US MQ-9s Flying Over Gaza Amid Israel-Hamas War

Nov. 3, 2023 | By Chris Gordon

The U.S. has been flying MQ-9 drones over Gaza as Washington tries to gather information about American and other hostages held by Hamas and other militants there.

The flights, which the Pentagon acknowledged Nov. 3, began after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel that killed more than 1,400 people and has led to a fierce conflict.

Roughly 240 hostages were taken by Hamas, including some American citizens. The Pentagon said the drones are not carrying weapons but are conducting surveillance missions.

“In support of hostage recovery efforts, the U.S. is conducting unarmed UAV flights over Gaza, as well as providing advice and assistance to support our Israeli partner as they work on their hostage recovery efforts,” Pentagon Press Secretary Air Force Brig. Gen. Patrick S. Ryder said in an emailed statement. “These UAV flights began after the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas on Israel.”

The MQ-9 flights were first spotted by online flight trackers.

Earlier today, a drone that was tracked from a position off the coast of Crete loitered over Gaza for just under 3 hours.

What wasn't visible on flight trackers were two MQ-9A Extended Range Reaper drones also in the area: REMIX22 & REMIX55 from NAS Sigonella. #ADSB #E9D001 1/2 https://t.co/wtqFbS6CQe pic.twitter.com/rbN4etxf4F
— Amelia Smith (@ameliairheart) October 29, 2023

The Israel Defense Forces are mounting a ground offensive in Gaza in response to Hamas’ assault. Israeli forces have already cut the enclave in two by pushing across Gaza to the Mediterranean. Meanwhile, other Israeli ground forces are advancing from the north.

The goal is to uproot Hamas, an Iranian-backed militia that also has a political wing that controls Gaza. Israel’s ground assault has been accompanied by a punishing air campaign.

The U.S. has provided precision-guided munitions, air defense systems, and ammunition to the Israelis. U.S. personnel are also advising the Israelis on hostage recovery and how to reduce the risk of civilian casualties. One of those advisors was Marine Lt. Gen. James Glynn, who was sent to Israel in October but has since returned to the U.S.

In an Oct. 31 memo obtained by Air & Space Forces Magazine, Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III restricted military support for Congressional delegations and most official government travel to Israel. The decision was made because of the “unnecessary risk and undue burden such flights put on our personnel,” a defense official said.

“We, the U.S. military, are not participating in IDF target development helping them run their campaign—just to be crystal clear that it is their operation,” Ryder told reporters on Nov. 2. “That planning element is providing planning and intelligence support as it relates to hostage recovery.”

A U.S. official familiar with U.S. MQ-9 operations over Gaza declined to say whether the drones belonged to the U.S. military or a different U.S. agency. The official also declined to discuss operational details of the missions.

Over the past year, the U.S. military has used MQ-9 drones, RC-135 Rivet Joint signals intelligence aircraft, P-8 Poseidon maritime patrol and surveillance aircraft, and other ISR platforms in the Middle East. A senior administration official said there were unarmed U.S. military assets operating in the region.

According to publicly available transponder data from the flight tracking website ADS-B Exchange, a U.S. Air Force RC-135 Rivet Joint flew off the coast of Israel and Gaza in recent days.

The flight path of an aircraft with a transponder corresponding to a U.S. Air Force RC-135 flying over the eastern Mediterranean Sea in November is shown on the flight tracking website ADS-B Exchange/Screenshot

Other assets, such as the E-2D Hawkeye airborne battle management and E/A-18 Growler electronic warfare aircraft, are embarked on the USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier, which is in the eastern Mediterranean Sea.

“We’re there to support any requests necessary to ensure that U.S. forces, U.S. personnel, and U.S. interests are secure across the region,” a senior U.S. defense official told reporters on Oct. 30.

In the days following Hamas’ attack on Israel, the British government announced the deployment of P-8s as part of a package of forces meant to “deliver practical support to Israel and partners in the region.”

How the Air Force Builds Special Reconnaissance Commandos

Nov. 3, 2023 | By David Roza

Editor’s Note: This is the second in a three-part series about Special Reconnaissance. The first story can be found here, and the third can be found here.

FORT LIBERTY N.C. – Two Airmen hid in the dark, in a small hole by the side of the road running through a pine forest. Across the road, just 80 yards away, was their target: a train station they had to monitor for 24 hours for signs of enemy movement. It was bold to creep up so close, but the small ridge line into which they had dug their hide site blocked the sight lines from deeper in the woods.

The Airmen were eventually caught by the “enemy” in this training exercise, but the inconvenient ridge made clear the need for their career field: Special Reconnaissance. SR Airmen are trained in all forms of reconnaissance, from drones and cyber warfare to crawling through swamps and peering through a sniper scope. Their mission is to provide timely and accurate intelligence to airpower planners—even if they have to sneak onto an adversary’s front lawn to get it.

“Even if you have satellite imagery, you’re not going to pick up this little hill that makes a very big difference,” said Capt. Max Krasnov, a special tactics officer and training flight commander with the 352nd Special Warfare Training Squadron. The unit is based at Pope Army Airfield, N.C., home of the SR Apprentice Course.

“If you’re back 200 yards, you can see cars drive by, but that’s about the level of fidelity you can get,” Krasnov told Air & Space Forces Magazine. “If we need them to positively identify a guy with a mustache and a limp in his left leg, that is going to drive how bold they are about where they need to be.”

Sneaking up on a target requires its own set of skills, especially in this part of North Carolina, where the ground cover is sparse and a carpet of pine needles crunches underfoot.

“It sounds silly, but it is a skill just knowing how to walk through the woods in a tactical manner,” Krasnov said. “If you go hunting and sit in a tree for hours, and all of a sudden a deer appears, you’re like, ‘How did that just get there? I didn’t hear it, I didn’t see it walking up.’ Someone who’s really good, it’s almost like they can do that.”

special reconnaissance — A trainee from the 352nd Special Warfare Training Squadron fast ropes out of a civilian H225 Super Puma helicopter on Mackall Army Airfield, North Carolina, Oct. 24, 2023. For some trainees, it was their first time in a helicopter. (U.S. Air Force photo by Capt. Xiaofan Liu)

Crawl, Walk, Run

By the time Airmen arrive at Pope for the SR and Combat Control Apprentice Courses, they already have been training to join special tactics for months. The pipeline starts with the special warfare candidate course, followed by the grueling special warfare assessment and selection course, both at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, Tex. Part of the goal of those courses is to put candidates through intense physical training to see if they can handle the demands of the profession.

Those who pass through assessment and selection go on to a series of schools across the country such as pre-dive swimming and water confidence, static line parachuting, freefall parachuting, and survival, evasion, resistance, and escape (SERE) training. The journey continues at the four-month apprentice course.

“The diving and jumping, that gets you to work,” Krasnov said. “This course is what you do when you get there.”

Crawl, walk, run is the name of the game. Students learn how to read a map and compass, then start navigating through the woods, a change of pace for many who have relied on GPS-enabled smartphones all their lives. They learn how to safely handle a firearm and how to shoot accurately, how to move on a battlefield and how to position themselves in a team fight. Later, they master small unit tactics, like bounding movements and ambush maneuvers.

“If you’re doing an L [-shaped ambush], you’ve got to make it an L, it can’t be, I don’t know, whatever the f— that was,” remarked one instructor after a drill. “While you’re making these big flanking movements, you’ve got to make sure you’re keeping track of where you are geographically in relation to your support-by-fire, so they can effectively support you.”

Easier said than done. Students had to yell commands through gas masks as fake artillery rounds went off around them and smoke grenades tinted the air pink and purple. An untrained observer could barely identify the camo-clad students amidst the leaves. But learning how to operate in such confused and stressful conditions is the whole objective of this course.

“Anyone can learn to program a radio—it’s not hard,” said Krasnov. “We need people who can reprogram a radio when they are cold, hungry, haven’t slept in two or three days and are in the middle of a firefight.”

Combat controller and special tactics officer students must rescue team members from simulated capture during Tactics Field Week on July 20, 2023, in the North Carolina forests. (U.S. Air Force photo by Miriam Thurber)

Bread-and-butter

Usually about a quarter of the students at Pope aim to join SR, while the rest hope to become combat controllers (CCTs), who are experts at coordinating aircraft with ground operations. The students train on many skills together, such as land navigation and small-unit tactics, but they split up for skills specific to each career field. The SR Airmen learn the basics of weather observation, intelligence processing and reporting, surveillance and reconnaissance equipment and techniques, long-range shooting with the M110 rifle, and stalking lanes, where Airmen build ghillie suits, using grass or other forms of ground cover camouflage, and learn to move around undetected.

“It looks super cool,” said Tech Sgt. J, an SR instructor whose full name was withheld for security reasons. “And then you do it for the first time and you realize that it is miserable, especially if it’s really hot out. People don’t realize how hot ghillie suits are.”

In the stalking lanes, J explained, students have to sneak up to a truck full of instructors, close enough so they can identify the letter on a placard one of them is holding up—all while evading the trained eyes of the instructors. It is a difficult task, but an essential one for sneaking deep into enemy territory, which SR Airmen may have to do if satellites are offline or the airspace is too heavily defended for aerial surveillance.

“Even if SR Airmen use cyber or electronic warfare, they still have to get to a location the enemy doesn’t want them to be, without them knowing,” said Krasnov.

The SR students learn the basics of operating small unmanned aerial systems, starting with tiny quadcopters about the size of a dinner plate. Though easy to fly, operating them effectively in an undercover military operation requires deep understanding, such as how high to fly to remain undetected, counter-drone techniques adversaries might use to evade drones’ thermal sensors, safe operating range and timelines, and how many spare batteries to bring for a mission.

The apprentice course is really only a starting point: graduates will continue their training for another six more months at a special tactics training squadron. Advanced SR skills include operating fixed-wing drones and top-secret cyber and electronic warfare tools.

Best Friends

The apprentice course ends with a week-long final training exercise where CCT and SR students demonstrate the skills they learned over the past four months. The exercise often begins with students parachuting into a simulated contested environment, after which they must establish a forward operating base and pursue follow-on missions, like striking a target or capturing an airfield to land a C-130 or to airdrop troops and supplies.

The exercise gives the students a chance to practice the basics of their respective career fields: CCT students may establish and operate an airfield or call in air support, while SR students may have to sneak up on a target and gather intelligence for an ambush. The exercise ends with a 15-mile ruck march back to base.

Graduation is a hard-won moment for both students and instructors. “These students, within a year they’re going to be on team with all of the instructors’ best friends,” Krasnov said. So instructors are incentivized to do a good job. “One, the instructors want to make sure they’re not going to get their friends killed. And two, all their friends know that we are responsible for the quality of the students. So they don’t want their buddies to rag on them for producing bad students.”

Another New B-21 Photo Shows Mysterious Vertical Features

Nov. 2, 2023 | By John A. Tirpak

New tail-end images of the first B-21 bomber undergoing engine runs and taxi tests outside Northrop Grumman’s facilities in Palmdale, Calif. show vertical features that have industry experts scratching their heads regarding some prominent elements.

The new photo, posted on Reddit by user Folding_White Table, shows two vertical features rising from the B-21’s upper midsection.

The two vertical armatures rise from just above the wing root of the blended wing body on both the port and starboard side, just above where the engine core or cores are likely placed. It’s unclear from the photo whether they are symmetrically positioned on the aircraft.

Based on previous photos, the vertical features are retractable.

At least one of the armatures was visible in an earlier, first view of the B-21’s aft deck, which circulated online in October. However, the angle of that photo made it hard to determine whether it was part of the aircraft or a background object.

This is the first look at the new B-21 Raiders rear-end.
byu/Specialist-Ad-5300 inaviation

In a Reddit post, u/Folding_White Table said the photos were taken from the intersection of 40^th Avenue East and Avenue N in Palmdale, right at the fence line of Northrop Grumman’s end of Air Force Plant 42. The photographer said the spot offers a “perfect view of runway 25/7, 22/4 and Site 4,” on the closest public road to Northrop’s facilities.

Industry experts asked to comment on what the objects might be—and speaking strictly on background, given the sensitive nature of the B-21—offered a range of speculation about the verticals.

A common interpretation is that the vertical armatures are coverings for auxiliary air intakes in the open position and are extended to allow more air into the engines for ground operations.

However, two experts disputed that, saying the armatures may be too far back on the aircraft and too slender to serve that purpose efficiently. One also noted that the armatures are “unusually tall” for such a purpose and so thin that the opening they putatively cover might not be big enough to supply the necessary air.

The verticals also appear to be triangular and pylon-shaped, rather than flat.

Experts ruled out that the verticals are antennas or sensors, as they would ruin the B-21’s stealthy shape if extended during an operational mission. They also discounted that they are extendible “saber drains” for venting fuel, as they are too far forward, and fuel vents are typically positioned at the aircraft’s tail.

Another possibility is that the features are there to disrupt a ground-based sensor from learning something about the B-21’s radar cross-section. The stealthy F-117 and F-35 both have a removable, faceted device that makes them more visible to air traffic controllers and increases their radar cross-section. On those aircraft, the objects are removed for combat.

On the B-2, which was manifestly the design basis for the B-21, the auxiliary air intakes are set just above and aft of the intake and give the appearance of four curved paddles, with two above each intake.

Two B-2 Spirits from Whiteman Air Force Base, Mo., arrive in Keflavik, Iceland to participate in a Bomber Task Force Europe operation with NATO allies, Aug. 13, 2023. U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Heather Salazar

The B-21’s vertical armatures are also near—but outboard of—an unexplained dark feature on the surface of the aircraft on both sides of the central hump or spine. This feature is also visible in the forward-quarter of an image of the aircraft released by the Air Force. It is inboard of the engine inlets in that image—not in line with them—on the side of the spine.

In both the forward and rear-view images, this feature is rounded and apparently teardrop-shaped, and darker than the aircraft’s overall light gray paint color. It also seems to have depth, with a potential wedge-shaped shadow within.

One expert suggested the dark feature is a mechanism to disperse the large quantity of heat likely generated by the B-21’s avionics, hence its proximity to a potential bleed air feature from the engines.

Another speculated that this darker feature could be a bleed air vent necessitated by the B-21’s serpentine inlets, which are air tunnels that conceal the engine fan blades but potentially create an airflow bottleneck ahead of the engines. The argument against this explanation is the fact that the feature isn’t in line with the likely position of the engines within the aircraft body.

As more and clearer views of the B-21 emerge through the taxi test process, the purpose of these new features may become more apparent.

Space Force Plans 21 National Security Launches in 2024

Nov. 2, 2023 | By Unshin Lee Harpley

The Space Force aims to boost its National Security Space Launch (NSSL) program from 12 launches in fiscal 2023 to 21 missions in 2024, with United Launch Alliance (ULA) responsible for 11 missions and SpaceX handling 10.

Nailing down all the contracting will come in phases, however, as the 2024 budget has yet to pass Congress and be signed into law. Fiscal 2024 began on Oct. 1, but the government is operating under a continuing resolution as lawmakers wrangle over differences.

“The government is only ordering eight missions now, due to continuing resolution,” said Col. Doug Pentecost, deputy program executive officer for Space Systems Command’s Assured Access to Space (SSC/AATS).

If the full program is executed, the launches and associated activities will pay $1.30 billion to ULA and $1.23 billion to SpaceX, Pentecost said.

SDA Launch — A SpaceX Falcon 9 launched the Space Development Agency’s Tranche 0 mission into low-Earth orbit from Vandenberg Space Force Base, Calif., in April. U.S. Space Force photo by Senior Airman Rocio Romo

Pentecost said the Space Force initially planned more ULA launches, but after evaluating readiness, production capacity, and the ability to meet demands, the split was adjusted. Over the entire 48 planned launches in the National Security Space Launch Phase 2 plan, ULA is now expected to be responsible for 26 launch assignments versus 22 for SpaceX. In all, Phase 2 will be substantially larger than the original estimate of 34 launches.

The 48 planned launches, to be executed within the next two to three years, encompass missions ranging from GPS to missile warning and space research and reconnaissance, according to SSC’s announcement.

ULA and SpaceX secured their contract for Phase 2 in August 2020, outperforming competitors including Northrop Grumman and Blue Origin. After this fifth and final Phase 2 award, the launch program will again be open to competition for Phase 3, which will cover the period from 2025 to 2034. That program is to be split into two segments, or “lanes.”

In Lane 1, SSC will award multiple indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity contracts. These five-year, renewable agreements are intended to increase the Space Force’s launch options and, through competition, to drive down costs. In Lane 2, USSF will award two contractors launch agreements to manage launches into all orbits with comprehensive mission-specific services.

Fiscal 2024 Launches

Launch Vendor	Program	Mission

United Launch Alliance	SDA T2TL-B	One of the Tranche 2 Transport Layer launches for the Space Development Agency (SDA)
	NROL-73, -56, -100, -109	Reconnaissance and intelligence missions conducted in partnership with the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO)
	STP-5	Supports SSC’s Space Test Program
	SILENTBARKER 2 / NROL-118	Joint NRO and SSC space domain awareness mission
	USSF-57	Next Generation Overhead Persistent Infrared GEO (NGG) satellites for survivable missile warning, tracking, and defense
	USSF-25	Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s (DARPA) DRACO to demonstrate a nuclear thermal rocket in orbit.
	USSF-95	Missile Track Custody (MTC) prototype satellite to evaluate future requirements
	GPS III-9	Part of GPS modernization
SpaceX	SDA T1TL-F, SDA T1TR-A, SDA T1TR-E	Tranche 1 of SDA’s planned Transport Layer for global military data connectivity
	SDA T2TL-A, SDA T2TL-C	First three Tranche 2 satellites in SDA’s Transport Layer
	USSF-75, USSF-70	Undisclosed Space Force missions
	NROL-77	A reconnaissance and intelligence mission in partnership with NRO
	GPS IIIF-1	First launch in GPS III Follow-on program
	GPS III-10	GPS Modernization

Inside the Air Force’s Newest SOF Career: Special Reconnaissance

Nov. 2, 2023 | By David Roza

Editor’s Note: This is the first of three-part series on Air Force Special Reconnaissance. The second story can be found here, and the third can be found here.

FORT LIBERTY, N.C.— In most professions, the path of least resistance is the best, but the opposite is often true for the Air Force’s newest special warfare field: special reconnaissance (SR).

“Going through sniper school, you try to walk through the worst terrain that you can find because that’s where nobody else wants to go,” said Tech Sgt. J, an SR Airman whose full name was withheld for security reasons. “Vines and sticks grabbing onto your ghillie suit … it can be a pretty humbling experience.

Sneaking through swamps is one of many key skills in SR, where the goal is to provide timely and accurate intelligence needed to apply airpower. They are trained on the full range of reconnaissance tools, from crawling in a ghillie suit and peering through a sniper scope to flying small drones to using other equipment to gather intelligence through cyberspace and electronic warfare.

“All the other sister services have their own reconnaissance assets,” J said. “The Air Force was looking at a more niche capability, specifically for what kind of problems pilots are going to have.”

SR first emerged in 2019 as the replacement for special operations weather teams (SOWT), which gathered weather and environmental intelligence in hostile territory. In the years before that shift, SOWT Airmen started adopting some of the skills that make up the core of SR today. Though SR training still includes some weather elements, the main purpose of the field is to conduct air-minded reconnaissance as the Air Force and the wider U.S. military prepare for a possible conflict against a near-peer adversary like China.

“Basically we are looking at solving the integrated air defense problem that China, Russia, or Iran is going to have,” J said. “We’d be looking at opening airways for follow-on forces. The Air Force doesn’t want to have to rely on Army assets to open up those airways.”

In a future conflict, SR Airmen may find themselves observing enemy anti-air defenses, gathering intelligence on enemy troop movements, conducting real-time battle damage assessments after an airstrike, or scouting aircraft landing zones. Satellites or aerial reconnaissance may be unavailable, which is why SR Airmen are trained in the old-school method of crawling through the bush.

“We weren’t doing that in Afghanistan because there was no reason to accept that risk—we could just put an MQ-9 over the target for a week,” said Capt. Max Krasnov, a special tactics officer and training flight commander with the 352nd Special Warfare Training Squadron at Pope Army Airfield, N.C. SR “ensures that the Air Force has a way to get the ground truth under any situation. That’s why they are trained to the full gamut of reconnaissance techniques that are currently available.”

In terms of cyber and electronic warfare, J said his career field serves as “the link between the big computers and the target,” but he could not share specific capabilities due to security concerns. Krasnov offered a watered-down version of what cyber reconnaissance might look like.

“If I were to walk into a hotel lobby, log onto the guest Wi-Fi on my cell phone, and get the IP address that my phone connected to, I am gathering information about that hotel,” he said. “Play with your imagination as to where that can go.”

Trainees from the 352nd Special Warfare Training Squadron conduct a simulated ambush during small unit tactics training on Mackall Army Airfield, North Carolina, Oct. 24, 2023. U.S. Air Force photo by Capt. Xiaofan Liu

The wide range of skill sets involved in SR mean there are plenty of rabbit holes for Airmen to dive down.

“What I think is a cool thing about the career field is there are certain vectors that guys can really nerd out about,” J said. “Maybe a dude just really wants to deep dive into drones, you can do that. Guys want to go cyber warfare or higher-level intelligence gathering, we have avenues for that.”

Only 50 SR Airmen currently exist, though the Air Force hopes to grow that number to over 100. One of those could soon be Airman 1st Class S, a trainee in the SR Apprentice Course at Pope. While SR does not have the decades of lore enjoyed by other special warfare fields, such as combat control or pararescue, that was part of the attraction for S, whose full name was withheld.

“It was new and there are only a few people doing it … so I was curious to see what it was like,” he said.

Other service members feel the same way, including at least three prior Marines and a prior Green Beret.

“There has actually been, in my opinion, a surprising amount of cross-trainees or prior service people coming through,” said J, who listed long-range-shooting and cyber warfare as two reasons why some of them sought out SR.

Being so new, SR Airmen often have to explain what they do when they arrive downrange, but J considers that a strength rather than a weakness.

“I honestly think that it is a benefit for the kind of people we attract, because then they are forced to go out and prove themselves and their capabilities,” said the former SOWT.

J spoke from experience, having been attached to a team of Green Berets in Afghanistan a few years ago.

“I showed up and I said, ‘Hey, this is my little drone, this is what I can provide for you guys. I’ve got this training up into this shooting school, I’m a jumpmaster, I can do all this,’” he said. “And then the next step is to go to the range of that team and out-shoot them.”

USAF’s New Chief: Allvin Confirmed as Air Force’s 23rd Chief of Staff

Nov. 2, 2023 | By Greg Hadley and Chris Gordon

The Senate confirmed Gen. David W. Allvin as the Chief of Staff of the U.S. Air Force on Nov. 2, elevating him from the acting role he has held since Oct. 1.

He was soon en route to a brief ceremony to be sworn in as the 23rd Chief of Staff at the same location he took his commissioning oath 37 years ago–Falcon Stadium at the Air Force Academy campus in Colorado Springs, Colo., where he was attending Corona, a conference of senior Air Force leaders.

A career mobility and test pilot, Allvin became Vice Chief of Staff in November 2020, just months after Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. became the service’s 22nd Chief. When Brown moved up to become Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff on Oct. 1, Allvin became acting chief while waiting for his nomination to be confirmed by the Senate.

“He has guided many of our most important initiatives to improve the Air Force—including recruiting and operations,” Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall said in a statement.

Allvin is only the second Chief to have been neither a fighter nor bomber pilot; the only other was Gen. Norton A. Schwartz, CSAF No. 19, who spent much of his career in the Special Operations world. Allvin has extensive operational and staff background and commanded at the squadron, wing, and operations center levels. He spent much of the past decade in the Pentagon either on the Air Staff or Joint Staff.

“It is truly an honor to be confirmed as the 23rd Chief of Staff of the Air Force,” Allvin said in a statement. “In today’s dynamic environment, our service faces both significant challenges and tremendous opportunities—the world’s greatest Air Force will meet them head-on just as innovative Airmen have done for generations.”

“My wife, Gina, and I are humbled by this opportunity, and we are eager to continue to serve our Air Force, our Airmen, and their families,” he added. “We are grateful for the stellar examples set by General C.Q. Brown Jr., and his wife, Sharene. Gina and I look forward to continuing to serve with them in our new roles.”

Vice Chief of Staff of the Air Force Gen. David W. Allvin is sworn in as the Air Force’s 23rd Chief of Staff at Falcon Stadium, U.S. Air Force Academy, Colorado Springs, Colo., Nov. 2, 2023. U.S. Air Force photo by Andy Morataya

As an Air Staff leader, Allvin was a visionary who helped to craft the joint force operating concepts advanced by three successive chiefs: Gen. Mark Welsh, No. 20; Gen. David Goldfein, No. 21; and Brown, No. 22. He helped write “America’s Air Force: A Call to the Future” in 2014 and the “Air Force Future Operating Concept” in 2015, both critical precursors to what would become Goldfein’s vision for multi-domain operations and, ultimately, what is now known throughout the services as Joint All-Domain Command and Control.

More recently, he has been a leading voice tackling the service’s challenges with recruiting and retention, acting as a champion for the Barriers to Service Cross-Functional Team.

Allvin’s accession to CSAF drew praise from Chief of Space Operations Gen. B. Chance Saltzman.

“The dynamic challenges we all face will require strategic thinking like General Allvin’s to overcome, and I consider the Space Force fortunate to have him as a teammate,” Saltzman said in a statement.

Allvin was approved by the Senate in 95-1 vote. The lone dissent came from Sen. Roger Marshall (R.-Kan.).

Allvin’s nomination had been hung up in the chamber for months due to a political standoff that began on March 8, when Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) placed a hold on all general and flag officer nominations and blocking the Senate from approving those nominations en masse, by voice vote. Tuberville placed his hold in protest of a Pentagon policy that provides paid leave and travel funds for troops and family members seeking reproductive services, such as abortions, that are not available where they are based. Tuberville contends the policy violates federal funding law commonly referred to as the Hyde Amendment, which bars the use of federal funds for abortions.

Under Senate rules, Senators may place such holds on individuals or groups. The Senate can force votes on individual nominees, but Senate Democrats, who hold the majority, have declined to do so for months, arguing giving in to Tuberville in this way would burn up too much floor time. The number of general officer nominations affected has grown steadily and now numbers more than 370.

In September, Tuberville tried to force an individual vote on Gen. Eric Smith to be the next Commandant of the Marine Corps in an unusual procedural motion. Senate Majority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) responded by calling up the nominations for Brown, Smith, and Gen. Randy George, to be the next Chief of Staff of the Army, for individual votes.

A similar process unfolded in recent weeks, as Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) said he would try to use the same procedural motion to force votes on Allvin and Adm. Lisa Franchetti, nominated to be the next Chief of Naval Operations.

The moves gained added urgency after Smith, having been confirmed as Commandant but still without a No. 2, suffered a medical emergency and was hospitalized Oct. 30. That left the Marine Corps with a three-star acting leader. Along with Allvin, the Senate confirmed another service head in Franchetti, also in a 95-1 vote, and Lt. Gen. Christopher Mahoney as Assistant Commandant of the Marine Corps, who will temporarily head the USMC in Smith’s absence as the service’s newest four-star general.

“They are outstanding leaders who have faithfully served their country for decades, and I know they will continue to be great leaders of our force as they continue to tackle the crucial national security issues of these challenging times,” Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III said.

Others also joined in the praise.

“The long wait for Gen. Allvin to be confirmed is thankfully over, and now the Air Force can get on with its important modernization and readiness initiatives,” said Bernie Skoch, Chair of the Air & Space Forces Association. “Gen. Allvin is a gifted senior leader whose operational, staff, and test experience make him ideally suited to build on the outstanding work of his predecessor. The unprecedented global threats facing our military today pose challenges for which airpower is, in many cases, the only answer and most effective deterrent. His leadership will be crucial in the years ahead.”

With Allvin’s confirmation, however, the Air Force now has no Vice Chief of Staff. Deputy chief of staff for operations Lt. Gen. James C. “Jim” Slife has been nominated to succeed Allvin as Vice Chief, but his nomination is among those on hold. An Air Force spokesperson confirmed to Air & Space Forces Magazine that there will be no acting VCSAF; Allvin, like Smith, will functionally as both Chief and Vice Chief until Slife can be confirmed.

A resolution may be coming for those nominees, some of whom have been stuck in limbo for more than six months. Sens. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) and Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.) have worked on a “standing order resolution”—short of a rule change, it would allow the Senate to vote on military nominations in blocs until the end of 2024, with exceptions for members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff or leaders of combatant commands. Schumer said Nov. 1 that he would bring the resolution, which has been sent to the Rules Committee, up for a vote in the near future. It would require 60 votes for passage.

“While today’s vote is a step forward, we continue to urge the Senate to take swift action on the remaining nominations so that these American heroes can lead our team in keeping our country safe,” Austin said.

Air Force Plans RFP for New Tanker in Fiscal 2025, But Is Still Building Its Acquisition Strategy

Nov. 1, 2023 | By John A. Tirpak

The Air Force aims to release a request for proposals for the KC-135 Recapitalization Program—formerly called the “bridge tanker”—in fiscal 2025 but has yet to set an acquisition strategy for the aircraft, waiting for more industry input, a service spokesperson said.

Service officials have previously forecast an acquisition strategy to be ready by mid-2024.

Responding to queries about the future of competition on the tanker recapitalization program, from which Lockheed Martin withdrew its LMXT offering last month, the Air Force said it is “looking forward to reviewing industry responses to the Tanker Recapitalization Program RFI” or Request For Information, responses to which were due last month.

The service is “committed to completing the ongoing market research before determining its acquisition strategy and remains committed to delivering the best tanker to the warfighter at the best value,” the spokesperson said.

The service did not say whether it plans a competition, and service leaders including Secretary Frank Kendall have questioned whether a competition would be worth the expense and delay involved. The alternative would likely be to buy more upgraded versions of the KC-46 Pegasus.

Some members of Congress have expressed unhappiness with the idea of skipping a competition given the KC-46’s struggles. Thus far, however, they have failed to pass any legislation mandating a new tanker contest.

Air Force acquisition executive Andrew Hunter has said that a tanker analysis of alternatives was to get underway this fall, based in part on the results of the RFI.

The KC-135 Recapitalization Program seeks to maintain an unbroken chain of aerial tanker production between the end of the KC-46 contract, circa 2029, and the initial operating capability of the Next Generation Air-refueling System (NGAS), a smaller, stealthy tanker that will accompany combat aircraft into contested airspace. The NGAS is still being defined.

Lockheed had pitched its LMXT, based on the Airbus A330 Multi-Role Tanker Transport, as a “mothership” for these small stealth tankers, as it has much larger fuel capacity than the Boeing KC-46 now in production.

After Lockheed’s exit, its partner Airbus said it would still seek to compete for the program. But in its response to query from Air & Space Forces Magazine, the Air Force spokesperson was cagey about whether the service would accept a foreign offer, saying it is “interested in delivering the best tanker to the warfighter and will adhere to all statutory and regulatory provisions for the Tanker Recapitalization strategy.”

In its last two swings at selling its Multi Role Tanker Transport (MRTT) to the Air Force, Airbus was partnered with a U.S. prime contractor and pledged significant U.S. content and final assembly in the U.S. Its deal with Lockheed for LMXT called for major work to be done in Lockheed’s Marietta, Ga. facilities and in Alabama. The company has not yet discussed how it will pursue the bridge tanker without Lockheed.

“Buy American” laws mandate that certain percentages of content and labor be sourced/performed in the U.S., but content rules vary depending on the type of product.

The Air Force also said it is willing to look at a larger number of aircraft it might buy under the bridge tanker program. While the service has recently said it is expecting the program to include about 75 aircraft—five years of production at an annual rate of 15 aircraft—the service said it “will be flexible” in thinking about how many to buy.

“The Air Force’s goal is to use Tanker Recapitalization to replace 15 KC-135s per year as they retire,” the spokesperson said. “The number of air refuelable, commercial derivative tankers procured to replace KC-135s will be flexible and dependent on Next Generation Air-refueling System (NGAS) first delivery. Tanker Recapitalization deliveries are envisioned to be a minimum of five years to address the gap between KC-46A and an accelerated NGAS.”

To gain flexibility, the spokesperson said, the Air Force said in its request for information that it will look at “up to 140 aircraft,” in case the NGAS doesn’t arrive at the expected time.

Lockheed, in discussing its potential LMXT proposal, said that at 75 aircraft, it could not close the business case to justify a bid, and company officials said they expected the Air Force would wind up buying a minimum of 110-150 aircraft. However, service leaders have also said that if the NGAS moves faster than expected, that the bridge tanker would be curtailed and those resources applied to NGAS, which will have a more advanced and survivable design.

Kendall has said the threat from Chinese long-range missiles “doesn’t allow” the Air Force to go much further with tube-and-wing aircraft adapted from commercial airliners or freighters. Instead, the service is interested in a stealthy aircraft of an all-new design.

The most recent RFI for the KC-135 Recapitalization Program was released in September and is a “controlled” document, meaning its details can’t be released. But a 2021 version of the RFI did call for 140-160 bridge tankers to be bought, starting in 2029, to ensure an unbroken chain of tanker production.

The “tanker recapitalization” refers to replacing the remainder of KC-135s, most of which date back to the Eisenhower Administration, but which have been structurally extended and once re-engined over the last 60 years.

Besides Boeing’s KC-46 and Airbus’ MRTT, there are no large aerial tankers now in production or planned. Lockheed has a smaller KC-130 tanker it builds for the Marine Corps, but the Air Force has indicated it wants an aircraft with greater capacity. The Air Force has said it will consider contracting for tanker services as part of its overall tanker enterprise, but has generally been cool to the idea.

Meet the Air Force Squadron Preparing PJs for Near-Peer Conflict

Nov. 1, 2023 | By David Roza

In a recent exercise off the coast of San Diego, Calif., Air Force Pararescuemen (PJs) practiced caring for injured patients amid missile strikes, maritime contested airspace, limited supplies, and other challenges meant to simulate what they may face in a war against a near-peer adversary like China in the Pacific.

The three-day exercise, which involved parachute jumps, air-dropped Zodiac boats, U.S. Navy helicopters, resupply airdrops, and patients with bloody make-up, was even more impressive considering that it was put together by a squadron located 400 miles away at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Ariz.

“The Combat Leader Course is a seven-week course of instruction that is a hybrid between a leadership course and simulated exercise,” Master Sgt. Trevor Runyan, the Instructor Flight Chief at the 68th Rescue Squadron, a Formal Training Unit (FTU) for PJs, told Air & Space Forces Magazine.

“That’s one thing that’s extremely unique about us as an FTU,” he added. “While there are organizations trying to innovate these concepts, we are actively employing them.”

air force pjs — U.S. Air Force Combat Leader Course instructors and support staff, assigned to the 68th Rescue Squadron, watch as CLC students parachute into the ocean off the coast of San Diego, Calif., Sept. 5, 2023. (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Devlin Bishop)

‘Grind and give it everything’

It takes nearly two years to train a PJ, but even when they finish their last day of the Pararescue Apprentice Course at Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M., a new maroon beret recipient has one more stop before arriving at an operational squadron: the 68th RQS. Dubbed the ‘Guardian Angel FTU,’ the squadron hosts a two-month Combat Team Member Course that brings new PJs through Mission Qualification Training required for deployments and a majority of the Journeyman skill level (a.k.a. ‘5 level’).

Before the 68 RQS stood up in 2014, PJ squadrons around the world each ran internal training, duplicating effort, Runyan said. The FTU fixes that problem, but it takes work.

“The 68 RQS is relied upon as one of the only hubs for the entire career field,” he said. “With that, we get a lot of pressure and demand.”

Besides the Combat Team Member Course, the squadron also runs the Air Force’s only Military Freefall Jumpmaster Course, and the Combat Leader Course (CLC), where PJs with about 6-10 years of experience attend to become PJ team leaders. Just four instructors are dedicated to teaching the CLC, which currently prepares leaders for operating in an INDOPACOM environment. This means organizing complex exercises like the one off the coast of San Diego.

“The culture here has been to grind and give it everything you have,” Runyan said. “The challenge with CLC is balancing planning, logistics, running operations and providing instruction to the students. We can always use more resources and manning to provide the highest level of instruction to the students.”

Targeted

The Air Force as a whole is embracing a strategy called Agile Combat Employment, where Airmen proactively and reactively maneuver for both strategic and tactical advantage. This can mean operating from small airfields on islands across the Pacific, a major change from the sprawling air bases in Iraq and Afghanistan during the Global War on Terror.

To practice agility, the 68 RQS sent CLC students from the simulated ‘main operating base’ at Davis-Monthan to a forward operating site (FOS) near San Diego on short notice with deliberate limitations placed on equipment and personnel. The PJs parachuted into the Pacific with Zodiac boats and boarded a small ship that had been hit by a simulated missile. Once aboard, the PJs provided prolonged field care to the patients aboard.

“It is a priority to practice prolonged field care following a mass casualty in a near-peer conflict,” Runyan said. “We train to conserve resources in order to limit our logistical footprint and improve patient outcome, especially when casualty evacuation is not readily accessible.”

U.S. Airmen, training with the 68th Rescue Squadron, hoist a simulated casualty near San Diego, Calif., Sept. 6, 2023. (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class William Finn)

Every detail of the operation requires extensive planning. Freefall parachutes deteriorate if left in salt water too long, so the CLC instructors formed a plan for recovering them, transporting them to San Diego, and driving them back to Davis-Monthan to be rinsed and hung in a drying tower within 48 hours.

“In a real-world mission, you would sink the chutes,” Runyan said. “But losing 10 rigs in a training environment would cost the unit about $300,000.”

Each parachute weighed about 200 pounds when filled with salt water, so the team needed a rope system just to hoist the sodden material onto shoreside loading docks. Besides the parachutes, the squadron also had to move food and equipment for about 50 people (40 support staff and 10 students) out to San Clemente Island, located off the coast of San Diego, for the exercise.

While complicated, the ship rescue drill was just the start of the CLC’s time at San Clemente Island. The course’s culminating exercise kicked off Sept. 17 with a simulated missile strike on the students’ position near the island’s airfield. The students had five minutes to scramble and find shelter, then had to search for survivors in a mock town used for urban warfare training on the island. It was another mass casualty event, with about two dozen patients in need of treatment. The students dealt with collapsed structures, fires, and attacks by simulated opposition forces.

“This simulates one of the most likely mission sets we could respond to: mass casualties caused by a missile strike at a forward operating site,” Runyan said.

Joint Integration

Since the airfield had been targeted, the students boarded helicopters to move their patients to safety at another island, or, in this case, a cluster of shipping containers halfway down San Clemente that was simulated as a separate island. Once they arrived at the contingency location, the students continued to care for their patients while arranging for a resupply airdrop and planning for their next mission: rescuing multiple isolated personnel in a contested maritime environment.

“As a 10-man element, they must prioritize missions and determine if and when they should operate as a split team, and the risks associated with that,” Runyan said.

Joint operations were key, as two MH-60 Sea Hawks from the Navy’s Helicopter Sea Combat-23 (HSC-23) squadron flew out to San Clemente for two nights to rescue simulated downed pilots out of the water, while a third helicopter ran resupply missions.

“It is extremely beneficial for the students to integrate with joint DOD assets such as HSC-23,” Runyan said. “Integration between the PJs, HSC-23 crews and maintainers in an austere environment provided invaluable training for all involved.”

Some of the downed pilots were mannequins, while most were live role players. The PJs received the last known location of the downed pilots, then had to track their location 12 hours later by calculating tides, current, and wind speed. The PJs found that a few pilots had drifted into uncontested airspace within range of a helicopter, but most were still within contested airspace, where helicopters could not fly without risk of being shot down.

To reach those pilots, the PJs had to jump out of fixed-wing aircraft with parachute-configured Zodiac boats to enter contested airspace. One at a time, they found the pilots and ferried them back to uncontested waters, where they were rescued by helicopter or rendezvoused with a blue force maritime vessel. The helicopters flew them back to the contingency location on San Clemente Island, where the PJs administered prolonged field care until the helicopters could fly patients to an airfield for fixed-wing evacuation.

The Puck

New technology helped make the exercise much more realistic. In the past, when operating in areas without cell service such as San Clemente Island, instructors might pass information over a radio or give them verbal injects. But at this exercise, the instructors and students carried small, puck-shaped devices that let them share texts, location, and other information through their smartphones.

Made by Somewear Labs, the pucks used the Iridium satellite constellation to send short bursts of data, which are more difficult for adversaries to jam or listen in on. The tech meant exercise participants could immediately communicate and visualize each other’s locations, which made command and control on the remote island much easier.

“All communication was sent with either the Somewear pucks or through HF radio,” Runyan said. “It let the students exercise decentralized command, enabling them to act on mission-type orders and execute on commander’s intent and previously agreed upon risk acceptance.”

The pucks also put the ‘search’ back in ‘search and rescue.’ Usually during ocean drills, instructors hover near simulated downed pilots in a large safety boat, which keeps the exercise safe for human role players but also makes the survivor easier for students to spot. At this exercise, the instructors still stayed close for human role players, but they also sent mannequins adrift in one-man life rafts, using the Somewear pucks to keep track of the ‘pilots’ even when they were out of sight.

It was a massive effort to plan, but the culminating exercise for the CLC involved realistic scenarios that many Air Force officials anticipate in a near-peer conflict. Now for the 68 RQS, it’s back to the drawing board for the next class.

Air Force Terminates ICBM During Test Launch Due To Anomaly

Nov. 1, 2023 | By Unshin Lee Harpley

An unarmed Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile flying over the Pacific Ocean was effectively terminated by Space Launch Delta 30 on Nov. 1.

The termination occurred at 12:06 a.m. Pacific Time, due to an unexpected anomaly that emerged during the test launch at Vandenberg Space Force Base, Calif.

An anomaly refers to any unanticipated event during the test, and could stem from various factors associated with the operational platform or the test equipment, Air Force Global Strike Command stated in a release, noting that the test produced valuable data before the termination.

A spokesperson at AFGSC told Air & Space Forces Magazine that more MM III test launches will be held next year, as Vandenberg is the sole Space Force Base that conducts such ICBM tests in the U.S.

An investigation to pinpoint the cause is being assembled by organizations including AFGSC, the 377th Test and Evaluation Group, the 576th Flight Test Squadron, Space Launch Delta 30 Safety Office, and the Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center.

Vital data will be gathered through the analysis to correct any errors with the weapon system to guarantee the sustained reliability and precision of the MM III, the release added.

The inception of the Minuteman weapon system dates back to the late 1950s, with the deployment of Minuteman I in the early 1960s.

The LGM -30 Minuteman III has been operational since 1970, characterized by an enhanced range, rapid retargeting features, and the capacity to deliver up to three reentry vehicles to multiple targets with exceptional precision.

The 400 MM III currently in service across the continental U.S. are expected to be replaced with the LGM-35 Sentinel, formerly known as the Ground Based Strategic Deterrent (GBSD).

In September, Pentagon acquisition chief William LaPlante said the Air Force is speeding up tasks in the Sentinel project to meet the crucial initial operational capability date of September 2030.

Following that, the Air Force announced its $996 million contract with Lockheed Martin to produce the MK21A reentry vehicle for the Sentinel intercontinental ballistic missile by 2039.

The incoming Sentinel ICBM, designed to be easier to maintain than the MM III, allows easy upgrades as technology develops between now and 2075, the missile’s planned retirement date.

This new weapon system is the most cost-effective option for maintaining a safe, secure, and effective land-based leg of the nuclear triad, according to the AFNWC.

In recent years, China and Russia have actively engaged in advancing and improving their nuclear capable arsenals programs, including their ICBMs.

The Department of Defense claimed that China is developing new ICBMs, possibly capable of carrying conventional warheads.

If developed and fielded, “such capabilities would allow the PRC to threaten conventional strikes against targets in the continental United States, Hawaii and Alaska,” a senior defense official said at a briefing on Pentagon’s 2023 China Military Power Report.

Operational leaders from Minot Air Force Base, N.D., the sole installation hosting both Air Force legs of the nuclear triad, echoed the palpable threat posed by China.

In October, Russia also claimed its military exercise rehearsed a “massive” nuclear strike in response to an enemy nuclear attack.

According to reports citing the Kremlin’s statement, the exercise involved “practical launches of ballistic and cruise missiles,” including a RS-24 Yars intercontinental ballistic missile fired from a test site in Russia’s far east.