Air Force Surgeon General: Better Access to Health Services Helps Force Readiness

Sept. 12, 2023 | By Patrick Reardon

Lt. Gen. Robert Miller, Surgeon General for the U.S. Air Force and Space Force, highlighted the need for a more unified care system across all major commands to help Airmen, Guardians, and their families locate mental health programs, physical therapy, and other medical support services. He said erasing confusion around important mental health services—like suicide prevention—requires “tearing down stovepipes and consolidating” providers into a single recognizable system.

“I personally couldn’t care less [what] we call it,” Miller told attendees on Sept. 12 at AFA’s Air, Space & Cyber Conference in National Harbor, Md. “We could go down the list of names. It’s all that same desire to support our folks.”

Miller spoke on a panel alongside Lt. Gen. Tom Miller, deputy chief of staff for logistics, engineering, and force protection, and Maj. Gen. Chaplain Randall E. Kitchens, chief of chaplains for the Department of the Air Force. The panel was moderated by Lt. Col. Angelina Stephens, Chief of Integration for the SECAF-CSAF Strategic Execution Group, a group charged by Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. to “accelerate change in the arenas of mental health, wellness, and resilience.”

“It’s not all about the medics, although we play a part and there’s medical healing,” Lt. Gen. Robert Miller said. “At times you need Chaplains, spiritual healing. And at times you need a strong commander, fellow Airmen, Guardians, others that need to be there and provide that care when needed.”

The entire panel refuted critics who say spending time and money on personnel care is “in direct opposition to readiness” within the Department of the Air Force.

“The Chief says that airpower is the answer, and I’ve heard him many times say that Airmen are the reason why airpower is the answer. And that’s not lost on him, it shouldn’t be lost on any of us, that it’s not the machine that defends our nation,” Lt. Gen. Tom Miller said. “It’s intellectually dishonest to me to think that not thinking about the human being is somehow counter to readiness. It is readiness.”

The panelists also emphasized that silos between the Pentagon and military family members need to be dismantled to not only improve force readiness, but rebuild trust between the Air and Space Forces community.

“Trust is the currency of influence. And with no trust, the people will not follow. Well, that goes for families. And it is hard to regain that trust,” said Kitchens. “I’ve heard the silo comments and feedback also. I can agree 100 percent, we’re better together.”

“Change is a journey and the journey must continue,” said Stephens, quoting the theme of what was likely Brown’s final AFA September keynote as Air Force Chief of Staff. She and the panel said they are encouraged by leaders like Brown and Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force JoAnne Bass, who are “empowering” medics, chaplains, and commanders to continue finding ways to make medical and mental health services more accessible to the total force.

At Nomination Hearing, Allvin Says Chance to Be CSAF ‘Comes at a Very Important Time’

Sept. 12, 2023 | By Greg Hadley

Nominated to become the 23rd Air Force Chief of Staff, Gen. David W. Allvin answered roughly two hours of questions from lawmakers on Sept. 12 as part of his confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee.

While Allvin, currently the Vice Chief of Staff, addressed everything from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to hurricane recovery to child care, many of the questions he fielded from lawmakers focused on the Air Force’s plans to modernize its parts of the nuclear triad and the service’s efforts to divest old aircraft to free up funds for new programs.

No senators voiced any opposition to Allvin’s nomination, which normally would indicate he is on a glide path to confirmation. However, Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) continues to place a legislative hold preventing expedited confirmations for general and flag officers, and Democratic leaders have refused to hold roll-call votes on individual nominees. As a result, more than 300 nominations, including those of Allvin and the man he is set to succeed, Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., are stalled.

Committee members on both sides of the aisle noted the situation in Allvin’s hearing, and Allvin himself suggested that delays could potentially hurt recruiting and retention, saying there may be promising officers who “have other options and their families have other options and they see this as a potential distraction, then we run a greater risk than if these weren’t in place of losing those.”

Still, most of the hearing focused on Air Force modernization—a key topic Allvin referenced at the start of his opening statement.

“I believe the opportunity to be the next Air Force Chief of Staff comes at a very important time in history, and I fully appreciate and embrace the weight of what is at stake,” Allvin said. “Our nation is coming to grips with the rapid pace of change that is upon us and with those intending to act against our national interests while aggressively seeking the means to do so. America’s national security focus is crucial as we navigate this new global landscape with our allies and partners, especially as opportunities for distraction and confusion are increasingly exploited.”

Air Force Vice Chief of Staff Gen. David W. Allvin testifies before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Capitol Hill for his nomination to be the next Air Force chief of staff, in Washington, D.C., Sept. 12, 2023. U.S. Air Force photo by Eric Dietrich

Nuclear Modernization

Sens. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) and Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.) both represent states with bomber bases, and both took the opportunity to ask Allvin for his thoughts on the B-21 Raider, which is steadily progressing toward its first flight.

“I’m personally very excited about this program and the way that it was developed and what it’s turning out to be in its performance, cost schedule and performance adherence, all of these things,” Allvin said. “But more importantly, for what it’s going to bring to us. When we look at the conventional fight in the Indo-Pacific, if that happens, we need all the systems to be survivable. They need to be connected. They need to be able to be persistent. And the B-21 provides not only all of that, but also, a great long-range strike capability.”

The other major nuclear modernization effort, the Sentinel intercontinental ballistic missile, is not proceeding as smoothly, with Allvin acknowledging that it is “one of the most complex yet important transitions” the Air Force faces. But amid reports that the program may be delayed and that Air Force Global Strike Command believes there is little margin for error, Allvin told Sen. Deb Fischer (R-Neb.) there are ways to ensure the program remains on track.

“One of the most important things that we can do is vigilance to ensure that, as we see external factors that might potentially provide challenges or opportunities to the cost, schedule, and performance of that program, that we need to make sure we communicate with this body and collaborate to understand if there are opportunities that we can help to maintain it on track and have the warfighter get the requirement on time,” Allvin said. “And one of those things is the recent adjustment of an acquisition strategy to look for those things we might be able to decouple and pull to the left.”

Divest to Invest

Allvin also faced questioning from lawmakers skeptical of the Air Force’s efforts to retire its older aircraft like the A-10 Lightning II and E-3 AWACS in order to free up money for new programs.

In response to queries about whether the service was accepting too much risk in the short term by pursuing this strategy, Allvin acknowledged that “to mitigate the transition as we move from where we are to where we need to be, there are tough choices ahead, there’s no question about it.” But he offered no indication that he would pull back from that approach.

Part of that is driven by the cost of existing platforms—Allvin noted to Tuberville that aging aircraft often require the service’s most “wily, cagey maintainers”

“Some of that skill set, that we’re looking for seasoned maintainers to transition to some of these fifth-generation platforms, have not been available to us,” he said.

Allvin also expressed optimism about programs like Next Generation Air Dominance and Collaborative Combat Aircraft.

“They are defining one of the core elements of what we believe the Air Force needs to do in the future, which is better human-machine teaming, which is better having affordable mass,” Allvin said.

Experts Talk Potential and Path Forward for Integrating AI Across the Air and Space Forces

Sept. 12, 2023 | By Unshin Lee Harpley

Across the Department of Defense, agencies and branches are exploring artificial intelligence tools and all their potential uses, from empowering unmanned systems to catalyzing quicker and better decision-making on the battlefield.

The Department of the Air Force is no exception—just last month, DAF released a comprehensive call to industry highlighting eight areas related to command and control where AI could transform the department’s processes and efforts. The “broad agency announcement” described AI as a transformative force, one that could reshape the strategic, operational, and tactical landscape.

Amid all this change and development, military leaders and industry experts convened Sept. 12 at the AFA’s Air, Space & Cyber Conference to discuss possible paths forward and potential pitfalls.

A prominent example of AI integration within the Air Force is the Advanced Battle Management System (ABMS), the department’s contribution to the Joint All Domain Command-and-Control (JADC2) network connecting sensors and shooters around the globe.

Maj. Gen. John M. Olson, Space Force lead for JADC2 and ABMS, highlighted three Rs as key for successfully using AI and Machine Learning in that context: Responsible, Robust, and Resilient. He also underscored DAF’s aspiration to establish a competitive lead in AI by 2027, a strategic endeavor designed to outpace China’s ambition to become the global AI leader by 2030.

When it comes to the ‘Three Rs,’ however, Sean Moriarty, CEO of Primer.ai, said AI’s transformative potential can bring radical change—and with it, an urgent need to familiarize Airmen and Guardians with the technology as rapidly as possible.

“If we don’t start the training and usage as soon as possible, five years from now we’ll be discussing the same things as we discuss today,” Moriarty said. “Five years from now should be a step change. Let’s get them in our Soldiers’ hands as soon as possible so they can provide feedback.”

It’s not just about improving the AI: Moriarty also stressed the pivotal role of education and understanding to build trust and use of AI technology by Airmen and Guardians.

In addition to JADC2, the Air Force is also using AI for autonomous drones, precision navigation, and manned-unmanned teaming. Olson said these initiatives seamlessly align with the principles of the Responsible, Robust, and Resilient AI. The department’s ongoing development facilitates collaboration between personnel and machines, equipping personnel with more accurate information to enhance the decision-making process.

“It’s essential to work collaboratively, and we think this is a team sport driving to deliver those outcomes at a very rapid pace, making sure that we are responsible, robust, and resilient all throughout the journey,” said Olson.

Those comments echo what Pentagon AI Chief Craig Martell noted in an interview with CNN a month ago regarding AI-based technology used in the military. He reiterated longstanding Pentagon policy to ensure AI technology would always be wielded under the guidance of human oversight, and that the DOD “does not imagine a world where machines are making decisions on their own.”

In March, the DAF identified 50 programs as the cornerstone of its contribution to JADC2 under the “DAF Battle Network.” This program encompasses various offices and agencies across the department, and its continued development of ABMS is what Dr. Lynne Graves, Chief of the AI Division and DAF Chief Digital and AI Office, said what she is looking mostly forward to.

“I’ve been around for a while, and I watched the ABMS morph into the DAF Battle Network. I’m excited that it’s going down this path, and hopefully (it will) provide us with a template that we can keep leveraging ever and ever again to speed up to get emerging technologies to the warfighter faster,” said Dr. Graves.

Dr. Graves added that by getting government and industry to both buy into the framework of the DAF Battle Network, the department will be able to build trust in AI based on warfighters’ experience and feedback. Establishing this trust will pave the way for the revolutionary advantages the technology can provide.

Ian Eishen, a former Airman and now director of global public sector for Aalyria Technologies, endorsed Dr. Graves’ perspective by emphasizing the importance of collaboration. As the platform gets bigger and information and data for AI to process exponentially grow, building a safe collaborative network between the military, commercial, government, and allies is critical.

“Collaboration between the military, government, commercial and our nation’s allies; Building everything in a collaborative environment and multiple propriety solutions that can come together to support one DAF Battle Network, and the network that can change and update based on the needs, is the biggest thing now,” Eishen said.

ACC Boss: Russia and China Are Intercepting USAF Aircraft as ‘Batting Practice’

Sept. 12, 2023 | By John A. Tirpak

Recent upticks in the number of close intercepts of U.S. aircraft by Russian pilots over the Black Sea and Syria—and similar aggressive behavior from Chinese fighters in the Pacific—are an effort to collect information on how the U.S. responds, a top Air Force general said Sept. 12 at AFA’s Air, Space & Cyber Conference

Furthermore, Air Combat Command boss Gen. Mark D. Kelly argued the provocative moves are a sign that those countries’ air forces see the USAF as diminished and their own capabilities improving, he said.

“They want batting practice against the best Air Force in the world,” Kelly said during a panel discussion on air and space superiority.

He later told reporters during a briefing that the Chinese and Russians “want to know, ‘how far can I detect them? … How far can they lock onto me?’”

More broadly, he said, those air forces perceive the U.S. as losing the capacity and capability advantages it once had. Now, he said, they are thinking, “‘maybe this is a time to … give them a run for their money.’”

Five years ago, Kelly said in the panel, “we were not having our fighters interact with Chinese fighters on a routine basis.” The fact that this is happening now “is a direct challenge to the post-World War II, rules-based construct that we all grew up with.”

The key to the Chinese and Russian confidence is the fact that America’s air superiority enterprise is old, Kelly added, noting aircraft and munitions that date back decades:

The E-3 AWACS, used for command and control and battle management, first flew in 1977

The EC-130, used for electronic attack, first flew in 1991

The F-22, for air dominance, first flew in 1997

The AIM-120 AMRAAM air-to-air missile dates back to the 1980s.

“All of those capabilities or sensors or weapons or platforms are significantly improved and modernized” compared to 25 years ago, Kelly said, and that is “a credit to our Airmen and industry to keep them up to date.”

But at a certain point, Kelly cautioned, “you’ve squeezed the last ounce of combat capability out of our sensors, weapons and platforms.” Many of those systems have passed their planned service life and are either in the process or soon to be retired.

“We need E-7, EC-37, [the Next-Generation Air Dominance fighter], and JATM [the AIM-260 Joint Advanced Tactical Missile] yesterday,” Kelly said.

Kelly noted that he came to the conference directly from the William Tell air-to-air gunnery competition; the first time the fighter meet has been held in nearly 20 years.

Previously, William Tell had been held every year since 1954, “as a direct response to a peer adversary challenging us in air superiority. We had to have it,” Kelly said. “We stopped it 19 years ago because of a perception that we didn’t have a competitor.”

Twenty years ago, “we knew—and the world knew—that if anyone wanted to face off with the United States Air Force in air superiority, there was going to be an axe murder on the other side,” Kelly claimed. “They knew that. Today, they feel they can compete.”

To get back to that dominance, USAF leadership owes its fighter pilots “the highest-end training and reps and sets we can give them, because we also know from high-end exercises and also other studies that not all our Airmen will come back from a peer fight,” Kelly said. Future dogfights will be “a cage match,” he added.

Put simply, the Air Force owes its pilots “an environment where we treat air superiority as if our lives depend on it,” he said.

‘Change Must Continue’: Brown Reflects on Time as Air Force Chief of Staff

Sept. 12, 2023 | By Chris Gordon

With his promotion to Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff likely coming soon, Air Force Chief of Staff Charles Q. Brown Jr. marked perhaps his final speech to a large Air Force audience on the job with a simple message: “If we fail to adapt, we risk losing.”

Addressing a packed room full of Airmen at AFA’s Air, Space & Cyber Conference, Brown detailed a realistic picture of the challenges the U.S. while also projecting optimism on the work that has been done and will continue after he leaves the CSAF job.

“Change is a journey and the journey must continue,” Brown said.

“Change” has been Brown’s lodestar since he was confirmed as head of the Air Force in 2020—his signature motto has been “Accelerate Change or Lose,” and President Joe Biden cited his push for modernization and adaptation as a key factor in his selection to be the next Chairman of the Joint Chiefs.

On Sept, 12, though, Brown said he wanted “to reflect on the journey of the last three years—on our accomplishments. I saw the evolving strategic environment and I knew we needed to change.”

Brown said he sought to ensure the Air Force is “placing greater focus on future conflict.”

Under Brown and Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall, the Air Force has been on the front foot of America’s pivot to the Pacific—even before China was outlined as the U.S. military’s “pacing challenge” in the 2022 National Defense Strategy.

One of Brown’s biggest efforts on that front has been his four “Action Orders,” organized simply as A, B, C, and D.

Airmen

Citing one example of the Air Force making practical changes to improve service members’ lives, Brown noted that his team helped change Airmen’s performance reviews.

“We had bullets that many could not understand,” he said. “We had 60,000 made-up acronyms by removing all the vowels. … If a family member or future employer read your performance report, they would have no clue what you’ve done in your career.”

The service has also tried to improve the everyday lives of Airmen by “addressing factors that contribute to their well-being and those that detract from their success,” Brown said.

Bureaucracy

The U.S. military is a massive, nearly $1 trillion enterprise that does not move quickly—hamstrung by entrenched interests and longstanding processes. But just because the Pentagon has operated as a lumbering institution for most of the 21st century does not mean it has to continue that way, Brown noted.

“I have found in bureaucratic processes, it is hard to say yes, it’s easy to say no,” Brown said. “If there is something you believe in, then you need to get past what I call the five stages of no: hell no, no, we’ll think about it, not a bad idea, we should be doing it already.”

Competition

Given China’s ability to target and strike U.S. air bases, the Air Force wants to move away from large, fixed locations and revamp how the service thinks about its future force structure, deployment models, and basing—such as implementing the island-hoping Agile Combat Employment concept. Brown said the U.S. also needs Airmen and service officials to understand their competitors better.

The Air Force is “refining, improving, creating a more agile and lethal force,” Brown said.

Design Implementation

Brown also noted the Air Force’s modernization efforts will be for naught if they are not put into practice.

“How we need to make difficult force structure decisions, how we need to develop an affordable and analytically defensible force structure, how we accelerate the transition from the force we have to the force required,” are all things the Air Force has attempted to confront under Brown’s leadership. That will continue, he predicted.

Brown’s tenure as Chief was supposed to last four years, but he held the job for less than three before President Joe Biden tapped him to become the military’s top officer. Now, he is set to become the first Airman to be Chairman in 18 years, once the Senate confirms him.

But while he will no longer be Chief, Brown said he is confident the service he led will continue to adapt.

“Change must continue,” Brown said. “We’ve changed before and we can do it again. We know airpower is the answer and that we are the most capable, most respected Air Force in the world.”

CSAF Shows Off New Images of the B-21; Raider Begins Engine Runs

Sept. 12, 2023 | By Greg Hadley and John A. Tirpak

Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. and contractor Northrop Grumman both unveiled new imagery of the secretive B-21 Raider, the first glimpse of the stealthy bomber in months.

Two Air Force images, released during Brown’s keynote address at AFA’s Air, Space & Cyber Conference and dated July 31, showcase the bomber at Northrop Grumman’s Palmdale, Calif., facility. Notably, one shows the B-21 outdoors, a rare sighting of the aircraft outside the hangar.

Separately, Air Force Global Strike Command boss Gen. Thomas A. Bussiere announced Sept. 12 that the B-21 has begun engine runs as part of its ground testing program. Northrop Grumman subsequently confirmed the news and released another picture of the aircraft.

The most prominent new feature shown in the new images is an air data probe mounted on the front of the aircraft below the nose; a test item which will not be a feature of operational aircraft. The probe is angled downwards, suggesting the airplane may fly with a slight pitch-up attitude.

The B-21 Raider is designed with an open systems architecture, enabling rapid insertion of mature technologies and allowing the aircraft to be effective as threats evolve. The B-21 first flight is anticipated to take place in calendar year 2023. U.S. Air Force photo

The images also emphasize how narrow the air intakes on the aircraft are—a marked contrast to the Air Force’s other stealth bomber, the B-2 Spirit—as well as the B-21’s simpler landing gear doors. The photos also appear to show the B-21’s flight control surfaces for the first time, seemingly three per side of the flying wing aircraft, and they seem larger than those on the B-2.

The outdoor image of the B-2 also reveals a serrated indentation on the top of the airframe behind the cockpit. The feature may be part of the air refueling receptacle system, which is in a similar position on the on the B-2.

The side windows of the B-21 seem smaller, wider and lower than was suggested in earlier artist’s concepts. A dark band sloping up onto the fuselage from the tail could be an extension of an infrared suppression system similar to that on the B-2, which uses space shuttle-tile-like materials to trap and disperse heat.

Air data sensors like those on the B-2 are prominent on the front of the aircraft in the hangar image. Black bands prominent beneath the windscreen could be air data sensors, a de-icing feature, or both.

Using ground crew in the hangar photo as a gauge, the aircraft appears to have a wingspan of approximately 135-155 feet, versus 172 feet for the B-2.

The B-21 Raider continues to progress in ground testing with the commencement of engine runs at Northrop Grumman’s facilities in Palmdale, Calif. Photo Credit: Northrop Grumman

The Air Force rolled out the B-21, its first new bomber in more than three decades, in December 2022 at Northrop’s plant in Palmdale. The flashy ceremony, attended by Pentagon dignitaries, industry officials, and media, showcased some new features on what Northrop is dubbing the world’s first “sixth-generation” aircraft but also kept the general public at a distance from the secretive plane, whose full capabilities are still classified.

Then in March, the service released two more images of the B-21. Since then, however, there has been no sight of the bomber emerging from the hangar, either for ground or flight tests.

Northrop did announce in July that the bomber accomplished its first “power on” test in recent months, moving it another step closer to a first flight that is still scheduled to take place before the end of 2023.

No firm timeline has been set for that first flight, and in its most recent release, Northrop emphasized that it would be a “a data driven event.”

In his speech, Brown highlighted the B-21 as “a perfect example of successful design implementation, of operators and acquisition professionals working together to deliver capability to the warfighter. Just as importantly, developing the maintenance processes to ensure aircraft availability.”

“Air Force Global Strike Command has Airmen working to do that right now,” Brown added. “Airmen like Staff Sgt. Ashley Ross, ensuring the capability we need is supportable and maintainable Day One.”

Air Force officials have said the B-21 incorporates advancements in low-observance maintenance, typically an involved and difficult process, making the aircraft easier to repair and maintain.

The B-21 Raider will be the backbone of the bomber fleet and will incrementally replace the B-1 and B-2 bombers as sufficient numbers of B-21s are available. The state-of-the-art bomber will provide survivable, long-range, penetrating strike capabilities to deter aggression and protect the United States, allies, and partners. The B-21 first flight is anticipated to take place in calendar year 2023. U.S. Air Force photo

In his own keynote speech Sept. 11, Air Force Materiel Command boss Gen. Duke Z. Richardson also highlighted the work of maintainers on the B-21.

“Transitioning from developing, acquiring, and testing to maintenance, our Air Force Sustainment Center steps in to provide essential logistic support,” Richardson said, before introducing a video of maintainers sharing their “real-world, wrench-turning stories.”

“We have been involved with the program since pre-source selection,” said Lauren Hazen, squadron director of the 556th Software Maintenance Group. “We actually had multiple technical experts working with the Rapid Capabilities Office to be part of that process, to really talk about lessons learned we’ve had on previous programs and to help develop plans to make sure we had a good process for the future.”

Space Force Service Component for Europe and Africa Coming in December

Sept. 12, 2023 | By Greg Hadley

The Space Force will establish a service component for U.S. European Command and U.S. Africa Command in early December, Chief of Space Operations Gen. B. Chance Saltzman announced in a keynote address Sept. 12—and more may be on the way.

The new component will “help integrate, collaborate, and cooperate with our joint teammates, partners, and allies in the region,” Saltzman said at AFA’s Air, Space & Cyber Conference.

U.S. Space Forces Europe-Africa will be the fourth USSF service component for a regional combatant command, joining:

Space Forces Indo-Pacific, which supports U.S. Indo-Pacific Command

Space Forces Korea, which supports U.S. Forces Korea

Space Forces Central, which supports U.S. Central Command

In a briefing with reporters after his speech, Saltzman confirmed that the component would mirror and rely upon U.S. Air Forces in Europe-Air Forces Africa, which also serves as the service component for both EUCOM and AFRICOM.

“In the case of Europe, we’re just taking advantage of the fact that USAFE is also the Africa Command support,” Saltzman said. “So because it’s all done from the same location, it’s easy for us to leverage that same construct and really get a two-for-one, to some degree. We will have some people assigned as well to Stuttgart [Germany], where the AFRICOM headquarters is, because proximity matters. And so the service component will kind of have some people spread around to make sure we give all of the attention that both European Command and Africa Command need.”

Plans for a European component have been in the works since the Space Force first announced it would be establishing components for combatant commands outside of U.S. Space Command. The timing, however, was unclear for months. Saltzman credited the delay between Space Forces Indo-Pacific—established in November 2022—and the new European component to their locations.

“When you have to work with host nations, there’s an extra few steps. And so because we stood up Indo-Pacific in Hawaii, we didn’t have to talk to host nations. Central Command was in Tampa, didn’t have to do it. Korea was the closest. We have such a long-standing relationship and a clear Status of Forces Agreement, it wasn’t hard,” said Saltzman. “But with NATO, you got to go through a lot of different countries and the plan is to stand this up in Germany, so we have to talk to the Germans. So just going through all those normal coordination processes just took a little bit longer.”

Once Space Forces Europe-Africa stands up, five of the 11 combatant commands—EUCOM, AFRICOM, INDOPACOM, CENTCOM, and SPACECOM—will have Space Force components. If and when the remaining six will get their own is still being decided, Saltzman said.

Lt. Gen. DeAnna M. Burt, the deputy chief of space operations for operations, cyber, and nuclear, suggested in April that U.S. Cyber Command and U.S. Special Operations Command are prime candidates, given their close ties with space, and Saltzman said Burt is still leading that planning process.

“It will be a balancing act between the responsibilities that those combatant commands have with regards to space … and then the resources I have to put into it,” Saltzman said. “In other words, I don’t want to establish a service component if I can’t resource it effectively. And what these components require is pretty senior people that understand the business. It’s a small number of people, so they have to be really good, they have to have broad understanding. These aren’t brand new, entry-level kinds of people. So there’s a balance between finding the right people to make sure we can support it and finding the right scope of responsibility in the combatant commands, but we’re doing that planning right now.”

The balance of need and resources extends even to the existing components—right now. Saltzman said the plan is for the Europe-Africa component to have an O-6 commander, the same as Space Forces Central. Space Forces Indo-Pacific is the only one—outside of Space Operations Command, which acts as the component for U.S. Space Command—to have a general officer at its head.

“I’m hopeful that with our key threats, we’ll be able to eventually get general officers,” Saltzman said. “We don’t have very many to go around. So this is more about resourcing and placing them right.”

Regardless, the benefits of the regional components is clear, Saltzman said, citing the example of a recent exercise in the Indo-Pacific.

“Having a service component out there before the exercise that’s immediately working with the other operational components, the land component, the air component, etc., to say: ‘What are you going to need from space capabilities?’” Saltzman said. “Documenting those requirements in their battle rhythm, on their time zone. And being able to follow up, ‘Hey, I didn’t really understand this? Can you clarify? Or is this good enough?’ That detailed integration is much harder to do when you’re thousands of miles separate.”

From there, the service components can interact with U.S. Space Command and Space Operations Command and communicate what they need “with the same vocabulary, the same understanding of the missions, same understanding of the people and the capabilities, and it’s a much tighter integration,” Saltzman said.

Exercises are just one benefit—Saltzman said planning, security cooperation, and training allies and partners are all easier with components.

Saltzman Reveals New Space Units That Put Operations and Sustainment Under One Roof

Sept. 12, 2023 | By David Roza

The Space Force is launching two prototype “Integrated Mission Deltas,” a new type of unit meant to bridge the gaps among operations, engineering, and capability development specialists, hoping to deliver maintenance and upgrades to important systems much faster than before.

“In my mind, performance should be optimized around our missions rather than the functions that support them,” said Chief of Space Operations Gen. B. Chance Saltzman in his keynote address at AFA’s Air, Space, and Cyber Conference on Sept. 12. “In other words, we cannot afford to split a mission area’s critical activities across organizational seams.”

Today, operators in the space, cyber, and intelligence fields fall under Space Operations Command (SpOC), while engineers and program managers fall under Space Systems Command (SSC). That separation can slow the rate at which operators provide feedback to developers and vice versa in order to maintain and improve systems.

“[I]t is essential that all elements of readiness—the people, the training, the equipment, and the sustainment—fall into the same organizational structure and that we create unity of command around those elements at the lowest possible level,” Saltzman said.

With the integrated mission delta, those career fields are brought together under a colonel-level composite command team where the commander will represent operations and the deputy commander will represent sustainment, or vice versa.

“The goal there is you have in your command team all the expertise you need to generate those ready forces,” an anonymous Space Force official told Air & Space Forces Magazine.

space delta 3 — Guardians and Airmen from Space Delta 3 – Space Electromagnetic Warfare, stand in formation for the DEL 3 change of command ceremony June 29, 2023, at Peterson Space Force Base, Colorado. U.S. Space Force photo by Airman 1st Class Cody Friend

The two integrated mission deltas will cover electronic warfare (EW) and position, navigation, and timing (PNT). The EW integrated mission delta will not be a new unit. Instead, the EW sustainment offices that currently reside in SSC will be realigned to Space Delta 3, the current operational EW Space Delta overseen by SpOC.

The PNT integrated mission delta will be different. Those operators currently share Space Delta 8 with satellite communications operators, but under the new system, PNT operators will have their own delta, a new delta number, and will work alongside PNT sustainers. A Space Force spokesperson emphasized that no relocations or mission changes will occur as a result of the new layout.

“This concept will be thoroughly evaluated and refined before it is considered for implementation across the force,” Maj. Tanya Downsworth told Air & Space Forces Magazine. “This initial effort will not involve the physical relocation of personnel and it will not change the core missions of SpOC or SSC; they will remain responsible for balancing Space Force activities and investments across mission sets, including those led by prototype IMDs.”

The model the integration mission deltas are based on had great success in the launch arena under SSC, where operators and developers expanded the launch windows for new systems.

“Instead of having a three-hour hold for weather, you would have only a one-hour hold for weather, under the safety guidelines, because the operators are able to work with the people who own the tool and get it upgraded to account for operational needs,” the anonymous official said.

The integrated mission deltas are part of Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall’s push to reoptimize the Department for an era of great power competition.

“Both of these deltas integrate operations and sustainment, creating unity of command for all aspects of readiness and enhance our abilities to continue to provide world-class space effects in the face of a determined adversary,” Saltzman said.

There may be administrative challenges ahead. One challenge is that maintenance and acquisition sometimes bleed together in the space domain. The anonymous official stressed that the integrated mission deltas will not touch acquisition, which falls under SSC.

“There are people who do GPS maintenance activities 60 percent of the time, and the other 40 percent of the time they’re working on the next generation of GPS satellites,” he said. “That’s probably the biggest thing that we have to learn: ‘how do we divide the maintenance activities that are done in SSC from the capability, development, acquisition, and next-gen programs.’”

Another possible hurdle is the fact that integrated mission deltas are a fundamentally different model in a military organized by career fields. Though the new model could enhance readiness and increase the command opportunities for Guardians who are not space operators, it could also have growing pains.

“There are no perfect organizational structures,” Saltzman said. “The structuring of people to do their jobs will always create seams. The key is to arrange the organization to maximize performance around what matters most and minimize the negative integration effects that seams naturally create.”

The integrated mission deltas make up ‘Force Generation,’ one of four steps the Space Force is taking to prepare for great power competition. The other three are:

Force Design: Designing the service to be prepared for threats, such as by better integrating commercial space capabilities, fueled by a pending study from the Space Warfighter Analysis Center on architectures needed for success.

Force Development: Investing in exercises, war games, training, and education, such as through the Intermediate and Senior Level Education program hosted by Johns Hopkins University, to foster critical thinking in the service.

Force Employment: Normalizing how the Space Force presents forces by standing up service components to the regional combatant commands. Such components already exist in the Indo-Pacific, Korea, and Central Commands, with new ones coming to Europe and Africa.

Air Force ‘Very Opposed’ to Lawmakers’ Proposed Cost Limits for CCAs

Sept. 12, 2023 | By John A. Tirpak

The House of Representatives has proposed cost limits on Collaborative Combat Aircraft as part of its 2024 defense policy bill—but Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall expressed puzzlement at the numbers Sept. 11 and indicated the service is not pursuing the kinds of systems Congress is talking about.

“We’re very opposed to those targets,” Kendall told reporters at AFA’s Air, Space & Cyber conference in National Harbor, Md. “I don’t know where those categories come from, but they’re not what we’re doing.”

In its version of the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act, the House approved a provision setting cost limits of:

$3 million each for an “expendable” CCA, defined as an aircraft designed not to be used more than once

$10 million for an “attritable” CCA, defined as an aircraft intended to be used more than once but whose occasional loss in combat would be deemed acceptable

$25 million for an “exquisite” model, defined as one meant to be reused and whose loss would be deemed not acceptable.

The Senate did not include such a provision in its version of the NDAA, and the idea has not been hashed out in conference yet.

Instead of the three classifications offered by the House, Kendall indicated that “we’ve got two increments planned” but did not elaborate on what they were. He has not set any cost boundaries for CCAs beyond the goal of buying them at “a fraction of [the cost of] an F-35,” which in the last contract with Lockheed Martin was about $80 million per aircraft.

Competition

Kendall said the Air Force plans “an open competition” for CCAs—unmanned, autonomous aircraft that will pair with manned platforms—that will be affected by an ongoing effectiveness analysis and “maturity of the technology.”

An Air Force official said the service doesn’t want to limit the program, which is “in its early stages.”

“What we’re trying to get industry to do is to mature technology and be creative, and then demonstrate to us what kind of capabilities they can provide, and [show] why it’s cost-effective. And that’s how we’re going to be selecting which ones we carry to the next phase of competition,” Kendall explained.

Kendall said the Air Force has not yet settled on an acquisition strategy for CCAs, other than to note that the service has budgeted some $5.8 billion across the the next five years to pursue the effort, which he has described as producing more than 2,000 airframes.

“We’re pretty wide open in terms of possibilities right now,” he said. “We do want to maintain competition as long as we possibly can. I think there’s a lot of value in that.”

Andrew Hunter, the Air Force’s acquisition executive, did tell reporters that “continuous competition is the core of our acquisition approach for CCA.”

He also said CCAs will “leverage … the Advanced Mission Systems government reference architecture developed through the [Next Generation Air Dominance] program.” That architecture “gives us a lot of a lot of opportunity to kind of mix and match” capabilities on a single CCA airframe, which is “the idea of a modular open systems architecture approach.”

Hunter said being able to “integrate capabilities rapidly from a wide variety of sources and then upgrade them, [and] iterate them over time” is another key part of the CCA acquisition approach.

Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall delivers a keynote address at the Air, Space & Cyber Conference on September 11, 2023, at National Harbor, Maryland. Photo by Mike Tsukamoto/Air & Space Forces Magazine

B-21 Back on the Table

Kendall’s original take on his “seven operational imperatives” included building CCA-like aircraft to accompany the B-21 bomber on long-range strike missions. He later withdrew the idea, though, saying it had proved “cost ineffective” in analysis.

However, he left the door open to the idea of CCAs operating jointly with B-21s.

“When we started the operational imperatives, we thought initially that we might find a good cost effectiveness case for dedicated, uncrewed combat aircraft that would accompany the B-21. That didn’t turn out to be the case, as we got into the analysis,” he said, but there may be a viable concept in which “basically, the B-21 picks up CCAs as it gets closer to the operating area.”

CCAs offer “a lot of really interesting tactical possibilities,” Kendall added, and while the planned family of systems that will support the B-21 is classified, Kendall said it includes “things that could be carried by, or possibly accompany, the B-21,” such as munitions and “other things that can be used for defensive purposes, for example.”

Asked to name a mission that might be well suited for a CCA supporting the B-21, Kendall ventured, “defensive capability” for the bomber or providing it with “better situational awareness,” but he cautioned he was speculating.

Much is still uncertain regarding CCAs—Kendall said the service still has not yet settled on how many drones would accompany a crewed aircraft

He has previously speculated that each F-35, for example, could be partnered with up to five CCAs, but “that’s still unknown,” he said.

“We would like to have at least two,” he added. “More is better; you get more cost effectiveness if you can do more, but you’ve got to have technology that can allow the crewed aircraft to control that number, and do it effectively.

Excitement in Congress

Air Force officials have reported that lawmakers and staff on Capitol Hill are extremely enthused about CCAs as offering a grand solution to the Air Force’s capacity, cost, and mass problems.

“I’m grateful for the support,” Kendall said. “I’m glad that people are excited. … I’m excited about it. I think it’s a good concept. It’s very cost-effective. And the reaction we’ve gotten from industry and others who’ve looked at it is very positive.”

But there is still much work left to be done, he warned, and the Air Force is still “doing efforts to experiment with operational units to try to get a sense of how our CCAs would fit into an operational unit,” he noted, “and we’re doing some things to mature the technology; particularly for autonomy.”

As far as being the Air Force’s silver bullet problem solver, Kendall said the CCA concept “doesn’t get us out of the woods entirely on long-term affordability, for example, but it’s going to be a much more cost effective” approach than attempting to build mass with crewed aircraft.

The “Replicator” program outlined recently by Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks, which would build large numbers of “attritable” air, land, sea and space vehicles, is “a completely separate thing” from CCAs, Kendall said. He has previously described CCAs as modular and re-usable vehicles that will be integrated with crewed fighter squadrons, and perform functions like those now carried out by pods on fighters: target designation, electronic warfare, sensing, and as carriers of additional munitions.

“We have some candidates in the Air Force” for Replicators, Kendall said, and when he presented those ideas to Hicks, “some of those she looks on very positively, but we haven’t resolved all that yet,” Kendall said.

But the Air Force is all in on CCAs, Kendall said.

“The more we learn about the idea of the CCA and how it can fit into our operational context, the more interesting and appealing it becomes. That’s one of the reasons [for] … the excitement about it. There’s reason to be excited about it. It offers a lot of really interesting tactical possibilities,” Kendall said.