As Hold on General Nominations Persists, 100-Plus USAF and USSF Officers Remain Frozen

Aug. 8, 2023 | By Chris Gordon

With the retirement of Army Chief of Staff Gen. James C. McConville on Aug. 4, two positions on the Joint Chiefs of Staff do not have a Senate-confirmed replacement, and more than 300 general and flag officer nominations remain in limbo while Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) continues to protest the Department of Defense’s reproductive health policies with a legislative hold.

As of Aug. 8, Tuberville’s hold on unanimous consent confirmation for general and flag officers is affecting 301 nominations pending before the Senate. More than a third of those affected officers are from the Air Force and Space Force.

According to Pentagon data, 73 pending nominations are from the Air Force, 25 for the Air Force Reserve, and eight for the Space Force—106 total. The Department of Air Force says nearly two dozen are for three-and-four star positions.

Some generals actually have two separate nominations pending. Brig. Gen. Dale R. White has been nominated to move up two ranks, and Air Force Maj. Gen. Shawn Bratton has been nominated for a third star and to become deputy chief of space operations for strategy, plans, programs, and requirements, meaning he must transfer from two-star Airman to two-star Guardian, then be promoted.

At the moment, however, they’re stuck waiting, and with the Senate out of session until September, a resolution is still weeks away at best.

In the meantime, most officials have to stay in place. For example, Air Force major commands, such as Air Combat Command and Pacific Air Forces, are in limbo. Gen. Kenneth D. Wilsbach, the current head of PACAF, has been nominated to head ACC. But he cannot replace Gen. Mark D. Kelly until confirmed, forcing Kelly to stay on at ACC for now, without a clear timeframe on when the situation might be resolved.

“Largely speaking, if it's a Senate-confirmed position for example, three-to-four star, there would be a lot of situations where you would hold in place until you're confirmed, unless there's permission to act in an acting capacity,” Pentagon Press Secretary Air Force Brig. Gen. Patrick S. Ryder told reporters Aug. 7.

In high-profile positions on the Joint Chiefs of Staff, though, leaders are term-limited, leading to situations like McConville’s retirement without a confirmed successor.

McConville’s deputy, Gen. Randy A. George, has been nominated to succeed him but is now serving in an acting role. The Marine Corps is currently being led by assistant commandant Gen. Eric M. Smith on an acting basis—Smith has also been nominated to take over the top job but is still awaiting confirmation to replace now retired Gen. David H. Berger.

In the hallway of the Pentagon housing the Joint Chiefs of Staff, McConville's portrait was recently removed, joining the blank space vacated by Berger. Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Michael M. Gilday will retire later this month, leaving the Navy without a Senate-confirmed boss.

Portraits of members of Joint Chiefs of Staff pictured at the Pentagon, Aug. 7, 2023. Photo by Chris Gordon/Air & Space Forces Magazine

“Unfortunately, today, for the first time in the history of the Department of Defense, two of our services will be operating without Senate-confirmed leadership, and 301 nominations for our general and flag officers are being held up," Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III said Aug. 4 said McConville’s relinquishment of command ceremony. “Let me be clear: In our dangerous world, the security of the United States demands orderly and prompt transitions of our confirmed military leaders.”

At the end of September, Gen. Mark A. Milley’s term as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs will be up. Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. has been nominated to replace Milley but must be approved by then. If he is not, then Vice Chairman Adm. Christopher W. Grady will step in on an acting basis.

Tuberville first placed a hold on all flag and general officer nominees in March, attempting to pressure the Pentagon into reversing its policy providing paid leave and travel funds for troops requiring reproductive services, including abortions, who are based in states where those services are not available.

Majority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) could bring up nominations for individual roll call votes in the Senate. But Democrats seem unwilling to take that step for now, arguing voting one-by-one would cost too much floor time.

“There is no world in which we can use floor time for these nominations,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) told reporters Aug. 8. “It’s logistically impossible to do these nominations through regular order.”

But while most military nominations are usually confirmed via unanimous consent, some of the most critical positions, such as service chiefs or Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, have received roll call votes in the past. Brown was confirmed to his current role in an uncontroversial, 98-0 roll call vote in 2020.

Tuberville’s hold has drawn the ire of some fellow Republicans, though Tuberville has been unmoved by pressure to change his position.

“Maybe Republicans were hopeful that leading up to the August break he would relent,” Murphy said of Tuberville. "He didn’t, and we now have to adjust our strategy.”

A spokesperson for Schumer did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

How things will play out when the Senate returns is unclear. Tuberville last spoke to Austin on July 18, their third phone call on the topic according to the Pentagon, but the short conversation did not help break the impasse. Pentagon officials say they continue to attempt to engage with Tuberville’s office. But Tuberville has so far indicated he does not intend to back down.

“I remain strongly opposed to this immoral policy, and believe its development and implementation run afoul of legal authority granted to the executive branch,” Tuberville wrote in a letter to Austin on July 28, reiterating that his hold remains in effect.

"The hold simply requires military nominations and promotions to be processed through regular order rather than being approved by unanimous consent in large batches,” Tuberville’s office said in a statement at the time.

Air Force General Teases New Details on CCAs Coming at AFA Conference in September

Aug. 8, 2023 | By John A. Tirpak

DAYTON, Ohio—The Air Force will announce key new details about its Collaborative Combat Aircraft program at AFA’s Air, Space, and Cyber Conference in September, including future force design, acquisition strategy, and cooperation with the Navy, according to a top service official.

Brig. Gen. (Lt. Gen. select) Dale White, program executive officer for fighters and advanced aircraft, teased the announcement while speaking with reporters July 31 at the Life Cycle Industry Days conference.

Both the Air Force and Navy are pursuing programs to develop autonomous drones that will pair with manned aircraft, and the two services have reportedly held discussions about how to collaborate. Asked how the Air Force and Navy plan to orchestrate the handoff of targets between such aircraft, White suggested “there will be a larger discussion” of CCAs—touching on how that fleet will integrate with the Navy and USAF’s current tactical air inventory—at the ASC 2023 conference, which takes place Sept. 11-13.

“I’ll just give you a little teaser [that] there’s four specific areas that we’re focused on,” White said. “And those four specific areas will define how we pick out this path” toward a CCA capability.

White did not elaborate on the four focus areas but seemed to suggest they will at least partially involve how CCAs will tie into the Joint All-Domain Command and Control (JADC2) system.

The Air Force is “maturing our force design” for CCAs in accord with joint force design, White added, “and the Navy is doing the same.”

While the two services may have some differing views on how CCAs should be employed, “you’re starting to see that integration coming together better, because technology becomes that bond; that glue that bonds us together,” White said. “And so while we may have different requirements on the fringe, by and large, the tacair, or air dominance mission is the same regardless of what uniform you wear.”

He added that “the requirements of the end state may be a little different on the fringe. But the capability and technologies are the same.”

White also said the Air Force has had consistent collaboration with the Navy on CCAs, and the two branches are taking “that teaming approach, knowing what the other is doing, making sure we’re protecting interoperability” in the joint fight. That collaboration has also been key to ensuring the services don’t waste time or resources duplicating efforts.

From operators to the highest levels of the Pentagon, the Air Force and Navy have been “working consistently towards similar outcomes,” White added.

“We have to be in lockstep,” he said of the ability to share data and targets, adding “We’re finding architectures and standards become the foundation of interoperability. … So we’ll lay out more specific detail on that” at the ASC conference.

Air Force leaders have said they will seek at least 1,000 of the autonomous CCAs to augment the manned fighter fleet, with a ratio of at least two drones per fighter and as many as five. The Navy, for its part, has said it is working toward a carrier air wing that will be more than 60 percent uncrewed aircraft by the early 2030s.

The next step in the CCA plan is focused on force design, White said.

White also said the Air Force has to “break the mold” of how requirements are written and answered in developing new aircraft, echoing comments of Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. at the LCID conference. Specifically, Brown suggested the service should move away from “specific, detailed requirements” and toward a system where new capabilities are constantly introduced, on an operationally-relevant timetable.

In the case of CCAs, White said both Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall and service acquisition executive Andrew Hunter “have both alluded to that iterative nature” of the program, “that is defined by both technology as well as the operator.”

“Let me be clear: we are on a journey,” White said. “And so on that journey we will learn and we will continue to iterate. And as we go through constant refinement, and we go through testing … that will greatly inform where we’re going. And when you think about the agility we’ve invested in the acquisition strategy, we’re going to be able to leverage that moreso than previously.”

Promotions for New Staff Sergeants: Fewest in 27 Years

Aug. 8, 2023 | By Greg Hadley

Just 9,000 senior airmen were selected for promotion to staff sergeant this year, a 17.4 percent selection rate—numbers unseen since the years following the Cold War.

The Air Force Personnel Center disclosed statistics for the E-5 cycle Aug. 8, and plans to release the list of selectees on Aug. 10 at 9 a.m. Eastern. It will be the smallest list since 1992, and represent the lowest selection rate since 1997.

It’s also the second consecutive tough promotion cycle for E-5. Last year, just 9,706 Airmen were promoted from a pool of 45,991, for a 21.1 percent rate. At the time, it was the lowest rate since 1997.

The numbers tell the story of strong retention amidst a recruiting crisis. When more Airmen stay, competition for promotion intensifies and opportunities for promotion are squeezed. Promotions to technical sergeant were also low this year: The Air Force announced earlier this summer that just 14.5 percent of eligible staff sergeants were selected for promotion to technical sergeant, also the lowest rate since 1996.

Slow promotion rates are likely to persist. Air Force officials said last year they anticipated lower-than-usual promotion rates lasting several years. Officials believe too many Airmen were promoted in the past with insufficient experience to be effective senior noncommissioned officers, and that a course correction was needed.

“The majority of the experience decline was attributable to the Air Force trying to achieve an enlisted force structure with too many higher grades,” Col. James Barger, Air Force Manpower Analysis Agency commander, said in a statement at the time. “We also found that experience levels would continue to decline unless the Air Force lays in more junior Airmen allocations and fewer E5-E7 allocations.”

The goal: Reach a healthier grade distribution by 2025.

Meanwhile, promotions to senior NCO grades are improving. Rates for master sergeant and senior master sergeant ticked up this year.

The promotion slowdown for NCO grades is the most drastic in a generation. Not since the end of the Cold War, when the military forces shed 700,000 troops in less than a decade, have promotions been so slow, according to RAND.

Air Force Staff Sergeant Promotion Statistics

YEAR	SELECTED	ELIGIBLE	PROMOTION RATE
2023	9,000	51,717	17.40
2022	9,706	45,991	21.10
2021	15,660	44,663	35.06
2020	13,864	33,341	41.58
2019	14,235	29,179	48.79
2018	15,669	30,651	51.12
2017	14,181	32,006	44.31
2016	16,506	39,064	42.25
2015	13,269	39,260	33.8
2014	9,403	36,739	25.59
2013	11,212	34,078	32.9
2012	13,448	33,060	40.68
2011	11,337	26,549	42.7
2010	13,518	28,510	47.41
2009	15,223	30,574	49.79
2008	12,209	28,098	43.45
2007	15,130	36,608	41.33
2006	13,298	37,071	35.87
2005	14,614	36,405	40.14
2004	13,625	33,306	40.91
2003	13,651	27,416	49.79
2002	19,448	30,880	62.98
2001	20,793	32,170	64.63
2000	19,605	38,654	50.72
1999	16,053	44,109	36.39
1998	11,033	48,719	22.65
1997	9,854	52,820	18.66
1996	9,541	57,523	16.59

Data from Air Force Personnel Center

USAF Plan: Keep B-1 Credible Through New Pylons, Stress Testing, and More

Aug. 7, 2023 | By John A. Tirpak

The Air Force Life Cycle Management Center has no set date in mind for retiring the B-1 Lancer, but it does has a multi-pronged approach for keeping the famed bomber credible until the B-21 comes online, focused on:

Parts obsolescence

Wear and tear

Capability for new weapons

Brig. Gen. William Rogers, program executive officer for bombers at AFLCMC, told reporters at the Life Cycle Industry Days conference July 31 the Air Force has dropped its 2018 bomber plan that called for the B-1 and B-2 to retire in the early 2030s, and instead will keep those aircraft viable until the stealthy B-21 is ready to replace them.

The new plan is called a “Bomber Capability Roadmap” and directs investment to combating “obsolescence and diminishing manufacturing sources, which is a key concern of ours on those aging platforms,” Rogers said.

“It’s a common problem across the entire Air Force fleet as aircraft get older,” he noted.

For the B-1 in particular, Rogers said his focus is on making sure the fleet remains capable of sustaining operations and giving military and civilian leaders options, allowing the swing-wing jets to “retire gracefully.”

“How do we ensure the structural aspects of the aircraft … and then, also, what are those key capabilities?” Rogers asked.

One such capability may be using the B-1 as a platform for testing hypersonic weapons. Boeing has offered the Air Force a modular pylon system that could enable the B-1 to do just that, potentially reducing the test load on the B-52, which is entering an intense period of testing new radars, communications, navigation, and engines.

“At this point, we’re really working to first prove the engineering and development work to see if it’s really a viable capability for the B-1,” Rogers said. “We’ve been working with Boeing, [which] has an [independent research and development] pylon that we call the Load Adaptable Modular (LAM) pylon.”

Joe Stupic, head of the B-1 division under Rogers, said the service has conducted ground testing on the pylon, which snaps munitions in like “Lego.”

“If you look at the bottom of the B-1, It’s got a nice round bottom,” Stupic said. “But trying to stick a conformal pylon on it is very hard to do. So what Boeing did was created basically something that could be adapted to any station on the plane with the kit that comes with it. So it’s adaptable, to whichever station you want to mount it to. So that’s the beauty of it.”

Rogers said the program has been successful so far in that a variety of weapons have been successfully mated to the pylon. Stupic said ground tests have studied vibration testing, loads, and “box drops of some JDAMs” as well as with large and heavy shapes.

A flight test carrying “something big” like an inert AGM-183 Air-launched Rapid Response Weapon (ARRW) will be tested in the “September-October timeframe,” Stupic added.

A model of the Boeing Load Adaptable Modular Pylon for the B-1 Lancer is displayed in Oklahoma City. — A model of Boeing’s Load Adaptable Modular Pylon for the B-1 Lancer is displayed in Oklahoma City. Photo by John Tirpak/Air & Space Forces Magazine

Stupic also said AFLCMC is working around measures that were taken to render the B-1’s external hardpoints inoperative under the START treaty, so they couldn’t carry AGM-86B Air-Launched Cruise Missiles externally.

He said there’s “still the structure where you can mount a pylon and that’s we’re doing the work around to get these pylons hanging, but there’s no more wiring, no more power, no more cruise missile control box. It was all ripped out for the START Treaty. So, a lot of work to wake it up again.”

At the moment, the Air Force is focused on using the LAM pylon for testing weapons, Rogers said. He demurred, however, when asked if it could have other uses.

”Ultimately, we’ll see where the Air Force wants to go; if they see the value or not from an operational perspective,” he noted.

Stress Test

Full-scale structural fatigue testing on a B-1 fuselage carcass and wing is also underway at Boeing’s Tukwila, Wash., facility in order to get ahead of the fleet and see if there are “potential risk areas,” Rogers said. That step that was skipped in the 1980s in the urgency to field the B-1.

Rogers could not quote how many hours the static articles have on them, but the testing has been successful, with nothing to suggest “we’ve got a hard, hard wall ahead of us that we’ve got to work around,” he said.

“Now we’re in the phase where we’re probably going to shut down for approximately the next year and really go through both the fuselage and the wing from an inspection standpoint, and documenting, looking for any of those safety problems or issues,” Rogers said.

At the moment, stress testing on the B-1 wing has progressed to the point where it has more wear and tear than the rest of the fleet, Rogers said. But still more has to be done for officials to get a better sense of the wings’ likely service life—likely another three or four years of testing.

The fuselage is further behind and will likely need five or six more years of stress tests, Rogers added.

“We’re keeping the fleet safe until the B-21 shows up,” Rogers said. “… We can keep that plane flying. It is just hard work.”

Structural issues found by the stress test—cracks, separations, etc.—are being addressed on a secondary structures repair line at the B-1 depot at Tinker Air Force Base, Okla., Rogers said, which keeps more of the remaining B-1s in service and shortens depot time.

Digital Twin

The Air Force also has two B-1 carcasses that have been disassembled at the National Institute of Aviation Research at Wichita State University, Kan., for the purposes of creating digital twins.

“Pretty much all the structural parts” have been scanned twice, Stupic said, to create computer-aided design/digital twins of the B-1 that can help predict structural issues and create a baseline for upgrades.

So far, 4,000 of a planned 51,000 CAD models of the B-1’s structure have been completed, he said.

“And what my engineers intend to do is use those better CAD models for real aircraft, [and] bounce them against the drawings from the 1980s that may or may not have ever been updated,” he noted.

Drawings were rushed for production in the 1980s, he said, and “now I have a model that is good for re-procurement of part ‘X,’” that can be provided to the Defense Logistics Agency, which can then use them for parts competitions.

“Anyone can bid on the darn part because it is not something you need” to reverse-engineer 1980s drawings to build, Stupic explained. Modern processes can rapidly reproduce the needed parts and “we are hoping that will reduce our cycle times,” he said.

While the second digital twin, which looks at large structures, is not expected to yield the same level of structural fidelity models as the real-world stress test at Tukwila, “if the results from [the stress test] starts matching, maybe we don’t have to flutter that wing at Tukwila, maybe I have enough correlating data in the digital model that it’s good enough to use in scenarios like this,” Stupic said.

He added that “everything is cycle time, now. My pitch to my folks is, ‘cycle time in weapons integration and cycle time in software releases.” The B-1 is about to have its first agile software release this fall, he added. “Cycle time is a competitive advantage in this environment.”

Air Force Finds Hazardous Chemicals in Some ICBM Facilities

Aug. 7, 2023 | By Chris Gordon

The Air Force has found hazardous chemicals exceeding acceptable levels at two launch control centers at Malmstrom Air Force Base, Mont., and has ordered an immediate cleanup, according to an Air Force memo obtained by Air & Space Forces Magazine.

The Aug. 4 memo summarizes the results of air and swipe environmental testing that was done as part of the Missile Community Cancer Study and written by Col. Tory Woodard, who commands the U.S. Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine (USAFSAM).

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

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

Not all of the samples have raised alarms. Three hundred air and swipe samples were taken at Malmstrom’s Launch Control Centers and Missile Alert Facilities and 279 of these yielded “non-detectable results,” an AFGSC spokesman said. No PCBs were detected in any of the air samples.

Two launch control centers appear problematic. Of the 40 swipe samples taken there, 11 contained PCBs. Nine of those samples were below acceptable levels. Two of those samples were above acceptable levels, prompting the Air Force to take immediate action.

“Based on the initial results from the survey team, which discovered PCB levels above the cleanup threshold designated by law in two of our facilities, I directed 20th Air Force to take immediate measures to begin the clean up process for the affected facilities and mitigate exposure by our Airmen and Guardians to potentially hazardous conditions,” Gen. Thomas A. Bussiere, the head of Air Force Global Strike Command, said in a statement. “These measures will stay in place until I am satisfied that we are providing our missile community with a safe and clean work environment.”

PCB production was banned in 1979, but the intercontinental ballistic missile facilities are decades old. A Global Strike Command official familiar with the study previously told Air & Space Forces Magazine the Air Force began phasing out PCBs at ICBM facilities in the 1980s.

Former missileers and other personnel have long been concerned about the risk of cancer stemming from their duties at the base. Those worries were reinforced 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 Missile Community Cancer Study overseen by U.S. Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine. The study has two parts: environmental sampling and an epidemiological study, which will take 12-14 months to complete, to assess cancer rates.

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. The Air Force’s three ICBM bases are Malmstrom Air Force Base, Mont.; F.E. Warren Air Force Base, Wyo.; and Minot Air Force Base, N.D. The ICBM silos themselves are spread out over vast fields that reach into five states.

Among the potential dangers, the study teams found stickers indicating the presence of PCBs in older electronics.

“They were broadly used across industries in electrical, heat transfer, and hydraulic equipment and can persist for long periods in the environment,” Air Force Global Strike Command said of PCBs in a statement.

Swipe tests involve gauze wetted with a solution run over surfaces and then analyzed for suspected contaminants. But PCBs are not the only concern. In addition to the air and swipe samples from Malmstrom, water and soil sampling has been done to test for radon, organic phosphates, and other hazards.

“The water and soil samples for Malmstrom and all of the test data from both F.E. Warren and Minot AFB sites have not been received and analyzed yet,” the AFGSC spokesman said. “We expect to have that data complete in a couple of months.”

The team also conducted additional testing to identify any hazardous conditions related to indoor air quality. Samples will identify if there are any harmful levels of carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, ambient temperature, and humidity.

Officials said the planned environmental monitoring is extensive—roughly 2,000 samples per base, Woodard said in an interview in June. Environmental sampling at Malmstrom was done June 22-29 by experts from USAFSAM and Defense Centers for Public Health, according to Woodard’s Aug. 4 memo.

“Our team will work with appropriate leadership and agencies to help further investigate, advise, and assist in developing clean-up, follow-up and medical recommendations based on the above findings,” Woodard wrote of the presence of PCBs.

Woodard promised “a thorough look at all environmental and occupational hazards.”

New Rules to Speeding Up Mental Health Care Referrals for Airmen, Guardians

Aug. 7, 2023 | By Greg Hadley

Airman and Guardians seeking mental health care have access to a new referral system intended to accelerate accesss, the Department of the Air Force announced Aug. 7.

Under the new system, made possible by the Brandon Act, signed into law last December, service members can request a mental health referral for any reason by notifying their commander or an enlisted supervisor at the E-6 paygrade or higher. Commanders or supervisors must immediately contact the mental health clinic and request an appointment for the member by the following day, according to an Air Force release. Appointments can be in-person, online, online, or over the phone.

Detailed of the Brandon Act “Commander/ Supervisor Facilitated Referral Program” first appeared in a memo posted to the unofficial Air Force amn/nco/snco Facebook page. An Air Force spokeswoman confirmed the memo’s veracity to Air & Space Forces Magazine.

According to the July 28 memo signed by Secretary Frank Kendall, the program will be implemented in phases. Phase 1 applies to all Active-Duty service members, including Guard and Reserve members on orders of more than 30 days. Phase 2 applies to Guardsmen and Reservists on orders of 30 days or less.

Phase 1 is already implemented, the Air Force spokeswoman told Air & Space Forces Magazine. She said more guidance is needed from the Office of the Secretary of Defense before the Phase II can launch.

The memo states all requests for mental health evaluations referrals must be honored, regardless of impact on mission or location, and service members do not have to tell their commander or supervisor why they are requesting the referral, though the commander can speak with the member when they make their request.

There is no limit on the number of referrals a service member can ask for, and the results of the evaluation will not be disclosed to a supervisor unless there is a “safety, readiness, or duty concern,” the memo said.

The new program does not require Airmen and Guardians to go to their commanders to get mental health help—they are free to seek independent self-referrals on their own. And it doesn’t change commanders’ and supervisors’ ability to direct subordinates for mandatory evaluations.

All referrals under the Brandon Act must be fulfilled by a “privileged [mental health] professional,” according to the memo, not a chaplain or a military and family life counselor.

The Brandon Act is named after Navy Aviation Electrician’s Mate 3rd Class Brandon Caserta, who died by suicide in 2018. His parents were driving forces in crafting and passing the legislation through Congress, and undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness Gilbert Cisneros Jr. signed a policy in May directing the services to implement the law.

“I spoke with the Caserta family and listened to their experience,” Kendall said in a statement. “They bravely shared the story of their son in hopes to help save others. We must honor their spirit and remind every supervisor and leader in the Air Force and Space Force of their duty and legal obligation to help fellow teammates who ask for assistance.”

“As leaders and supervisors learn about the Brandon Act, we hope it lifts the stigma that some have when asking for help,” said Patrick Caserta, father of Petty Officer Caserta. “Asking for help is an act of courage and mature judgement—in our call with Secretary Kendall, we believe we have the right leaders to help lead the change and improve our military and save lives. We want to thank Secretary Kendall for embracing and implementing the Brandon Act. We appreciate the hard work that he has and continues to do for our Airmen and Guardians.”

The Navy and Marine Corps announced they were implementing the Brandon Act last month. The Army has yet to announce that it has fully implemented a program.

Suicide prevention and mental health continue to be a pressing concern for the Air Force and Space Force, along with the rest of the military. Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III implemented recommendations from an independent review committee this March, and the Department of the Air Force has a cross-functional team responsible to identify barriers to mental health and resilience for Airmen and Guardians.

KC-46 Update: Where Things Stand With Every Deficiency

Aug. 7, 2023 | By Greg Hadley

DAYTON, Ohio—More than six years after the Air Force identified the first serious deficiency on the KC-46 tanker, six Category 1 deficiencies still remain and a seventh was downgraded to Category 2 in April, said Col. Leigh Ottati, chief of the KC-46 program office—the first public announcement of that development

Ottati detailed the deficiencies still plaguing the Pegasus during the Life Cycle Industry Days conference last week and shared updated timelines for resolving some of them.

The Air Force defines a Category 1 deficiency as one which “may cause death, severe injury, or severe occupational illness; may cause loss or major damage to a weapon system; critically restricts the combat readiness capabilities of the using organization; or result in a production line stoppage.” Category 2 defects, meanwhile, “impede or constrain successful mission accomplishment.”

The Government Accountability Office noted seven Category 1 deficiencies on the KC-46 in January 2022, and 19 months later none have been fully resolved. The Air Force worked with subcontractor GE Aerospace to develop a software fix for issues with the KC-46’s flight management system, Ottati said, but while the fix appears to be working it remains under observation.

“We’re going to do that for a period of time to make sure that all the software fixes that are out there are working, which they have been, and then we’ll close that deficiency completely,” he said.

RVS 2.0

The most prominent problem for the KC-46 is its troubled Remote Vision System, the camera and video system boom operators use to refuel other aircraft. The Air Force claims two Category 1 deficiencies related to the RVS, one of which causes the other. In certain lighting conditions, the boom operator is unable to see the receptacle clearly, and that can result in damage to the receiving plane if the boom scrapes against that aircraft. Aircraft like the B-2 and F-22 that have special stealth coatings are particularly susceptible to damage. The planned fix, a brand-new system RVS 2.0 solution, isn’t expected to be ready until 2025, Ottati confirmed. Contractor Boeing offered its first look at RVS 2.0 to Air & Space Forces Magazine late last year, saying it hoped to field them by October 2025.

“We still have challenges and schedule risks with RVS 2.0, but right now, we’re working closely with Boeing and their main subcontractor, Collins, on continuing to progress well with that, and intending to complete the development in late ’25 as previously reported, and then go straight into retrofits,” Ottati said.

Once RVS 2.0 is ready, Boeing will retrofit the Air Force’s KC-46s at Cecil Airport in Jacksonville, Fla., with the process taking about two months, Ottati said.

In the meantime, Boeing and the Air Force are still trying to close out the last “critical action item” from RVS 2.0’s critical design review, which has been ongoing since June 2022.

“The last critical action item had to do with the FAA certification plan for the commercial off-the-shelf cameras that are in the RVS 2.0 solution,” Ottati said. We’ve been working very closely with Boeing and the FAA on that and we have a good path forward and expect to close out that last critical action from CDR this quarter, so by the end of September.”

Stiff Boom

Another deficiency identified more than half a decade ago is “stiffness” in the refueling boom—certain aircraft that can’t produce as much thrust, such as the A-10, cannot provide enough force to keep the boom in place during refueling.

The problem is the boom’s actuator, which “drives the boom out in the telescope direction, and then when a receiver connects with it, the receiver drives the boom back into sort of a nominal refueling position,” Boeing KC-46 Program Manager James Burgess previously told Air & Space Forces Magazine.

Rather than redesign the entire boom, Boeing and the Air Force have opted to redesign the actuator, but developing a compliant actuator has proven difficult, Ottati said.

“We just recently had a Test Readiness Review meeting with Boeing and [subctontractor] Moog, and there’s still some challenges with [the boom telescope actuator redesign],” Ottati said. “Right now, we’re still expecting an early fiscal 2025 completion of the development for BATR [the telescoping boom actuator replacement]. And we have some margin until we can start retrofit, because of the long lead items for the retrofit portion. But we’re still struggling a little bit with the BTAR schedule and working closely with Boeing and Moog to make sure that we don’t eat up that margin that we have between the finishing of development and the start of retrofit, based on again, those long lead items.”

Quality Deficiencies

The remaining Category 1 deficiencies are all related to KC-46 product quality, Ottati said.

One is related to the tanker’s auxiliary power unit’s drain mast on the outside of the tail, which could potentially crack or break loose. The Air Force previously downgraded that deficiency to a Category 2, believing it had an interim fix, but backtracked after cracks continued to appear, Ottati said. Boeing is developing a long-term fix—“a newer, more robust drain mast, beefed-up APU doors,” Ottati said, but USAF is being cautious before declaring the problem solved.

“[We want to] make sure we have the right data, the appropriate data to ensure that we’re not seeing the same excessive vibrations and cracking in APU drain masts,” Ottati said. “And I say appropriate data because it’s primarily at high speeds with the boom lowered that we were seeing those kind of vortices in the back of the aircraft that were causing that vibration. So I want to make sure we have a significant amount of flight hours showing that those drain masts are not an issue any longer. Maybe six months or longer before we will look at potentially downgrading those and downgrading that one as well.”

Another deficiency is bad seals, that lead to fuel system leaks. Boeing officials say they’ve redesigned the valve seals to make them easier to install, and both Boeing and Air Force officials say they’re seeing far fewer leaks as a result.

But Ottati said he’s not ready to declare that deficiency resolved either.

“We’ll analyze in the next six months if that’s one we could downgrade and close at some point,” he said. “I don’t want to close … prematurely. I want to make sure that we have the right fix and plan for the retrofit for the entire fleet that’s affected.”

The final product quality deficiency relates to cracks in a drain line. “It’s a drain line that comes from the receptacle of the KC-46, through the flight deck, and then exits out the bottom of the aircraft—primarily for any excess fuel or water or anything like that to make sure that it doesn’t stay within the receptacle and drains,” Ottati said. “And what we’re seeing is because of the design, in cold temperatures with remaining water or fuel in the line, that drain line was cracking, creating the potential that there could be fuel on the flight deck.”

Progress on that fix has been slowed by the need for FAA certifications, but Boeing is hoping to begin flight testing a solution in the next month or so. After that, Ottati said, the Air Force will finalize the design and retrofits will begin.

Tyndall Finally Has Its First Four F-35s. What Happens Next?

Aug. 4, 2023 | By David Roza

TYNDALL AIR FORCE Base, Fla.—The first three F-35 fighter jets assigned to Tyndall Air Force Base, Fla., arrived there Aug. 1 after a cross-country flight from Luke Air Force Base, Ariz., and a stop for gas in Fort Worth, Texas, marking a historic milestone for the base, which, five years after being leveled by Hurricane Michael, is transitioning from an F-22 pilot training base to a centerpiece for the Air Force’s operational F-35 enterprise.

The jets are assigned to Tyndall’s historic 95th Fighter Squadron, which reactivated in June after a four-year hiatus. A fourth F-35 arrived Aug. 3, making a four-ship for the ‘Boneheads,’ a nickname which dates back to World War II.

“I was able to look to my right and see the two other F-35s with the tails painted in the Tyndall checker pattern, and then I looked to my left and I could see Tyndall, Panama City, and the airfield,” Lt. Col. Hunter Powell, commander of the 95th Fighter Squadron and one of the three pilots who flew in on Aug. 1, told Air & Space Forces Magazine. “That was when you kind of realize ‘this is a big moment.’”

tyndall f-35 — U.S. Air Force Col. George Watkins, 325th Fighter Wing commander, prepares to exit an F-35A Lightning II at Tyndall Air Force Base, Florida, Aug. 1, 2023. U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Stefan Alvarez

Barring further F-35 production delays, the 95th plans to grow to 16 aircraft by the end of summer 2024 and reach its full operational capability with 24 primary assigned aircraft and two more in reserve by the middle of 2025. Two other squadrons of equal strength will round out the 325th Fighter Wing, making Tyndall the first base in Air Combat Command where the host unit is an operational F-35 wing. That arrangement will make Tyndall a one-stop shop for deploying F-35s downrange as part of the Air Force’s new force generation model, AFFORGEN, where pilots, aircraft maintenance, command and control, and base support elements deploy together overseas.

“This is the Air Force’s vision for how we deploy in the future,” said Col. George Watkins, commander of the 325th and another of the three pilots to bring Tyndall’s first F-35s home Aug. 1. “This team trains together, day in and day out, and then deploys together to go set up a wing somewhere, instead of individual units sending squadrons and falling in under a different commander that no one’s ever met.”

Though the wing is far from full strength, the 95th can still sharpen its skills with the aircraft it has on hand. Over the next few months, pilots will practice basic fighter maneuvers, basic surface attack, and suppression of enemy air defenses (SEAD). The squadron received its first surface-to-air missile threat emitter late last month, an Expendable Low-cost Integrated Training Emitter (ELITE) that will be put to good use helping pilots prepare for their “bread-and-butter” SEAD mission, Powell said.

In the wake of Hurricane Michael and with Tyndall having previously been a primarily air-to-air focused base, the 325th will have to develop electronic warfare ranges in order to put on robust SEAD exercises. The wing expects to receive more threat emitters over the next few months to start making those ranges a reality.

“We joke that we have the entire range in our office right now,” Powell said, referring to the lone ELITE already delivered.

Tyndall can fly the basics for now, but “the more jets you can fly at a time, the better it is for advanced tactics,” Watkins explained. Luckily, there are plenty of nearby units to help. Just 90 miles west of Tyndall lies Eglin Air Force Base, which hosts the F-35-equipped 33rd Fighter Wing. More F-35s are also due to arrive at the Alabama Air National Guard base in Montgomery and the Florida Air National Guard base at Jacksonville. Tyndall also hosts major annual fighter exercises such as Checkered Flag, Weapons System Evaluation Program-East (WSEP), and Combat Archer.

“What pushes us over the edge of success here are the integration opportunities,” Powell said. “That integration turns our four-ship into 12, 16, 24 ships of awesome high-end training.”

Still, there may be challenges ahead as the F-35 presence grows at Tyndall. The 325th Fighter Wing does not want to end up with many more pilots than aircraft at the base, which would limit opportunities to fly. But personnel management plans can be disrupted when F-35 deliveries are delayed due to production issues.

“When the jets get delivered or whether any modifications are needed, those are all things that are outside of our control,” Powell said. “If one of our assumptions changes on the aircraft side, then we have to go back and re-calculate what we want to do [on the personnel side], but some of those personnel wheels can’t be turned off.”

The balancing act is a challenge, but “that’s part of the nature of the beast,” he said. “It is what it is.”

Another challenge is scheduling: while the training airspace over the Gulf Coast is massive, staking flight time for all the various military aviation units that share it may take some doing as more F-35s arrive at Tyndall.

“I won’t say there’ll be zero pain points, but that comes with the territory,” said Col. Chris Bergtholdt, commander of the 325th Operations Group. “We’ve got a process and everybody works through what the priorities are for that month.”

An F-15 and F-22 pilot, Bergtholdt flew one of Tyndall’s few remaining Raptors to its new home at Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Va., late last month. The colonel is a product of the 43rd Fighter Squadron, the only formal training unit for the Raptor community, which has put down roots in the Florida Panhandle over its years at Tyndall and then at Eglin in the wake of Hurricane Michael. Seeing it move to Virginia, which will be the new home of F-22 training, is bittersweet.

“Every Raptor pilot to this point had gone through that squadron,” said Bergtholdt, who will learn to fly the Lighting II in a few weeks. “It’s certainly sad to see that mission leave the Panhandle … but the F-35 is a great aircraft and it’s great to bring flying back here to Tyndall.”

Unlike other F-35 units standing up across the Air Force, Tyndall has the additional challenge of being in the middle of a sweeping reconstruction effort after Hurricane Michael. Under a plan known as ‘Installation of the Future,’ the Air Force seeks to rebuild the base so that it can withstand future Category 5 hurricanes and be safer, stronger, and more efficient than before.

The plan includes state-of-the-art combination hangar/headquarters for each of its three F-35 squadrons, but those are not expected to be finished until 2026. In the meantime, the squadron will work out of temporary facilities while negotiating congestion, construction, and a lot of paperwork. Besides jets and pilots, fighter squadrons also need pens, pencils, warehouses full of spare parts, containers for taking those spare parts on a deployment, computers, paper shredders, and myriad other tools and materials.

“There are all these little nuts and bolts and that takes a lot of work to prioritize, shop on these government equivalents of an Amazon list, and then supply your squadron,” Powell said.

The work adds up, but wing members are excited to help write a new chapter in the history of Tyndall and the wider F-35 enterprise.

“Every day is a milestone,” Powell said. “We’re under a lens in a good way: everybody is looking at the great things we are doing, and everything we do is a big growth step.”

Watkins, who once had a similar role as Powell while leading Hill Air Force Base’s 34th Fighter Squadron as it transitioned to F-35s in 2015, held the same view.

“It’s the people who make the culture and the people who make the Installation of the Future,” he said. “So even though our facilities are going to be Hurricane 5-rated and our jets are going to be top of the line, I’m really excited to see where our Airmen take us.”

Lockheed Could Adapt F-22 Stealth Fuel Tanks for Other Aircraft Like F-35

Aug. 4, 2023 | By John A. Tirpak

DAYTON, Ohio—The low-drag, stealthy fuel tanks and pylons Lockheed Martin is developing for the F-22 are potentially applicable to other aircraft like the F-35, the head of Lockheed’s Integrated Fighter Group told Air & Space Forces Magazine.

Lockheed executive O.J. Sanchez and the Air Force’s director of fighters and advanced aircraft also said the Air Force’s hefty investments in F-22 capabilities over the next seven years will migrate to the Next Generation Air Dominance program and other platforms and won’t go to waste when the F-22 retires.

“There is an applicability” of the low-drag tanks and other capabilities being developed for the F-22 to the F-35 and other aircraft, said Sanchez, vice president and general manager of Lockheed’s integrated fighter group, who oversees the F-22, F-16, and T-50.

Sanchez does not speak for the F-35 program and did not specify that platform as a confirmed user of the F-22 upgrade technologies.

Speaking at the Air Force’s Life Cycle Industry Days conference, Sanchez said, “That really is the kind of thinking that we talk about every day as an industry partner; is, ‘how do we do this integration work the best we can so that there’s opportunities for reuse on other platforms?’”

In its fiscal 2024 budget documents, the Air Force said the long-range tanks, which can be jettisoned, will give the F-22 a much-needed range boost in the Pacific theater. They presumably could do the same for the F-35, while simultaneously reducing the burden on aerial tankers. Stealth tanks and pylons for the F-35 would need specific design, however, to harmonize with the aircraft’s stealth shaping.

The F-35 Joint Program Office did not immediately respond to queries about potential stealth fuel tanks for the F-35.

Sanchez could not characterize the degree of cross-pollination between F-22 and F-35 but said that Lockheed is “looking across … the airpower solutions, and if there is an applicability [on another platform], we will do everything we can to build that capability in.” The Air Force’s program offices can then decide whether they want that capability, he said.

The Air Force is on the cusp of deploying the stealthy fuel tanks, an infrared search-and-track system, and other capabilities on the F-22 that will allow it to “go further, sense further and shoot further,” Sanchez said. That’s the Air Force’s vision for the F-22’s remaining service life and “we’re aligned with that and we’re going to do all we can to help bring those visions to reality,” he said.

The Air Force plans to upgrade the F-22 to keep up with adversary capabilities through around 2030, at which time the NGAD is expected to begin replacing it. The Air Force’s fiscal 2024 budget request forecasts spending $9.06 billion on new capabilities for the F-22 through 2030, on top of the cost of operating the fleet.

The F-22 is also the threshold platform for the AIM-260 Joint Advanced Tactical Missile, about which conference panelists would say little. The missile’s existence was revealed at the conference in 2019, at which time it was forecast the JATM would be operational in 2022 or 2023. The Air Force has only acknowledged that testing is underway.

Brig. Gen. (Maj. Gen. Select) Dale White, program executive officer for fighters and advanced aircraft, said the Air Force plans to keep the F-22 at the cutting edge of air-to-air technology through its remaining service life, and that it will serve as a technological “bridge” to the NGAD.

“We continue to modernize and sustain” the Raptor, White told reporters at the conference. He noted improvements such as the infrared search-and-track system, “advanced weapons, extended range capabilities, Link 16, Mode 5 IFF (Identification Friend or Foe), resilient [navigation], low drag tanks and pylons; all those things are still a key focus.”

White said “we’re making tremendous progress on all those capabilities” on a fighter modernization roadmap that will “address the requirements of today and that bridge” to NGAD.

White also noted that the F-22 and NGAD will fly together in a combined test force at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., the better to practice the techniques, tactics, and procedures necessary to achieve air superiority.

Asked to explain why the Air Force should continue to lay out huge sums for F-22 modernization when it will retire in just over seven years, White said “you can’t turn your back on the threat.”

“The threat gets a vote,” he added. “And so we have to focus on that, making sure we have the capability to address today’s requirements. And then, as we work on future activities, it’s tomorrow’s threats.”

The technologies that go into the Raptor’s modernization will also apply across the portfolio, he said.

“To assume that things that what I do on F-22 won’t feed into the technology maturation or future capabilities; that’s … probably a bad assumption,” he said. Lessons learned on preserving the F-22’s edge will apply to other platforms, if not the “specific” hardware, he said. These include the IRST, electronic warfare, and other capabilities, he added, noting that such capabilities could apply to non-tactical air programs as well.

“At the end of the day, we still have a threat we have to address now,” White insisted. “The F-22 represents our ability to address that threat and it will continue to be the bridge to NGAD, and in order to do that, we have to keep it modernized; we have to keep it lethal and operationally viable.”