‘I Urge You to Do More’ for Ukraine Air Defense, Zelenskyy Tells US, Allies

Sept. 6, 2024 | By Chris Gordon

RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, Germany—The U.S. and its allies must step up their contributions to Ukraine’s air defense from Russia, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Sept. 6, addressing a meeting of the regular Ukraine Defense Contact Group held here for the first time.

“The world has enough air defense systems to ensure that Russian terror does not have results, and I urge you to be more active in this war with us for the air defense,” Zelenskyy said in pointed remarks to some 50 nations’ representatives who packed a ballroom at the base officers’ club. “We have already started operating F-16s. Thank you for this support, Secretary! And to you, partners! They strike down missiles and drones, they are very efficient. But they are few. You know that. We need a much stronger fleet of F-16s, and I have proposals that I will say when the press leaves.”

The U.S. and its allies have vowed to bolster Ukraine’s air force and air defense capabilities, as Ukraine and Russia wage a war of attrition with missiles, drones, and air defense interceptors, said Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III, who was seated next to Zelenskyy and spoke immediately following the Ukrainian president’s remarks.

“Over and over, Ukraine has stood up to Putin’s aggression and atrocities and this coalition has Ukraine’s back,” Austin said before the hourslong meetings among the countries’ officials.

Russia has lost 97 combat aircraft since the start of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, he said. But it has adapted, foregoing early war tactics such as flying into the teeth of Ukrainian air defense and instead launching standoff missiles, glide bombs, and using one-way attack drones to strike Ukrainian infrastructure and forces. It has also employed attack helicopters.

Zelenskyy wants the U.S. and its allies to remove restrictions barring it from using Western-provided long-range weapons to strike targets in Russia. The U.S. has not allowed Ukraine to use American-provided ATACMS surface-to-surface missiles to attack targets in Russia for fear of escalating tensions.

Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III and Gen. CQ Brown Jr., chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, greet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky during the Ukraine Defense Contact Group at Ramstein Air Base, Germany, Sept 6, 2024. U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Eve Daugherty

Ukraine has attacked targets in Russia with indigenous drones, though those weapons hardly pack the punch or capability of long-range missiles.

“Putin has already shed so much blood that against the backdrop of this blood, Russia’s attempts to draw ‘red lines’ simply do not work,” Zelenskyy said. “Instead we need to keep our morale high for our joint values to rule the world and not the ‘red lines’ soaked in blood.”

In a speech mixed with consternation and praise, Zelenskyy said the West needed to not just provide Ukraine with more advanced capabilities, but deliver on what it has already promised, including more ground-based air defense systems.

“I will not speak openly now about the number of systems we have received, thank you so much again, but the number of air defense systems that have not yet been delivered is significant,” Zelenskyy said. “This is what was agreed upon, and this is what has not been fully implemented.”

After the meeting concluded, the Pentagon announced a $250 million aid package for Ukraine which included air defense missiles.

Austin indicated the U.S. understood Ukraine’s frustration, but it is unclear what additional steps the U.S. and its allies will take.

“On behalf of everyone here, we hear your urgency,” Austin said.

But for now the U.S. is not changing its policy on long range strikes inside Russia with American weapons, Austin told reporters after the meeting concluded.

“Ukraine has a pretty significant capability of its own to address targets that are well beyond the range of ATACMS,” and air launched cruise missiles, said Austin, citing Ukrainian drones as one example. “I don’t believe one specific capability will be decisive.”

Northrop: Adding a Pilot to New Model 437 Will Speed Testing

Sept. 6, 2024 | By John A. Tirpak

The addition of a pilot on Northrop Grumman’s Model 437 “Vanguard” Autonomous Collaborative Aircraft is to speed demonstrations and test flying, because it can overfly populated areas without special permits from the Federal Aviation Administration and is not restricted to test ranges cleared for uncrewed aircraft, the company said.

The Model 437 flew for the first time Aug. 29, flown by company test pilot Brian Maisler out of the Mojave Air & Space Port, Calif. The aircraft is derived from Northrop’s Model 401, which is an uninhabited craft the company said it is using to explore autonomous collaborative projects.

On Sept. 5, Northrop released a video of the Model 437’s first flight, in which it emphasized the digital techniques used to rapidly fabricate and fly the jet. The video also emphasizes that the Model 437’s wings are removable, which is consonant with senior Air Force leader statements that much of its planned Collaborative Combat Aircraft inventory could remain boxed up, and possibly pre-positioned, until needed.

Colin Miller, Northrop’s senior vice president for engineering, said in an email that having a pilot onboard “provides many advantages to demonstrating capabilities without the need to gain special permitting to fly an autonomous aircraft in national airspace.”

The Air Force has been critical in recent years of the FAA’s slowness in opening up more airspace to large uninhabited aircraft, as this has constrained the pace at which new classes of drones can be tested. A pilot onboard can monitor the aircraft when it is in autonomous mode and take the controls if it behaves in an unexpected or dangerous way.

A “future iteration” could be all-autonomous, “while demonstrating other tactical applications our customers desire for autonomous collaborative programs,” Miller said.

Miller declined to say if the Model 437 is aimed specifically at a particular program like the Air Force’s CCA program, in which Northrop is competing for a slot on Increment 2.

“It is a technology demonstrator operated by [Northrop subsidiary] Scaled Composites for a number of applications, including autonomous collaborative aircraft,” he said. “It is not intended for a specific effort, as we have a broad range” of potential applications for the aircraft “for a variety of customers.”

There is no set flight test plan for the Model 437, company officials said. On their websites, Northrop and Scaled said the Vanguard could carry two AIM-120 Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missiles, but Greg Morris, president of Scaled Composites, declined to comment on whether weapons release tests are expected.

“As a technology demonstrator for autonomous and tactical aircraft of this size, Scaled Composites could conduct a number of tests based on customer requirements,” Morris said, but he added that the company “does not provide this information publicly.”

The Model 437 design was unveiled three years ago, and at the time Northrop touted it as a potential competitor for what was then called the Air Force’s “loyal wingman” project. The fact that the company mentioned that it can carry two AMRAAMs dovetails with Air Force senior leader assertions in the last few months that early increments of the CCA will be focused on air-to-air applications. Northrop said the Model 437 can carry up to a 2,000-pound payload.

The ”other customers” Northrop may be referring to for the Model 437 include the U.K., which has a requirement for a CCA-like capability to escort its F-35s, and the Navy, which is pursuing a CCA effort of its own. Northrop designed and tested the X-47 aircraft to demonstrate that a large-size drone could safely and consistently take off from and land on aircraft carriers without human intervention.

Narration in the video says the Model 437 is ‘part of the broader ‘loyal wingman’ concept, which is aimed at creating affordable, multimission and reusable drones that can take on high risk missions to reduce danger to human pilots.”

How AI Will Accelerate Decision-Making in a Peer Contest

Sept. 5, 2024 | By Adam Stone

Combat operations have never been a simple affair—and in a peer- or near-peer conflict, speed and complexity will ratchet up the pressure on commanders trying to decipher and control the battlespace.

Jon “BigDogg” Rhone knows first-hand how that will stress the system. As director of operations at the Combined Air Operations Center at Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar, he directed combat operations in four theaters of operation from late 2015 through the spring of 2017, coordinating dynamic decision-making among 18 partner countries—depending on make-shift solutions to manage technical barriers to data sharing.

“A lot of it was sneaker-net,” Rhone said. “If I had some intelligence information that was pertinent, either I or somebody on the team would have to literally walk 200 to 300 yards through four or five different doors to the special technical operations cell—and only then would we nave the ability to make decisions.”

Now Rhone is the C5ISR Integration Lead at SAIC, where he’s helping to engineer the future of fast-paced information sharing and decision making for the Air Force.

“When we fight against a peer adversary … we’re going to have to get quick, reliable access to that data,” he said. “When you look at something as a coalition member, and I look at something as an American, the data has got to be the same.”

Enhanced intelligence and surveillance technologies mean ever more data flooding into decision makers. The JSTARS airborne battle management command and control ISR platform will ultimately be replaced with space-based and airborne sensors providing Ground Moving Target Indication (GMTI) capability. “Not only are you looking for specific military vehicles,” Rhone said, “but now you’re trying to sift through all the other moving targets that are out there.”

To ensure commanders aren’t overwhelmed by such an influx of data, next-generation battle management systems can leverage Artificial Intelligence to screen that data, identifying the most pressing threats and opportunities.

“The system has to automatically distill what you or I can see,” he said. Operating at machine speeds, AI will be able to flag indicators and offer potential decision options or courses of action at a speed greater than would be possible without it.

“If we make decisions too slow, we’re going to lose the fight,” Rhone said. “I don’t believe you can win this war without automation.”

Higher-level commanders remain skeptical about ceding any decision authority to machines, but “the men and women that are the captains, the sergeants—that are making decisions—they’re ready for automation,” Rhone said. “They’re ready for AI to help make decisions, if not make some of the decisions for them.”

As is the case today, the intensity of action is likely to determine who has decision-making authority. “I don’t think that that mindset or that culture is going to be any different with Artificial Intelligence,” he said.

To prepare for this future, Rhone said Air Force leaders must start thinking now about how this is going to work: “How are we going to test this? How do we train to that? How do we have crews, the people, and the system show that they’re ready for combat?”

As a systems integrator and strategist, Rhone said the key is “not necessarily talking about what we’re going to do in combat, but what we do leading up to that.”

“The operators and the warfighters have needs,” he explained. “We do our very best to run that through the system, and help the acquisition community turn that into requirements.” Then, as an integrator, SAIC takes an agnostic approach, neither defining its own bespoke standards nor marrying itself to one unique solution or another. “Our job is to go find best of breed,” Rhone said. “While we do have some products, we’re not necessarily wedded to those products. We are very happy to go find the best of breed and to integrate that in a manner that is digestible by decision-makers to help them speed decisions.”

AI will not be the answer for every one of those processes. “There are volumes of information out there and volumes of needs and requirements,” Rhone said. The focus now needs to be identifying which among those can be aided with AI—and which get top priority?

“What are the top two?” Rhone asks. “Let’s focus on that.”

Austin Arrives in Germany for Pivotal Ukraine Weapons Aid Meeting

Sept. 5, 2024 | By Chris Gordon

RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, Germany—Ukraine is expected to make its case for the U.S. and its allies to remove restrictions barring it from using donated long-range weapons to strike targets in Russia during a key meeting here on Sept. 6. Officials will also urge allies to rush more air defense to the country.

Underscoring the gravity of moment, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy will appear in person to up the pressure.

“We need our partners’ determination and the means to stop Russia’s aerial terror,” Zelenskyy said in a statement on social media. “It is crucial that all the weapons from the already announced support packages finally reach the combat brigades. We also need strong long-range decisions from our partners to bring closer the just peace we are striving for:.

Top Ukrainian officials, including Ukrainian Minister of Defense Rustem Umerov and others, also will gather with roughly 50 allies at Ramstein for the 24th iteration of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, a monthly meeting convened by Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III, which is also attended by the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Air Force Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr.

The Sept. 6 meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group will “ensure that Ukraine has what it needs to defend its people from Russian aggression,” Pentagon Press Secretary Air Force Maj. Gen. Patrick S. Ryder said in a statement to Air & Space Forces Magazine. “Key focus areas will include bolstering Ukraine’s air defense capabilities, updates on UDCG capability coalitions—to include the Air Force Coalition, and the energizing of the defense industrial bases of Coalition nations to enable support to Ukraine for the long haul.”

Kyiv has issued increasingly forceful and public calls to provide more help to protect its skies from Russian aircraft and drones after the two largest Russian aerial missile and drone attacks of the year this week, which have left dozens dead.

One month ago, Ukraine launched a surprise incursion into the Kursk region of Russia, hoping to turn the tide of the war back in its favor. Ukraine holds roughly 1,000 square kilometers of Russia.

But the offensive has not relieved pressure on the eastern front by pulling Russian forces away from the front line. Instead, Russia continues to make gains near Pokrovsk, a key hub in the Ukrainian military’s lines of communication.

Ukraine has faced nightly barrages of Russian missile and drone attacks for over a week, which may be in relation for Ukraine’s operation into Kursk. Earlier this week, more than 50 people were killed when Russia hit a military academy in Poltava, Ukraine, in a ballistic missile attack. Ukrainian leaders said they need permission to use Western long-range weapons deep inside Russia to stop such attacks in the first place.

The Biden administration says it is fully committed to Ukraine’s victory—despite the disagreements between Washington and Kyiv over weapons deliveries.

“[F]or two and a half years, the people of Ukraine have stood unbowed. And the United States will continue to stand with them—including providing the air defense systems and capabilities they need to protect their country,” President Joe Biden said in a Sept. 3 statement on the Poltava attack. “Make no mistake: Russia will not prevail in this war. The people of Ukraine will prevail. And on this tragic day, and every day, the United States stands with them.”

Ukraine wants to use ATACMS surface-to-surface missiles and aerial munitions inside of Russia, primarily to target Russian aircraft before they are able to take off and launch their missiles at Ukraine. The U.S. and most other allies set conditions on how and where their advanced weapons can be used and do not allow long-range strikes inside Russia.

“Russian strikes will be impossible if it is possible for us to destroy the occupier’s launchers where they are, along with Russian military airfields and logistics,” Zelenskyy said Sept. 3. “Providing Ukraine with such permissions and such weapons is definitely the biggest step towards a real, just end to this war.”

But so far, U.S. policy remains unchanged.

In one of those attacks by the Russians on Aug. 26, a newly donated F-16 fighter—one of the Vipers Ukraine has been lobbying to get from the West for months—crashed in its first acknowledged combat engagement. The circumstances of the crash remain unclear. The pilot, Oleksiy “Moonfish” Mes, was killed. Ukraine has just a handful of F-16 aircraft and pilots qualified to the fly them.

The head of the Ukraine Air Force was fired soon after the incident, though Ukraine’s defense minister says the move was not related to the F-16 crash.

Zelenskyy also has ordered a major reshuffling of the country’s leadership this week, mostly notably with the departure of the foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba, which amounts to the largest shakeup of Ukraine’s government since the war began in 2022.

Zelenskyy has said Ukraine will make better use of its existing air defense systems.

It is unclear how that may affect how Ukraine uses its F-16s, which have been seen outfitted with AIM-120 AMRAAM and AIM-9 Sidewinder air-to-air missiles that can fend off cruise missiles and drones. Ukraine says the F-16s are successful at the air defense mission despite losing a pilot and aircraft. Ukraine has also been frustrated with the slow delivery of already-promised ground-based air defense systems from allies.

With U.S. elections looming, Ukraine is reckoning with a key moment on whether Western commitment to its security will endure long-term.

“As Secretary Austin has said, Ukraine matters to U.S. and international security, and the efforts of the UDCG continue to play a vital role in Ukraine’s fight for freedom and sovereignty,” Ryder said.

SDA Tests Laser Comms Between Satellites—But Faces Hurdles Before Next Launch

Sept. 5, 2024 | By Unshin Lee Harpley

The Space Development Agency demonstrated laser communications between two of its satellites for the first time recent, laying the groundwork for the “mesh network” that will link hundreds of its satellites in low-Earth orbit.

“We had the two of our tracking satellites, the SpaceX birds, using the SDA-compliant terminals built by Tesat, they were able to demonstrate that they could, in fact, do the laser communication,” SDA director Derek Tournear said at the Defense News Conference on Sept 4. “They maintained link.”

Laser communication offers significant advantages over traditional radio frequency by transferring more data faster, using less power, and needing smaller equipment. Its shorter wavelengths enhance speed and signal security, making it ideal for the high-stakes environment of space. It’s also critical for the SDA and Pentagon to realize their vision of Joint All-Domain Command and Control, by transferring data between sensors and shooters around the globe.

SDA’s standards called for the satellites to connect within 100 seconds using laser comms, with an ideal goal of under 10 seconds. In the test conducted Sept. 3, Tournear said the satellites met the requirement by linking “well under the 100 seconds,” though they didn’t hit the 10-second mark. The link did, however, remain stable for several hours. This test builds on an earlier experiment conducted by the Air Force Research Laboratory and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency in 2021, but using official military-grade terminals for the first time.

The laser comms test follows on previous tests by SDA to demonstrate it can use the Link 16 tactical network from space and it can detect missile launches from low-Earth orbit.

“So from my perspective, we have demonstrated all of the big rocks and burned down all of the risk for Tranche 1 and Tranche 0,” Tournear said.

The satellites involved in these demonstrations are part of SDA’s Tranche 0, which started launching last year and saw all 27 satellites reach orbit by February this year. As part of its Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PWSA) program, the SDA plans to deploy hundreds of small satellites to create a resilient, interconnected network that will offer real-time data and enhanced situational awareness.

Tournear also confirmed that the initial launch of Tranche 1 satellites will start by year’s end, not this month, as previously expected.

“Sometime around the end of this calendar year, we’ll start to launch our Tranche 1 satellites,” said Tournear. “The satellites are in build, all of our transport vendors are heavily in build. Our tracking vendors are close behind them.”

However, the schedule might shift into early next year due to some remaining risks. Key issues include delays with vendors for critical components like optical communications and propulsion systems. Encryption devices, vital for satellite operations, are also on the “critical path” for delivery. Despite the National Security Agency’s best efforts to fast-track certification, any additional delays in the process or hardware production could still push back the launch, Tournear explained.

The SDA plans 10 launches for Tranche 1, aiming for a “one-month cadence” afterward, depending on payload processing facility availability. Tranche 1 will include a total of 173 satellites. The goal is to have Tranche 1 satellites operational by the end of 2025.

The agency is also working to finalize some other testing for the Tranche 0 satellites, but it may face some logistical hurdles. The testing team from the 96th Test Squadron of Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., cannot transmit Link 16 in U.S. airspace without FAA certification and also needs to pass Electromagnetic Compatibility Features validation to avoid interfering with GPS signals. As a result, the team has to conduct tests from Australia and international waters, adding both time and cost.

If all goes as planned, Tranche 0’s EMCF validation should be wrapped up by the end of the year, clearing the way for operational tests. Tranche 1 satellites, with slightly different radios, will go through similar tests, with validation expected to be completed by spring 2025.

USAF Going ‘Line by Line’ to Slash Sentinel’s Rocketing Costs

Sept. 5, 2024 | By Greg Hadley

Air Force officials are re-examining the infrastructure overhaul that sent costs soaring over plan for the next-generation Sentinel intercontinental ballistic missile upgrade.

USAF leaders have blamed the massive infrastructure overhaul for “critical” cost and schedule misses and now say they are going “line by line” through every requirement to simplify their plans and drive down runaway costs. Pentagon acquisition and sustainment chief William LaPlante had to certify the necessity to continue work on Sentinel after cost-overruns triggered a Nunn-McCurdy Act review.

In certifying Sentinel, however, LaPlante rescinded the program’s Milestone B decision, delaying it from going into engineering and manufacturing development. Instead, he ordered the Air Force to develop a restructuring plan.

Vice Chief of Staff Gen. James C. “Jim” Slife and Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics Andrew P. Hunter said at a Defense News conference Sept. 4 that they are making a thorough examination of Sentinel’s requirements.

“I just spent an afternoon going through requirements, line by line,” Slife said. “I mean, this is going to be going on for, you know, for months and months, but absolutely it is down to that level of detail. And it’s not just the top-level requirements. The top-level requirements are fairly easily understood. It’s the derived requirements that actually can become problematic.”

The need to modernize the aging land-based leg of the nuclear triad to provide a strategic deterrent to nuclear war is well understood; it’s the flow of choices that follow that pose the challenges where costs start to multiply, with the projected cost of the program having ballooned from $95.3 billion to $140.9 billion

Each decision builds on a prior one. One requirement choice means “you’re going to need a facility that is this big, and if you’re going to need a facility that big, here’s how much concrete it’s going to take,” Slife explained. “And if it’s going to take that much concrete, you’re going to have to have a workforce. It’s working it all the way down until you understand exactly where the cost drivers are in the program.”

Sentinel is meant to be a complete replacement for the Minuteman system—and while the Minuteman III missiles were first fielded in 1970, the launch centers, support facilities, cabling, and other infrastructure date back even further, to the early 1960s.

“The tendency is to focus on the missile,” Hunter said. “In fact, that was how we did the program initially—we focused on the missile. And we really neglected the complexity of the ground infrastructure.”

Retired Col. Jennifer Reeves, a former ICBM wing commander who is now a senior resident fellow at the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies, said the Air Force only started doing depot-level maintenance on launch and launch control facilities in 2017—more than 50 years after they were first activated.

The failure to think more about ground facilities belies their importance, she said. “An airplane can just go fly in the air anywhere,” she said. “You don’t need the actual structure that the airplane lives in to fly the airplane, which is not the case with the missile. Without the silo, there’s no way to launch it. There’s no way to operate it. They are umbilically connected.”

Hunter said that was clear on a recent visit to Malmstrom Air Force Base, Mont., where he went with Undersecretary of the Air Force Melissa Dalton.

“When you look at the complexity of the current ground infrastructure, and you think about what we ask it to do, we don’t just have a missile,” Hunter said. “We have to have a deterrent. So we have to have a missile where we can respond instantly, at all times, without fail, and in the context of the highest of high-intensity conflicts. … We ask our ground infrastructure essentially to provide most of those capabilities. The missile itself is only a small piece of that puzzle. It’s a very challenging requirement, and it’s instantiated in this ground infrastructure.”

Hunter said the Air Force will bring “a lot of engineering focus” to the ground infrastructure and appeared hopeful that savings would be found.

“[We can] change our design for the ground infrastructure to be simpler, more affordable,” he said. “We’ll work closely together with the operational committee on the requirements to make sure we’re still doing what it takes to deliver nuclear deterrence, but in an affordable way.”

Slife offered an example of the tradeoffs: Security can be physical, or it can rely on manpower. One costs more up front, the other costs more over time. Officials have also previously said the Sentinel launch control facilities will be larger than the Minuteman ones, which could require more construction costs. And Reeves noted that the plan already was to move from five launch control centers per squadron to three, simplifying the overall system.

Still, there is a limit to how much can be simplified. Asked if the service still planned to replace the copper cable used for communications and connectivity with advanced fiber optic cables, Hunter quickly responded that “we do see that as part of the solution going forward.”

7,500 Hours: Longest Flying A-10 Pilot Ever Retires After 37-Year Career

Sept. 5, 2024 | By David Roza

An era came to a close late last month when the A-10 pilot with the most flight time ever, Lt. Col. John “Karl” Marks, retired after a 37-year career and 7,500 hours behind the stick of the Thunderbolt II, affectionately known as the Warthog.

A native of Kansas City, Kan., Marks retired at a ceremony at Whiteman Air Force Base, Mo., home to his Air Force Reserve unit, the 442nd Fighter Wing, on Aug. 23, according to a press release.

“I’m glad he’s on our side,” wing commander Col. Mike Leonas said in the release. “I wouldn’t want to fight him.”

Then-1st Lt. John Marks, poses with an A-10 Thunderbolt II at King Fahd Air Base, Saudi Arabia, during Desert Storm in February, 1991. (Courtesy photo via 442nd Fighter Wing / Lt. Col. Marks)

Marks first commissioned in 1987 and went on to see combat in the 1991 Gulf War, where he and his flight lead, Capt. Eric “Fish” Salomonson, at the age of 26 and 28, respectively, destroyed 23 Iraqi tanks over the course of three sorties in just one day. The second sortie saw them flying under low, rainy overcast to attack a row of tanks surrounded by anti-aircraft artillery (AAA) at the direction of a Marine forward air controller flying an F/A-18.

“It was very dark and eerie because of the oil smoke, low clouds, and rain,” Marks told author William L. Smallwood in the 1993 book “Warthog.”

“And while we were circling around looking at all the AAA and Fish was asking about threats, the Marine FAC just says ‘Look, are you coming in or not?’” Marks recalled. “Of course, when you say something like that to two Hog drivers, it’s like a slap in the face, so we went in.”

That was just the start of Marks’ career. The rest of it, by the numbers, included:

13 deployments (including for the Gulf War)

358 combat sorties, including 48 troops-in-contact situations

1,161 combat hours, during which he shot 39,340 rounds of 30mm ammunition, dropped nearly 350 bombs, and fired 59 Maverick air-to-ground missiles

Fired another 141,500 30mm rounds outside of combat for a total of 180,840 30mm rounds

Received a Distinguished Flying Cross, 18 Air Medals, and 11 Aerial Achievement Medals, “among many other citations and awards,” according to the press release.

Keeping Marks out of a deployment could be a struggle at times. Retired Maj. Gen. Brian Borgen, who presided over the retirement ceremony, remembered being confronted by Marks in a hallway after he was passed over for a 2002 deployment to Afghanistan.

“He’s like ‘WTF? Why am I not going?’” Borgen said, according to the release. “And he was serious. He was angry at me.”

“Marks said he considers it a compliment that Borgen often told him, “‘Karl, we didn’t hire you for your personality,’” according to the release.

Marks’ skill as an A-10 pilot really shined during a 2014 fight over the Kunar Vally in Afghanistan, where he and his wingman supported a group of Afghan and U.S. Special Forces soldiers under attack by the Taliban. Marks had to play three roles simultaneously: pilot, air traffic controller, and joint terminal attack controller, to keep planes from hitting each other and to keep ordnance from hitting friendly forces as F-16s, an AC-130, and Apache and Little Bird helicopters showed up to save the ground troops, who all made it out with just a few noncritical injuries.

“That mission was unique just in the magnitude of the amount of things I had to use that I’d learned over many years of training,” Marks told Task & Purpose in 2021. “My wingman afterwards said he was just trying to hang on, like ‘I don’t know how you did that.’”

Among the audience at the retirement ceremony were a few JTACs who came all the way from Germany, the press release said.

“I’m very proud our biggest cheerleaders are the guys on the ground who say ‘this thing saved my life,’” Marks told Task & Purpose. “That’s the proudest part of flying the airplane.”

Lt. Col. John Marks, right, the highest-time A-10 pilot in history, poses with 1st Lt. Dylan Mackey after flying his 7,000th hour in an A-10 Sept. 1, 2021, at Whiteman Air Force Base, Missouri. Marks requested to fly the mission with the youngest pilot in the 303rd Fighter Squadron as his wingman. (US Air Force photo by Major Shelley Ecklebe)

‘Tremendous Positive Influence’

When not destroying ground targets, Marks used his decades of experience to mold new generations of Hog pilots. Indeed, nearly a third of his 7,500 hours were spent in the instructor pilot role and 598 in the evaluator role, making sure younger pilots were qualified to go to war, the press release noted.

“Karl has been a tremendous positive influence on the A-10 community,” a fellow A-10 pilot, retired Lt. Col. Gregg Montijo, told Air & Space Forces Magazine. “His experience and wisdom has been passed to generations of A-10 pilots that filtered through the entire community over the years.”

Montijo pointed out that Marks could have pursued the normal Air Force career track of advancing into higher leadership ranks. Instead, he remained close to the operations side to help raise a community of experts in close air support, forward air control, combat search and rescue, and the Warthog’s many other missions.

“I’ve watched him mentor young pilots in the briefing room then teach them in the air,” Col. Jim Macaulay, then commander of the 442nd Operations Group, said in 2016 after Marks eclipsed 6,000 hours. “Every sortie, he brings it strong, which infects our young pilots that seek to emulate him.”

In fact, while preparing for the 2021 flight that would take him through 7,000 hours, Marks insisted on flying with the youngest pilot in the squadron, Lt. Dylan Mackey, whose father, retired Brig. Gen. “Jimmy Mac” Mackey, used to fly A-10s with Marks back in the day.

“Karl has so many tricks up his sleeve that I’m just trying to hang on and absorb everything I can,” the younger Mackey said at the time. “You are always guaranteed to learn something new flying with him.”

As the Air Force looks to retire the A-10, there will likely never be another Warthog pilot as experienced as Marks, but his legacy is here to stay.

“He is living proof that you don’t have to wear stars on your shoulders to have long-lasting positive impacts for our Air Force,” Montijo said.

An A-10 Thunderbolt II attack aircraft banks after a low-angle strafing run August 8, 2024, at Cannon Range, Fort Leonard Wood, Mo. (Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Jacob Gutierrez)

How the KC-46A Fleet Is Maximizing Warfighter Capability with Urgency

Sept. 5, 2024

In the face of emerging threats around the globe, the U.S. and allies are rapidly growing aerial refueling capability to meet the challenge. As the KC-46A global fleet has more than 90 aircraft with tens of thousands of flight hours in aggregate, operators are optimizing operational concepts, accelerating preparation for sustainment logistics in a contested environment and driving evolutionary capability upgrades to outpace peer threats.

“Now that KC-46 has been in service for a few years, the young men and women who fly and maintain the aircraft are capitalizing on all the knowledge and experience they’ve gained to generate innovative ways to employ and maintain the fleet,“ said Sean Liedman, director of Global Reach for Boeing Defense, Space & Security’s Mobility, Surveillance, and Bombers division. “There’s an opportunity to improve the efficiency of our sustainment posture with all of the data that’s been garnered over the course of its service.”

Maximizing Fleet Efficiencies

It all starts with learning from KC-46A operations in the field to advance mission readiness for the future fight. A good example is the recent contract that the Air Force awarded to Boeing for KC-46A software and data enhancements for more efficient flight planning. These improvements—based on information gleaned from years of crew experience with the platform’s cargo loading and takeoff and landing data management—further advance the mission readiness and performance envelope of the world’s most advanced multimission tanker.

“The U.S. Air Force and allies are performing crucial global missions with the growing KC-46A tanker fleet and finding ways to extract more capability from the platform,” said Lynn Fox, KC-46 vice president and program manager. “We’re collaborating to integrate enhancements like these and bring additional capabilities to the battlespace as rapidly as possible to meet the evolving needs of the mission.”

Strengthening Sustainment

With growing knowledge of the platform based on thousands of flight hours and maintenance checks, there are also opportunities to fine-tune initial maintenance parameters in order to optimize KC-46A fleet sustainment. As the Air Force leads on organic sustainment of the fleet, there are innovative ways to implement predictive maintenance and supply chain logistics methodologies to ensure the fleet is at the highest level of readiness.

Honing sustainment with the fleet today accelerates the path for solutions to future challenges such as logistics in contested environments.

Staff Sgt. Austin Sondergard, 605th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron crew chief, prepares to refuel a KC-46 Pegasus from the 22nd Air Refueling Wing after night operations during Bamboo Eagle 24-3 on Aug. 6, 2024, at Sacramento Mather Airport, California. ***Image: DVIDS – The appearance of U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) visual information does not imply or constitute DoD endorsement.***

That challenge intensifies as battlespace capabilities become ever more advanced. Consider software sustainment. Under a recent contract from the U.S. Air Force, Boeing is supporting these efforts by developing a Systems Integration Laboratory supporting software maintenance and sustainment for the KC-46A weapons system. As part of Boeing’s contracted support, Oklahoma City Air Logistics Complex at Tinker Air Force Base will be equipped with the necessary infrastructure and resources for advancing the Air Force’s organic sustainment of the tanker’s mission systems.

“This new capability will play a vital role in supporting the USAF’s mission and maintaining the cutting-edge technology of the KC-46A,” said Janelle Bakke, KC-46 Support and Training Program Manager.

Rapid Evolution

With more than 90 KC-46A tankers in service for the U.S. Air Force and allies, the Pegasus is already delivering crucial multi-mission capability around the globe, including connectivity and battlespace awareness that are unprecedented in a tanker.

As Air Force and allied operators continue to prove out the current capabilities of the KC-46A, they can also rapidly test and integrate new capabilities to continuously evolve the platform to stay ahead of peer threats.

Indeed, the world’s most advanced aerial refueler also offers a testbed for further advancing evolutionary aerial refueling capabilities.

The KC-46A Block 1 upgrade does just that, further enhancing the data and communications connectivity the Pegasus provides with additional line-of-sight and beyond-line-of-sight communications technologies including antijamming and encryption features.

Boeing continues investing in new capabilities and emergent technologies to ensure future KC-46A operational effectiveness and mission readiness into the future.

Threats Around the Globe

Continuing to advance the in-service and in-production KC-46A delivers the maximum aerial refueling capability along the fastest, most affordable timeline for the warfighter.

“We’re laser focused on continuing to deliver capacity and new capabilities into the field as rapidly as possible,” said Liedman, “because we know the U.S. and allies can’t wait.”

A 22nd Air Refueling Wing KC-46A Pegasus lowers its boom to refuel a 15th Wing C-17 Globemaster III over the Pacific Ocean June 29, 2024. **Image: DVIDS – The appearance of U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) visual information does not imply or constitute DoD endorsement.**

As the U.S. Air Force analyzes next generation aerial refueling systems requirements, the KC-46A Pegasus is advancing aerial refueling capabilities, operational concepts, and logistics for contested environments with aircraft that are in operation right now—and paving the path for the future of multi-mission aerial refueling.

New F-16 Electronic Warfare System ‘on Par with Fifth-Gen’ Enters Flight Test

Sept. 4, 2024 | By John A. Tirpak

The F-16’s new electronic warfare suite, the AN/ALQ-257, has begun flight testing after successfully completing ground tests in an anechoic chamber, Northrop Grumman reported.

The Integrated Viper Electronic Warfare Suite, or IVEWS, mounted in a Block 50 F-16, completed an Air Force evaluation in the Joint Preflight Integration of Munitions and Electronic Sensors (J-Prime) facility—an anechoic chamber—last month, Northrop said. That same aircraft has been conducting flight tests for about two weeks, and will soon be joined by a second F-16, a company official said. Northrop is not yet cleared to reveal the location of testing.

Flight testing to validate what was learned in the chamber will take just a few weeks, and an operational assessment will be completed “by the fourth quarter of this year,” said James Conroy, vice president of navigation, targeting, and survivability, in an interview with Air & Space Forces Magazine. Developmental and operational testing should be completed in early 2025, and based on the results, the Air Force will decide future milestones such as when production and deliveries can begin and when the first F-16 unit is expected to be declared operational, he said.

“We’re going fast,” Conroy said, because the Air Force’s F-16s “don’t have this kind of survivability equipment” and need it to be operationally relevant. The system is an all-digital jammer that has been extensively tested to cooperate with and deconflict with the F-16’s new AN/APG-83 Scalable Agile Beam Radar (SABR), an active electronically-scanned array (AESA) radar. The two systems can be used simultaneously, Conroy said. Both are made by Northrop.

The electronic warfare system is capable of detecting, identifying and countering “the most advanced threats” on the battlefield today, Conroy said, and can perform accurate geo-location of emitters with just a single aircraft. The simulations in the chamber were “intense,” he said.

The IVEWS will be internal to the F-16 and will replace the centerline-mounted AN/ALQ-131 self-defense jamming pod, freeing one external station on the fighter for a fuel tank or weapon. The system will use antennas located elsewhere on the fuselage; the outer mold line of the aircraft hasn’t been altered, Conroy said.

He declined to characterize whether the IVEWS is comparable to the Eagle Passive/Active Warning Survivability System (EPAWSS) being mounted on F-15Es and F-15EXs, saying only that that they are “both advanced electronic warfare systems” and can work together.

The IVEWS is intended to provide the F-16 with electronic warfare capabilities “on a par with fifth-generation aircraft, significantly enhancing survivability for operations in contested and congested electromagnetic spectrum environments,” Northrop said. “Its ultra-wideband suite can detect, identify, and counter advanced radio frequency threats, including millimeter wave systems.”

The IVEWS started out as a Middle-Tier Acquisition program to achieve rapidly fielding; it became an Air Force program of record in 2019.

Conroy said the system will be especially helpful in coping with mobile anti-aircraft radars and missiles whose position is unknown at the start of a mission and which may turn on and fire on F-16s when directly overhead or nearby.

To reach this point, the IVEWS has undergone three years of testing, both on the ground and in the air aboard Northrop’s Bombardier CRJ, acting as a surrogate for the F-16 in the Northern Lightning 2021 exercise, Conroy said. It has also been tested at Hill Air Force Base’s F-16 Block 50 avionics system integration laboratory.

In the chamber, the IVEWS was “subjected to accurate representations of complex radio frequency spectrum threats,” Northrop said in a press release. It demonstrated “the ability to detect, identify, and counter advanced radio frequency threats while operating safely with other F-16 systems.”

Conroy said the system could permit the F-16 to remain credible into the 2040s, and is being evaluated by a number of F-16 user countries, particularly those buying the F-16 Block 70. Turkey has signed a letter of agreement selecting the IVEWS for its Block 70s.