Air Force Releases First Official Photos of B-21 in Flight

May 22, 2024 | By Greg Hadley

Editor’s Note: This story was updated May 23 with an additional photo.

The Air Force released new photos of the B-21 Raider on May 22, offering the first official images of the bomber since it made its first flight last year.

A day later, B-21 manufacturer Northrop Grumman released a new photo of its own.

The images, which show the bomber taking off, in the air, and in a hangar at Edwards Air Force Base, are rare glimpses of the highly secretive aircraft. Outside of its official unveiling in December 2022, the Air Force has released just a handful of photos.

The service did not even release any imagery of the bomber’s first flight at Northrop Grumman’s Palmdale, Calif., facility on Nov. 10, 2023, or when the aircraft started test flights out of Edwards a few months later. Instead, local aircraft spotters and photographers have captured most publicly released photos of the Raider.

According to the Defense Visual Information Distribution Service, the photo of the B-21 taking off is from January, while the photos of it in flight and in a hangar are from early April.

In an accompanying release, the 412th Test Wing at Edwards reiterated comments made by Air Force acquisition executive Andrew Hunter earlier this month that the B-21’s test flight program “is proceeding well.”

“It is doing what flight test programs are designed to do, which is helping us learn about the unique characteristics of this platform, but in a very, very effective way,” Hunter told lawmakers on the Senate Armed Services Committee on May 8.

Hunter also said “there are some key points still to come this year” in testing.

The exact number of test flights the B-21 has completed is not publicly known.

The B-21 is a developmental, penetrating strike bomber planned to deliver both conventional and nuclear munitions. Its wingspan is projected to be about 140 feet; smaller than the B-2’s 172-foot wingspan. The service plans to acquire at least 100 B-21s to replace its 45 B-1s and 20 B-2s over the next decade.

The Air Force previously said that B-21 test aircraft will be “usable assets” as soon as they are airworthy, and that the test aircraft will be converted to operational configuration after developmental and operational testing is complete.

Beards for Airmen? House Panel Proposes Air Force Trial Program

May 22, 2024 | By David Roza

Lawmakers on the House Armed Services Committee voted to create a three-year Air Force test program studying the effects of beards on safety, discipline, morale, and inclusivity, as part of their markup of the 2025 National Defense Authorization Act on May 22.

The provision, introduced by Rep. Marc Veasey (D-Texas), was included in a package of amendments adopted unanimously by the committee in an uncontroversial voice vote. In order to become law, it must survive passage in the House of Representatives and be reconciled with the Senate version of the NDAA. But in making it through the committee process, it cleared a major hurdle.

Specifically, the provision instructs the Air Force to “establish a pilot program to allow members of the Air Force and Space Force to grow beards,” in select units across a diverse range of environments and mission sets. The Air Force would then submit an initial report within a year of the program’s start, followed by a final report after the three-year program ends.

Elements of the report would include an evaluation of whether beards effect the airtight seals of gas masks or similar equipment; how they effect “discipline, morale, and unity within the ranks”; and “a determination whether allowing members to grow beards improves inclusivity.” It would also include identifying any negative perception or bias towards members with beards, as well as strategies to mitigate that bias.

Besides the Air Force beard pilot program, Veasey also introduced—and the committee approved—an amendment requiring the Navy to brief the House Armed Services Committee on a study being conducted by the Naval Health Research Center on the effect of beards on gas mask seals. The briefing would be required no later than March 1, 2025.

air force beards — U.S. Air Force Senior Airman Caleb Mills, a boom operator assigned to the 91st Air Refueling Squadron operates boom controls during an air refueling flight to commemorate Black History Month at MacDill Air Force Base, Florida, Feb. 1, 2023. U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Alexander Cook.

The amendments will likely be celebrated by many Airmen who have advocated for years for the service to allow beards without a waiver. Currently, Airmen are allowed to grow beards if they receive a religious exemption or a medical waiver for conditions such as pseudofolliculitis barbae (PFB), also known as razor bumps, a skin condition caused by ingrown hairs that makes shaving painful and can lead to scarring if skin is not given a chance to heal.

Waivers have become easier to obtain in recent years. Former Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force JoAnne Bass’ team repealed policies that had barred bearded Airmen and Guardians from serving in some positions and they made it easier to qualify for beard waivers. Earlier this year before Congress, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David W. Allvin estimated that the number of shaving waivers for PFB has seen an “almost 50 percent increase in the past several years” due to increased awareness of the waiver process.

But a 2021 study conducted by military doctors found that, due to a lingering cultural stigma, Airmen with shaving waivers took longer to earn promotions and often could not land high-profile positions as recruiters, military training instructors, Honor Guard members, or positions on the Thunderbirds flight demonstration team.

Since Black men are more likely to suffer from PFB, the beard ban is effectively discriminatory towards Black Airmen, the study authors argued.

“[T]he promotion system is not necessarily inherently racially biased, but instead biased against the presence of facial hair which will likely always affect the promotions of Blacks/African-Americans disproportionately because of the relatively higher need for shaving waivers in this population,” the study stated.

Yet there remains resistance among some leaders to the idea of allowing facial hair.

“If you want to look cute with your skinny jeans and your beard, by all means, do it someplace else,” then-Senior Enlisted Advisor to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Ramón Colón-López said in 2023 “But quit wasting our time on something that doesn’t have anything to do with kicking the enemy’s ass.”

Lt. Col. Simon Ritchie, the dermatologist who led the 2021 study, pushed back on Colón-López’ view.

“This has never been about looking cute or about fashion, this has always been about eradicating every possible vestige of racial discrimination in the Air Force and also about allowing those with religious beliefs to express those while in uniform,” Ritchie told Air & Space Forces Magazine at the time.

“We are forcing out talented Airmen (proven with data), we are not promoting our shaving waiver holders (proven with data), and because our waiver holders are predominantly Black this directly translates into racial discrimination,” he said.

Proponents of banning beards sometimes argue that facial hair disrupts the seal of a gas mask or oxygen mask, but Ritchie has found no direct scientific evidence to support the claim. They “may have anecdotal evidence of one to five people who they see fail the fit test,” he told Task & Purpose in 2022. “That can’t be extrapolated to hundreds of thousands of Airmen.”

Fellow NATO militaries in Canada, Germany, and Norway allow beards and show no direct evidence that facial hair disrupts gas mask seals, said Ritchie, who was stationed in Germany at the time. And a 2018 study showed that 98 percent of study participants who had an eighth-inch of beard achieved acceptable fits on civilian half-face negative-pressure respirators, which Ritchie said are comparable to the M-50 gas masks used in the military today.

A program such as the one called for in the NDAA amendment is “a good step,” Ritchie said. “At a minimum it will help to socialize the idea and maybe help to convince leaders that we can operate professionally and effectively with facial hair.”

The dermatologist cautioned that the high rates of turnover within military units may make it challenging to ascertain impacts on leadership, professionalism, and other factors within the one-year period before the initial findings are due. Still, some metrics “could be used as end points in such a scenario, like unit readiness rates, that could provide at least a high-level perspective of the impacts of allowing facial hair,” he said.

Meanwhile, the effort to remove the stigma surrounding facial hair in the Air Force is “a work in progress,” Allvin said in April. The chief also expressed concern about Airmen taking advantage of the religious exemption for facial hair.

“My interest, as the chief, is to ensure that we respect that and we honor that,” he said. “So not only do we ensure that those who qualify for those, actually achieve those: the exceptions to policy and the waivers, but we also make sure that others aren’t exploiting it.”

Gen. B. Chance Saltzman, the Chief of Space Operations, expressed a similar view.

“The key is, one, having a good process to grant the waivers expeditiously and appropriately,” he said at the hearing. “And then second is, remove any stigma, and make sure that those people that are accommodated are still respected and there’s no adverse impacts.”

Both those steps involves educating Airmen and Guardians, Saltzman said. Veasey asked at the time whether Saltzman was confident in the education effort.

“I think it’s a work in progress, because we’ve got to reach the entire group of people,” the CSO said. “But I think we’re making the right strides.”

As Pace of Launches Explodes, USSF Eyes Upgrades and Expansion for Spaceports

May 22, 2024 | By Greg Hadley

As the commercial and military space sectors continue their rapid growth, the Space Force is planning to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to upgrade its launch facilities—and will consider expanding to other locations, a top general said May 21.

Such moves are necessary because the U.S. military’s launch infrastructure and workforce has not kept pace with the increasing number of launches themselves, Space Systems Command boss Lt. Gen. Philip A. Garrant said during a Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies event.

Space Systems Command oversees the service’s acquisition and launches. In 2024, the Space Force’s two launch deltas—Space Launch Delta 30 and Space Launch Delta 45—will host 174 launches from its two “ranges” at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Fla., and Vandenberg Space Force Base, Calif., Garrant said.

Yet, “the launch deltas are manned at a 2017 manning rate based on a 2017 launch assessment. We’re launching a lot more missions seven years later, yet we’re still manned as if we were doing dozens, not hundreds.”

In 2017, Cape Canaveral hosted seven launches, while Vandenberg hosted nine. In budget documents, the Space Force is projecting that it will support 192 launches—a 1,100 percent increase in eight years.

Manning isn’t the only issue. Garrant said the infrastructure and technology at Cape Canaveral and Vandenberg are old and need investment to bring the facilities up to modern standards, to say nothing of future capabilities.

“The [Office of Management and Budget] gave us $1.3 billion in the 2024 budget to get after that infrastructure,” Garrant said. “It’s going to be over 130 projects, managed in partnership with [Air Force Installation and Mission Support Center], with the Civil Engineering Center, and the Army Corps of Engineers over the Future Years Defense Plan.

“Now I’ll say that a lot of that is built-up technical debt. That’s not improving capacity, that’s getting after known capacity problems. So we’ve got to figure out new things that we can do to keep up with that.”

Last fall, Brig. Gen. Kristin Panzenhagen, program executive officer for assured access to space and director of launch and range operations at SSC, said the service was working on an analysis of future spaceport requirements.

In January, the assured access to space directorate and SpaceWERX solicited industry for proposals for the “digital spaceport of the future,” focusing on upgraded hardware, software applications, and data management.

“The United States’ current space launch infrastructure was designed in the 1970s and 1980s and pre-dates the Internet of Things (IoT),” SpaceWERX wrote in its solicitation. “While we’re currently able to meet national security space lift missions, our capacity to support public and private sector demand for access to space is falling behind.”

One way upgraded IT and infrastructure could help, Garrant suggested, is by allowing personnel to supervise and launch rockets from opposite sides of the country. But there are plenty of technologies and upgrades to consider, he added.

“It’s not just about fixing the technical debt of the existing infrastructure. It’s about building out the infrastructure,” he said.

SpaceWERX plans to hand out Small Business Innovation Research/Small Business Technology Transfer contracts as part of the “Digital Spaceport of the Future” program.

There will soon be more money in the pipeline. Garrant noted that the Space Force will soon start to collect more fees from commercial launch providers that use U.S. military spaceports, thanks to new authorities granted by Congress. Those funds will help fund more modernization efforts.

Beyond just improving existing facilities, the service may soon start considering other locations too. A draft version of the 2025 National Defense Authorization Act released by the House Armed Services strategic forces subcommittee includes language directing the Chief of Space Operations to brief lawmakers by Dec. 1, 2024, on “the feasibility of launching NSSL missions out of space ranges not currently utilized by the United States Space Force for NSSL, such as Wallops Island, Virginia; Pacific Spaceport Complex, Alaska; and Spaceport America in New Mexico after 2025.”

While the 2025 NDAA is still several steps away from becoming law, Pentagon officials generally respond to directive report language. Garrant addressed the provision and suggested the Space Force is open to the possibility of more spaceports.

“Congress wants us to look at additional spaceports. Are they feasible? Can we support them? Do they make sense for the orbits and the missions that we’re doing?” Garrant said. “So a lot of review of policy, a lot of review of processes, how we do mission assurance, where we need to increase infrastructure.”

The proposed alternate locations suggested by Congress present some logistical challenges.

The Pacific Spaceport Complex has supported U.S. military launches before, but temperatures stay around freezing in the winter, which can affect rockets. Spaceport America is located hundreds of miles from any large body of water where boosters or debris can harmlessly fall to Earth.

But such issues can be addressed and mitigated, suggested retired Space Force Col. Charles Galbreath, senior fellow at the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies. SpaceX, by far the largest launch provider, has shown it can safely land and reuse boosters, mitigating concerns about them hitting people or infrastructure on the ground. And Alaska has hosted successful launches despite the cold.

“I think it’s important that as technology matures, we continue to look for additional opportunities to expand our launch infrastructure, to account for the increasing demand, as well as ensure that we have resilience in our space launch capability,” Galbreath said.

Galbreath added that such resilience could be crucial to mitigating the effects of an adversary’s attack or natural disasters.

“When we’re looking at Great Power Competition and potential threats from China, would our launch sites become targets in a conflict? Certainly, I would think that would be a potential,” Galbreath said. “But we also have to take note of the fact that there are hurricanes that hit Florida, earthquakes that hit California. And so we don’t want to find ourselves in a situation where either through a hostile act or natural event, we’ve significantly degraded our ability to put things in space.”

Top Lawmaker Wants Report on Dogfight Missiles, Whether to Extend AMRAAM

May 21, 2024 | By John A. Tirpak

Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, wants to make sure the Air Force and Navy have enough air-to-air missiles for their crewed and uncrewed fighters through the end of the decade and is directing them to submit an annual assessment of the threat and need in his markup of the 2025 National Defense Authorization Act.

Specifically, Rogers wants to know if the services require more AIM-120 Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missiles than they’re planning to buy, and whether an extended-range version should be added to the acquisition plan. Such a weapon could be a “hedge” against failure or delay of other air-to-air missiles in development, he said, such as the AIM-260 Joint Advanced Tactical Missile (JATM).

A provision in the bill would require the Air Force and Navy to submit a report to Congress, coordinated with the regional commanders-in-chief, by April 2025 on “the sufficiency of established inventory requirements” for AMRAAM through fiscal 2029, followed by annual updates. The House Armed Services Committee will mark up the bill May 22, and it must then pass the full House and reconciled with the Senate version.

The services’ report would explain the numbers and types of air-to-air missiles the services are developing, how many they expect to put in service, as well as the planned inventories of each type, by year.

The Pentagon is known to be developing a number of new air-to-air missiles—and evaluating several developed independently by contractors—with the intent of obtaining longer-range weapons to shoot from a greater distance, while achieving a smaller missile size to increase the number of shots available to each individual flying platform.

Pentagon acquisition and sustainment chief William LaPlante and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., have both said recently that munitions tend to be “the bill-payers” in budget crunches, and both noted a boost in the multiyear buy of AMRAAM in the fiscal 2025 budget request to address this tendency.

Through 2029—the apparent end of AMRAAM procurement—the Pentagon plans to buy:

457 missiles in 2024

462 in 2025

664 in 2026

118 in 2027

9 in 2028

Zero in 2029

Rogers wants the Air Force/Navy report coordinated with regional COCOMs, who would be directed to state the missile levels needed “to support the operational plans of the United States Central Command, the United States Indo-Pacific Command, the United States Northern Command, and the United States European Command, assessed separately for each command at low-, medium-, and high-risk levels.”

The annual report is also to look at “emerging requirements for surface-to-air defense and collaborative combat aircraft capabilities, and how such emerging requirements are expected to impact inventory requirements for air-to-air missiles.”

The AMRAAM is used in the National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System (NASAMS), which is being provided to Ukraine. The system launches the AMRAAM from the ground against air threats.

It is also presumed that AMRAAMs will be carried by Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCAs) the Air Force and Navy are planning to use for air-to-air combat.

The Air Force is working on the AIM-260 JATM, which is to improve on AMRAAM’s range by several times, to achieve parity or dominance over China’s advanced, long-range PL-15. However, the Air Force has said nothing recently about progress in fielding JATM, which was originally planned to be operational in 2022.

A problem with fielding the JATM might explain Rogers’ interest in pursuing an extended-range AMRAAM as a stopgap. The Air Force consistently declines to discuss the JATM or its progress.

The Navy is also working on a successor to the AIM-9X Sidewinder. The radar-guided AMRAAM is meant to defeat targets beyond visual range while the infrared-guided Sidewinder has traditionally been meant for targets within visual range. With the advent of stealth aircraft in competitor air forces, though, the Navy has been developing IR missiles with longer range, and the Air Force wants a radar missile that can find stealthy targets farther away.

The report Rogers wants would include “whether extending the AIM-120 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile program of record through 2029 would enhance available inventories of air-to-air missiles during such period” and if the acquisition plan should “include development and fielding of an AIM-120D Extended Range missile.” Rogers wants to know what number of AMRAAMs are needed to meet COCOM needs “at a medium-level of operational risk.”

The Air Force in particular is to report on whether AMRAAM could be extended by assessing “how new propellants, binding agents, and other enhancements may increase the capabilities of such a missile” and whether buying such a weapon “could hedge against current or future air-to-air missile inventory, capacity, capability or shortfall risks.”

Either way, Rogers wants the Air Force to “develop a budget profile and schedule that would support expedited fielding of such a missile.”

The Secretaries of the Air Force and Navy are to submit the requirements report, while the Air Force Secretary is to submit the report on extending the AMRAAM. RTX’s Raytheon builds AMRAAM, and a company spokesperson said the company would not comment on the chairman’s mark.

B-52s Land in UK to Kick Off Another Bomber Task Force

May 21, 2024 | By Chris Gordon

B-52 Stratofortess bombers kicked off yet another Bomber Task Force deployment May 20, with the first aircraft touching down at RAF Fairford, U.K., the Pentagon said.

The bomber task force “will provide numerous training and operational opportunities alongside NATO allies and regional partners,” Pentagon Press Secretary Air Force Maj. Gen. Patrick S. Ryder told reporters May 21. “This deployment underscores the U.S. commitment to NATO’s collective deterrence in defense of the Euro-Atlantic region against hostile actors.”

The deployment from the 5th Bomb Wing from Minot Air Force Base, N.D., is the third bomber task force to deploy to Europe this year, following deployments of B-1s to Sweden in February and Spain in March.

U.S. Air Forces in Europe (USAFE) said in a news release that the first B-52s landed at RAF Fairford on May 20, and Ryder added the BTF is scheduled to include four bombers from Minot.

The bombers are part of the Department of Defense’s Large Scale Global Exercise series, which runs through June. In February, U.S. European Command said the exercise series with U.S. partners would include 11 separate training events in Europe. These include the recently concluded U.S-led Astral Knight integrated air and missile defense exercise, as well as two bomber task force missions. USAFE has not provided a detailed account of the plans for the latest B-52 deployment.

There has been heavy demand for bomber task forces in recent years as the U.S. has sought to reassure allies and deter potential adversaries.

“The appetite for bomber task force exceeds capacity,” the head of Air Force Global Strike Command Gen. Thomas A. Bussiere told Air & Space Forces Magazine last month. “There’s so much interest across the globe with all our geographic combatant commanders. I’m sure they would take as many as we could give them.”

His command, Bussiere notes, has to balance the demand for bomber task forces with the imperatives of maintaining the readiness of its aircraft and Airmen and carrying out its nuclear deterrence mission on behalf of U.S. Strategic Command.

The B-52 deployment marks the second bomber task force deployment this month for BUFFs following a B-52 deployment that operated out of Guam.

“Everybody loves a bomber task force,” Bussiere said. “The COCOM commanders love bomber task force. Our allies and partners love bomber task force. It’s a great opportunity for our Airmen to train. It’s a great opportunity for our allies to train with our Airmen and their bombers. And when you send a bomber from the United States of America to anywhere in the world it sends a very distinct, purposeful message to allies and any potential adversaries.”

A U.S. Air Force B-52H Stratofortress, assigned to the 69th Expeditionary Bomb Squadron deploys its parachute on a runway at Royal Air Force base Fairford, England, May 20, 2024. BTF 24-3 enhances combat readiness amongst participating NATO Allies and partner nations, ensuring their ability to rapidly respond to emerging threats. U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Jared Brewer

Russia’s New Counterspace Weapon Is in the Same Orbit as a US Satellite

May 21, 2024 | By Greg Hadley and Chris Gordon

Russia launched a counterspace weapon into the same orbit as a U.S. government satellite on May 16, U.S. officials said, further increasing tensions between the two countries in space.

“On May 16, Russia launched a satellite into low Earth orbit that the United States assesses is likely a counterspace weapon presumably capable of attacking other satellites in low Earth orbit,” said U.S. Ambassador Robert Wood in a May 20 speech at the United Nations. “Russia deployed this new counterspace weapon into the same orbit as a U.S. government satellite.”

Pentagon press secretary Maj. Gen. Patrick S. Ryder said May 21 that “assessments further indicate characteristics resembling previously deployed counterspace payloads from 2019 and 2022.”

Ryder declined to discuss what U.S. intelligence agencies know about the satellite’s payload.

In late 2019, the Russians launched a satellite that then released a second satellite. Both satellites then followed a National Reconnaissance Office satellite. Then-Chief of Space Operations Gen. John W. “Jay” Raymond compared them to Russian “nesting dolls.” Several months later, U.S. officials said the sub-satellite had released another object, apparently firing a projectile at high speed.

U.S. officials have not previously publicly discussed the 2022 counterspace payload, but they have highlighted other Russian counterspace efforts. In 2021, Russia tested a direct ascent anti-satellite missile on one of its own spacecraft, destroying it and creating a massive debris field in its wake. And earlier this year, then-Assistant Secretary of Defense for Space Policy John F. Plumb confirmed concerns that Russia is developing an “indiscriminate” nuclear weapon to go in space.

The U.S. has since cosponsored a resolution in the UN calling on all nations not to develop or deploy nuclear weapons in outer space. Russia vetoed that resolution, however, then introduced one of its own condemning all weapons in space.

Wood, representing the U.S. at the UN Security Council, decried Russia’s resolution as “diplomatic gaslighting and dissembling.” He revealed the new counterspace satellite in a speech before a vote on the measure failed in the U.N. Security Council. The vote was a 7-7 tie, with Switzerland abstaining. The U.S. voted against it.

U.S. Space Force and Space Command officials have said that both Russia and China are ramping up their counterspace efforts, developing and testing new weapons like lasers to dazzle satellites, the “nesting dolls,” and a “grappling” satellite that can grab and tow other satellites out of their orbit.

Current CSO Gen. B. Chance Saltzman has said the Space Force will support “responsible counterspace campaigning” to counter the threat while ensuring space can remain usable for all nations.

Space Futures Command, New Integrated Mission Deltas Launch This Summer

May 21, 2024 | By Greg Hadley

The Space Force will stand up its new Space Futures Command and two new Integrated Mission Deltas this summer, said Lt. Gen. Philip A. Garrant, head of Space Systems Command.

Garrant shared the new details during a Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies event on May 21.

Integrated Mission Deltas will combine operations and sustainment under one roof, with the goal of more delivering upgrades more rapidly than is possible today. Chief of Space Operations B. Chance Saltzman announced the first two Integrated Mission Deltas as a pilot program in September 2023, with one focused on electronic warfare (EW) and the other on position, navigation, and timing (PNT). By February 2024, the new units were already getting rave reviews.

“The ability to combine those units under a single umbrella, to be able to focus on unified mission readiness, has paid some tremendous benefits to this point,” said Col. Andrew Menschner, commander of the Position, Navigation, and Timing Delta (Provisional) in February at the AFA Warfare Symposium.

Now Garrant said it’s time for the next step. “We are expanding the concept this summer,” he said. “We’re doing the mission analysis to expand on the missile warning mission area as well as space domain awareness.”

Garrant and his counterpart at Space Operations Command, Lt. Gen. David N. Miller, are leading the analysis work together. The two will present Saltzman with a progress report in the next few weeks, Garrant said.

Most affected by the upcoming changes are Space Delta 2, which handles space domain awareness, and Space Delta 4, which covers missile warning. But USSF is looking to move aggressively on other mission areas, too.

“The long-term intent is, over the course of the next year and a half, to finish out the rest of the mission areas,” Garrant said. He singled out satellite communications and orbital warfare as possibly the next two.

But Garrant also cautioned that expanding the concept still requires careful planning.

“It is a pretty significant lift when they look at organizational change requests and some of the restructuring, and then making sure that we’re not hurting anyone’s career,” Garrant said. “When we stand up these [Deltas], we’re not making anyone lose their jobs. So it’s a very deliberate process.”

Space Futures Command

Moving up the command hierarchy, Garrant also signaled progress on the Space Force’s fourth Field Command, to be called Space Futures Command. First announced in February as part of the Department of the Air Force’s “re-optimization” for great power competition, Space Futures will focus on long-term questions about force structure, technologies, and capability development.

“The intent is to [make Space Futures Command] active, provisionally, by August,” Garrant said. “It will be another very geographically diverse command.”

Lt. Gen. Shawn Bratton, the Space Force’s chief planning officer, said in February that a task force to lay the groundwork for standing up the command could be in place by “the beginning of summer,” and that the command could achieve initial operational capability by the end of 2024.

Space Futures Command will consist of a headquarters element and three centers:

Headquarters: Garrant said the headquarters will be commanded by a general officer, and draw manpower from the Futures and Integration element of the Space Staff, a group currently led by Col. Carl Bottolfson.

The Space Warfighting Analysis Center: The center is currently a direct reporting unit to the Space Staff and is based in Washington, D.C.

The Space Wargaming Center: This new center will be led by Space Delta 10, which is responsible for doctrine and wargaming in Space Training and Readiness Command. It is currently led by Col. Jack D. Fulmer II.

The Concepts and Technologies Center: This center will also be entirely new. Garrant said it will be led by Col. Peter Mastro, the senior materiel leader for the Tactical Command, Control, and Communication Delta in SSC.

“The idea is they will build that future force that then goes into the programmed force which ultimately we hope becomes a fielded force,” Garrant said. “Gen. Saltzman likes to talk about risk of mission being the difference between those three forces: the force design that we want, the force design that’s budgeted, and the force design that we have.”

Each of the three existing field commands—SSC, Space Operations Command, and Space Training and Readiness Command—will contribute to the formation of Space Futures Command, Garrant added

“Whether it’s the wargaming or it’s the mission area teams from SpOC or in our case, the S&T and some of the initial engineering and architecture work that our integration office does, they will all be working with or for Space Futures Command,” said Garrant. Those decisions haven’t been made yet, but we might actually move people from SSC into Futures. They’ll still stay in Los Angeles so they’re connected to our organization.”

5,500 Airmen Selected For Master Sergeant as Promotion Rate Ticks Up

May 21, 2024 | By David Roza

Of the 29,497 technical sergeants eligible for promotion to master sergeant in the 2024 cycle, 5,500 were selected for promotion, the Air Force Personnel Center announced May 20. The selection rate of 18.65 percent is up slightly from last year’s 17.34 percent, but it marks the fourth year in a row that the rate has remained below 20 percent.

AFPC said it will publish the master sergeant promotion list on its website on May 23 at 8 a.m. Central time.

The total number of new master sergeants is the most in a single year since 2018, but the number of those eligible was the most since 2013, keeping the selection rate below one in every five Airmen. Still, the percentage is up nearly four points from 2022’s 14.8 percent rate, the lowest mark in years.

At that time, officials cited retention and a restructuring of the enlisted force among the reasons for its historically low promotion rate. The economic uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic drove a surge in retention, creating more competition, and the service said the force was becoming unbalanced with too many mid-tier noncommissioned officers not having enough experience, leading to a cut in open spots.

Retention rates have since returned to pre-pandemic levels. Lt. Gen. Caroline Miller, the Air Force deputy chief of staff for manpower, personnel, and services, told lawmakers earlier this month that the Air Force had bumped up its Active Duty recruiting goal from 26,000 recruits to 27,200 in response to “observed declines in current year retention averages and to help offset potential future retention trend declines.”

In the meantime, the Air Force is also implementing an enlisted grade structure revision that won’t be done until fiscal 2025. By slowing down promotion rates, the restructuring is supposed to address concerns that some newly promoted Airmen lack sufficient experience to lead their peers.

Year	Eligible	Promoted	Percent Rate
2024	29,497	5,500	18.65
2023	28,831	4,998	17.34
2022	27,296	4,040	14.80
2021	24,721	4,676	18.92
2020	22,286	4,649	20.86
2019	19,422	4,733	24.37
2018	20,866	6,176	29.60
2017	20,169	5,166	25.61
2016	21,504	5,019	23.34
2015	23,619	5,301	22.44
2014	22,678	4,073	17.96
2013	37,608	5,654	15.03
2012	19,809	5,464	27.58
2011	19,538	6,618	33.87
2010	21,829	5,424	24.85

Bud Anderson, WWII Triple Ace and Air Force Test Pilot, Dies at 102

May 20, 2024 | By John A. Tirpak

Brig. Gen. Clarence E. “Bud” Anderson, the last surviving triple ace from World War II, a noted Air Force test pilot, and a 30-year veteran of the service who also flew combat missions during the Vietnam War, died May 17 at the age of 102.

Anderson shot down 16 German aircraft in WWII (and shared 1/4 credit on a 17th aircraft) in a variety of P-51 Mustangs he called “Old Crow,” after a preferred brand of whiskey. He logged more than 480 hours of combat time during the war, across 116 missions, all from March to December 1944, and all with the 363rd Fighter Squadron. The bulk of his kills were Focke-Wolfe 190s. He credited his especially keen eyesight as the key to his success, allowing him to spot enemy aircraft before they spotted him.

After the war, Anderson flew as a test pilot, logging time in more than 130 different types of aircraft, especially the “Century Series” of supersonic fighters, and he amassed more than 7,500 hours of flight time. After his retirement as a colonel, he worked for the McDonnell Aircraft Co. as its chief of flight test.

Anderson grew up near Sacramento, Calif., and earned his pilot’s license while still a teenager. He joined the Army as an aviation cadet shortly after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and earned his wings before the end of 1942. He trained in the P-39 Airacobra, which he flew at several stateside bases, but switched to the P-51 soon after arriving in Europe in late 1943.

By early 1944, as part of the 357th Flying Group—self-nicknamed “The Yoxford Boys”—Anderson was flying escort for bombers over Europe. Only a month after starting escort missions, he downed his first German aircraft, a Messerschmitt BF-109. By the end of May, he had become an ace, meaning he had shot down five enemy aircraft. In June, he shot down three FW-190s in a single day, and by the end of that month had become a double ace.

After taking stateside leave, he returned to flying duty and in November and December 1944 shot down three FW-190s and forced down one more, his final aerial victories, making him the 357th’s third-leading ace, with 16.25 kills. None of the planes Anderson flew were hit by enemy fire and he never aborted a mission.

Back in the states, the Air Force deployed the high-scoring ace as a goodwill ambassador and recruiter, but by 1948 he returned to regular flying as a test pilot at Wright Field, Ohio, where he served until 1953, working on a variety of experimental projects. Among the concepts he tested was the F-84 as a parasite fighter operating off a B-36 bomber.

After Air Command and Staff College, he was assigned as director of operations at the 58th Fighter-Bomber Wing at Osan Air Base, Korea, from August 1955 to February 1956, when he took command of the 69th Fighter-Bomber Squadron at Osan until August 1956.

From there he went to Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., where he became Chief of Test Flight Operations until 1962, flying or supervising test on a wide variety of jet aircraft, including the first double-sonic jets.

He completed the Army War College and several operational assignments after that, until he was assigned to command the 18th Tactical Fighter Wing at Kadena Air Base, Japan until late 1967.

After a Pentagon tour, Anderson commanded the 355th Tactical Fighter Wing from June to December 1970, flying 25 combat missions against the Ho Chi Minh Trail from Takhli Royal Thai Air Force Base. He was in charge of closing the base when it deactivated.

Anderson retired in 1972, having been decorated with two awards of the Legion of Merit, five awards of the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Bronze Star, and 16 Air Medals, as well as the French Legion of Honor and Croix de Guerre. After retirement, he managed McDonnell’s flight test operations at Edwards until 1998, where he supervised test projects such as the F-15 Eagle, F/A-18 Hornet, and C-17 Globemaster III.

In 1990, Anderson cowrote “To Fly and Fight – Memoirs of a Triple Ace,” which was updated and re-published in 2019. In the book, Anderson’s lifelong friend and fellow ace and test pilot Chuck Yeager described him as “the best fighter pilot I’ve ever seen.”

Also in 2019, the Smithsonian’s Air & Space Museum unveiled a special display of Anderson’s flight jacket and flying gear as a highlight of the World War II display at its Udvar-Hazy Center. The same day, he recorded recollections of some of his service history with Air & Space Forces Magazine.

He was given an honorary promotion to brigadier general in December 2022, in a ceremony at the Aerospace Museum of California, near his boyhood home, presided over by then-Chief of Staff (now Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman) Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr.

Anderson was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame in 2008 and the International Air & Space Hall of Fame in 2013. In 2015, along with other American Fighter Aces, he received the Congressional Gold Medal, and in 2017, received the Air Force Association’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

A life-size bronze statue of Anderson stands at the Auburn Municipal Airport in California, near his hometown of New Castle. He was a life member of the American Fighter Aces Association and was a Fellow of the Society of Experimental Test Pilots.