the series was published in March. “We are less able to put up a strong defense if we are divided socially and if our alliances and partnerships are torn.”