Air Force TACPs Test Out New Comms Technology for Disaster Response

Oct. 16, 2023 | By David Roza

Tactical Air Control Party (TACP) Airmen with the Texas Air National Guard’s 147th Air Support Operations Squadron recently teamed up with Texas state agencies in Austin to try out a new technology that should help military and civilian first responders save lives faster in a natural disaster or humanitarian support mission.

Normally when multiple agencies from across the government arrive at an area without cell service, they have to figure out how to communicate across multiple frequencies and types of communications equipment.

“The biggest challenge when it comes to humanitarian assistance or disaster response is communication,” Maj. Kristopher Bartels, a special warfare officer with the 147 ASOS, told Air & Space Forces Magazine. “On a mission, I may carry three different radios and I’m managing multiple nets and multiple people.”

But at the Austin event, the 147 ASOS, the Texas Counterdrug Task Force, Texas Game Warden, Texas Task Force-1, an urban search and rescue unit, and other agencies had a new tool that allowed them to communicate easily without cell service. The goTenna Pro X2 is a radio about the size of a barbecue lighter. When two users each have a Pro X2, they can pair it with an app on their smartphones to exchange texts and location data, even if satellites or cell towers are offline. Since multiple Pro X2s can form a mesh network, they can be daisy-chained to cover tens of thousands of square miles, through mountains or urban terrain that often block traditional radio signals.

At the demonstration, the TACPs and their interagency colleagues practiced the first steps of organizing a disaster response, like setting up communication relays and helicopter landing zones. They stood up the network in just three hours, allowing them to move fast and reduce the risk of accidentally duplicating efforts, such as sending two helicopters to do the same task. Text messaging also reduced the risk of losing something in translation, a common error in voice-to-voice transmissions.

“It’s great if I can key up on a radio and talk to someone, but how many times have we played the telephone game and something’s gotten lost?” Bartels asked.

The responders found they did not need to communicate as often because the Pro X2s doubled as tracking devices that appeared as little blue dots on their smartphone apps. The device works with the Team Awareness Kit, an app used by many service members and government agencies, but it also works with a goTenna app that requires less training to use.

“If I’m working the command-and-control node, now I don’t even have to talk to that guy or gal that’s on the edge,” Bartels said. “I can see their little blue dot and they can shoot me a text message that says ‘Hey, I need a helicopter.’ And they didn’t have to talk to three other people, where something might get lost, to get back to me.”

air force tacp — A tactical air control party member with the 147th Air Support Operations Squadron, 147th Reconnaissance Wing, looks at a map during a full mission profile deployment exercise in Gila Bend, Arizona, April 12, 2016. (U.S. Air National Guard photo by 1st Lt. Alicia Lacy)

The technology could be helpful in situations where cell service is only partially down, but the surviving network is overloaded. Bartels said it took up to six or eight hours just to receive a text message during the February ice storm in Texas that left more than 250,000 people without electricity across the state.

“If I can roll into an area, give this to six or seven different agencies, and build a network for a really low cost, then I’m not clogging up the cell phone networks or the radio networks,” he said. “I can send out one group message, which allows me to say more with less and free up those critical pathways.”

Each Pro X2 costs $1,200, compared to the $5,000 or $10,000 radios Bartels frequently encounters in his line of work. Unlike some of those devices, the Pro X2 can’t stream video or other higher-end capabilities, but it can get responders on the same page faster and requires little training to use, so Airmen could hand them out to partners at the start of a mission and get going.

The small radios could help address a big challenge in disaster response. An after-action report published by the city of Austin after the Texas ice storm found that “different network infrastructures within some partner agencies challenged the exchange of information.” The Army National Guard also identified disparate communications equipment as a challenge delaying emergency response in events like Hurricane Katrina and 9/11.

The Air Force recognizes that challenge too, which was why its innovation program AFWERX contracted with goTenna in 2022 to develop a low-bandwidth remote situational awareness communications mesh network that could apply to missions both at home and overseas. Ari Schuler, goTenna’s CEO, said his company’s technology has been used in conflict zones such as Iraq, Afghanistan, and Ukraine, where cell phone signals or satellite communications often put users at risk of artillery strikes.

Schuler said goTenna’s mesh networks are well-suited for areas where satellites may be disrupted or where jamming is a threat. Though satellite disruption may prevent a goTenna network overseas from connecting to higher headquarters at the Pentagon or elsewhere, it would not interrupt operators in the field. Since it does not stream video, audio, or other high-bandwidth information, the network can use ‘short-burst’ transmissions: lightweight messages that are more difficult to disrupt. It also helps that it can form a mesh network, where no particular node is more important than another.

“If you jam one portion of the mesh, the network’s just going to route around that, so it’s harder to take down the network in its entirety,” Schuler said.

The 147th ASOS is not the only Air Force unit looking to revamp its communication technology. Security Forces Airmen at nuclear missile bases in Wyoming, North Dakota, and Montana, and facility managers at Tyndall Air Force Base, Fla. are implementing new networks that reduce the role of voice-to-voice communication in favor of text and map-based information, which should allow for faster and more reliable emergency response. Meanwhile, Gen. Mike Minihan, head of Air Mobility Command, highlighted connectivity as the ‘single best investment’ for improving his troops’ ability to operate across the vast Pacific.

“When I can understand exactly where the blue [friendly] forces are and exactly where the red forces are, and I don’t have to transmit to understand that lay-down, then mobility will have the ability to, one, operate in a higher-contested environment, and, two, support the joint team so that they can operate in a higher-contested environment,” he told Air & Space Forces Magazine in September.

Schuler hopes the Pro X2’s low price and high interoperability make it an appealing option for operators.

“Making sure that everyone can communicate is critical, and really leads to saving lives,” he said. “It’s a low-cost capability … so you’re able to get more of these in the hands of operators, and the more operators are connecting, the more effective their response is going to be.”

Air Force Test Enterprise Gears Up for the Challenge of CCAs

Oct. 16, 2023 | By John A. Tirpak

Testing Collaborative Combat Aircraft—the unmanned, autonomous aircraft that will fly alongside crewed fighters with the goal of beefing up the future Air Force fleet—will require an unprecedented integration of effort from engineers and operators, leaders of the service’s test enterprise said in a recent interview with Air & Space Forces Magazine.

“We’re still learning” how CCAs will have to be tested, Maj. Gen. Evan C. Dertien, commander of the Air Force Test Center, said. “My focus right now is making sure that the test enterprise is ready to test autonomy.”

“A lot of the work we’re doing is, I’m trying to train the workforce,” Dertien explained. That includes making sure test ranges, policies and procedures are ready and trying to get the various parts of the enterprise to consider, “How would we handle these aircraft when they get here?”

Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall has said the Air Force plans to build at least 1,000 CCAs, and that they will be available for operational deployment before the end of the decade, leaving just six years to select contractors, develop, build, and test the aircraft. The Air Force has requested $5.8 billion for CCAs over the future years defense plan, covering the next five years.

Collaborative Combat Aircraft would work with manned aircraft such as the F-35, as shown in this artist’s conceptual illustration. **Lockheed Martin illustration**

Dertien said he has all the experts he needs for testing the drones. The challenge will be integrating their different specialities.

“I have people that know how to do [unmanned aerial vehicles], I have people that know how to do autonomy. I have … people that know how to do fighter tactics,” he said. “But now we’re going to have to bring them all together to test something like the CCA.”

There are several programs in progress right now that will lead into CCA testing, providing huge amounts of data to be analyzed—Skyborg; XQ-58 Valkyrie; the Viper Experimentation and Next-gen Operations Model (VENOM) project, exploring manned-unmanned teaming with a half-dozen F-16s; and the X-62A Variable In-flight Simulation Test Aircraft (VISTA) aircraft, an F-16 modified to explore maneuvering and tactics of autonomous aircraft, able to simulate the behavior of various designs.

“The work we’re doing on VISTA is really helping us advance autonomy and get after the workforce we need,” Dertien said. “The things we’re doing down at Eglin with the XQ-58 and developing the autonomy … is developing that workforce and the data infrastructure, and also pairing it up with fighter aircrew, and starting the basics of fighter integration.”

The VENOM program “will really take that to the next level of autonomy with sensors,” he added. “And all this is, if nothing else, prepping the test enterprise for when that first CCA lands or is brought here; that we’re ready to test the autonomy and integrate it with existing systems like the F-22 and the F-35.”

A Kratos XQ-58A Valkyrie was on display on its launcher at AFA’s Air, Space & Cyber Conference in September. The Valkyrie was developed with the Air Force Research Laboratory as a demonstrator. **Mike Tsukamoto/staff**

The advent of CCAs is driving a larger change in testing, said Col. Douglas P. Wickert, commander of the 412th Test Wing at Edwards. Until recently, new platforms could be tested individually, but “increasingly, these are all interactive systems.”

A CCA, he pointed out, is “just a node in a wider network. And so, one of the things that we’ve done in the test enterprise is create recurring opportunities to bring a lot of things together.”

By creating what Wickert called a “stage” for CCAs to integrate with other planned Air Force networks like the Advanced Battle Management System (ABMS), the service can “see how CCA is going to play into that and contribute to that.” After that, future programs will start and “we can test them in a in a very complex, realistic environment,” he said.

Dertien said the test enterprise is taking a “crawl walk, run” approach to autonomy and how it can be applied to military systems.

At AFA’s Air, Space and Cyber conference in September, Dertien said the VENOM program will be able to take cues from offboard sensors and establish, “with multiple aircraft … a foundation” for CCA testing. He said his organization is focused on setting “the rule sets and the safety procedures” for those experiments.

Saltzman Announces New Deltas to ‘Streamline Feedback’ Between Operations, Acquisition

Oct. 16, 2023 | By Greg Hadley

A month after revealing prototype “Integrated Mission Deltas” to combine operations and sustainment under one roof, Chief of Space Operations Gen. B. Chance Saltzman announced he’s creating corresponding “System Deltas” to further refine the organization.

The new units are part of Saltzman’s push to align the Space Force around missions rather than functions. In a service-wide ‘C-Note’ sent Oct. 13, Saltzman described the effort as “Forging a Purpose-built Space Service.”

As with the Integrated Mission Deltas, the Space Force will begin with two prototype System Deltas, one focused on electronic warfare and the other on position, navigation, and timing.

Just as the mission deltas fall within Space Operations Command, including their own sustainment and upgrade personnel who used to be in Space Systems Command, the new System Deltas also combine personnel from different areas. Focused on developing and acquiring new capabilities and systems, these units will be part of Space Systems Command, Saltzman wrote, but possess close ties with their mission delta counterparts to “streamline the feedback” from operators to acquirers.

But close ties does not suggest the deltas will be physically co-located. A Space Force spokesperson told Air & Space Forces Magazine that the System Deltas and the Integrated Mission Deltas will instead seek to better coordinate their efforts by eliminated what Saltzman calls “organizational seams.”

“There are no perfect organizational structures,” Saltzman said at AFA’s Air, Space & Cyber Conference in September. “The structuring of people to do their jobs will always create seams. The key is to arrange the organization to maximize performance around what matters most and minimize the negative integration effects that seams naturally create.”

Creating System Deltas as a direct counterpart to Integrated Mission Deltas will mitigate the seams between these functions by cutting down on the bureaucratic process by which operations and acquisition personnel typically communicate wants and needs, the spokesperson added.

The two Integrated Mission Deltas officially stood up Oct. 12, as the electronic warfare sustainment offices moved to Space Delta 3, Space Operations Command’s EW Space Delta. The other new mission delta, focused on position, navigation, and timing, is entirely new, and was built by drawing operators out of Space Delta 8 and sustainers from Space Systems Command.

The new System Deltas will form “in the coming months,” according to a Space Force release.

“Corresponding [System Deltas] will follow, but our initial scope is limited so we can quickly execute, learn, and adapt for broader implementation,” Saltzman wrote in his memo.

The Integrated Mission Deltas and System Deltas are fully in line with Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall’s objective to reoptimize the department for an era of great power competition.

“Form follows function and, as Secretary Kendall has said, it is critical that all elements of the DAF be reoptimized for great power competition,” Saltzman wrote in his memo, the latest in a series of C-Notes he has sent to the service outlining his ideas and ambitions for the Space Force. “Our processes must generate the effects our Joint Force needs to successfully implement the [National Defense Strategy] in the face of our pacing threat.”

F-15s Land in Middle East as Austin Visits Israel and Touts ‘Augmented’ USAF Presence

Oct. 13, 2023 | By Chris Gordon

F-15Es arrived in the Middle East on Oct. 13, as the U.S. continued to bolster its forces in the region, the U.S. Air Force announced.

The planes, which deployed from RAF Lakenheath, U.K., are part of a broader package of forces that have been deployed after Hamas’ attack on Israel, including an increased number of A-10 Thunderbolt II close air support aircraft and F-16 Fighting Falcon multirole fighters.

“The aircraft’s advanced systems and targeting capabilities enable U.S. forces to respond to any crisis or contingency, and if necessary, engage and defeat adversaries,” Air Forces Central (AFCENT) said in a statement announcing the arrival of the F-15Es.

The Pentagon did not say where the F-15Es would be based. Their arrival comes one day after the Pentagon announced A-10 Warthogs from the 354th Fighter Squadron at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Ariz., had arrived in the region, in addition to the Warthogs from the 75th Fighter Squadron already in the region.

U.S. officials have said that U.S. Air Force F-35 Lightning II stealth fighters are among the additional capabilities that could be sent

“The U.S. military is committed to the enduring safety and security across the Middle East,” AFCENT commander Lt. Gen. Alexus G. Grynkewich said in an Oct. 13 statement. “By posturing advanced fighters and integrating with joint and coalition forces, we are strengthening our partnerships and reinforcing security in the region.”

U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III, who arrived in Israel on Oct. 13, met with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant, and the Israel’s newly-formed war cabinet.

Austin highlighted the “bolstered” USAF presence in the Middle East and the deployment of the USS Gerard R. Ford in the Eastern Mediterranean, according to a readout of Austin’s meetings provided by Pentagon Press Secretary Air Force Brig. Gen. Patrick S. Ryder.

Upon returning to the U.S., Austin also dispatched the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower to the region, the Pentagon announced Oct. 14.

The new U.S. assets are aimed at discouraging Hezbollah, the Lebanese militant group, Iran, or other groups from trying to escalate the conflict and to show support for Israel, which has had more than 1,300 citizens killed and others taken hostage and brought to Gaza. American citizens are among the dead and taken hostage by Hamas, the U.S. government says. The State Department has announced plans to evacuate some American citizens from Israel.

“We’ve augmented U.S. fighter aircraft squadrons in the Middle East, and the U.S. Department of Defense stands fully ready to deploy additional assets, if necessary,” Austin said during a press conference in Israel on Oct. 13.

In addition to the Air Force fighters, the USS Ford also carries four F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter squadrons, as well as electronic warfare and command and control aircraft. The carrier is also accompanied by cruise missile-carrying warships.

Ryder added that the U.S. was “expediting security assistance to Israel, including precision guided munitions and air defense ammunition.” Austin also “committed to deploying additional assets as needed.” U.S. officials have said that U.S. Air Force F-35 Lightning II stealth fighters are among the further capabilities that could be sent.

Some of the additional assets Austin referenced are on their way.

The USS Dwight D. Eisenhower aircraft carrier was set to sail from Norfolk, Va., on Oct. 13, but its deployment was temporarily delayed, according to local media reports. The next day, the Pentagon said the Eisenhower and its accompanying warships would join the Ford in the Eastern Mediterranean. Embarked aboard the Eisenhower is Carrier Air Wing 3, which typically has four fighter squadrons as well as other aircraft. The Pentagon said the Eisenhower would be carrying nine aircraft squadrons of various types on its new deployment. Like the Ford, it is joined by multiple cruise missile-carrying warships.

In a statement issued on Oct. 14, Austin said the deployment of the Eisenhower to the Eastern Mediterranean was part of the U.S. effort to “deter hostile actions against Israel or any efforts toward widening this war.”

Israel has responded to the Hamas attacks with punishing airstrikes in Gaza, and Israeli ground forces appears posed to intervene, with large numbers of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) staging near Israel’s border with Gaza and issuing warnings to evacuate. Netanyahu has vowed to “crush and destroy” Hamas.

During his visit, Austin signaled strong support for Israel.

“This is no time for neutrality, or for false equivalence, or for excuses for the inexcusable,” Austin said at an Oct. 13 press conference. “Make no mistake: the United States will make sure that Israel has what it needs to defend itself, and Israel has a right to protect its people.”

Amid Wars in Ukraine and Israel, ‘Long-Planned’ B-1 Task Force Deploys to UK

Oct. 13, 2023 | By Greg Hadley

Multiple B-1B Lancers arrived at RAF Fairford, United Kingdom, on Oct. 12, kicking off a Bomber Task Force deployment as tensions rise across the globe.

More than 100 Airmen deployed to support the B-1s from Dyess Air Force Base, Texas, the first Bomber Task Force rotation of fiscal 2024. U.S. Air Forces in Europe emphasized in a release that the deployment was “long-planned,” and was not triggered by events such as Hamas’ incursion into Israel and events since.

USAFE “routinely hosts and supports a variety of U.S. Air Force aircraft and units for training aligned with U.S. European Command objectives,” the statement said.

Still, the bombers’ arrival and its missions over the next several months will likely be watched closely. As Russia’s invasion of Ukraine drags on, fears rise that the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza could spread to other groups and countries in the Middle East.

B-1s from an earlier Bomber Task Force deployment fired advanced munitions in a live-fire exercise in June, using ranges in Jordan and Saudi Arabia as part of a joint exercise that included Israel.

During that same deployment Russian fighter jets intercepted the B-1s in the Baltic Sea region. The task force’s bombers landed in Sweden for the first time ever and joined in on the Swedes’ premier air exercise in the Arctic.

Tensions have only risen since then. In the wake of Hamas’ attack, multiple USAF fighter squadrons deployed to the Middle East in an effort to deter both Hezbollah, the Lebanese militant group, and Iran from expanding the conflict while showing firm support for Israel.

Separately, the Ukraine Defense Contact Group also met this week to discuss the country’s long-term air defense, even as questions persist about the U.S.’s ability to keep providing aid.

Amid all this, the B-1 Lancers’ deployment “provides U.S. and NATO leaders with strategic options to assure Allies and partners, while also deterring potential adversary aggression throughout Europe and across the globe,” according to a USAFE release.

Officials have touted Bomber Task Forces as a flexible way for the Air Force to reassure allies and project airpower around the world.

“It seems as though everyone likes to have a bomber in their region,” Air Force Gen. Anthony J. Cotton told reporters this August.

Space Force Pumps the Brakes on ChatGPT-Like Technology With Temporary Ban

Oct. 13, 2023 | By Unshin Lee Harpley

Space Force Guardians face a temporary ban on using generative artificial intelligence tools and large language models (LLM) for official purposes.

The move, first reported by Bloomberg, was announced in a Sept. 29 memo from Lisa Costa, the Space Force’s Chief Technology and Innovation Officer.

According to the memo, obtained by Air & Space Forces Magazine, Guardians are forbidden from using government data in generative AI solutions unless they receive official approval.

IBM describes Generative AI as programs “that can generate high-quality text, images, and other content based on the data they were trained on”—platforms such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Ask Sage, a model designed for government work by the Department of the Air Force’s former chief software officer Nicolas M. Chaillan.

ChatGPT logo on a keybaord. **Mike Tsukamoto/staff; GuHyeok Jeong/Pixabay**

In an interview with Air & Space Forces Magazine, Chaillan argued against the Space Force’s move, citing concerns about the efficacy of prohibiting an entire technology or platform and the potential risks linked to personnel accessing these platforms on their personal devices.

“When people are banned from using government equipment and you’re banned from using your device (to access these platforms), it’s going to push people to use their personal device. People have created personal accounts on the platform, which creates more risk. All you’re doing when you do things like this, is the creation of more shadow IT and more cyber risk,” Chaillan said.

According to Chaillan, Ask Sage was developed on government clouds and constructed to fulfill all cybersecurity prerequisites. He said over the past six months, roughly 500 Guardians utilized the platform, with no reported security incidents. He also said there are presently 10,000 Ask Sage users throughout the Department of Defense.

A Pentagon spokesperson said they were unable to verify the exact number of Ask Sage users, but in a statement, they echoed many of the same concerns Costa referenced in her memo.

“LLMs offer great promise to assist DOD personnel in accomplishing a wide variety of tasks, however we must ensure that sensitive DOD data is safeguarded when using such platforms,” the spokesperson said via email. “Valid concerns have also been voiced about the traceability and validity of answers provided by LLMs.”

Space Force spokesperson Maj. Tanya Downsworth told Air & Space Forces Magazine that Costa’s memo institutes a “temporary, strategic pause to evaluate the best path forward to align this capability into the USSF mission that protects the data of our service and Guardians.”

She added that the service will be looking at risk management methods and encourage pilot programs to gather data to inform decisions.

Chaillan, however, argued any delay with such a rapidly evolving technology means risking losing ground against the likes of China. Beijing has expressed aspirations to take the lead in harnessing the power of generative artificial intelligence across a spectrum of military applications to reshape the future of warfare.

When ChatGPT first gained popularity earlier this year, defense officials all the way up to Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall suggested the technology may have myriad uses, from acquisition to mission planning.

But the Space Force’s decision tempers some of that excitement. For his part, Chaillan suggested the possibility of the DOD considering the development of their own technology utilizing generative AI and LLM.

“(It) makes me wonder if they’re thinking of building their own stuff, which is going to be massive taxpayers’ spending,” he said. Chaillan quit his Air Force job in 2021, citing the lack of funding for crucial technologies in the joint all-domain command and control (JADC2) as the tipping point for his resignation.

So far, there has been no public discussions by Pentagon officials about building their own GenAI/LLM model. However, in August, the DOD announced the establishment of Task Force Lima, led by the DOD’s Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office. This task force is dedicated to advancing national security through GenAI in diverse areas of defense.

Costa’s memo highlighted her office’s participation in Task Force Lima, with a shared objective to “responsibly and strategically utilize the capabilities of GenAI and LLMs.”

Costa also expressed confidence in the long-term utility of the technology, writing that Gen AI will “undoubtedly revolutionize our workforce and enhance Guardians’ ability to operate at speed.”

Regarding the duration of the ban, Downsworth said the CTIO intends to accelerate the formulation and issuance of specific USSF guidance, possibly within 30 days of the memo’s publication.

‘Fighting the Storm’: How Guam Airmen Kept Up Comms Through Typhoon Mawar

Oct. 13, 2023 | By David Roza

Airman 1st Class Reynold Boateng Mireku was sitting in the data center at Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, at around 2:30 a.m. on May 25 when 140-mile per hour winds peeled off parts of the roof, revealing lightning and rain in the early morning darkness overhead.

“That’s a memory I have that will always stand out,” Mireku told Air & Space Forces Magazine.

Typhoon Mawar had struck Guam, clobbering the Pacific island with heavy rain and hurricane-strength winds. It would be another day before the storm subsided, and until then Mireku and his fellow Airmen at the data center had a job to do: keep the communications systems at Guam intact, even with a force of nature seemingly trying to destroy it.

“It was a very daunting task,” said a fellow communications specialist, Airman 1st Class Uzziel Toro, “but we were able to make sure nothing went down.”

Initial photos show the damage done to Andersen Air Force Base, Guam after Typhoon Mawar hit the island in late May. U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Allison Martin

‘I was lucky’

Despite the challenge, Mireku, Toro, and six other Airmen chose to be in the data center that day. The building serves as a kind of nerve center for communications both on the island and with bases elsewhere in the Pacific and the continental United States. The center handles classified and non-classified internet networks, a communication line directly to Washington, links to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and 157 long-haul circuits, which are fiber paths that connect Andersen to other installations near and far.

The Airmen split up into smaller teams to oversee the circuits, the communications to Washington, and the network control center. Their task was to keep the electronic equipment there cool, dry, and powered up throughout the storm, and to do their best to make sure the building itself did not collapse.

“I was lucky enough to work with my two best friends, and we all kept ourselves level-headed and worked together to figure things out,” said Toro. “It wasn’t scary, but we were cautious and focused on what we were doing.”

With their posts assigned and supplies of food and water at hand, the Airmen settled in and prepared for the storm.

‘Literally fighting’

Typhoon Mawar poured more than two feet of rain on Guam, all of which had to be kept out of the sensitive electronic equipment in the data center. As the wind picked up and rain pelted the building, the Airmen used sandbags and several rolls of duct tape to keep the doors from being blown off. When water got inside, they used buckets, mops, and even their own shirts and blankets to pick it up and wring it out in the bathroom sink.

“We looked at every crevice to make sure nothing was leaking, nothing was getting wet,” Toro said. “We just fought it the best we could while things were, you know, flying off.”

The Airmen mopped the floors and checked the building for leaks or breaches, but they could not hold back the typhoon entirely. When parts of the roof ripped off, sometimes all they could do was inform their leadership and try to limit the damage.

To make matters worse, the building fire alarm kept going off, which the Airmen eventually figured out was caused by the extreme wind. The Airmen turned off the alarm and checked the building every 30 minutes for undetected fires.

“We implemented a plan to not only keep ourselves safe, but also try to save our eardrums as well,” Toro said.

Adrenaline kept the Airmen awake for the first two days, but they began catching a few hours of sleep in shifts on the third day. When the storm finally died down, their leadership had to saw through the data center door because there were two or three rolls of duct tape keeping it secure. But the Airmen were successful—throughout the 72 hours, they had removed about 140 gallons of water from the data center and kept communications running, allowing base leadership to stay in contact with higher-ups, NOAA, and anybody else necessary.

“I was thoroughly impressed with what these Airmen and their team went through when they were out there,” said Col. Dustin Born, head of the program management office for the Mawar rebuild effort. “They were literally fighting off the storm … I mean you’re talking, shirt off your back to soak up water.”

From left to right, Airman 1st Class Uzziel Toro, Chief Master Sgt. of the Air Force JoAnne Bass, Airman 1st Class Nhat K, and Airman 1st Class Reynold Boateng Mireku pose for a photo at the 2023 Air, Space, Cyber Conference. Courtesy photo

The comms Airmen were just a few of many at Andersen who went above and beyond to limit the damage and get the base back up and running as soon as possible, a tall order considering the ferocity of the storm.

“There was debris everywhere, sheet metal awnings were crumpled like a piece of paper, power lines were down, traffic lights were facing every which way, and thick jungles were stripped bare and looked like east Tennessee in winter,” Lt Col. David Seeman, commander of the 506th Expeditionary Air Refueling Squadron, said in a press release about the storm.

Even so, Airmen with the 506th and other units managed to clear the airfield of debris the same day the storm subsided, May 26, so that incoming aircraft could land supplies and responders. Service members at Andersen applied the same attitude to helping civilian residents on the island, distributing hundreds of thousands of meals, liters of water, and repairing dozens of roofs.

“The fact that Andersen was able to stay up and running and immediately get to work as soon as the storm ended, I think was a very proud moment for us as Airmen,” said Toro. “We saw people from all types of squadrons get together and start working, focusing on the mission.”

Rebuilding

Five months later, the base is on the road to recovery. Basic amenities like water and electricity are running on the base, though the greater Guam community still suffers occasional rolling blackouts. Much of the debris has been picked up, but nearly 500 facilities sustained some sort of damage and more than 100 need significant repair.

Base officials are still determining the best approach to make the installation more resilient against future storms, though the reconstruction effort is estimated to cost more than $4 billion. Some of the possibilities include weathertight doors, new roofs that can withstand storms, and underground power lines that will not be torn away by the wind.

“We are still in the planning stage,” Born said. “There are a lot of great ideas out there, but all of those have to be quelled with what our budget constraints are.”

mawar — U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Kevin Vincent, 567th Rapid Engineer Deployable Heavy Operational Repair Squadron Engineer, uses a chainsaw to cut tree branches at Andersen Air Force Base, Guam. U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Akeem K. Campbell

Andersen is not alone in that regard, as the Air Force writ large seeks to prepare its installations for floods, hurricanes and other extreme weather exacerbated by the effects of climate change.

“We cannot launch or recover aircraft on a flooded runway, nor can we operate from installations devastated by hurricanes and wildfires,” wrote Dr. Ravi Chaudhary, assistant secretary of the Air Force for energy, installations and the environment, in the department’s Climate Campaign Plan, the roadmap for keeping the service ready to win wars amid severe weather and for achieving net-zero emissions at installations.

“Our bases are our power projection platforms and as those bases are increasingly impacted by the effects of climate change, adapting to these challenges will be critical to meet our national security obligation,” he added.

Chaudhary praised Mireku, Toro, and their colleague, Airman 1st Class Nhat K, during a media roundtable at the Air, Space & Cyber Conference in September.

“Throughout the storm, we had complete connectivity of our IT both on the unclassified and classified side,” he said. “But that wasn’t because of our robust infrastructure. It was because of our Airmen.”

The assistant secretary’s goal is to make Air Force infrastructure more robust so that future Airmen will not have to show such grit to keep communications running. For example, a new microgrid and underground power lines at Kadena Air Base, Japan kept power intact during a recent typhoon, Chaudhary told Air & Space Forces Magazine.

“We have a whole litany of investments aimed at ruggedizing our installations—everything from microreactor prototypes to wind, geothermal and beyond,” he said. “We are doing ‘black-start’ exercises that test our skill sets in this arena as well. We call them Energy Resilience Readiness Exercises—the more we do, the more we learn, the more adaptable our Air Force gets.”

Back on Guam, Mireku learned an important lesson too: by working together, he and his fellow Airmen managed to hold back Mother Nature.

“Teamwork, teamwork, teamwork is what we take away from this,” he said. “One person can’t build Rome, one person can’t make it happen.”

A-10s Arrive in CENTCOM After Hamas Attacks on Israel

Oct. 12, 2023 | By Chris Gordon

A-10 Thunderbolt IIs from the 354th Fighter Squadron at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Ariz., have arrived in the Middle East, as the U.S. has rushed airpower to the region following the surprise Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7

Their exact location was not immediately clear.

The A-10s will add to the Warthogs from the 75th Fighter Squadron, which are already in the region, according to U.S. officials.

The decision to send U.S. military assets to the region was taken to discourage Hezbollah, the Lebanese militant group, and Iran from trying to escalate the conflict and to show support for Israel, which has had more than 1,200 citizens killed and others taken hostage and brought to Gaza.

A senior defense official told reporters Oct. 12 that the message to any state or non-state actors that were thinking of escalating the violence was a simple one: “Don’t.”

The new deployment comes as Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III heads to Israel on Oct. 13, the Pentagon said.

The Pentagon had earlier announced plans to send A-10s, F-16 Fighting Falcons, and F-15E Strike Eagles to strengthen the U.S. Air Force presence in the region.

The military did not say whether those F-15s and F-16s have yet arrived. U.S. officials have said F-35 Lightning II stealth fighters are also among the capabilities that may be sent.

The 354th Fighter Squadron and their A-10 Thunderbolt IIs arrived in the region to support the U.S.'s increased posture. These aircraft are in addition to the A-10s from the 75th Fighter Squadron already in the region. pic.twitter.com/h3LhEwyeJ4
— U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) October 12, 2023

The USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier has also moved to the Eastern Mediterranean Sea. It carries four F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter squadrons, as well as electronic warfare and command and control aircraft. The carrier is also accompanied by cruise missile-carrying warships.

“We expect to see more posture increases flowing in over the next week,” the senior defense official said. “We will continue to be responsive to Israel’s requests for air defense, artillery, ammunition, and precision guided munitions.”

Israel has responded to Hamas’s attacks with punishing airstrikes in Gaza, and Israel appears posed to intervene with ground forces, staging large numbers of members of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) near Israel’s border with Gaza. Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to “crush and destroy” Hamas and has formed a wartime cabinet.

Austin plans to meet with Netanyahu, Minister of Defense Yoav Gollant, and the war cabinet, the senior defense official said, for in-depth talks about “their operational planning and their objectives for this conflict in response to Hamas’s brutal, ISIS-style attack.”

American citizens are among the dead and taken hostage, U.S. officials say. The State Department has announced plans to evacuate some American citizens from Israel.

While U.S. forces are poised to intervene should Hezbollah try to open a northern front in Israel, such a step may not be necessary. Austin said Oct. 12 the U.S. did not have evidence of Hezbollah amassing forces on Israel’s northern frontier.

“We are also looking for additional things that could widen the conflict here, and hopefully we won’t see those things, but we’ve not seen that to this point,” Austin said.

An F/A-18F Super Hornet, front, attached to the “Ragin’ Bulls” of Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 37, and an F/A-18E Super Hornet, attached to the “Blacklions” of Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 213, conduct flight operations in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea, Oct. 11, 2023. VFA-213 and VFA-37 are deployed aboard the world’s largest aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78) as a part of Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 8. The Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group is currently operating in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea, at the direction of the Secretary of Defense. U.S. Navy photo

Air Force Testing Chief: We’re Boosting Hypersonic Test Capacity

Oct. 12, 2023 | By John A. Tirpak

The Air Force is adding new air and ground test capabilities and tapping allied ranges to keep up with the needs of its hypersonic programs, while squeezing as much capacity as it can out of existing assets, the head of the service’s test enterprise said Oct. 12.

Hypersonics efforts—along with a half-dozen other new flight test programs already in or entering their flight test phase—are “stressing” the test enterprise, Maj. Gen. Evan C. Dertien, commander of the Air Force Test Center, said in an interview with Air & Space Forces Magazine, but initiatives are underway to manage the load.

“We’re making investments across all five areas for the test infrastructure to enable faster testing,” he said. Those areas include:

ground test capabilities

test aircraft

ranges

data infrastructure

people

Air Force and industry officials have said hypersonics efforts are not making the progress they could because of limited test ranges and test infrastructure, requiring months of waiting time between shots. Former Pentagon science and technology officials have said a consistent and frequent pace of testing is essential to progress in hypersonics.

Dertien said not all the testing delay is due to range and infrastructure availability.

“The reason you do a test is, either you have the data to confirm success, or when you have a failure,” there’s a need to review the data and “go back and make the changes. So a lot of times you scheduled a test, not because you couldn’t execute another test the same day, but you want to review the data,” he said.

“We wouldn’t make design changes before we go back and do the next test. But I think we’re making investments across all five areas for the test infrastructure to enable faster testing,” he added.

The Air Force has added Global Hawk telemetry aircraft to its test portfolio, along with the ability to use control rooms not physically co-located with where the tests are occurring, Dertien said. New ground capabilities in the form of wind tunnels and high-temperature thermal test systems are also coming on line, and the Air Force is even using space assets to monitor lights and collect data, he said.

“It’s a multi-pronged approach,” he said. The test enterprise is improving instrumentation over both East Coast and West Coast water ranges and “working with our foreign partners on ranges they may have.”

The effort is focused on “delivering the instrumentation you need to do these highly developmental shots right now,” he said.

Col. Douglas P. Wickert, commander of the 412th Test Wing, said Australia is also allowing USAF to use its Woomera range to do overland testing of hypersonic systems, but Dertien said the service is only doing overland tests as necessary for now. More overland testing will be needed in the future, and he said work is being done in concert with the FAA to develop the hypersonic test corridors that may be used for that phase of testing.

“We’re starting to link some ranges together and do some hypersonic testing across ranges right now, but more to follow, as far as which corridors are approved. I don’t want to get ahead of the FAA and other folks that are working on those, but right now, we’re satisfying most of the need on the overwater ranges,” he said.

Wickert said some of the tests in Australia start with an overwater launch and “impact on land” on the Woomera range.

The Air Force is also investing in new wind tunnels and aerodynamic arc heating capabilities at Arnold Engineering Development Center in Tennessee, Dertien said, as well as partnering with academic institutions to jointly fund and build infrastructure to test various elements of hypersonic flight.

“Hypersonics is an extremely challenging environment,” he said, “and you’re never going to have one facility that can test to the entire profile.”

The “Dragon Fire” project is being readied to provide extreme temperature arc heating capability to test thermal protection materials, and USAF is also well underway with a “clean-air” variable high-Mach tunnel that will simulate flight conditions for hypersonic vehicles, Derien said.

“This is more of a capacity increase,” he said. “I try to balance our investments across both” capacity and capability, he added.

“The new Dragon Fire facility will dramatically increase our capacity to do … materials testing for all the thermal protection … that you have to put on weapons and different hypersonic vehicles. So that’s in progress right now down at Arnold,” he said.

“The other one I’ll highlight is our new J-5. That’s a hypersonic round test facility to test scramjet engines. And what’s unique about this is, it will probably be the only one in the world [that’s] a clean-air, true-temp test facility. So rather than heating up the air with just a thermal reaction—and you end up getting gas particulates in the air—this will actually be a clean air, true temperature test facility to do hypersonic testing [at] Mach 5+. And that allows us to get much more accurate measurements of the conditions that a hypersonic weapon would experience in flight.”

The facility will also be “variable Mach,” able to shift among Mach 5-plus speeds. That means it won’t require the typical “massive reconfiguration” needed to test at different speeds, Dertien explained.

“It will also increase our capacity, because you will have longer hypersonic runtimes than we do in some of our facilities are right now.”

Both Dragon Fire and J-5 are in “early stages of construction,” Dertien said, but he declined to provide a timeline as to when they’ll be operational, citing security concerns.

In addition to facilities, Dertien said B-52s have been added to help with hypersonic testing, and B-1s are also being modified to carry hypersonic weapons, he said. While it hasn’t been decided if the B-1s will actually be operational platforms for hypersonic missiles, they will be used for testing, Dertien said.

“We’re also leveraging commercial industry [which is] creating platforms for testing hypersonics,” Dertien said.

One such example is StratoLaunch, a startup devoted to high-speed flight tests. Wickert noted that StratoLaunch is located close to Edwards and will have the Talon C “reusable, hypersonic test platform.” He said the influx of commercial entities, a stepped-up Air Force hypersonic program, and rising participation of universities is reminiscent of “the heyday of hypersonic testing in the ‘60s, where we had the X-15 [with] 199 high-speed flights, where we could do materials and sensors and windows and controls, to have a … recurring testbed, that every two weeks you can try something new out. That’s a great capability.”