Allvin Talks Up Speed with Indo-Pacific Air Chiefs During Visit to Region

Oct. 15, 2024 | By Chris Gordon

As the U.S. Air Force leans into its reforms to better deter the People’s Republic of China, the service’s top officer is pitching his ideas at a meeting with his Asian counterparts at the Air Force Forum in Tokyo, which runs Oct. 14-16.

Chief of Staff Gen. David W. Allvin made the presentation during a weeklong tour of the Pacific with Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force David A. Flosi, which has already included stops in California, Hawaii, and Guam.

“If I look at the future of conflict, one of the attributes I am focused on is speed—the speed of recognition, the speed of decisions, the speed of action,” Allvin said during a conference panel, underscoring a theme he has emphasized during his first year as CSAF.

Allvin has often framed speed as a quality the U.S. Air Force needs to emphasize in policy-making, acquisition, and military operations. The idea is to empower Airmen to react quickly on their own rather than waiting for instruction from above.

The Tokyo meeting of air chiefs drew more than 20 senior leaders from Pacific nations, Canada, and France, a European nation and U.S. ally that has expressed a particular desire to operate in the region. Pacific Air Forces commander Gen. Kevin B. Schneider is also attending the session.

Air Force leaders say other nations are increasingly aligned with Washington in light of China’s military buildup and persistent threats from North Korea, whose nuclear capabilities are expanding. Allvin referred to alliances as the “price of admission” to tackling future threats.

“The ability for all of us to see and recognize the environment—to be able to work with each other and have the dialogue at the speed of the battle and operate as one—that will be the key,” Allvin said. “We need true interoperability. That requires the will of all the nations here to work out systems interoperability, remove policy barriers, and expand information exchanges to achieve a common operating picture so we can all respond at speed.”

Japan, which is hosting the conference, is one ally which is making tangible progress toward augmenting its military capabilities. Washington and Tokyo have agreed to elevate U.S. Forces Japan to a major command that will initially be led by a three-star general and will work more closely with Japan’s armed forces.

Allvin held a bilateral meeting with the new Japanese defense minister Gen Nakatani. Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III is scheduled to meet with Nakatani on the sidelines of the meeting of G7 defense ministers in Italy later this week.

Japan is part of the so-called First Island Chain off the coast of mainland Asia, which also includes Taiwan and stretches south to the Philippines. It houses key American air bases such as Kadena Air Base on Okinawa, where U.S. fighters are stationed.

The U.S. is still heavily reliant on bases on its own territory to protect power in the Pacific, specifically Guam, the U.S. territory in the western Pacific that houses Anderson Air Force Base. That base, which Allvin and Flosi visited before traveling to Tokyo, is home to the Air Force’s largest conventional war reserve materiel stockpile and serves as a staging area for Air Force bombers and other American military aircraft operating in the region.

“The logistics capabilities of Andersen will keep U.S. and joint airpower in the fight, showcasing our deterrence efforts and ability to protect the Indo-Pacific,” Brig. Gen. Thomas Palenske, 36th Wing commander, said during the visit, according to an Air Force release.

The service says Allvin and Flosi will make additional stops in the region during their trip, which concludes Oct. 18.

Army Leaders: Base Defense Must Grow to Meet Air Force Demand

Oct. 15, 2024 | By Greg Hadley

The Army is expanding and transforming its air and missile defense forces, in part to meet the needs of Air Force plans for dispersing to an expanded network of air bases across the Indo-Pacific, senior officials said Oct. 14. But just how much protection it can provide remains to be determined.

Under the concept of Agile Combat Employment, the Air Force wants to disperse smaller teams of Airmen and aircraft to operate from remote or austere locations. The idea is to make it more difficult for China to target American airpower in a potential fight, as the Air Force moves its planes from base to base. More bases will require more base defense, though.

For more than a year now, the Air Force and Army have been working on that challenge.

Previously, the Army focused on theater-level air defenses such as the Patriot and Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) systems. But there are only so many of those expensive systems to go around, and the Army wants to get more flexible, leaders said during a panel discussion at the annual Association of the U.S. Army conference.

“We have relied too long on the Patriot system as the centric system to air and missile defense,” said Lt. Gen. Sean A. Gainey, head of U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command.

“It’s absolutely critical that we grow the force structure to meet the demand that we can’t keep up with, both from [combatant commands] and all the hot spots around the world, in addition to the fact that we see that demand growing, particularly given the partnership with the Air Force as they’re looking to employ Agile Combat Employment, for example, in the Indo-Pacific region,” added Undersecretary of the Army Gabe Camarillo.

Camarillo is playing a lead role in that partnership, he said, working with his counterpart in Air Force Undersecretary Melissa Dalton. Both services’ vice chiefs, Army Gen. James J. Mingus and Air Force Gen. James C. “Jim” Slife, are also coordinating.

“We have met several times together and developed the right teams working together at the operational level to kind of flesh this out,” Camarillo said. “And ultimately what it will do is provide some specificity on how we will move forward to implement and operationalize our cooperation in this effort.”

Camarillo’s comments echo Dalton’s responses to Air & Space Forces Magazine this summer, when she noted that the two sides are working on “defining the specific requirements and timing and sequencing of how we’re going to pull those pieces together.”

Yet while Dalton made clear that base defense and air defense are traditional Army missions, Army leaders have raised concerns about their ability to be everywhere the Air Force wants to go.

“I think that’s the biggest issue that we have to manage with the Air Force is, how are we going to try to meet the needs that they may have in the Indo-Pacific while also continuing to protect forces in the Middle East or other places?” Army Secretary Christine Wormuth said last month during an event hosted by the Stimson Center.

At AUSA, Camarillo also seemed to suggest there will be limits.

“Traditionally, we have the assets, and we’re growing the force structure to be able to do it,” he said. “Now, where we defend, in what quantities, and with which capabilities is part of the analysis that’s going on right now with the Air Force, and it has been going on.”

Those calculations may also change over time as the Army looks to modernize and grow its integrated and air missile defense enterprise, which has surged into the spotlight thanks to lessons learned from conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East, where the widespread use of small drones and missiles tests the limits of traditional base defense systems.

“Even 10 years ago, Army air and missile defense as a portfolio was probably subordinate in terms of the amount of investment to things like aviation, combat vehicles, etc. Now it’s, I think, the highest overall, if not close to the highest,” said Camarillo.

In fiscal 2025, for example, the service is requesting some $5.6 billion across the portfolio, particularly focused on four main modernization efforts—the Indirect Fire Protection Capability System, the Integrated Battle Command System, the Lower Tier Air and Missile Defense System, and the Maneuver Short Range Air Defense system.

“As many people know, one signature modernization effort in a branch is normally a huge, significant deal. To be modernizing four key components of an air and missile defense architecture kill chain is huge,” said Maj. Gen. Frank Lozano, program executive officer for missiles and space.

CAMP BUEHRING, Kuwait – A 1st Security Forces Assistance Brigade (SFAB) Soldier uses a Drone Defender to capture and control a drone as its flying, Mar. 6, 2018. The Drone Defender uses an electromagnetic pulse to disable its target and has a range of 600 meters. (U.S. Army photo by Mr. Brent Thacker)

Earlier this year, the Army also revealed plans to revamp its force structure, adding some 7,500 air defense billets and new units for everything from Patriot systems to counter-unmanned aerial system batteries.

With those additions, the service wants to be able to respond better to demands from the Air Force and combatant commands.

“The force structure that we’re building and growing is tailorable, it’s adaptable, and it is able to flexibly meet whatever needs we have in any hotspot in the world,” Camarillo said.

US Steps Up Pressure on ISIS with Airstrikes on Training Camps in Syria

Oct. 14, 2024 | By Chris Gordon

The U.S. military carried out airstrikes against Islamic State training camps in Syria on Oct. 11, U.S. Central Command announced.

The airstrikes came amid concerns that the militant group is trying to rebuild its capabilities following its defeat in 2019 by the U.S. and its regional allies, the Syrian Democratic Forces.

CENTCOM said in a statement it believes the strikes were successful and does not believe there were any civilian casualties.

“The strikes will disrupt the ability of ISIS to plan, organize, and conduct attacks against the United States, its allies and partners, and civilians throughout the region and beyond,” CENTCOM said in a statement, referring to the group by its acronym.

The U.S. operation follows two raids in Syria in September, which killed upwards of 60 militants, including “multiple senior leaders of the terrorist organizations of ISIS and Hurras al-Din, an Al Qaeda affiliate,” CENTCOM previously announced. Those attacks included a Sept. 16 “large-scale airstrike” on multiple ISIS training camps in central Syria, CENTCOM said.

The recent U.S. airstrikes are part of a “clear intensification” of the American campaign against the Islamic State group in recent weeks, Charles Lister of the Middle East Institute noted in a post on social media.

The U.S. has announced it is ending Operation Inherent Resolve—the campaign against the Islamic State group—and will transition to a “bilateral security partnership” with Iraq by September 2025. Iraq’s prime minister Mohammed Shia Al Sudani is under domestic political pressure to wind down the U.S. presence.

“We’ve had great success in territorially defeating ISIS in the core regions of Iraq and Syria. However, we are all very aware that with ISIS, you can say [they’re] down, but they’re never quite out,” a senior administration official told reporters in September. The official said the fight against ISIS “something that is ongoing every day, and that will very much continue in the future.”

The U.S. has some 2,500 troops in Iraq and around 900 in Syria, according to the Pentagon. U.S. officials have not said how the end of Operation Inherent Resolve mission in Iraq will affect U.S. troops levels.

The agreement with Iraq will enable the U.S. to sustain its presence in neighboring Syria, where the American maintains outposts to help train local partner forces. That arrangement with Iraq will last at least until September 2026.

The U.S. campaign against the Islamic State group has been hampered by Iranian-backed militia groups’ attacks on U.S. troops, including the killing in late January of three U.S. Soldiers at Tower 22 in Jordan, which supports the Al Tanf Garrison just across the border in eastern Syria. Over 40 troops were injured, including three Airmen from the 129th Rescue Wing of the California Air National Guard, who recently received the Purple Heart.

The U.S. conducted large-scale airstrikes against 85 targets in Iraq and Syria in early February that slowed down militia attacks, over 180 of which have occurred since last October.

“It’s less acute now than it was in the period between November ’23 to February ’24 where we were in contact daily at our bases against everything from mortars to UAS,” referring to one-way attack drones, a senior defense official told Air & Space Forces Magazine of the militia attacks, though the official noted attacks still continue.

The U.S. also has had to deal with harassment from Russian air forces in Syria in recent years. Russia damaged two U.S. MQ-9s with flares in July 2023, a year that often saw Russia engage in what the U.S. officials said were dangerous intercepts of manned and unmanned U.S. aircraft and overflying U.S. troops and partner forces with armed aircraft. That activity has also subsided for the most part.

The U.S. has generally operated in the eastern part of Syria, though the U.S. occasionally flies drones in central or western Syria for counterterrorism missions.

“They’ll do intercepts on our MQ-9s and things like that if they’re flying further west than they want or they will just intentionally violate the airspace that we’ve agreed upon is our operating areas—they’ll just buzz through to make a point is what we assess that is, as opposed to directly threatening troops on the ground,” the senior defense official said.

Western officials have cautioned that the Islamic State group remains a major concern despite the evolution of the U.S. mission against the group in Iraq. Along with al Qaeda, the Islamic State and its offshoots of affiliates are a “resurgent” threat to Britain and the West, the chief of the U.K. MI5 spy agency Ken McCallum told reporters last week.

“After a few years of being pinned well back, they’ve resumed efforts to export terrorism,” McCallum said.

Pentagon Spending Big to Counter Cheap Drones

Oct. 11, 2024 | By John A. Tirpak

The U.S. military is spending big bucks to find more systems that can counter cheap drones.

Anduril Industries has received a $250 million contract to supply an unidentified U.S. military service with “more than 500” Roadrunner-M counter-drone systems and associated Pulsar electronic warfare systems, the company said.

The disclosure comes a week after the Pentagon announced that its “Replicator II” effort will focus on counter-unmanned aerial systems, though isn’t clear if Roadrunner fulfills any Replicator requirement.

Under the contract, Anduril will start delivering the weapons starting in the last quarter of this calendar year through the end of 2025. The system is based on Anduril’s Roadrunner vertical takeoff and landing UAS, and the two have high modular commonality, the company said. The Roadrunner was developed by Anduril with its own funds, and the company said it went from “an idea to a combat-validated and fieldable solution in less than two years, which is much faster than most traditional contractor timelines.”

The Roadrunner-M carries a high explosive and can intercept UAS at high subsonic speed. If it is not necessary to detonate the system, it can be safely landed and re-used. The company called the system “the world’s first recoverable explosive weapon.”

As an interceptor, the Roadrunner-M “can rapidly identify, intercept, and destroy an array of aerial threats that are up to 100 times more expensive, or be recovered and re-used at near-zero cost.”

The system “will be deployed to operational sites in priority regions where U.S. forces face significant UAS threats, further enhancing U.S. air defense capabilities at the tactical edge,” Anduril said in a press release.

It isn’t clear from the announcement whether the Pulsar is intended to jam or disable a drone or perform some broader electronic warfare mission.

Roadrunner-M has been deployed operationally in a combat evaluation since January of this year, and Pulsar has been deployed in similar assessments since August of 2023, Anduril said.

The program is one of Anduril’s many new efforts designed to “support defense innovation [and] provide rapid, scalable solutions to safeguard U.S. forces.” The company recently unveiled its “Bolt” UAS and “Barracuda” family of low-cost, modular cruise missiles. It is one of two competitors for the Air Force’s Collaborative Combat Aircraft Increment 1 contract.

The company said Roadrunner M is defined as “a new class of recoverable, ground-based air defense weapon.” Its twin-jet propulsion and VTOL capability pairs “high subsonic speed with exceptional stability and agility.” It is designed to be “future-proof” because it can carry modular payloads for a “broad set of missions and can be constantly updated to meet the threats of tomorrow.”

Anduril’s revelation came after a Sept. 27 memo from Defense Secretary Lloyd J.Austin III said that the second phase of the Pentagon’s “Replicator” initiative—aimed at large-scale production of autonomous platforms—“will tackle the warfighter priority of countering the threat posed by small uncrewed aerial systems (C-sUAS) to our most critical installations and force concentrations.”

The expectation is “that Replicator 2 will assist with overcoming challenges we face in the areas of production capacity, technology innovation, authorities, policies, open system architecture and system integration, and force structure,” Austin wrote. He wants a “meaningful” operational capability within 24 months of securing funding from Congress for the effort.

The project will “leverage the work of the Counter Uncrewed Systems Warfighter Senior Integration Group, and collaborate closely with other ongoing efforts.”

Space Force X-37 Aerobraking Might Inform Future Satellite Design

Oct. 11, 2024 | By David Roza

“Watch me do this kickflip” is essentially what top Space Force officials said on Oct. 10 when they announced the secretive X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle will soon start aerobraking, a maneuver where an orbiting space vehicle dips into the atmosphere to create drag and slow down without burning up its limited supply of fuel.

It will be the X-37’s first time attempting such a maneuver, according to a Space Force press release, though other spacecraft have performed it in the past. While few people will actually see this feat, one expert said it could inform future spacecraft design as the Space Force pursues the ability to quickly maneuver its assets in orbit.

“Changing orbital planes typically takes quite a bit of fuel,” said Charles Galbreath, senior resident fellow at the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies. “If they can demonstrate a fuel savings through this experiment, through this operation, it could be significant for future operations.”

The 29-foot-long X-37 launches into space aboard a rocket but can re-enter the atmosphere, land on a runway, then launch in orbit again, much like its crewed cousin, the Space Shuttle. The vessel has completed six missions since it first launched in 2010, and its current mission started Dec. 28, 2023, aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket taking off from Kennedy Space Center, Fla.

For this mission, the uncrewed X-37 carries modules to study the effects of radiation on plant seeds provided by NASA. Unlike previous launch vehicles, the larger Falcon Heavy rocket likely put the X-37 in a higher orbit than ever before.

The higher the orbit, the more pronounced the effect of the Van Allen radiation belts, which NASA describes as two “enormous donuts” of high energy radiation particles trapped around Earth by the planet’s magnetosphere. How the plant seeds respond to that radiation could inform future crewed missions on long space flights, the Space Force said in a November press release.

A SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket launches USSF-52 carrying a United States Space Force X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle from Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39A. U.S. Space Force photo

Besides radiation, the X-37 is also supposed to test new space domain awareness technologies used to track objects moving through space. It is not clear whether these tests are related to the aerobraking maneuver. During the maneuver, the Space Force said the X-37 would “safely dispose of its service module components,” which likely refers to the equipment used to carry out the experiments.

There could be several reasons for doing so, Galbreath said. If the tests are complete and the equipment is no longer needed, getting rid of the modules might cut down on mass and make the reentry and recovery process easier and safer. He was also reminded of the Cold War-era CORONA program, where spy satellites in orbit jettisoned film capsules that reentered the atmosphere and drifted from parachutes before being snagged by passing C-130 aircraft.

“We’re well beyond that technology where we’re required to do something like that, but it kind of reminds me of that sort of operation,” Galbreath said. “You can speculate about the deployment of sensors, or the deployment of some sort of reentry vehicle from the X-37 to be recovered.”

No matter what the modules are up to, the aerobraking itself could prove valuable as the Space Force pursues dynamic space operations, where satellites can launch into orbit faster and move around quickly once they get there.

Last year, Chief of Space Operations Gen. B. Chance Saltzman described the concept as “almost continuous maneuvering, so that the satellites from any one radar shot looks like it’s maneuvering and it’s just kind of constantly changing its orbit as it goes through—preserving mission but changing its orbit.”

Such maneuvering is not possible with most existing USSF satellites, which only carry enough propellant for “station keeping” and cannot be refueled. At the time, Saltzman said, dynamic operations were only in the “good idea phase.”

Aerobrake maneuvering may be one brick on the road to leave that phase. The X-37 is currently in a highly elliptical orbit, meaning its path takes the shape of a giant oval with Earth at one end, where the vessel reaches a perigee close to Earth’s atmosphere before swinging back out and high above.

The X-37 “is probably going to change its point of closest approach, its perigee, so that it impacts the atmosphere more than it would have otherwise,” Galbreath explained.

As the atmospheric pressure increases, the X-37 can use its wings to slow down or change its inclination to set out on a different new course, “so there’s a lot of opportunities that you can use the aerodynamics of the upper atmosphere for,” he added. “You can actually change your inclination, a whole new orbital plane, because of the atmospheric pressure.”

X-37B orbital test vehicle concludes sixth successful mission. Photo by Staff Sgt. Adam Shanks

With their large solar arrays and non-aerodynamic design, most satellites in orbit today are not built for aerobraking, but the upcoming maneuvers could inform future designs if the Space Force were interested in building a newer cousin of the X-37, Galbreath said.

“It also opens up the possibility of operating vehicles in lower orbits that could use the atmosphere to maneuver on a regular basis while still maintaining enough orbital velocity for the life of its mission,” he added. “So that can create some very interesting opportunities for dynamic space operations that don’t require as much onboard fuel.”

Space Force officials indicated the aerobrake could inform the branch’s future operations.

“This first of a kind maneuver from the X-37B is an incredibly important milestone for the United States Space Force as we seek to expand our aptitude and ability to perform in this challenging domain,” Saltzman said in the Oct. 10 release.

“It’s exciting to see the X-37 team, the Space Force, and the Air Force pushing new boundaries with this test,” Galbreath said. “Hopefully they can talk about the results someday and how that’s going to impact future architectures.”

MacDill Ends Evacuation Order After Moderate Hurricane Damage

Oct. 11, 2024 | By John A. Tirpak

Airmen assigned to the 6th Air Refueling Wing will start returning to MacDill Air Force Base, Fla. this weekend after the base survived Hurricane Milton largely intact. But personnel assigned to the headquarters of U.S. Central Command and U.S. Special Operations Command, both located at MacDill, may have to wait a while before they can return to their usual offices.

The evacuation order for Airmen put in place ahead of the storm’s arrival ended Oct. 11, but those living on base could not return to their homes earlier than 5 p.m., while those living off base could return to their homes immediately.

Directives issued by 6th Air Refueling Wing commander Col. Ed Szczepanik indicated that personnel assigned to Eglin have until 11:59 p.m. Oct. 12 to come back to base, but a MacDill official said that’s not a hard return deadline. Rather, it designates the point at which reimbursement of evacuation expenses will expire.

As of the afternoon of Oct. 11, power had been restored to more than 80 percent of MacDill’s facilities and all of base housing, spokesperson Capt. Kaitlin Butler said. Obvious signs of damage at the installation include missing roof tiles and shingles, knocked-down road signs, debris, and water intrusion in some base housing caused by storm winds, which exceeded 90 miles per hour and blew in some windows and doors, she said.

For operational security reasons, MacDill will not announce when its KC-135s, which were flown out ahead of the storm, will return to the base. Some evacuated to McConnell Air Force Base, Kan. and some are conducting operational missions.

Both Eglin Air Force Base, Fla. and Moody Air Force Base, Ga. were designated as “staging areas for hurricane relief and support efforts” for those affected by both Hurricane Milton and Hurricane Helene, Pentagon spokesperson Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said at an Oct. 10 press briefing. Helene inflicted major flooding damage across the Southeast before and after its Sept. 26 landfall.

Until the afternoon of Oct. 11, MacDill is in “a mission-essential only status,” according to Szczepanik, who issued alerts and directives via social media and text. He urged returning MacDill personnel to “exercise extreme caution” on returning, “as there may be hazards on roadways.”

The MacDill hurricane recovery team “is hard at work restoring the installation to full operational capability,” he said.

MacDill was expected to endure catastrophic damage from storm surge associated with Milton, which came ashore 60 miles to the south of the base on Oct. 10. However, winds freakishly pulled waters out of Tampa Bay instead of sending a 15-foot storm surge onto the base, which juts out into the body of water. Although there is flooding in low-lying areas due to 13 inches of rain, and wind damage stemming from 90-mile per hour winds hitting the facility, a base spokeswoman reported the base is not severely affected.

macdill milton — Damage was far from disastrous at MacDill Air Force Base, Fla. in the wake of Hurricane Milton. (Photo via Facebook/MacDill Air Force Base)

In addition to hosting a KC-135 wing, MacDill is the headquarters for U.S. Central Command and U.S. Special Operations Command. Ryder said that personnel from those organizations “remain evacuated … and will reenter when safe.”

“The priority is the safety of personnel and their families and ensuring they have the resources they need as they recover from Hurricane Milton,” he said. “Both commands continue to operate out of multiple locations, ensuring no degradation to operations.”

The Pentagon is working with “federal, state, and local partners to ensure we are doing everything we can to support and coordinate the ongoing disaster response efforts to aid our fellow Americans impacted by these devastating storms,” Ryder said. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and his top civilian and military deputies are receiving daily updates on recovery efforts, he said.

More than 6,500 members of the National Guard—with equipment like large trucks and helicopters—and 250 members of the Army Corps of Engineers, as well as 100 Marines from Camp LeJeune, N.C., have been deployed to assist with recovery operations stemming from both hurricanes, Ryder reported. They have been sent to areas determined by federal authorities working in concert with the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Strike Eagle Returns to Service 4 Years After Landing Gear Collapse

Oct. 10, 2024 | By David Roza

The phoenix isn’t the only bird that can rise from the ashes: Earlier this month, Airmen at Mountain Home Air Force Base, Idaho, took an F-15E Strike Eagle through its final check flight four years after a landing gear collapse in 2020 left it grounded.

Master Sgt. Donald Root, lead production superintendent at the 391st Fighter Generation Squadron, was there that day and said in a press release that the jet had to be lifted off the runway.

“It was a critical moment that marked the beginning of a long and challenging journey,” he said in the release.

The base declined to answer questions about the nature of the incident or how much damage it caused, but it said nobody was injured in the event.

An F-15E Strike Eagle takes flight at Mountain Home Air Force Base, Idaho, Oct. 2, 2024. This aircraft achieved a successful final check flight after being grounded for more than four years. (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman Donovin Watson)

Rebuilding tail number 323 took an enormous effort involving local maintenance shops and visiting depot field teams. They had to fabricate custom parts such as bulkheads made out of titanium, something never done before at Mountain Home.

“Every shop on base has touched this aircraft,” Root said. “It’s truly a collective effort.”

It was a bumpy road marked by technical challenges, such as a damaged wire harness in the right wing that needed a complete re-wiring. There were also delays waiting for repair materials to arrive, and funding challenges for having depot field teams come out to help.

“Funding was a major factor that affected our timeline,” Root said. “We had to ensure everything was in place before moving forward with the rebuild.”

It was also a learning experience for Staff Sgt. Alex Torres, the lead floor supervisor and the jet’s dedicated crew chief. His team had to coordinate with other shops such as fuels and sheet metal to make sure the workflow stayed smooth.

“As a brand-new staff sergeant, I had to learn quickly and trust my intuition to get the job done,” Torres said in the release. “I couldn’t have done it without the support of my team.”

Staff Sgt. Alex Torres, a crew chief assigned to the 391st Fighter Generation Squadron, stands on an F-15E Strike Eagle aircraft at Mountain Home Air Force Base, Idaho, Sept. 17, 2024. (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman Donovin Watson)

It wasn’t clear when 323 took its first flight since the incident, but Oct. 2 marked its final check flight before returning to service. Built in 1991, the 33-year-old aircraft likely still has plenty of flying ahead. Its older sibling, tail number 89-0487, logged its 15,000th flight hour in May, taking it over twice the length of the Strike Eagle’s original service length. But after four years on the bench, it might take 323 a while to catch up.

Air Force officials often point out that the branch’s fleet of aircraft is older and smaller than ever before, which means each flight-worthy tail makes a big difference towards helping aircrew meet training and operational requirements.

In 2023, an F-22 returned to flight five years after a botched takeoff that saw it slide 6,500 feet down a runway in Nevada. The Air Force is also trying to salvage a working F-35 out of two damaged ones in an effort officials are calling “Franken-bird.” The Air Force has 218 Strike Eagles, and maintainers at Mountain Home were proud to see one more rejoin the fleet.

“Every aircraft tells a story, and the story of 323 is one of teamwork and determination,” Root said. “We’re excited to see it back in the skies, ready for its mission.”

strike eagle — Airmen assigned to the 366th Fighter Wing stand in front of an F-15E Strike Eagle after completing a successful functional check flight at Mountain Home Air Force Base, Oct. 2, 2024. (U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Grace Turpin)

What Space Capabilities Do NATO Nations Have? The Alliance Wants to Know

Oct. 10, 2024 | By Greg Hadley

NATO is asking all 32 of its member nations to detail their space capabilities so it can better plan for future operations, the first U.S. Space Force general officer assigned to the alliance said Oct. 10.

Additionally, NATO is also working on a commercial space strategy of its own after the Pentagon and Space Force released their versions earlier this year, and the alliance may even one day get space assets of its own, suggested Maj. Gen. Devin R. Pepper, deputy chief of staff for strategic plans and policy at NATO Allied Command Transformation, during a livestreamed discussion at the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies.

NATO first declared space an operational domain in 2019, then published an “overarching” space policy in January 2022, expressing its intent to integrate space into its core functions and facilitate interoperability among allies rather than having assets directly owned by the alliance.

For the most part, however, the alliance has leaned on American space assets, Pepper said. That won’t work for much longer.

“When it comes to the space domain, we cannot perform our operations or the protect and defend mission of the domain without our allies,” he said, noting his prior experience as deputy commander of Space Operations Command and as the commander of the Space Force’s Buckley Garrison, where allied nations contributed valuable personnel.

Yet to effectively integrate all 32 nations, NATO must have a clearer understanding of what everyone can offer, Pepper said, which part of the alliance’s “defense planning process.”

“Right now … we only have qualitative requirements that we assign to the nation,” Pepper said. “So please deliver us EMS capability or SATCOM or ISR. We have not gotten to the point where we have assigned quantitative targets to the nation. So in other words, until we know exactly what a nation has that they can offer, we can’t task them to provide it yet. So we’re working through that right now.”

It’s a bureaucratic process that takes time. A survey has gone out to every NATO nation, but Pepper indicated some said they had not received it. The hope is to get responses back by the end of the month, allowing Pepper’s team to work on assigning quantitative targets of space capabilities for each country to provide to NATO, which then must be approved at the headquarters level. Pepper said the goal is to make progress on that front within the next 12 months.

“From a U.S. perspective, NATO relies upon all of our military SATCOM capability and our ISR capability. Those are things that we contribute right now, today, from an exercise perspective,” Pepper said. “But there may be some other capability that another nation has that we are unaware of, that we have not directed them to provide that capability to NATO.”

Having a clearer picture of everyone’s capabilities will also prevent unnecessary duplication, said Pepper, though there could be some advantages in having redundancy and resiliency.

NATO members such as the United Kingdom, France, Canada, and Germany operate a relatively large number of satellites. But even smaller states like Luxembourg and Denmark have their own space assets, and as the cost of launch comes down, more countries have launched at least one satellite. In fact, all but a few NATO allies have already done so.

As long as NATO does not operate any space assets of its own, it will need to rely on a combination of member nations’ capabilities and commercial industry to enable the rest of its operations. A commercial space strategy will boost that process, but Pepper noted that some countries have already come together to wield commercial space through the Alliance Persistent Surveillance from Space (APSS) program, which will create a “virtual constellation” using commercial data. APSS signed its first contract earlier this year with Planet Labs.

Yet as threats from both Russia and China grow, Pepper seemingly left the door open to NATO becoming a space player in its own right, much as the alliance owns aircraft like the E-3 AWACS and RQ-4 drone.

“The policy right now is that NATO will not operate any systems, any constellations, and that’s the policy right now,” said Pepper. “But that is not to say that will be the policy in the next 5-10 years. I mean, there could be an opportunity down the road where NATO would say, ‘Hey, we do need some organic space capability.’”

Allvin Wants Airmen to Study Past Airpower Failures to Prepare for Wars of the Future

Oct. 10, 2024 | By Chris Gordon

Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David W. Allvin wants Airmen to read up on the history of airpower failures and military decision-making to better prepare for the next conflict and learn how to harness artificial intelligence effectively and ethically, among other new updates to his Leadership Library.

Allvin has framed the current transformation of the Air Force as necessary in a “time of consequence” driven by the threat of China—a near-peer challenger that the U.S. has not seen since the end of the Cold War. The chief has four new additions to his list of books, films, podcasts, and papers—two books, one podcast episode, and an article—that touch on many of the themes he has highlighted in his first year as the Air Force’s top officer.

The latest Leadership Library update for Airmen released this month “aims to equip you with resources to deepen your understanding of the many facets of modern military leadership and provides the insights needed to navigate the complexities of the contemporary operational landscape,” Allvin wrote in a note to Airmen.

“Why Air Forces Fail: The Anatomy of Defeat” edited by Robin Higham and Stephen J. Harris

The book, edited by a pair of military historians, examines the failures of Russian, Polish, French, British, Italian, German, Argentine, and American air forces.

The parallels to modern challenges are notable. Allvin writes the book “provides invaluable insights into the importance of logistics, infrastructure, and proactive leadership. History shows that the decisions made today will dictate the readiness of tomorrow.”

The U.S. Air Force is pushing for significant investments in modernization and more realistic exercises. Russia has struggled in its war in Ukraine and failed to achieve air superiority early—or at any point thereafter—in the conflict, a key failure driven in part by a military doctrine that subordinated its air force to ground forces, according to U.S. officials and experts.

“As Airmen, understanding the historical underpinnings of Air Force successes and failures is crucial for informed strategic planning,” Allvin wrote of the work.

”Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die,” by Chip Heath and Dan Heath

The book, a New York Times bestseller, “offers powerful, practical strategies for ensuring our messages resonate, from simple and unexpected ideas to emotional and credible storytelling,” Allvin writes. Simply put, the success of a mission is more likely if communication surrounding it is clear, he writes.

“Conflict Occurs When Debate Fails,” Open to Debate

In a series of debates between experts arguing for and against positions, this podcast episode picked out by Allvin features retired Army Gen. David H. Petraeus and historian Andrew Roberts discussing their book “Conflict” which examines the evolution of warfare since World War II. The podcast “offers profound insights into the ethical and strategic dimensions of contemporary warfare, from nuclear deterrence to cyber threats, and misinformation. … Engaging with this resource will enhance your grasp of conflict resolution, leadership and the critical role of accountability in military decisions,” Allvin wrote.

“Embracing Gen AI at Work,” by H. James Wilson and Paul R. Daugherty

Finally, as the world rapidly embraces artificial intelligence—including the Air Force and the U.S. military at large—Allvin wants Airmen to use AI, but do so carefully.

“As we navigate the integration of artificial intelligence into our operations, equipping ourselves with the right skills is central to success,” Allvin wrote.

Through an article in the Harvard Business Review, the authors can teach Airmen about using “AI effectively through intelligent interrogation, judgment integration, and reciprocal apprenticing,” Allvin wrote. “I want each of you to be empowered to leverage emerging technology confidently and ethically,” the CSAF concluded.