Space Force Pursues Quick Launch Capability with New ‘Victus’ Program

Space Force Pursues Quick Launch Capability with New ‘Victus’ Program

Feb. 14, 2025 | By Greg Hadley

Editor’s Note: This story was updated Feb. 18 with a comment from a Space Systems Command spokesperson.

The Space Force added to its effort to “speed run” satellite launches with the latest in a series of Tactically Responsive Space missions announced Feb. 13. 

Space Systems Command awarded a $21.81 million deal to Firefly Aerospace for “Victus Sol,” the fifth in a series of experiments designed to make contractors and USSF develop, transport, and launch satellites in record time.

Victus Sol follows “Victus Nox,” which transported a satellite within 58 hours to the launch site, then tested, fueled, and launched that satellite within 27 hours or getting a “go” order—smashing previous speed records.

Next came “Victus Haze”, now targeted to launch later this year. Victus Haze will include two launches—with Rocket Lab providing and launching a satellites from either New Zealand or Virginia, and True Anomaly shipping a satellite to Vandenberg Space Force Base, Calif., where it will be launched aboard a Firefly rocket. Once in orbit, the two spacecraft will perform “dynamic” operations, including domain awareness missions. 

Little is known today about the expectations for “Victus Sol.” The Space Force has not announced a satellite contract, and an SSC spokesperson told Air & Space Forces Magazine that the command is not releasing details on the satellite, its payload, or goals or objectives “in accordance with mission requirements.”

Budget documents from last spring indicated a potential launch in late 2025 or early 2026, but neither SSC nor Firefly provided those details in their announcements. A spokesperson for Firefly directed inquiries to SSC.

Firefly has a history with the Victus series, having carried the Victus Nox satellite into orbit aboard its Alpha rocket.

The Space Force wants to cut the time between launch orders and liftoff to under 24 hours. Budget documents suggest the missions “will be ready for call-up in the second quarter of FY 2025.” 

Last October, the Space Force announced two other missions: Victus Surgo and Victus Salo. Targeted for 2026, those missions will add new wrinkles to the Tactically Responsive Space requirements, including demonstrating high Delta-V maneuvers in orbit and launching a satellite into far higher geosynchronous orbit. Startup Impulse Space will deliver the space vehicles, which will launch on SpaceX rockets. One launch will also include an upper-stage rocket from Impulse Space. 

Space Force leaders say the Victus missions demonstrate how USSF could rapidly replenish satellite constellations if U.S. space assets came under attack. They also help refine standard launch processes to be faster and more efficient, cutting down on timelines that sometimes stretch for months. 

The launch contract for Victus Sol comes from the Space Force’s Orbital Services Program (OSP)-4, which covers smaller launches where the Space Force is willing to accept greater risk compared to the National Security Space Launch program. 

New Airmen Train for Astronaut Recovery to Keep Up with Spaceflight Surge 

New Airmen Train for Astronaut Recovery to Keep Up with Spaceflight Surge 

Feb. 14, 2025 | By David Roza

As the number of crewed spaceflights ticks up, the Air Force expects to train more of its C-17 transport crews to help pluck astronauts out of the water as part of its Human Space Flight Support mission

Last month, five pilots and three loadmasters from the 315th Airlift Wing, an Air Force Reserve C-17 unit based at Joint Base Charleston, S.C., traveled to Patrick Space Force Base, Fla., to learn HSFS search and rescue airdrop techniques, which are used to pick up astronauts after their spacecraft splashes down in the water.

From Jan. 14-17, the 315th Airmen performed 10 airdrops and 30 pararescue jumps in rough seas and winter temperatures with Hawaii Air National Guardsmen from the 204th Airlift Squadron and Patrick-based Reservists from the 308th Rescue Squadron.

The wing’s chief of weapons and tactics and HSFS lead planner, Maj. Ryan Schieber, told Air & Space Forces Magazine that, to his knowledge, this was the first Reservist C-17 crew to train in rescue airdrop and the HSFS mission. 

The training comes amid a growing number of spaceflights run by private companies such as SpaceX and Boeing, and as NASA prepares for Artemis II, its first crewed moon mission since 1972, set to launch in 2026. The uptick has HSFS-trained units such as the 204th Airlift Squadron standing alert for astronaut retrievals three to four times a year, according to a Jan. 17 press release.

“With an increase in crewed space flight, naturally the number of alerts for HSFS will increase,” Schieber said.

astronaut recovery
A joint task force of loadmasters from the 204th Airlift Squadron, Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii, and 315th Airlift Wing, prepare MK-25 flares, before detonation and release from a Joint Base Charleston C-17 Globemaster III during Human Space Flight Support airdrop search and rescue training Jan 16, 2025, at Patrick Space Force Base, Florida. (U.S. Air Force Photo by Tech. Sgt. Della Creech)

The HSFS mission stretches back to 1959, when Department of Defense Mercury Support was established for Project Mercury, America’s first human spaceflight program. The office changed names several times over the decades as it supported the Gemini, Apollo, Skylab, Space Shuttle, and other programs, before becoming Detachment 3 (Det. 3), First Air Force in 2021.

Today, Det. 3 is the air component of U.S. Space Command—Air Forces Space—and manages global contingency rescue forces during launches and landings for NASA’s Commercial Crew Program (i.e. SpaceX and Boeing) and the upcoming Artemis missions, a First Air Force spokesperson explained.

Defense Department forces “are on alert for launch, freeflight, and landing,” the spokesperson said. “The HSFS mission includes the search and rescue of astronauts, the recovery of crewed space flight assets, the pre-positioning of rescue forces, and providing unique communication abilities.”

For example, when the uncrewed Orion capsule splashed down west of Baja California in 2022 after orbiting the moon as part of the Artemis I mission, Det. 3 oversaw the capsule recovery. The outfit trained a team of Navy divers to install special hardware on the spacecraft to help with recovery, and to breach the capsule to rescue astronauts if future missions require it, a press release explained at the time. 

Det. 3 also brought the crew of the amphibious transport dock ship USS Portland up to speed on recovering spacecraft, taught Navy helicopter crews how to spot and recover any separated spacecraft parts, and accompanied the ship to pick up Orion. 

“The combined NASA, Navy, and Det. 3 team has been preparing for this event since the beginning of the Orion program, which dates back to 2011,” Lt. Col. Dave Mahan, then-Det. 3’s Artemis program director, said at the time. Mahan now commands the detachment. “It was amazing to watch all of that planning and just-in-time training in action during splashdown and recovery.” 

Staff Sgt. Krystal Terlep, Human Space Flight Support airdrop loadmaster, 204th Airlift Squadron, Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii, releases an Advanced Rescue Craft for 308th Rescue Squadron pararescueman, Patrick Space Force Base, Florida, during HSFS airdrop search and rescue training Jan 16, 2025, at Patrick SFB, Florida. (U.S. Air Force Photo by Tech. Sgt. Della Creech)

For past missions involving its spacecraft, SpaceX used its own ships for recovering Crew Dragons and the crews aboard. That will likely happen March 12, when astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams are expected to splash down aboard a Crew Dragon after spending an unexpected nine months aboard the International Space Station since the Boeing Starliner they rode into orbit malfunctioned on approach to the ISS last June. Also splashing down with them will be cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov and astronaut Col. Nick Hague, the first Space Force Guardian to launch into space.

If anything goes wrong, Air Force crews are trained to help. HSFS missions use the C-17 for its airdrop capability and its longer range compared to smaller aircraft such as the HC-130J, the First Air Force spokesperson said.

The biggest differences between rescue airdrops and conventional airdrops, Schieber explained, is that HSFS rescue airdrops typically take place over water and involve Guardian Angels, the combat rescue officers, pararesuemen, and other Airmen who conduct or support personnel recovery. 

“Our crews received training on search and rescue patterns that would assist in identifying the recovered capsule’s location for the follow-on recovery,” he said. “Additionally, the mission set requires our loadmasters to utilize flares and smoke to assist in visually identifying the recovered capsule.”

astronaut recovery
Maj. David Reifenberg, combat rescue officer drop zone controller, 308th Rescue Squadron, Patrick Space Force Base, Florida, free falls from a Joint Base Charleston C-17 Globemaster III, as Senior Master Sgt. George Reed, pararescueman, 308 RQS prepares to jump, during a Human Space Flight Support airdrop search and rescue exercise Jan 15, 2025, near Patrick SFB, Fla. (U.S. Air Force Photo by Tech. Sgt. Della Creech)

It also involves dropping gear such as jet-skis and rigid inflatable boats, Master Sgt. Makaio Roberts, HSFS deputy program manager with the 204th Airlift Squadron, said in a Jan. 17 video about the training.

With more experience on C-17 HSFS missions, it was Roberts’ and his fellow Hawaiians’ task to certify the Charleston Airmen for the astronaut recovery mission. 

“This is a very unique operation for the C-17 to participate in rescue airdrops,” Schieber said in the video. “It’s something that most of the C-17 crews haven’t experienced before.” 

Other crews from the Active-duty, Reserve, and Air National Guard will likely follow in their footsteps, the First Air Force spokesperson said. 

“We expect more C-17 crews from the total force to become trained on the HSFS airdrop training as our nation’s space programs expand.”

New Report: Abolish Joint Requirements Process, Replace with Bottom-Up Approach

New Report: Abolish Joint Requirements Process, Replace with Bottom-Up Approach

Feb. 14, 2025 | By John A. Tirpak

The Department of Defense should “burn down” its formal process of setting requirements that meet joint service needs and replace with a more bottom-up, iterative process, two analysts with Pentagon and industry experience argue in blunt terms in a new paper from the Hudson Institute.

The Joint Capabilities and Integration Development System, or JCIDS, is a time-consuming, “low-value-added” bureaucratic mess that is “a burdensome layer of ceremony, divorced from the real decisions that shape America’s future military edge,” write William Greenwalt and Dan Patt.

Greenwalt served as deputy under secretary of defense for industrial policy and worked for both Congress and industry before becoming a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. Patt worked at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and in the technology industry before becoming a senior fellow at Hudson.

Created in 2003, JCIDS was meant to connect and harmonize requirements between the services. But while it was crafted with good intentions, it has been an impediment to cutting-edge capabilities and created “entrenched parochial interests,” Greenwalt and Patt claim. Despite 10 attempts over the last two decades to reform it, it has become a process-bound bureaucracy that adds, at a minimum, two years to the development of new capabilities while forcing services to stick with obsolete requirements set by committee.

As an alternative, the authors promote what they call  a “Joint Operational Acceleration Pathway,” based on their premise that if a service discovers a capability with joint benefits which will enlarge that branch’s budget, it will pursue it. These capabilities would be discovered through experimentation and prototyping at the tactical and operational level, coming to service budgets through the regional combatant commanders.  

Eliminating JCIDS would free up “energy, time and talent to focus on genuine innovation and rapid adaptation,” Greenwalt and Patt claim.

JCIDS, they say, is a “breeding ground for process tyranny.”

For example, even if a requirement has been validated through the process, there’s no guarantee resources will be provided for it. There is also no accountability for filling capability gaps, and the JCIDS process doesn’t “retire old wish lists that no longer match emerging threats,” they wrote. Rather, the process “imposes yearslong validation delays” on technological advancements, while U.S. adversaries can move much more quickly.

The authors also note there’s no mechanism in JCIDS to terminate a developmental program that has clearly been overtaken by events; rather, it “accumulates an ever-expanding inventory of so-called validated needs with no strategic triage.”

Moreover, “military officers and staffers spend countless hours quibbling over formatting and definitions; a single comment can stall progress for months,” Greenwalt and Patt write. The system “locks developers into rigid technical specifications before testing new ideas in the field, removing critical decision space from both program managers and industry innovators. Meanwhile, cross-service decisions and prioritization happen elsewhere.”

Most innovation in the Pentagon bypasses JCIDS entirely, the authors note, by coming through as a Joint Urgent Operational Need or as a mid-tier acquisition initiative, both of which aim to leap the “valley of death” between good ides and a service requirement. The authors also held up Rapid Capabilities Offices as an example of how to speed development by skipping the usual system of setting and vetting requirements, while being subjected to minimal oversight.

“These processes succeed largely by enabling individual leadership, securing dedicated funding, and letting technical trades and performance evolve with learning,” the authors said. “Meanwhile, JCIDS focuses on staffing documents that have no real positive impact.”

The process of entering a new need into the JCIDS process and getting a budget-ready, validated requirement out the other end can be laborious:

  • A capabilities assessment and sponsor review can last 5-15 months
  • Getting staffing and comments, resolving disputes and submitting the revised requirement is another 2-3 months
  • Review by the Functional Capabilities Board, with a review by the Joint Requirements Oversight Council, and finalizing the paperwork takes another 2-7 months
  • Total time: 8-25 months

The authors noted that programs exiting the process in 2015 spent an average 17 months in it, with a low of 8.3 months and a high of 30 months.

Rather than try to reform the process, Greenwalt and Patt concluded that JCIDS “has failed too completely to be rescued by another committee’s review or a fresh coat of bureaucratic paint. … No new [Key Performance Parameters], no revised membership, no inspired PowerPoint deck or new formatting appendix can salvage it.”

Instead, they argue that the Pentagon needs to act fast to meet the strategic needs of the moment. They urged senior leaders to end JCIDS with colorful, forceful language: “Put it out of its misery. … Bury it and salt the ground so that nothing resembling it ever grows back.”

Instead, Greenwalt and Patt claim their decentralized approach would start with “real-world experimentation and prototyping campaigns” to keep DOD in tune with and aligned to operational demands. There would be a fund to get programs going—a “Joint Acceleration Reserve” that “steps up to adopt and scale a proven cross-service concept.”

These initiatives would be vetted by a “dedicated execution hub would run iterative try-and-see efforts in realistic operating environments with actual uniformed operators, bringing together commercial prototypes, emerging tech from labs, well-integrated existing service systems, and [Combatant Command] user feedback,” they wrote.

If a concept proves out, it would get the Joint Acceleration Reserve funding. In turn, the services would have an incentive “to pick up joint or cross-domain solutions and invest in them for the long haul.”

The paper endorses the concept of “operational imperatives”—like those set by former Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall—which they define as “concise statements of critical warfighting challenges identified by combatant commands and backed by DOD leadership.”

“This problem-centric focus would free innovators and operators to experiment with diverse solutions rather than adhere to an inflexible blueprint,” they added.

US, Australia, Japan Boost F-35 Integration with Indo-Pacific Exercise

US, Australia, Japan Boost F-35 Integration with Indo-Pacific Exercise

Feb. 13, 2025 | By Unshin Lee Harpley

F-35s from the United States, Australia, and Japan are all soaring above Andersen Air Force Base in Guam as part of Pacific Air Forces’ largest annual multilateral exercise.

Cope North kicked off Feb. 3 and runs through Feb. 21, drawing more than 2,300 U.S. personnel, a PACAF spokesperson told Air & Space Forces Magazine.

A total of 62 U.S. aircraft are involved in the exercise, spanning across the Air Force, Marine Corps, and Navy. These include a mix of F-35A, F-35B, F-16, and F/A-18C/D fighters; EA-18 Growlers, E-11 and E-3 command and control aircraft; KC-46, KC-135, and KC-130J tankers; C-130J transport aircraft; and MH-60S helicopters, the spokesperson added.

From left to right, a Royal Australian Air Force, Japan Air Self-Defense Force, and U.S. F-35A Lightning II aircraft fly in formation over the Pacific Ocean during exercise Cope North 25, Feb. 7, 2025. Japanese, Australian, and U.S. air forces trained together during CN25 to streamline combined tactics and, if needed, win in an armed conflict. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Chloe Johnson)

The exercise focuses on blending air tactics, techniques, and procedures to ensure smooth collaboration for “deterring conflict and achieving regional security.”

While last year’s iteration saw fighters and electronic warfare aircraft escorting a B-52 bomber, the focus for this year has shifted to integrating the three nations’ fifth-generation fighters.

“The reason that fifth-generation is so important is that fifth-generation fighters are the forward edge of our fighting force, especially in the Indo-Pacific, so it’s important to practice together with all the nations that fly them,” said U.S. Air Force Col. Charles Schuck, commander of the 3rd wing, in a release.

The Royal Australian Air Force is contributing 275 personnel, eight F-35As, a KC-30A multirole tanker transport, and an E-7A Wedgetail airborne early warning and control aircraft to the exercise.

The Japan Air Self-Defense Force (JASDF) is represented by six F-35As, two E-2D early warning and control aircraft, and a KC-46 refueling tanker, along with some 250 personnel.

U.S. Marine Corps F-35B Lightning II from Air Station Iwakuni Fighter Attack Squadron 121 receives fuel from U.S. Air Force KC-135 Stratotanker assigned to the 168th Wing out of Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska, for Cope North 2025 at Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, Jan. 29, 2025. U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Adasha Williams

“When you have many different nations flying the same aircraft, it’s important to train together so that we learn small differences between how each nation employs, maintains, and commands and controls those airplanes,” said Schuck. “We’ll never learn those differences without actually exercising together.”

This marks the first joint F-35 exercise under an agreement reached last year following a trilateral defense summit in May. The three nations have agreed to take turns hosting joint F-35 exercises, with Cope North kicking off in the U.S., followed by Bushido Guardian in Japan this year and Pitch Black in Australia in 2026.

“Exercise Cope North [25] will be the showcase for the true integration of fifth-gen capability,” said RAAF Contingent Commander Group Capt. Darryl Porter. “Australia has participated in Exercise Cope North since 2011, and coming to Guam provides valuable training experience for aviators deploying into the Indo-Pacific region.”

The RAAF has already purchased 72 F-35As for three squadrons, with the final nine jets delivered in December. Japan, meanwhile, has ordered 105 F-35As and up to 42 F-35Bs, with the order placed in 2022.

Japan Air Self-Defense Force, Royal Australian Air Force, and U.S. 4th and 5th generation aircraft fly in formation over the Pacific Ocean during exercise Cope North 25, Feb. 7, 2025. The aircraft in the photo are, from top to bottom: a U.S. Marine Corps F/A-18C Hornet, U.S. Marine Corps F-35B Lightning II, JASDF F-35A Lightning II, RAAF E-7A Wedgetail, U.S. Air Force F-35A Lightning II, U.S. Navy E/A-18 Growler, RAAF F-35A Lightning II, and U.S. Air Force F-16CM. U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Chloe Johnson

The agreement between former U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III and his Australian and Japanese counterparts is part of a broader push to ramp up the frequency and complexity of joint training amid rising tensions in the Indo-Pacific.

The three countries plan to boost intelligence-sharing and jointly invest in developing new technologies, including Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) drones. They also plan to hold the first-ever combined live-fire air-and-missile exercise in 2027 and aim to build a joint air defense system to tackle growing air and missile threats in the region.

Originally a quarterly bilateral exercise at Misawa Air Base in 1978, Cope North moved to Andersen in 1999 and became trilateral in 2012 with the RAAF’s inclusion.

Space Force General Wants ‘More Aggressive’ Acquisition Reforms

Space Force General Wants ‘More Aggressive’ Acquisition Reforms

Feb. 13, 2025 | By Greg Hadley

The acting head of space acquisition wants to double down on changes instituted by Frank Calvelli, who vacated the job Jan. 20, pledging stricter accountability not only for contractors but program managers, as well.

Maj. Gen. Stephen G. Purdy, military deputy to the assistant secretary of the Air Force for space acquisition and integration, is leading the office until a new political appointee is in place. But he’s holding fast to Calvelli’s acquisition tenets, devised from his long experience developing space programs at the NRO. Calvelli pressed the Space Force to buy smaller satellites and load them with as much commercial technology as possible to accelerate timelines. He also favored fixed-price contracts. 

“The plan that we have is to continue the Calvelli tenets,” Purdy said at the National Security Space Association’s conference this week. “If anything, think of us continuing those efforts, but doing it more aggressively.” 

Calvelli was open about his frustrations with both industry’s and USSF’s approach to acquisition, and promoted lessons learned on the job at NRO—especially the “relentless pursuit of program management discipline.” 

Purdy likewise cited the proven business practices embraced by NRO. “They’re able to do trades within their systems,” he said. “They’re able to make architectural trades, funding trades, commercial trades. They really understand the commercial market and how they kind of tap into some of those [capabilities] in some of their missions.” 

President Donald Trump has not yet nominated a successor to Calvelli, but he did nominate Calvelli’s successor at NRO, Troy Meink, to be the next Air Force Secretary. That suggests the NRO’s approach is likely to live on in the Space Force, said Todd Harrison, a space and budget analyst for the American Enterprise Institute. 

“I think there will be some differences, of course, and I think the language will definitely change,” he said. “You know, they may not be called tenets, they might be called principles or whatever, but I think that there will be a lot of overlap and a lot of continuity.”  

Yet even as Calvelli won praise from lawmakers, industry was less favorable, Harrison said. “A lot of the legacy space companies hate fixed-price and they keep threatening not to bid on things,” he explained. “Those same companies are also pushing against a lot of these newer architectures that use smaller satellites and larger numbers, proliferated, because it doesn’t advantage them.” 

Purdy emphasized performance and the Space Force’s willingness to cancel programs if contractors fail. “From May 2022 to today, we’re at about 14 major acquisition programs that have had contracts or entire programs restructured or canceled. Why? Typically due to performance,” he said. “Costs have skyrocketed. We weren’t getting the capability we need. And unlike the Space Force acquisition of old, we’re not just piling money into that. So we’ve stopped these contracts, and we’ve re-competed for the most part.” 

Purdy said his unclassified programs are split roughly 50/50 between fixed-price and cost-plus contracts and that he would like to see the balance tilt more toward fixed-price. But the problems aren’t all with contractors, he said. Accountability is a “two-way street,” Purdy said, so his office is “looking at taking action against poor performing U.S. government program managers.” That would start with giving them additional resources and scrutiny, but potentially go up to removals. 

In response to a query from Air & Space Forces Magazine, an Air Force spokesperson said program managers are judged on factors like “how they are able to address challenges within their span of control, decision-making skills, communication, implementation of guidance such as the Service Acquisition Executive’s published Acquisition Tenants, and other basic program management skills.” 

The most important one, however, is that “they deliver their capability as rapidly as possible while performing the traditional trades between cost, schedule, and performance,” the spokesperson added. 

Ensuring accountability for program managers may be harder than it sounds, Harrison warned. Typically, program managers can cycle in and out every two or three years. 

“It can take a very long time for a program manager’s decisions to actually bear fruit,” he said. “And so when a program goes bad, it may be because of what the previous program manager did, or it may be unclear whose fault it was. So I think one of the most important things in establishing accountability is making program managers stick with the program much longer.” 

Going faster is one way to overcome such concerns. Calvelli pushed for shorter contracts, as short as three years from start to launch, and Purdy cited the Resilient GPS program and the Space Development Agency as models for producing capability on fast timelines previously not seen in military space programs. 

“My direction to all [program managers] is SDA and R-GPS timelines are the new norm,” Purdy said. “Beat those timelines. So that’s the goal.” 

Purdy’s approval of the Space Development Agency comes as its leader is under investigation and suspended from duty. Derek Tournear was placed on administrative leave just before Inauguration Day. The agency, which has pressed an ambitious agenda to field a proliferated space architecture in low-Earth orbit, is under a cloud, with media reports citing a Pentagon memo calling for an “independent review team” to determine the “health” of SDA and its programs, and consider whether it should remain a semi-independent acquisition arm within the Space Force.  

Air & Space Forces Magazine has confirmed that the memo exists, but has not reviewed its contents. The Department of the Air Force declined to comment. 

Tournear is under investigation for actions related to a contractor protest. 

“We’re at a pivotal moment here,” Harrison said, worrying that the consolidation or elimination of SDA could send the Space Force back to the Pentagon’s “old mindset of going slow, focusing on mission assurance, and progressively falling behind.” 

Harrison suggested that could be a disaster for the Space Force: “It’s absolutely critical that the SDA continues and its proliferated architecture continues,” he said.

NORAD Boss: China Will Increase Military Flights Near Alaska

NORAD Boss: China Will Increase Military Flights Near Alaska

Feb. 13, 2025 | By Chris Gordon

China is set to increase its military activity around Alaska, likely including bomber flights, the top U.S. general in charge of defending North America said Feb. 13.

“I do think that [China will] increase their presence both independently and as well as increased cooperation with the Russians in the air, in the maritime, and undersea,” Air Force Gen. Gregory M. Guillot, the commander of U.S. Northern Command (NORTHCOM) and North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), told the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Chinese and Russian military flights have become a growing concern for the U.S. over the past year, most notably with the first joint Chinese-Russian bomber patrol into the Alaska Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) last July. In that episode, two Chinese H-6 bombers and two Russian TU-95 bombers flew off the coast of Alaska inside the U.S. ADIZ, escorted by Russian fighters. American and Canadian NORAD fighters intercepted the mission. 

That flight was a demonstration of China and Russia’s growing partnership, while China has also provided dual-use technology to fuel Russia’s war in Ukraine. Last July, the Chinese and Russian bombers took off from the same base in Russia for their mission near Alaska, Air & Space Forces Magazine reported at the time.

Guillot indicated the growing collaboration between the two countries was one of his main concerns going forward.

“Their transfer of weapons, military technology, and basing access is cause for significant concern,” Guillot said in his opening statement to the committee.

“What I worry about the most is that instead of just weapons and technology, that they will trade [basing] access, which would shorten our timelines to react to either country’s military capabilities,” he added later.

Guillot also said that in addition to military flights, he was concerned about Chinese naval activity near Alaska, which he said was increasing. Multiple Chinese and Russian flotillas were tracked by the U.S. last year, and a high-profile exercise in 2023 involving nearly a dozen Chinese and Russian ships prompted U.S. Navy destroyers to shadow the fleet.

Until February 2024, Guillot was the deputy commander of U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), which oversees U.S. forces in the Middle East, where the U.S. has defended against Iran and its extensive network of proxy groups, had run-ins with Russian aircraft over Syria, and been concerned about China’s growing influence in the region. That experience appeared to inform his testimony to the committee.

“The growing cooperation between China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran to challenge the United States” has “direct implications for homeland defense,” Guillot said.

In addition to Guillot’s concerns over Chinese activity, the general said Moscow was also upping its unilateral bomber flights near Alaska and Canada to levels not seen in years.

“The associated risks to North America have also grown as the number of Russian bomber incursions into Alaska and Canadian Air Defense Identification Zone has returned to levels not seen since before the Russian invasion of Ukraine” in February 2022, Gulliot said. He said a similar trend has played out with naval activity. “We’ve seen a significant increase in both Russian air and maritime activity in the vicinity of Alaska, both in the Bering Sea and up in the Arctic Ocean.”

Russia has also upped its flights off the east coast to North America, he said. Russian military flights in the Arctic last month prompted NORAD to conduct fighter patrols off Alaska and Canada, and NORAD recently sent U.S. F-16s on a deployment to Greenland.

“We’ve also seen an increase in air patrols on the eastern side, what we call the two o’clock approach through the Greenland and Iceland Gap towards Maine and the northeast portion of the United States,” Guillot said. “I’m certainly concerned by that. And I would expect the numbers on both sides of our coast to increase in the coming year.”

PHOTOS: Two Dozen F-22s Gather for Impressive Elephant Walk

PHOTOS: Two Dozen F-22s Gather for Impressive Elephant Walk

Feb. 13, 2025 | By John A. Tirpak

More than one-eighth of the U.S. Air Force’s entire fleet of F-22 Raptors lined the runway at Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Va., on Jan. 31, as the 1st Fighter Wing flexed its ability to rapidly put airpower into action.

The “elephant walk” featured 24 F-22s plus six T-38 Talon trainers, tying the mark for the largest F-22 elephant walk in service history.

“This demonstration highlighted the wing’s ability to mobilize forces rapidly in high-stress scenarios,” the wing said in a statement. “As Air Combat Command’s lead wing, the [1st Fighter Wing] maintains unparalleled combat readiness to ensure national defense at a moment’s notice.”

According to data from fiscal 2023—the most recent year available—the Air Force has 185 Raptors, meaning the elephant walk featured nearly 13 percent of the fleet. And the fleet’s mission capable rate for that year was 52 percent, meaning that at any given time, around 100 fighters are available to carry out at least some the aircraft’s assigned missions.

Elephant walks typically require major efforts from maintainers to render a majority of a unit’s airpower ready to go. The wing did not immediately reply to a query on how the exercise stressed the unit’s ability to surge.

The 1st Fighter Wing includes the 94th and 27th Fighter Squadrons, which fly the F-22, and the 71st Fighter Training Squadron, which flies the T-38s as companion trainers and sparring partners for the Raptors.

Langley Air Force Base also hosts the flying training unit for the F-22, having inherited that mission in 2021, after Tyndall Air Force Base, Fla., was devastated by Hurricane Michael.

The Air Force is in the process of upgrading about 148 of its F-22s with new equipment, such as low-drag stealthy fuel tanks to increase their range; infrared search-and-track devices to widen its ability to detect stealthy aircraft; communications and navigation upgrades, and electronic warfare improvements.

The F-22 is also likely to partner with autonomous Collaborative Combat Aircraft, which can carry extra missiles for the Raptor, and the Air Force is developing a new long-range missile—the AIM-260 Joint Advanced Tactical Missile—to extend the Raptor’s ability to shoot enemies from a far greater distance.   

The Air Force planned to retire the F-22 around 2030 due to its technologies being overtaken by adversary types, but the recent “pause” on the Next-Generation Air Dominance fighter program, which was meant to replace the F-22, means the Raptor may serve well into the 2030s. 

The Air Force has asked Congress to allow the retirement of 32 F-22s that are used only for training, saying it would rather put the money used to operate those aircraft toward upgrading the rest of the fleet, but Congress has blocked the move for several years.

Maintainers Reload and Refuel a ‘Hot’ F-35A for the First Time

Maintainers Reload and Refuel a ‘Hot’ F-35A for the First Time

Feb. 12, 2025 | By Greg Hadley

Maintainers swarmed an F-35 at Nellis Air Force Base, Nev., last month, testing out a procedure that has become common for older fighters but has never been done before on the service’s fifth-generation jets: a “hot” integrated combat turn.

Hot ICTs involve simultaneously refueling and rearming a fighter with new munitions while the engines are still running. Normally it can take maintainers around three hours to prepare a single F-35 for a new sortie. A team involving half a dozen different government organizations and technicians from industry want to cut that turnaround in half and possibly get as low as 25 minutes. 

The team completed its first hot ICT on an F-35A in January, a spokesperson told Air & Space Forces Magazine, though she declined to specify the exact date or whether more have taken place since then. 

Regardless, the successful test is a significant milestone for the burgeoning test maintenance community. 

“It’s been a long time coming,” Master Sgt. Sharlyn Smith, F-35 operational test and evaluation superintendent for the 59th Test and Evaluation squadron, told Air & Space Forces Magazine. “We did a lot of legwork to investigate all of the risks and then put a lot of time and effort into mitigating those risks down to an acceptable level to actually execute the operation. So the behind-the-scenes efforts have been going on for honestly quite a while here, and then the actual execution portion has obviously happened in the last couple of months.” 

In preparing to conduct the hot ICT, the team looked at how the Marine Corps performs a similar procedure on its F-35B and C models, and how the Vermont Air National Guard conducted rearming and refueling for its F-35As.  

Just as pilots must learn new skills to fly the F-35 compared to older aircraft, maintainers have to adjust their procedures, said Master Sgt. Oliver Gutierrez, F-15 and F-16 operational test and evaluation superintendent. In particular, fifth-generation fighters have internal weapons bays and more electrical systems compared to fourth-generation aircraft, he said. 

“There were a lot of engineering looks we had to do to ensure that we are developing capabilities that are going to be safe to maintainers,” he said. 

Along the way, test maintainers used a “crawl, walk, run” approach—testing out their ideas with the jet’s engines turned off first, for example. 

“Ultimately, it is standardizing procedures and training,” Gutierrez said. “It’s a lot of training, but in order to train, we need to know what we’re doing exactly. So this is what we’re doing—we’re testing it, validating procedures, and then we’re going to go out and train with our maintainers out in the field.”

As part of that process, Smith said, the team looked at execution speed for the whole procedure but also went beyond to break down each part of a hot ICT—the rearming, refueling, and regenerating of an F-35—and study how they could be done more efficiently. 

The process is one that Capt. Cameron Castleberry, head of the Maintenance Operational Test (MxOT) Division within the 59th Test and Evaluation Squadron, described as a balance between the necessary risk acceptance of the test community and the safety focus of the maintenance community. 

But as Gutierrez made clear, the team doesn’t feel that they’ve reached the limit of how fast the process can be. 

“We’re going to be continuously developing this tactic to refine the maintenance capabilities,” he said. “It is a unique tactic that has a lot of really fun implications for how we can get faster. We are thinking of creative solutions to get faster, but that is still in work overall. And I’ll just let you know we will not be stopping anytime soon, and we will just look to further increase our time.” 

The ability to get an F-35 back up in the air as quickly as possible is something that Air Force officials know could be crucial in a potential conflict—studies have found that in a potential high-end conflict, most aircraft losses would happen on the ground. 

“This test team really thought that that was going to be an important capability that we wanted to not only explore, but eventually get published and to be a common practice that we would utilize in combat when future threats take off,” Smith said. 

Integrated combat turns proved important when Air Force fighters helped defend Israel against a large-scale Iranian attack last year—one F-15E expended all its munitions taking down drones, then landed and got ready to go again in roughly 30 minutes, taking off before missiles and debris started raining down on the base. 

Posted in Air
B-52s Arrive in Europe for Bomber Task Force as Hegseth Visits NATO

B-52s Arrive in Europe for Bomber Task Force as Hegseth Visits NATO

Feb. 12, 2025 | By Chris Gordon

B-52 Stratofortress bombers have landed in England to kick off the U.S. Air Force’s first European bomber deployment of the year, service officials said Feb. 12.

Four B-52s, flying as the 69th Expeditionary Bomb Squadron from Minot Air Force Base, N.D., will operate out of RAF Fairford, U.K., a traditional hub for the Air Force’s European bomber operations, where they are under the command of U.S. Air Forces in Europe-Air Forces Africa (USAFE-AFA), officials told Air & Space Forces Magazine.

Some of the B-52s have already flown alongside French Dassault Rafales, Swedish Saab JAS-39 Gripens, and Finnish F/A-18 Hornets, USAFE said. A photo from the cockpit of a B-52 taken Feb. 11 and released by the Air Force shows allied fighters flying off the wing of the BUFF, with a second B-52 visible in the background. Another photo released by the Finnish Air Force shows two B-52s flying with the fighters.

“While transiting into Europe, the U.S. aircraft conducted a routine mission,” said Col. David Herndon, USAFE’s senior spokesman. “Training with NATO Allies strengthens our ability to operate as one team. These missions reinforce our partnerships and prepare us to deliver decisive capabilities whenever and wherever they’re needed.”

Bomber task force operations typically include multiple training events with foreign nations. NATO released a promotional video for the current rotation with the blurred flags of more than half a dozen countries. The bombers will participate in “a series of exercises and training flights alongside allied air forces,” Herndon said.

A U.S. Air Force B-52H Stratofortress assigned to the 69th Expeditionary Bomb Squadron flies during operation APEX COMMANDER in international airspace on Feb. 11, 2025. During the mission, the U.S. aircraft integrated with French Dassault Rafales, Swedish Saab JAS 39 Gripens, and Finnish F/A-18C Hornets in support of Bomber Task Force 25-2 operations. U.S. Air Force photo

The mission comes as Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth is in Europe, where he visited U.S. European Command and U.S. Africa Command headquarters in Germany before heading to NATO headquarters in Belgium, where he exhorted the alliance’s defense ministers to do more for their own defense on Feb. 12.

“Stark strategic realities prevent the United States of America from being primarily focused on the security of Europe,” said Hegseth, who added that the Pentagon will be “prioritizing deterring war with China in the Pacific.” Under Hegseth, the Pentagon has also focused on helping to prevent illegal migration across the U.S. southern border and on transporting detained migrants.

President Donald Trump and Hegseth have called on NATO nations to spend 5 percent of gross domestic product on defense, an increase from a previous alliance goal that nations should spend 2 percent of GDP on their military. The U.S. spends roughly 3 percent of its GDP on defense.

Still, bomber task forces are likely to remain an important element of the U.S. military’s force posture in Europe. BTF missions are in high demand by combatant commanders, and planning them is a balancing act for Air Force Global Strike Command and U.S. Strategic Command. BTFs in Europe are often particularly busy as U.S. and allied officials say countries are eager to fly and conduct missions with American B-52s, B-1s, and B-2s, as no allied European nation has its own bomber fleet.

The U.S. conducts several bomber task forces missions a year. And while the Air Force ended its continuous bomber presence in Guam in 2020, it still carries out shorter-term deployments. Six of Minot’s B-52s temporarily deployed to the Middle East last year amid regional tensions and participated in combat missions, including bombing Islamic State targets in Syria.

“Bomber Task Force missions reinforce our ability to rapidly project combat power, demonstrating U.S. lethality and readiness in a dynamic security environment,” Maj. Gen. Joseph Campo, U.S. Air Forces in Europe–Air Forces Africa’s director of operations, strategic deterrence, and nuclear integration, said in a statement. “Training alongside our allies and partners ensures seamless integration, enhancing our collective deterrence and warfighting capability across Europe and Africa.”