Ramstein C-130s Get Invasion Stripes For D-Day Commemoration Next Year

Ramstein C-130s Get Invasion Stripes For D-Day Commemoration Next Year

Aug. 11, 2023 | By Greg Hadley

Six C-130J aircraft at Ramstein Air Base, Germany, received a special paint job and decals recently to show off over the beaches of Normandy, France, on the 80th anniversary of D-Day next June. 

Maintainers painted black-and-white stripes on the 37th Airlift Squadron’s C-130s to mimic the “invasion” or “liberation” stripes sported by Allied aircraft during World War II to distinguish them from enemy aircraft and reduce the chance of friendly fire. 

The Airmen from the 86th Maintenance Squadron also gave a nod to the 37th’s lineage by painting a W-7 insignia on the invasion stripes—a Douglas C-47 Skytrain aircraft named Whiskey Seven belonging to the 37th Troop Carrier Squadron was the first to cross enemy lines to drop paratroopers. 

Units across the Air Force have painted invasion stripes on their aircraft over the years to celebrate the service’s World War II roots. This year alone, F-15E fighters from Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, N.C., and a C-17 Globemaster III from Pittsburgh International Airport Air Reserve Station, Penn., have sported the stripes. 

But only the Ramstein C-130s, however, are scheduled to participate in the D-Day 80th anniversary celebrations on June 6, 2024.

“We get the sole honor in the Air Force of applying liberation stripes to our aircraft in celebration of 80 years of NATO air superiority in Europe,” Tech. Sgt. Garrett Magnie, 86th Maintenance Squadron aircraft structural maintenance noncommissioned officer in charge, said in a statement. “The 37th Troop Carrier Squadron, now known as the 37th Airlift Squadron, flew Whiskey Seven over enemy airspace. Historically the 37th can lay claim to be a part of the Normandy liberation.”  

The 37th also supported the 75th anniversary of D-Day five years ago, with a C-130 sporting invasion stripes that dropped paratroopers in France and flew alongside a heritage C-47. 

Preparations for the 80th anniversary are underway, but details have yet to be announced. 

Air Guard, Reserve Tackle Wildfires Across U.S. West

Air Guard, Reserve Tackle Wildfires Across U.S. West

Aug. 11, 2023 | By Greg Hadley

Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve personnel were activated across the Western United States this week to help fight wildfires raging from Hawaii to Oregon to Alaska. 

The Pentagon announced Aug. 10 that around three dozen members of the Hawaii Air National Guard were activated to respond to the wildfires on the island of Maui, which have killed more than 50 people. That’s in addition to around 100 Army National Guard members and multiple helicopters from the Army and Navy. 

Also on Aug. 10, Hawaii Air Guardsmen transported vehicles and personnel from the Honolulu Fire Department, along with disaster relief supplies, to Maui on a C-17 Globemaster III. 

In Alaska, five firefighters from the Air National Guard’s 176th Civil Engineer Squadron deployed to Clear Space Force Station on Aug. 6 with a firetruck to support firefighting efforts in the area. There are several wildfires in the region covering thousands of acres.

And on the West Coast, two C-130s equipped with the Modular Airborne Fire Fighting System (MAFFS) arrived at Klamath Falls Airtanker Base, Ore., this week—one each from the Wyoming Air National Guard’s 153rd Airlift Wing and the Air Force Reserve’s 302nd Airlift Wing in Colorado Springs, Colo. 

MAFFS is a roll-on, roll-off system with a 3,000-gallon tank that can shoot water or fire retardant out the plane’s rear parachute door, emptying the tank in as little as six seconds. C-130s equipped with the system have become a regular fire-fighting fixture in the West in recent years, helping to battle large wildfires in California, Oregon, Colorado, and more. 

“The MAFFS aircraft play a pivotal role in combating wildfires, and their swift deployment to affected areas allows us to respond rapidly to emerging fire incidents,” said Col. Barry Deibert, commander of the 153rd Airlift Wing, in a release. “Our primary goal is to enhance aircraft operations, ensuring the protection of lives and property, and providing unwavering support to the multi-agency firefighting response effort.” 

The National Interagency Fire Center requests the Air Force’s help with firefighting missions, and the U.S. Forest Service provides the MAFFS system and fire retardant. This marks the first deployment of the C-130-equipped MAFFS this wildfire season—later than previous years. 

There are currently four wildfires raging in Oregon’s Willamette National Forest, covering hundreds of acres. 

Can Tyndall’s New Tech Keep Airmen’s Dorms Mold-Free?

Can Tyndall’s New Tech Keep Airmen’s Dorms Mold-Free?

Aug. 11, 2023 | By David Roza

TYNDALL AIR FORCE BASE, Fla.—As the Air Force rebuilds Tyndall from the destruction of Hurricane Michael as its so-called “Installation of the Future,” officials aren’t just thinking about maintenance hangars and flightline operations. They’re looking to new technology to help solve other problems, like mold growth in Air Force dorm rooms and other facilities.

The base is using a new platform called the Installation Resilience Operations Center (IROC), which is meant to give base leadership, first responders, and facility managers a common operating picture of what is happening across the installation in real-time.

IROC could pull in data from building sensors to alert facility managers if air conditioners are not working properly, if a leak is detected, or if humidity is reaching unusual levels, which can contribute to mold growth, said Lance Marrano, science and technology advisor for reconstruction at Tyndall.

“We’ve all seen highlights and stories about mold in [Department of Defense] facilities, and we’re trying to make sure that we’re more vigilant about that,” he said.

IROC could also be a game-changer in an emergency, when conventional processes require time for information to be relayed. For example, if a fire starts on the flightline, a fire marshal establishes a safety cordon and radios security forces, who map out the incident on a whiteboard with a marker, then relay that information to the unit command center, Marrano explained.

But each stage of voice-to-voice communication adds time and increases the risk that information will be relayed incorrectly, explained Mark Shackley, innovation team lead and security force program manager for the Natural Disaster Recovery Division at Tyndall.

“Grid coordinates or other numbers get switched around all the time,” he said. “Your entry control point might end up somewhere else. Being able to take that data, make it digital, and show the same across everyone’s devices means nobody’s getting lost.” 

tyndall
Members of the Bay County Sheriff’s Office special weapons and tactics team and 325th Security Forces Squadron tactical response team stack up in a hallway during a training exercise in Panama City, Florida, July 13, 2021. U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Stefan Alvarez

IROC could be especially helpful as systems and sensors are networked into a base’s “internet of things.” 

“If you went to the fire station or the base defense operations center, you’ll see an Airman watching five or six monitors with three or four keyboards in front of them,” said Marrano. “You can’t respond effectively with that much information overload.” 

In the future, an IROC at a base could feed data to an enterprise-level operations center. If a vulnerability or inefficiency is detected at one base, analysts could resolve similar issues at other bases.  

To keep IROC cybersecure, each facility at Tyndall will have its own network switch and gateway, so that a vulnerability can be contained and not allowed to spread to the rest of the base, Marrano explained. 

The IROC already links more than 60 buildings at Tyndall, and USAF leaders are looking at which installation might be next. 

“Within a [fiscal] quarter or so, we’re going to have more examples of how that data gets connected together, more information fused and layered together to provide more insights,” Marrano said. 

Digital Twin

IROC is not the only tool base planners will use for long-term management. Tyndall is also testing a concept already familiar to Air Force weapons programs—a Digital Twin. Like a weapon’s digital twin, Tyndall is creating a model of the base in which each building is represented by a 3D virtual replica. Planners believe the model can save time and money by helping them to predict wear and tear on facilities and to manage a base-wide, comprehensive plan for maintenance. 

“Instead of waiting for the occupants to say ‘hey, I’ve got water on my floor,’ now the engineer can look across the base, get a better sense of which roofs are approaching end of life, and then you start developing those engineering projects rather than waiting for a work ticket and more damage,” Marrano said. 

tyndall
An example of a digital twin of a facility on Tyndall Air Force Base, Fla. shows how stakeholders can assess the health of a building on a virtual map. Air & Space Forces Magazine photo by David Roza

Marrano comes to Tyndall from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which hopes to learn from Tyndall’s example and possibly apply the same technology to Army bases. He explained that the digital twin enables a kind of “X-ray vision” for engineers or facility managers—they can point an iPad toward a ceiling and use the virtual model to detect exactly which ceiling tile they need to move to access a water pipe. 

The models are helpful even before the buildings are completed. The director of Tyndall’s soon-to-be-completed child development center did a virtual walkthrough of her building and identified areas where toddlers might hide, Marrano said.  

“Anybody from the base can come in and interact with their facility,” he said. “Being able to help users look at their facilities before they receive them and give feedback is really important.” 

The digital twin also helps managers anticipate how storm surges could affect the base and model traffic congestion due to construction or a major exercise. Security Forces Airmen can use it to practice responding to an active shooter scenario, knowing that important details, such as which way a door swings open, are faithfully rendered. 

The digital twin project is in a pilot stage as the base awaits cyber accreditation, Marrano said, but the program should be ready for wider use in about six to nine months. At that point, the concept could be applied to other bases—provided facility data is available. Over the next year, Marrano’s team will explore how to align data standards so that installation managers across the military can quickly create digital twins of their own bases. 

tyndall
A view from the control tower at Tyndall Air Force Base Fla. shows much of the installation under construction, Aug. 1, 2023. Air & Space Forces Magazine photo by David Roza

Installation of the Future

These new technologies form just one pillar of the ongoing $5 billion reconstruction project at Tyndall, which was destroyed by Hurricane Michael in 2018. New facilities and a new F-35A Lightning II fighter wing will also shape Tyndall’s effort to become an ‘Installation of the Future,’ a model for how the Air Force writ large might become safer, stronger, and more efficient in the years ahead.

“If we’re going to build the Installation of the Future, we need to figure out what’s new out there that we can use to make us more effective at operating,” said Col. Robert Bartlow Jr., chief of the Air Force Civil Engineer Center Natural Disaster Recovery Division. 

There are still more emerging technologies could further enhance security at Tyndall: 

  • ZeroEyes: An artificial intelligence program that scans more than 60 live security camera feeds and alerts Security Forces if a firearm is detected. Rapid detection should help defenders prepare and respond faster in case of an active shooter situation, Shackley said. Tyndall is the first Department of Defense installation to get ZeroEyes. 
  • Digital Force Technologies’ Force Protection Kit: A system of infrared cameras, ground-based radar, and laser-range finders that artificial intelligence can scan for threats such as unmanned aerial systems. The automated system is supposed to reduce the cognitive load for security forces Airmen, according to the Air Force. 
  • Robot Dogs: Designed by Ghost Robotics, the semi-autonomous quadrupeds sport nine sensors and act as extra eyes and ears both day-to-day and in extreme temperatures, according to the Air Force. 
If You Did Space Ops, You Could Become a ‘Legacy Guardian’

If You Did Space Ops, You Could Become a ‘Legacy Guardian’

Aug. 10, 2023 | By Greg Hadley

Before the Space Force was founded in December 2019, Airmen ruled the heavens, at least as far as most military space activities were concerned. For decades tens and perhaps hundreds of thousands of Airmen controlled and acquired satellites, managed communications and intelligence, and performed other space missions. Air Force Space Command claimed more than 26,000 personnel at one point.

A bipartisan group of lawmakers are close to giving some of those Airmen a chance to claim at least an honorary part of the newest military service.  

The “Space Force Legacy Guardian Recognition Act” is included in the House version of the National Defense Authorization bill, but not the Senate version. The measure would allow the Secretary of the Air Force to establish a process for veteran space professionals to be designated as honorary members of the Space Force. They would be called “Legacy Guardians.” 

Legacy Guardians would be eligible for “a certificate, approved device, or other insignia of such designation,” the bill states. They would not, however, be eligible for any additional benefits. 

The the measure would apply to anyone “whom the Secretary of the Air Force determines served in support of space operations as a member of the Air Force.” Space operators from the other services need not apply. Lawmakers have also introduced the matter as stand-alone legislation, but its best hope is that House and Senate conferees include it in the final compromise version of the NDAA now under construction. 

A staffer for Rep. Don Bacon, the retired Air Force brigadier general who introduced the legislation, told Air & Space Forces Magazine that lawmakers won’t distinguish among specialties, however. Space acquisition, intelligence, and other career fields could all qualify potentially—that decision would be left to the Department of the Air Force. 

Bacon’s bill is co-sponsored by four House members, all from the Space Force caucus, including Reps. Salud Carbajal (D-Calif.), Brian Babin (R-Texas), Doug Lamborn (R-Colo.), and Ted Lieu (D-Calif.). 

Bacon was not a space operator, but he and the veterans on his staff felt strongly about recognizing the legacy of space operators who paved the way for the Space Force. 

“Veterans of a service are important for a community as well,” the staffer said. “They’re representative of that service.” 

The staffer noted that as things currently stand, it will take years, if not decades, for the Space Force to develop a veteran community. 

Since first introducing the legislation in the NDAA, Bacon’s office has received positive feedback from veteran space operators and current Guardians alike, the staffer claimed. 

“This designation would not only bring together our space operations veterans with those who currently serve in the Space Force,” Lieu said in a statement. “It would appropriately honor the dedicated veterans and culture of service of the Air Force Space Command.” 

“I’m proud to stand alongside my colleagues in acknowledging the contributions of our nation’s Air Force Space Operators who laid the foundation upon which our current Space Force is built,” Babin said in a statement. “Their expertise and devotion to a country pushed us upward and outward, establishing and ensuring America’s military dominance in space.” 

A Department of the Air Force spokeswoman told Air & Space Forces Magazine that department leadership was not involved in crafting the legislation and is not tracking if or how many retired space operators have requested honorary or retroactive status in the Space Force. 

The Space Force Association endorsed the measure in an Aug. 9 release. 

First Air Force Reserve Unit to Get the F-35 Marks a Final Milestone with the F-16

First Air Force Reserve Unit to Get the F-35 Marks a Final Milestone with the F-16

Aug. 10, 2023 | By David Roza

The end of an era is swiftly approaching for the Air Force Reserve’s 301st Fighter Wing.

One of its units, the 457th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron, is finishing its final deployment with the F-16 Fighting Falcon, widely known as the Viper. When the squadron returns home to Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth, Texas, later this month after its deployment to Prince Sultan Air Base, Saudi Arabia, the unit will begin transitioning to the F-35A stealth fighter.

The 301st will be the first Air Force Reserve Command wing equipped with the F-35. It is expected to receive its first fifth-generation fighter in 2024, but to reach that point, it will have to say goodbye to its longtime F-16s.

“These F-16s have been part of our squadron for almost 30 years and have safely carried [our] pilots through thousands of combat sorties,” Lt. Col. David Snodgrass, commander of the 457th EFS, said in an Aug. 9 press release. “However, air combat has evolved and we are grateful our squadron has been chosen to convert to the F-35. We intend to carry the strong heritage of F-16 combat prowess forward to the new airplane.”

That release noted that the F-16s will not be retired—instead they will be distributed to Nellis Air Force Base, Nev., to be aggressors and to Homestead Air Reserve Base, Fla., to join the 93rd Fighter Squadron. Officials could not immediately provide Air & Space Forces Magazine with specific dates on when the transition will begin, but previous units to exchange F-16s for F-35s started sending planes out nearly a year in advance as they started the transition process.

“The F-16 has been the backbone of our operations for decades, and it’s sad to see it go,” said wing commander Col. Benjamin Harrison in a May release. “But at the same time, we’re excited for the new opportunities that lie ahead.”

f-16
U.S. Airmen assigned to the 457th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron (EFS) pose for a group picture on Prince Sultan Air Base (PSAB), Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, June 4, 2023. U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Alexander Frank

The jet proved its worth during this most recent deployment, where the 457th patrolled the Middle East in support of Operations Inherent Resolve, the ongoing fight against ISIS, and Spartan Shield, an effort to build up security partnerships in the region. U.S. Central Command has had an eventful summer, with multiple instances of Russian aircraft damaging U.S. MQ-9 Reaper drones and U.S. fighters deploying to deter Iranian aggression in the Strait of Hormuz.

Snodgrass said his pilots often flew long, complex missions.

“The main challenge for pilots [was] the seven-hour duration of the sorties along with balancing multiple mission types,” he said. “We began preparing for the deployment as soon as we found out about our mobilization [and] completed exercises practicing Agile Combat Employment concepts and close air support skills prior to arriving that prepared us for the challenges here.”

Heat, wind, and sand made the task of maintaining middle-aged jets even more complicated. Snodgrass said he was “amazed” by the Airmen of the 457th Expeditionary Fighter Generation Squadron, who worked through 115-degree heat and dust storms to get the job done. Lt. Col. Eric Wanless, commander of the 457th EFGS, said the speed of the operation represented another challenge.

“Compared to home station, [the] tempo is the biggest difference as it is nonstop maintenance along with flying,“ he said in the release. “Heat and wind conditions make it tough as it limits repair time as we follow heat rest cycles.”

f-16
The 457th Fighter Squadron operates an F-16 heritage jet painted in the colors of the Texas flag. U.S. Air Force photo by Master Sgt. Jeremy Roman

Though its specialty mission is the suppression of enemy air defenses, the multirole F-35 will replace the F-16 as the backbone of Air Force operations. The jet has already arrived at operational units across the branch’s Active component, with more landing at Air National Guard and Reserve units over the coming years.

The 301st first activated in 1944 and flew the P-47 Thunderbolt, the F-105 Thunderchief, and the F-4 Phantom II before switching to the F-16, according to the unit’s history. Getting ready for the F-35 is no easy feat, but Harrison expressed confidence in his Airmen.

“Our pilots and maintainers have put in a lot of time and effort to make sure we’re ready to make the switch,” he said in May. “We’re confident that we’ll be able to make a seamless transition to the F-35 and continue to provide the same level of excellence that our unit is known for.”

How to Protect Your Air Base From Hurricanes, Part 2: 165 Miles Per Hour or Bust

How to Protect Your Air Base From Hurricanes, Part 2: 165 Miles Per Hour or Bust

Aug. 10, 2023 | By David Roza

Editor’s Note: This is the second of a two-part series on how Tyndall Air Force Base, Fla., is working to protect itself from future hurricanes. This installment covers Tyndall’s efforts to make facilities withstand future storms. Part 1, about the base’s nature-based coastal resilience projects, can be found here.

TYNDALL AIR FORCE BASE, Fla.—Five years after Hurricane Michael flattened Tyndall Air Force Base, Fla., the facility is being rebuilt as a model ‘Installation of the Future,’ complete with new buildings, new F-35A Lightning II fighter jets, and new technology to make the base safer, stronger, and more efficient than before.

Looming over the rebuild, however, is the threat of more hurricanes and severe weather. Just last year, another Category 5 storm in Hurricane Ian swept through Florida, though it mostly spared Tyndall, and scientists predict more tropical cyclones will reach very intense levels in the years to come.

In response, Tyndall is aiming to build its facilities back stronger to withstand even more punishment from future storms.

“It was an exceptional event,” Col. Robert Bartlow Jr., chief of the Tyndall-based Air Force Civil Engineer Center Natural Disaster Recovery Division, said about Hurricane Michael. “But as we’re rebuilding the base, we’re not treating this as an exceptional event. We’re treating this as the new normal.”

tyndall
Construction continues at the 325th Force Support Squadron’s future lodging facility, the Sand Dollar Inn, at Tyndall Air Force Base, Florida, March 16, 2023. U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Zachary Nordheim

Wind Resistance 

After Michael, Air Force engineers raised the bar for building standards at Tyndall, matching what they saw in Florida’s Miami-Dade County. Each new building is built to survive 165 mile-per-hour winds. And they’re adapting those standards to match the Air Force’s special needs.

“A lot of what’s down in Miami is commercial properties ,” said William Heiney, senior resident engineer for the Tyndall office of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which oversees the day-to-day awarding of contracts and site management on the base. “We’re going to have some unique building elements. … If they don’t have an existing system that we can use, then [the building element] is designed, engineered, and stamped by a structural engineer to meet those requirements.”

To meet the 165 mph standard, some foundations must be sunk 30 to 40 feet deep. Precast structures are common, as is an increased volume of rebar in concrete walls and screws or other fasteners to secure roof materials. The key is to keep wind from peeling doors open, shattering windows, or any other means of penetrating a facility and causing an explosive imbalance in air pressure.

“It’s not ‘wind blows and things just fall over,’” said Bartlow. “If your building envelope is compromised, those high-velocity winds cause rapid pressure changes inside that facility and it will start to come apart.”

All Dry on the Flightline 

To keep the flightline flood-free, Tyndall is building a massive underground concrete tunnel, seven feet high and 12 feet wide in some sections, stretching across the area known as Zone 1, where the F-35 hangars will be located. Called a box culvert, the tunnel will funnel stormwater away from the flightline and back towards the ocean. Buildings on the base will also be situated above flood levels and sea level rise.

“Next time we get a massive flood, we’re not going to be dealing with water in the buildings,” Heiney said.

tyndall
To demonstrate the scale of the structure, an Air & Space Forces Magazine reporter stands in a wide section of a concrete box culvert that will be placed underground to help funnel stormwater out of the F-35 hangar area at Tyndall Air Force Base, Fla., Aug. 1, 2023.

Tyndall is not the only base being fortified to weather future storms. The Natural Disaster Recovery Division also oversees the rebuild of Offutt Air Force Base, Neb., where many operational facilities were damaged by a flood in 2019. Planners there aim to enlarge and strengthen nearby levees and raise the buildings above flood elevation to prevent future damage.

The Natural Disaster Recovery Division also has a mobile component which was recently dispatched to Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, to provide an initial assessment of facility conditions after Super Typhoon Mawar, a Category 4 hurricane, struck in late May. 

“Bases that are vulnerable to storms are typically pretty good at initial recovery and getting their mission back up and running,” Bartlow said. “What they are not equipped to do is start answer questions regarding the long-term plan. Congress typically wants to know very quickly how much it’s going to cost, because they’ve got to strike while the iron’s hot.”

The recovery team helps provide an initial assessment so that lawmakers can work on finding resources to fund reconstruction efforts. Bartlow anticipates the team will have more work in the future.

“Tyndall and Offutt are not the last time we’ll have a problem at an Air Force installation associated with a natural disaster,” he said.

These programs align with the Air Force’s Climate Campaign Plan, where the first priority is maintaining air and space dominance in the face of climate risks, and the first objective to achieve that is to modernize infrastructure and facilities.

The Tyndall rebuild is not expected to finish until 2027, and some of the nature-based coastal resilience projects may take longer to come to fruition. But once complete, the aim is to ensure Mother Nature will not be able to take U.S. airpower offline for long.

“These things have happened at other installations, but I think this comprehensive approach that we’re taking is fairly unique to Tyndall, and it’s something that we think we can potentially export to other installations across the Air Force,” Bartlow said. 

Part 1 on Tyndall Air Force Base’s efforts to defend against future hurricanes and severe weather is available here.

USAF Needs More Money to Stop Drone Swarms

USAF Needs More Money to Stop Drone Swarms

Aug. 10, 2023 | By Greg Hadley

DAYTON, Ohio—While the Pentagon continues to experiment with technologies that could disable or destroy swarms of small drones, the Air Force’s lead on counter-drone acquisition said more funding is needed to counter the threat—and to turn promising efforts into programs of record. 

The counter-small unmanned aerial systems mission, or C-sUAS, is one that Steven Wert, program executive officer for the digital directorate, has been tracking for several years now. 

The Pentagon started ramping up spending on counter-drone weaponry around fiscal 2018, spending hundreds of millions of dollars on the effort. Around the same time, experts began warning that small, relatively cheap armed drones could bombard bases and wreak outsized havoc—making them attractive to a whole range of adversaries from China and Russia to Iran and even non-state actors, such as violent extremist groups.

“In response to urgent operational need, we fielded gear at many of our most critical bases,” Wert said at the Life Cycle Industry Days conference July 31. “But we never got developmental funding to modernize that gear, which is now five or six years old, probably seven- or eight-year-old technology.” Nor did the Air Force fully “explore different phenomenologies in the counter-UAS space.” 

Meanwhile, the threat of small drones has only grown, highlighted by their use in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Ukraine’s subsequent response. 

“I have repeatedly said I’m concerned about the lack of funding there given the increasing number of incursions that we see around the world,” Wert said. “That situation has not really changed. [Today] it is at the point where labs are developing different capabilities, but we don’t have the ability to catch those into a production program.” 

For the Air Force, the Tactical High-power Operational Responder, or THOR—a short-range directed energy weapon developed by the Air Force Research Laboratory—is the most high-profile example this kind of capability. THOR uses microwaves to interfere with drones’ electronics, dropping them from the sky. First unveiled in 2019, the system has had a long path to development. Earlier this year THOR successfully disabled a swarm of drones, the first test on such a scale. 

AFRL said it was developing a follow-on system in 2021, calling it “Mjolnir” for the hammer wielded by the Norse god Thor. In 2022, the lab selected Leidos to build the system, saying it would employ the same technology as THOR “but will add important advances in capability, reliability, and manufacturing readiness.” AFRL said it hoped to have a prototype by 2023, but has offered no updates since.  

Meanwhile, other technologies have been explored—AFRL tested both microwave and laser weapons in overseas demonstrations but has offered few details on their effectiveness. 

The Army is also developing solutions. The Pentagon established an Army-led Joint C-sUAS office in 2020, and it has since held four demonstrations, most recently in July. It has worked on both directed energy and kinetic weapons to take on single-drone attacks as well as swarms. 

The joint C-sUAS office issued a request for white papers on Aug. 4, seeking “potential materiel solutions that have promising technologies or approaches” for detecting, tracking, identifying, and/or defeating small drone swarms. The most promising responses will be selected for further analysis, the request said, and some may be invited to participate in the office’s next demonstration, planned for June 2024. 

In a separate request for information, the joint office said the demonstration will consist of “no less than 20 but up to 50 individual aircraft (Group 1 and Group 2) at one time and no less than six Group 3 aircraft at one time.” Group 1 and 2 aircraft refer to drones that weigh 55 pounds or less and normally only fly a few thousand feet above the ground. Group 3 includes drones that weigh less than 1,320 pounds and fly no higher than 18,000 feet. 

The joint office’s request for white papers notes that after the demonstration, some companies may be selected for a prototyping program and even follow-on production without competition. 

USAF, Northrop Test New Tech That Lets the B-2 Update Mission Parameters ‘In Seconds’

USAF, Northrop Test New Tech That Lets the B-2 Update Mission Parameters ‘In Seconds’

Aug. 9, 2023 | By John A. Tirpak

Northrop Grumman and the Air Force successfully demonstrated a new mission update system for the B-2 bomber in a two-day event at Whiteman Air Force Base, Mo., last month. The system receives new mission parameters and feeds them directly into the B-2’s computers without the need for the pilots to manually input the data.

The Integrated Airborne Mission Transfer (IAMT) demonstration started July 18 after B-2 No. 1086, the Spirit of Kitty Hawk, was fitted with Northrop’s Multi-Mission Domain (MMD) open-mission architecture, meant to make adding new mission capabilities easier.

Essentially, MMD “separates the mission systems of the B-2 from the flight/safety critical systems,” allowing the insertion of new capabilities “without extensive testing,” a Northrop spokesperson told Air & Space Forces Magazine. “This will speed up the delivery of new capabilities to the warfighter keeping the B-2 relevant for years to come,” she added.

For the demonstration, MMD integrated with the B-2’s Adaptable Communications Suite (ACS). The aircrew would receive incoming transmissions from a ground station, “which loaded the mission directly through MMD interfaces to the B-2 Disk Drive Unit,” according to a Northrop Grumman press release.

With the way the rest of the B-2 fleet is configured, aircrews has to manually transfer mission updates from the ACS. In contrast, the new technology “will allow direct transfer to the disk drive unit in seconds,” the Northrop spokesperson said.

“IAMT is the first of many possible combat applications that can be hosted on the B-2 via MMD which will rapidly integrate new software capabilities onto the B-2 in the coming years,” she added.

The system not only allow aircrews to focus on executing the mission at hand, it also eliminates the chance of potential errors that might be introduced by manually updating mission parameters, Northrop officials noted.

All told, the demonstration included 50 machine-to-machine mission updates. Senior officials from the B-2 System Program Office, Global Strike Command, and the 509th Bomb Wing observed.

Nikki Kodama, Northrop’s B-2 program manager, said the company is showing that the bomber can “communicate and operate in Advanced Battle Management Systems (ABMS) and the Joint All-Domain Command and Control (JADC2) environment, keeping B-2 ahead of evolving threats.”

The integration of the software will “further enhance the connectivity and survivability in highly contested environments as part of our ongoing modernization effort,” she added.

The demo is part of the B-2 Collaborative Combat Communication (B2C3) Spiral 1 program, which is intended to enhance the B-2’s digital communications capabilities. The spokesperson said the plan is to outfit the entire 20-aircraft B-2 force with the MMD, with the modifications to be done at Whiteman. The company did not specify a timetable for the mods.

Air Force officials have said recently they do not have a firm retirement date for the B-2, instead emphasizing that it will fly until the new B-21 Raider is ready. The bomber only recently returned to the skies in May, after a roughly six-month safety pause following a mishap in December. In July, the bomber made its first appearance in a major exercise since the pause, flying in Alaska. This most recent technology demonstration was not part of any larger exercise.

USAF Now Ready to Accept T-7s, Will Start Flight Tests in ‘Coming Weeks’

USAF Now Ready to Accept T-7s, Will Start Flight Tests in ‘Coming Weeks’

Aug. 9, 2023 | By Greg Hadley

DAYTON, Ohio—The Air Force will officially take ownership of its first production-representative T-7A trainer jet “in the coming weeks” and quickly move into flight testing from contractor Boeing’s St. Louis facility, a service official said last week. 

After that, the first two Red Hawks will transfer out to Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., in the “September-ish” timeframe to continue testing, T-7 division chief Col. Kirt Cassell told reporters at the Life Cycle Industry Days conference July 31. 

In April, Air Force acquisition executive Andrew Hunter announced that the T-7 won’t achieve initial operational capability until early 2027—three years past its original 2024 goal. Then the Government Accountability Office said in May that the Air Force-Boeing relationship was “tenuous,” and predicted Boeing might not even meet the revised 2027 timeline. 

Cassell said the Air Force and Boeing have since reset their relationship. “There have been leadership changes,” he said. “At the PEO level and at my level within Boeing, they reorganized kind of wholesale. … And so there was a lot of changeover, which actually just gave us a whole new fresh set of eyes. I have a new deputy that came on the program. So we got a new fresh set of eyes and we really just reinvigorated our relationship.” 

In May and June, the first production-representative T-7 started undergoing taxi tests, then took its first official flight with an Air Force pilot.

Behind the scenes, Cassell said, the Air Force and Boeing have been working together to ensure flight testing can start as soon as the first jet, dubbed T-2 or ATP-2, is officially transferred to the Air Force. 

“The team, collectively Boeing and the Air Force, have been working overtime,” Cassell said. “Like I’m not kidding, working overtime, late nights, to get through acceptance. We should be accepting that aircraft here in the coming weeks. Once that’s completed, we’ve done a whole lot of work to get ready for flight tests. We’ve completed the appropriate test readiness reviews, those are done. We’ve completed the appropriate test planning requirements.” 

Shortly after ATP-2 is accepted by the Air Force, the service hopes to take ownership of a second aircraft, called T-1 or ATP-1. The two airframes will test different factors—flight sciences and loads, respectively, Cassell said. 

“There’s little to nothing standing in our way to getting this jet, ATP-2, up and running,” Cassell said. “We’ll start flight tests at St. Louis. And then in or around the September-ish timeframe is when we’ll transition APT-2 and then, following up on that, APT-1 out to Edwards for continued flight testing.” 

Getting the T-7 back on track and avoiding any more delays will likely be crucial for satisfying lawmakers who have expressed concerns about the program. Hailed at its unveiling as proving how digital engineering and design are breakthrough technologies for accelerating product to market, the first production-representative aircraft went from drawing board to first flight in 36 months.

Digital design is “completely transforming how we’re doing systems engineering,” Gen. Duke Z. Richardson, head of Air Force Materiel Command, said in 2022. Boeing and Saab officials predicted it would “revolutionize” how aircraft are designed and built. 

Then came the delays. In 2021, the Air Force said the T-7 suffered from “aircraft wing rock” at high angles of attack, making it unstable in the roll axis. Issues arose with the jet’s flight control software, and then came questions about the trainer’s ejection seat system—which had been required to accommodate a wider range of body sizes. USAF and Boeing sparred over the test data and how to interpret it. 

This May, Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall suggested digital engineering had been “over-hyped” as a way to cut development time and cost, cautioning that there are no shortcuts to real-world testing. 

Boeing and the Air Force now say the T-7’s issues have largely been corrected. But lawmakers are skeptical. A provision in the House version of the National Defense Authorization bill would require the Air Force to assess the “risks associated with the overlap of development, testing, and production phases of the program and risks related to contractor management.” Whether that provision survives the House-Senate conference to reconcile the House and Senate versions of the bill remains to be seen.