Air Force Finds Elevated Levels of Toxic Chemicals at Minot

Air Force Finds Elevated Levels of Toxic Chemicals at Minot

Aug. 24, 2023 | By Chris Gordon

The Air Force has found residue of a harmful and possibly carcinogenic substance at intercontinental ballistic missile facilities at Minot Air Force Base, N.D., it announced Aug. 24.

According to service officials, military bioenvironmental experts found elevated levels of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in an underground launch support building at the base.

The Air Force has now released findings on PCB levels at all three of its ICBM bases. Two—Minot and Malmstrom Air Force Base, Mont.—had levels that exceeded the Environmental Protection Agency’s acceptable limit, while the third, F.E. Warren Air Force Base, Wyo., had trace amounts of PCBs below the EPA’s acceptable limit.

Air Force Global Strike Command has ordered clean-ups for all three bases.

“Based on these survey results, I directed Twentieth Air Force to take immediate measures to mitigate exposure by our Airmen in all locations where PCBs were detected,” AFGSC commander Gen. Thomas A. Bussiere said in a statement, referring to the Numbered Air Force that oversees ICBM bases.

The Air Force is conducting extensive environmental testing at its ICBM bases as part of the Missile Community Cancer Study, which has two parts: environmental sampling of Active bases and an epidemiologic study of personnel who served in ICBM fields to assess cancer rates.

One of the purposes of testing was to search for polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in launch control centers, the underground bunkers where missileers work in 24-48 hour shifts, and in other facilities.

PCBs are “probable human carcinogens” according to the EPA, which adds that they “have been demonstrated to cause a variety of adverse health effects.”

The findings at Minot were outlined in an Aug. 21 memo from Col. Tory Woodard, the commander of the U.S. Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine (USAFSAM), which is leading the study on behalf of the service.

Three hundred total samples—air samples and swipe tests—were taken at Minot, with 30 returning traces of PCBs. The swipe tests involve gauze wetted with a solution run over surfaces and then analyzed for suspected contaminants. No air samples detected PCBs, Woodard’s memo states. Twenty-eight of the 30 samples that detected PCBs were below limits.

Two swipe samples, however, had levels above EPA limits—both in the same facility, a Launch Control Equipment Building (LCEB).

LCEBs sit alongside the underground Launch Control Centers (LCC) and provide mechanical support. Above-ground Missile Alert Facilities (MAFs) were also tested, but did not return traces of PCBs.

“We will begin immediately cleaning PCBs in all LCCs and LCEBs where PCBs were detected, regardless of whether they met EPA standards for mitigation,” Bussiere said of the Minot findings.

“Further rounds of testing for PCBs will take place in all these locations to help us measure the effectiveness of our mitigation efforts,” he added.

PCB production was banned in 1979, but the intercontinental ballistic missile facilities are decades old. An AFGSC official familiar with the study previously told Air & Space Forces Magazine the Air Force began phasing out PCBs at ICBM facilities in the 1980s, but the tests would ultimately determine how thoroughly that process was conducted.

Yet PCBs are far from the only—or main—concern of the ongoing Missile Community Cancer Study. There have long been concerns voiced by former missiles and other personnel stemming from their duties at ICBM bases. Those concerns were highlighted when a presentation detailing cases of non-Hodgkin lymphoma, a blood cancer, at Malmstrom appeared online earlier this year. 

Bussiere ordered a review of the issue, which led to the study, overseen by USAFSAM. Members of the study team carried out initial visits in February and March at the ICBM bases to understand what they should look for and where—ICBM silos are spread out over vast fields that reach into five states, with underground and surface support facilities. Among the potential dangers, the study teams found stickers indicating the presence of PCBs in older electronics—one reason PCBs have been an early focus of the study.

“These results are just the first part of an extensive survey taking place at all our missile bases,” Bussiere said. “As more results come, we will provide updates to our Airmen and families, along with the resources they need to understand the results. My absolute priority is to provide Airmen with a safe and clean working environment, so they can carry out our nation’s most important missions.”

In particular, researchers are still looking awaiting results from ground and water sampling at all three ICBM bases.

“Additional results for other environmental samples collected will be reported separately, as these are still being analyzed and are not yet available,” Woodard wrote in his latest memo.

US Will Train Ukrainian Pilots, Maintainers on the F-16 at Air National Guard Base

US Will Train Ukrainian Pilots, Maintainers on the F-16 at Air National Guard Base

Aug. 24, 2023 | By Chris Gordon and Greg Hadley

The U.S. will train Ukrainian pilots and maintainers on F-16s at Morris Air National Guard Base, Ariz., in October, Pentagon Press Secretary Air Force Brig. Gen. Patrick S. Ryder announced Aug. 24—the most direct American involvement yet in the international effort to equip and train Ukraine with fighter aircraft.

The Ukrainian pilots will also receive necessary English-language training at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas, in September, Ryder said.

The 162nd Wing at Morris trains foreign pilots on F-16s on a day-to-day basis.

Ryder said the training “will include several pilots and dozens of maintainers” but said it was too soon to provide further information. Ryder indicated the U.S. and Ukraine had yet to iron out which pilots might come over to the U.S. and it was too soon to give a timeline on how long training might take. He did not say whether the U.S. would provide munitions for the F-16s, such as AMRAAM air-to-air missiles.

“A lot is going to depend on those individual pilots and the assessment in terms of where they’re at in that process,” Ryder said.

Last week, President Joe Biden’s administration gave the necessary official approvals needed for a consortium of countries led by Denmark and the Netherlands to start training Ukrainian pilots on the F-16. The U.S. also provided formal assurances that it will fast-track any requests from those countries to transfer their older F-16s to Ukraine that they are trading out for newer aircraft like F-35s. But the U.S. has a massive fleet of F-16s and as the plane is American-made, the U.S. is used to training new countries in how to operate the aircraft.

“We know that as the Danes and the Dutch prepare to train those pilots, at a certain point in time in the future, capacity will be reached,” Ryder said. “So preemptively, acknowledging that and leaning forward in order to assist with this effort is the impetus for why we’re doing this now.”

The 162nd Wing has trained pilots from 25 countries to fly the F-16 so far, according to the unit’s website. But Ryder noted that in addition to basic flying skills, there will be much to learn for Ukrainian pilots who have previously flown in Soviet-era aircraft using different tactics than Western pilots. Experts have said Ukrainian pilots need to be trained in Western tactics to be successful, especially to make the best use of U.S.-made aircraft. Ryder previewed some of the myriad of skills required.

“There will be additional training on air combat maneuvering, tactical intercepts, close air support, suppression of enemy air defenses, and then all of that leading up to your mission qualification training, which then allows your instructor to certify that you’re combat ready,” Ryder said. “So those are the kinds of things that go into training a fighter pilot.”

Earlier this week, Ukrainian president Volodomyr Zelenskyy visited the Netherlands and sat in an F-16 and praised the “breakthrough agreement” to provide the jets to Kyiv. The Pentagon’s announcement came on Ukrainian Independence Day.

“The United States is proud to stand with Ukraine, and we will continue to ensure that it has what it needs to fight for its freedom,” Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III said in a statement marking the occasion. 

How China’s PLA Could Use Tech Like ChatGPT, And What Could Hold It Back

How China’s PLA Could Use Tech Like ChatGPT, And What Could Hold It Back

Aug. 24, 2023 | By David Roza

China’s People’s Liberation Army wants to be the first to capitalize on a range of military applications for generative artificial intelligence that could change warfare—but political, economic, and scientific challenges, some of which U.S. artificial intelligence developers also face, stand in the way. 

“Overall, China understands the need to be a first mover (or close follower) in generative AI on the battlefield to ‘firmly grasp the strategic initiative of intelligent warfare and seize the commanding heights of future military competition,’” wrote Josh Baughman, an analyst with Air University’s China Aerospace Studies Institute, in a new paper published Aug. 21.

However, Baughman noted that Chinese policy makers, like their counterparts in the U.S., are wary of integrating the technology without careful testing.

“When we talk about generative AI in a military application, people’s lives are on the line depending on how we apply it,” Baughman told Air & Space Forces Magazine. “It’s high stakes, so absolutely you need to have that trust.”

Generative AI refers to programs “that can generate high-quality text, images, and other content based on the data they were trained on,” according to IBM. Perhaps the most notable application of generative AI is ChatGPT, a chatbot that can write poems, college essays, song lyrics, and other creative content.

Military planners around the world, including Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall, predict the technology could help accomplish tasks and make decisions on the battlefield, though it may be a while before such systems can be relied on in high-stakes situations.

China’s PLA seems to be on the same page: Baughman cited several PLA media sources that generally agree AI will inevitably play a role in warfare, and it could prove decisive in seven key areas:

  • Human-machine interaction: Because it can understand both human language and machine language, generative AI could help analysts digest large amounts of information in a much smaller amount of time. The PLA predicts a ChatGPT-like program becoming a joint combat system that can plan tasks, assign objectives, and strike targets, Baughman wrote.
  • Decision-making: By processing large amounts of information, generative AI could help commanders select the best combat action plan faster and enable decentralized command for isolated troops.
  • Network offensive and defensive warfare: PLA media predicts generative AI could help hackers “design, write, and execute malicious code, build bots and websites to trick users into sharing their information, and launch highly targeted social engineering scams and phishing campaigns,” Baughman wrote. Such offensive tools may become so sophisticated that AI systems may be the only way to defend against them.
  • Cognitive domain: PLA media sources discuss using generative AI to “efficiently generate massive amounts of fake news, fake pictures, and even fake videos to confuse the public,” Baughman wrote.
  • Logistics: Generative AI could help allocate resources, manage warehouses, plan supply routes, and identify inefficiencies faster than before. It could also be used to predict future material demand and create a budget for procuring resources.
  • Space domain: Above the atmosphere, where objects move at several times the speed of sound, generative AI could help monitor satellite health. It could also help engineers design new launch vehicles and spacecraft.
  • Training: The PLA lacks real-world combat experience, but generative AI may help “quickly build combat simulation through simple human language descriptions,” PLA writers said, especially when combined with historical training data and fresh intelligence.

Challenges

Yet for all those possible applications, China also faces many challenges in developing generative AI for military purposes, some unique and others applicable to developers around the world, Baughman said.

Party rules: Generative AI requires large amounts of data, but some information is off-limits under the Chinese Communist Party. Article Four of the party’s regulations for generative AI says such programs should “adhere to the socialist core values, and must not generate content that incites subversion of State power.”

In his paper, Baughman cited a Chinese CEO joking that Chinese large language models cannot count to 10 since it would include the numbers eight and nine: a reference to the censorship of information about the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests. However, while information restrictions could slow the growth of generative AI in some areas, it may not be relevant to all military uses.

“There is a party problem, but I don’t think it will be an issue for pure engineering or technical applications,” Baughman said. 

Silicon shortfall: Generative AI requires immense computing power, and immense computing power relies on semiconductor chips. U.S. sanctions limit the Chinese chip supply, but workarounds and China’s long-standing efforts to build its own chip infrastructure cannot be discounted.

Corruption: The Chinese government is making enormous investments in AI, but much of it ends up with firms that have more political connections than technical competence, as Gregory Allen, an AI expert for the Center for Strategic and International Studies wrote in May. That problem may grow worse as U.S. sanctions prevent competition with exporters, Allen noted.

Data Sets: Baughman explained that building an effective military data set for AI requires accurate and precise data, and while this issue affects both Chinese and U.S. AI developers, the PLA may feel it more acutely due to a lack of real-world combat experience. 

Optimization: Data must be properly labeled, adjusted, and interpreted to be useful. Baughman cited PLA media articles showing that “availability and interpretability of the data are poor,” and that interaction with professional users is not happening at a large enough scale to work in the field.

Trust: Both U.S. and Chinese policymakers fear losing control of battlefield AI, to the extent that PLA writers repeatedly stress the need to have a human in the loop of systems involving AI.

“The PLA most certainly wants to be the first mover on applying a more comprehensive application of Generative AI on the battlefield, but they will not do so until they can fully trust the technology,” Baughman wrote.

Still in the Race

Despite the challenges, China is at the same level or ahead of the U.S. in some areas of AI development, Baughman said. AI is a key element of the CCP’s grand strategy known as “Digital China,” a sweeping digital transformation designed to make Chinese society more efficient and competitive at the national level.

“China ties the advancement of these emerging technologies with the rejuvenation of China and with maintaining the legitimacy of the party,” he said. “It’s something of paramount importance.”

One military application of generative AI may already be within reach. PLA writers discuss 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 said, “and the scale that they could do it at is just unreal.”

The threats will likely change fast as technology rapidly advances.

“Everything is going to be moving faster and evolving faster,” he said. “The United States has to be prepared for those major changes. Just look at how generative AI has transformed over the past six months or so. … From the military to the economy, it’s going to transform a lot of different things.”

USAF Aircraft from Across Europe Join in on ACE Exercise

USAF Aircraft from Across Europe Join in on ACE Exercise

Aug. 23, 2023 | By Greg Hadley

Aircraft from every flying wing in U.S. Air Forces in Europe kicked off Astral Knight 23-6 late last week, the latest in a series of exercises across the continent focused on Agile Combat Employment. 

F-16s, F-35s, KC-135s, and a C-130J are all flying in the exercise from forward operating bases in Finland and Lithuania, according to a USAFE release. From there, Airmen will participate in operations in the Arctic and Baltics, focusing on “proactive and reactive asset movements.” 

The following wings are involved in the exercise: 

  • 48th Fighter Wing, RAF Lakenheath, U.K. 
  • 31st Fighter Wing, Aviano Air Base, Italy 
  • 52nd Fighter Wing, Spangdahlem Air Base, Germany 
  • 100th Air Refueling Wing, RAF Mildenhall, U.K. 
  • 86th Airlift Wing, Ramstein Air Base, Germany 
  • 435th Air Ground Operations Wing, Ramstein Air Base, Germany 

At Rovaniemi Air Base, Finland, there are: 

  • F-16s from Spangdahlem 
  • a C-130J from Ramstein 
  • a KC-135 from Mildenhall 
  • F/A-18s from the Finnish Air Force 

At Šiauliai Air Base, Lithuania, there are: 

  • F-35s from Lakenheath 
  • F-16s from Aviano 
  • a KC-135 from Mildenhall 

According to U.S. European Command, forces from Sweden and Latvia will participate as well. The exercise is scheduled to run from Aug. 18-31.

Agile Combat Employment is the Air Force’s operating concept in which Airmen and aircraft disperse from large central bases and operate from smaller, more austere locations in a “hub-and-spoke” manner to complicate an adversary’s targeting. 

The concept, which first emerged in the Indo-Pacific, has quickly become a central tenet of Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr.’s vision for the service, and USAFE commander Gen. James B. Hecker recently cited it as one of his top priorities for implementing in the region. 

Dating back to the end of the Cold War, allied countries used to have a well-practiced ability to service and even re-arm any NATO aircraft that landed at a NATO base, but that capability has “atrophied,” Hecker said in a recent meeting with reporters. 

“We are working to get that back,” Hecker said. To do it, NATO will provision “20-25 bases … in strategic locations around Europe” with the means to support a wide variety of allied aircraft. He declined to specify which bases. 

The U.S. Air Force has operated from Šiauliai in Lithuania relatively frequently and poured resources into the base as part of the European Deterrence Initiative. In 2020, officials noted that the U.S. had invested more than $27 million in 18 separate projects at Šiauliai over the last several years. More recently, F-15Es and F-35s operated from there in 2022 as part of the NATO air policing mission. 

USAF forces have operated from Rovaniemi in Finland, located at the edge of the Arctic Circle, on a less regular basis. While the base was part of the Arctic Challenge Exercise spread across Scandanavia earlier this year, no American aircraft operated from there. In January 2022, a 100th Air Refueling Wing KC-135 flew alongside Finnish fighters after taking off from Rovaniemi, and Reserve KC-135s flew from there in Arctic Challenge Exercise 2021. 

“Astral Knight will continue to strengthen ally and partner interoperability while validating new ways to deploy and maneuver assets during a crisis or conflict,” Lt. Gen. John D. Lamontagne, deputy commander of USAFE, said in a statement. “Regular exercises, like AK, and our permanent forward presence are essential to projecting a credible deterrence to any future act of aggression against the alliance.” 

Agile Combat Employment-related concepts have been part of recent U.S. Air Force exercises in Europe including Air Defender 2023, Defender Europe 23, and Falcon Strike 2022. F-35s and F-22s deployed to the continent have also conducted ACE operations out of countries like North Macedonia and Estonia. 

F-35 Contracts Worth $1 Billion Will Support Long-Lead Work

F-35 Contracts Worth $1 Billion Will Support Long-Lead Work

Aug. 23, 2023 | By John A. Tirpak

Naval Air Systems Command awarded Lockheed Martin and Raytheon Technologies more than $1 billion worth of F-35 contracts the week of Aug. 21, supporting long-lead work on partner and Foreign Military Sales aircraft, engines, and F-35 helmets.

The largest in the group was a $606.8 million undefinitized contract for long-lead parts for foreign-user F-35s. The August 22 contract specified that these aircraft are in Lot 19 and that it covers 173 aircraft, but Lockheed has said its maximum production on F-35s for the next few years will be 156 per year. The Joint Program Office could not be reached to explain the discrepancy.

The contract is to be completed by January 2028. Long-lead parts tend to be castings, forgings and other parts that can take a year or more to produce, or require production of specialized materials.

Lockheed Martin and the JPO have been in negotiations on production Lot 18 and 19 contracts since last year. Lot 20 will likely be negotiated separately, as it could be the first to count as a “multiyear” procurement, under congressional rules. Separately, Pratt & Whitney has been negotiating on engines for those lots. The engines are then provided to Lockheed as government-furnished equipment.

Of the overall $606.8 million in the contract, $329.5 million covers FMS work, while the partner program work is worth $277.3 million, all to be expended at the time the work is done.

Lockheed got another $347.4 million contract on Aug. 21 which “adds scope” to a previous indefinite-delivery, indefinite quantity contract for F-35 helmet-mounted display systems applicable to Lot 15-16 aircraft among all F-35 users. The helmet-mounted display works with the F-35’s distributed aperture system to provide a 365-degree field of view and tactical presentation of the situation around the aircraft, in visible or no-light conditions. The contract did not specify how many helmets are involved, but each is tailored to an individual pilot. The contract is to be completed in December 2026.

Pratt & Whitney, a division of RTX, received a $59.3 million fixed-price incentive fee modification to a Lot 16 contract for F135 engine long-lead items, which will support production for Lot 18 F135 engines. The parts will be for all F-35 fighter users, and the work is to be completed by the end of 2025.

Naval Air Systems Command awards all F-35 contracts because oversight of the program currently rests with the Navy’s service acquisition executive. Under a joint integration model set at the outset of the Joint Strike Fighter program, when the program executive officer is an Air Force officer—as it is now—the Navy’s SAE supervises the program and the PEO’s deputy is also a Naval officer. When program directorship is held by a Navy or Marine officer, the Air Force SAE supervises the program, the Air Force awards the contracts, and the PEO’s deputy is an Air Force officer. The JPO director is Air Force Lt. Gen. Michael Schmidt, and he reports to the Navy SAE, Frederick J. Stefany.

The Joint Program Office is expected to turn over many of its logistical and developmental responsibilities to the individual military services in the next few years.

Outstanding Airmen of the Year: SrA. Ryan G. Hospelhorn  

Outstanding Airmen of the Year: SrA. Ryan G. Hospelhorn  

Aug. 23, 2023 | By Patrick Reardon

The Air Force’s 12 Outstanding Airmen of the Year for 2023 will be formally recognized at AFA’s Air, Space & Cyber Conference from Sept. 11-13 in National Harbor, Md. Air & Space Forces Magazine is highlighting one each weekday from now until the conference begins. Today, we honor Senior Airman Ryan Hospelhorn, a flight security controller for the 841st Missile Security Forces Squadron at Malmstrom Air Force Base, Mont. 

Hospelhorn transferred to Malmstrom in February after spending two years at Spangdahlem Air Base in Germany. Unhappy with his day-to-day job as a security forces member “just working traffic in and out” there, he started a master’s program in advanced systems. His initiative led to a more exciting opportunity filling an NCO position to launch Spangdahlem’s small unmanned aircraft system (sUAS) program with the 52nd Security Forces Squadron. 

“With the situation in Russia and Ukraine, and seeing the amount of damage that small drones are able to do, both in recon in the battlefield as well as dropping ordnance, [it] became [a] pretty high priority for my commander to initiate a more robust counter UAS and blue UAS program out at Spangdahlem,” Hospelhorn said. “That included increasing our capabilities for detection and defeats of the small UAS as well as finding ways to integrate our own drones and training drone pilots to be able to use them for various things like security responses or surveys.” 

Over the course of seven months, Hospelhorn led a six-person team to test a hunter-seeker drone in conjunction with U.S. Air Forces in Europe (USAFE) and the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL). As the sUAS program’s manager, Hospelhorn authored three instructions and served as the liaison between the wing and Germany as the host nation to bring the program to life. 

“We’re guests in Germany, and we’re subject to a lot of their rules and laws. They have quite a few rules and regulations regarding UAS, especially in proximity to airfields,” he said. “There’s a lot of paperwork for that, mainly just because of the tools that the drone was using to capture. It is using radar and required a whole bunch of spectrum approvals, frequency approvals.” 

Because it’s an F-16 base, Spangdahlem sees a lot of manned aircraft traffic—a difficult environment for testing drones. Hospelhorn devised a system to ensure there was fair, uninterrupted, and shared airspace between the F-16s and the drones. His initiative and innovation enabled some 12,000 sUAS sorties. 

“It’s a small base, so you’re never too far from the runway [and F-16s are flying] all day, every day,” he said. “If we had to wait for periods where they weren’t flying, we would never be flying. So we found a way to map out certain areas of the base where we activate in order to be flying our drones there and not having interference with the normal F-16 traffic.” 

In terms of a MAJCOM-wide certification process to train sUAS pilots, USAFE lacked some of the standard instructions that stateside major commands have. To provide a first-time capability to the wing, Hospelhorn cobbled together a robust two-month certification process and taught the course to integrate 10 sUAS pilots into the wing’s operations. 

“There wasn’t really anything to go off of [at Spangdahlem], and no real POCs at a higher level to reach out to for guidance,” he said. “I was able to develop training materials based off of some open-source stuff from the drones we were using, as well as from other bases stateside that I reached out to, to get an idea of how they’re running their program and develop our own, which eventually I got approved through AFSOC [Air Force Special Operations Command].” 

“We actually had a couple of SERE [Survival, Evasion, Resistance, Escape] members from Fairchild come out TDY to attend the course because they weren’t able to find that training anywhere stateside for a reasonable cost,” he added. 

Senior Airman Ryan Hospelhorn. Courtesy of LinkedIn/Ryan Hospelhorn

While heading the UAS initiative at Spangdahlem, Hospelhorn was simultaneously responsible for the innovation technology sector of security forces. He managed a $350,000 acquisition and upgrade of the Android Tactical Assault Kit (ATAK), which enabled real-time command and control of 47 patrols and non-kinetic emergency response capability for a 40km area of responsibility. 

“[ATAK] is basically handheld devices that allow the base defense operations center or the flight chief to see where all patrols are at any time,” Hospelhorn said. “So, we were able to establish cordons and direct patrols to where they needed to be by just putting a point on a map, as opposed to trying to tell them the intersection of this street and that street over the radio. It was all fast and seamless.” 

Hospelhorn also was selected for a prime fellowship with AFWERX, where he spent five months developing the groundwork for the Air Force’s efforts in detecting and defeating drone swarms. The details of his research are classified, but the opportunity is a testament to his merit as an Outstanding Airman of the Year. He credits the teams he’s been on and the leadership who took a chance on him while he was still an A1C, particularly his Section Chief and Superintendent. 

“Just taking that first step, starting continuing education, and getting connected with the right people was a huge, huge important factor [in my achievements],” he said. “A large portion [of] success is just showing up with the right attitude. Getting there on time, with the right uniform and the right attitude, that’ll take you pretty far.” 

Misawa F-16 Ground Mishap Under Investigation, No Injuries Reported

Misawa F-16 Ground Mishap Under Investigation, No Injuries Reported

Aug. 23, 2023 | By David Roza

The Air Force is investigating a ground emergency involving an F-16 fighter jet that took place at Misawa Air Base, Japan, on Aug. 17. No one was injured in the mishap, and there was no impact to flight operations or commercial flights at Misawa Airport, which shares facilities with the base, a base spokesperson told Air & Space Forces Magazine.

“As we continue to achieve our deterrence mission here at the 35th Fighter Wing, we will prioritize safe flight operations,” said Capt. Josephine Rios, chief of public affairs for the wing. “We will ensure that defending Japan and U.S. interests in the Indo-Pacific region remains our focus as we continue to safely accomplish our mission at Misawa Air Base.”

Photos of the mishap appeared on the Facebook page Air Force amn/nco/snco on Aug. 20. The images show a two-seat F-16D resting precariously on a taxiway on what appears to be a belly-mounted external fuel tank. Rios confirmed the photos depict the emergency in question, though they are from an unofficial source.

The aircraft did not fly the day of the incident. When asked for a damage estimate and whether the F-16 can be returned to service, Rios said the details of the mishap are currently under investigation.

f-16
An image posted to the Facebook page Air Force amn/nco/snco depicts a ground emergency involving an F-16 fighter jet that took place at Misawa Air Base, Japan on Aug. 17. No one was injured in the mishap Photo via Facebook/Air Force amn/nco/snco

The mishap occurs about three months after an Air Force pilot ejected from an F-16 near Osan Air Base, South Korea, during a routine training sortie. No injuries were reported, though local media outlets broadcasted dramatic videos of the fiery crash. That was the first F-16 incident since March 2022, when an Oklahoma Air National Guard F-16 crashed in western Louisiana. The pilot ejected safely.

The F-16 pilots of the 35th Fighter Wing at Misawa specialize in the suppression and destruction of enemy air defenses, commonly known as ‘Wild Weasel’ missions. 

USAF, DOD Press Forward With Changes to Medical Services—But Questions Remain

USAF, DOD Press Forward With Changes to Medical Services—But Questions Remain

Aug. 22, 2023 | By David Roza

As the Department of Defense continues its massive reorganization of the military health system, a government watchdog says the Defense Health Agency needs to reevaluate its staffing systems and administrative plans, citing concerns that they will result in too few health care providers and too many administrators.

In a report released Aug. 21, the Government Accountability Office recapped the multiyear effort to reorganize the military health system under the Defense Health Agency, an effort which Congress kicked off in 2016 in an effort to create a more efficient oversight structure for military treatment facilities (MTF, the term for military hospitals, medical centers, and clinics), lower costs, and improve care.

GAO described the project as one of the largest reorganizations in the history of the Department of Defense, and one which the Surgeons General of the Army and Air Force called “extremely difficult,” and “a complicated merger of four cultures.” The result of the change is that DHA oversees day-to-day health care delivery at each MTF, which is staffed by a mix of civilian and military medical providers, while the military departments are responsible for assigning military providers to MTFs.

The ambitious transition of authorities was completed in 2022, but GAO found persistent challenges regarding medical staff levels and DHA’s estimates for administrative personnel. 

Medical Staff Shortfalls

GAO reported that medical staff shortfalls have been a problem in both the military and civilian sectors for years. In the military, the shortfalls are exacerbated by the fact that uniformed providers often must travel for training, deployments, or rotations to other duty assignments. Officials at Naval Hospital Jacksonville, Fla., told GAO that military provider shortfalls jeopardized their ability to provide 24/7 emergency room services in the summers of 2022 and 2023.

Contributing to the shortfalls could be the fact that the military departments retain authority and responsibility for assigning military providers to MTFs and deploying them elsewhere. The long hiring and contracting processes for civilians also leaves vacancies unfilled. 

DHA is attempting to mitigate the problem by moving civilian providers between facilities to fill vacancies; by allowing military departments to support each other with providers; by establishing a new oversight mechanism to analyze shortages; and creating a new human capital distribution framework. However, GAO urged DHA to develop a strategic total workforce plan to better tailor and monitor its long-term plans towards reducing provider gaps and mitigate the effect of deployments on MTF operations.

While the DOD agreed with GAO’s recommendations, it has yet to implement them, saying that the ongoing military health system reforms are still in flux. GAO pushed back, arguing that until the recommendations are implemented, “DHA may continue to face shortfalls in personnel that challenge MTF operations.”

defense health agency
U.S. Army Command Sgt. Maj. Michael Gragg, the Defense Health Agency senior enlisted leader, wears a DHA patch during a tour of the 673d Medical Group at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, Nov. 30, 2021 U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Emily Farnsworth

More Administrators Than Necessary?

When DHA began managing and administering military treatment facilities, it also grouped more than 700 worldwide MTFs into two U.S. regions with two offices each as part of a 2018 plan. That plan was replaced in 2019, however, with a new arrangement of 36 markets in the U.S., two regions overseas, and 22 offices to manage them. 

GAO argued the Department of Defense needs to reevaluate its new plan, especially considering the DHA’s estimate for 1,400 personnel to staff its 22 offices is “higher than what is needed to support the offices’ workload, and the number exceeds expected budgetary and personnel resources,” the GAO wrote.

The Department of Defense has struggled to understand its DHA headquarters personnel requirement for years, GAO noted, but the department has yet to conduct a comprehensive review to nail down the right number. Staffing shortfalls also affect the offices, with a “coalition of the willing” from the MTFs stepping up to support office tasks, GAO wrote. Until such an evaluation takes place, DHA “may risk not accomplishing its vision for an integrated health system that efficiently uses resources and lowers costs,” GAO wrote.

defense health agency
A GAO chart shows how the DHA’s 2019 organizational plan differs from the 2018 version. Screenshot via GAO

More Changes

Besides the ongoing changes under DHA, the Air Force Medical Service (AFMS) on Aug. 11 announced its own sweeping reorganization. The service will establish two regional Air Force Medical Commands called AFMED Regions. The new structure will allow two medical Air Force general officers to elevate any concerns from the wing and medical group commander level to the Air Force Surgeon General or DHA leadership. The layout will encourage “streamlined strategic and operational engagement to maximize health support,” Col. Patrick Parsons, Military Health System Governance Liaison Officer for AFMS, said in a press release.

The Air Force hopes the regional commands, overseen by the Air Force Surgeon General, will better align service command and control authorities with DHA; enable senior Air Force medical leaders to better advocate for Air Force and Space Force MTFs; and better support Air Force and Space Force medical readiness priorities. 

“The aim with AFMED is to provide clear direction to local leaders at the installation on health care and readiness priorities to ensure they spend less time deconflicting policies and can focus on the mission and their people,” Stephen Mounts, Air Force Associate Deputy Surgeon General, said in the press release.

Officials said Air Force medical providers should not see an impact in their day-to-day work. The goal is to establish the two AFMEDs with initial operating capability by October 1. The Air Force Surgeon General’s Office could not immediately answer a question from Air & Space Forces Magazine about whether GAO’s concerns about DHA staffing and efficiency played a role in the AFMED plan, but it appears the Department of the Air Force is working to keep pace with the changes in military health over the past several years.

“Having navigated the challenges of the MHS transition since 2017, our Air Force leadership asked us to improve our ability to execute the mission, and AFMED is the answer,” Lt. Gen. Robert Miller, Air Force Surgeon General, said in the release.

USAFE Boss Says Counter-IADS is His Top Priority and Lesson from Ukraine

USAFE Boss Says Counter-IADS is His Top Priority and Lesson from Ukraine

Aug. 22, 2023 | By John A. Tirpak

Ground-based air defenses in the Russia-Ukraine war have been so effective that neither side has been able to achieve air superiority over the last 17 months—and that lesson has turned into U.S. Air Forces in Europe commander Gen. James B. Hecker’s highest priority: the improvement of NATO’s capability against integrated air defense systems (IADS), he told reporters.

In a virtual meeting of the Defense Writers Group last week, Hecker, who also serves as head of NATO’s Allied Air Command said that “counter-anti-access/area denial mission is [his] number-one priority, throughout NATO on the air side.”

Hecker added that USAFE has been “putting a lot of effort on improving our skills and using all the Allies to do that.” He didn’t go into details, but the Air Force is pursuing a number of new weapons for the Anti-IADS/Suppression of Enemy Air Defense (SEAD) mission. These include the Stand-in Attack Weapon (SiAW), as well as existing weapons like the stealthy AGM-158 Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile-Extended Range (JASSM-ER). Both weapons would target enemy radars and missile batteries.

The U.K. has provided Ukraine with the Storm Shadow missile, which has comparable performance to the basic version of JASSM, and has helped Ukraine push Russian command and control stations further back from the front lines.  

The U.S. has provided Ukraine with AGM-88 High-speed Anti-Radiation Missiles (HARMs) to attack Russian air defense radars, and those have been mounted on MiG-29 fighters.

The Air Force typically defines air superiority as achieving the ability to fly anywhere in the battlespace without significant risk; a condition achieved both by clearing the skies of enemy fighters and suppressing or destroying ground-based air defenses.

Neither Russia nor Ukraine have been able to do that, turning the war into what Hecker called a “World War I-like” artillery duel. In fact, Hecker said he was surprised that Russia didn’t achieve air superiority soon after the invasion began and was equally surprised when it didn’t keep trying.

“They … kind of gave up on that early on,” after losing about 75 frontline fighters, he said.

Moreover, because some of Russia’s air defense systems are operating from Russian soil, it’s more problematic for Ukraine to attack them.

As a consequence, Ukraine’s biggest need is replenishment of missiles for its air defense systems, which have been largely—but not completely—effective in knocking down Russian cruise missiles and the drones it has acquired from Iran, Hecker said.

In contrast, Hecker downplayed the importance of providing Ukraine with F-16s, saying the fighters would not be a “silver bullet” that will suddenly give Ukraine air superiority. In fact, he noted that F-16s won’t be operational in Ukraine until next year and Ukrainian pilots will not be “proficient” in the fighters for several years after that.

Instead, Hecker said his second priority is organizing NATO air forces to better counter uncrewed systems and cruise missiles. His third priority is information sharing with the allies, which he said is a “zero-cost” way to “make each other better.” He called it “a policy change, but an important one.”

After those priorities, Hecker said he’s working to implement and exercise the Agile Combat Employment model. Dating back to the end of the Cold War, allied countries used to have a well-practiced ability to service and even re-arm any NATO aircraft that landed at a NATO base, but that capability has “atrophied,” he said.

“We are working to get that back,” Hecker said. To do it, NATO will provision “20-25 bases … in strategic locations around Europe” with the means to support a wide variety of allied aircraft. He declined to specify which bases.

That won’t happen overnight, he said, but he’s aiming to have that accomplished as soon as possible.

Hecker also praised Ukraine for already applying a model like ACE and having success with it.

“We need to make sure we can do that as well,” he said. He also noted that Finland, a new NATO country, is building dual capable highways/runways, as Sweden has done for the last 60 years, to multiply the number of locations from which NATO aircraft can operate.