Watch, Read: CMSSF Towberman on ‘Your Space Force, Your Future’

Oct. 2, 2023

In his final keynote address before retiring as Chief Master Sergeant of the Space Force, Roger A. Towberman reflected on the progress of the Space Force and the growth still ahead at AFA’s Air, Space & Cyber Conference on Sept. 12, 2023. Watch the video or read the transcript below.

CMSSF Roger A. Towberman

Thank you so much. Oh my goodness. I haven’t even said anything awesome yet. You guys got to sit down, please. Thank you. Thank you so much. It’s a big week, couple days. If I don’t screw up this keynote, I might make it to retirement. So I’m hoping. My fingers are crossed. Thank you AFA, thank you senior leaders that are here. Thanks for the kind words from each of you. General Brown, I truly appreciate it. It’s been my absolute honor. General Saltzman, every day I come to work and it’s just amazing to be your teammate and I just really appreciate you keeping me around for a couple weeks. And Secretary, just thanks so much. You’ve changed the way we do business and it’s been fantastic not just to see you operate in general, but the way that you’ve been inclusive of Jo and me. It really, truly matters and I appreciate it.

And Jo, I love you. A couple more days and then you’re not going to find me, but I’m going to love you until then. Thanks to the Gaylord for always putting on a fantastic event and thanks to the Guardians and Airmen that, for whatever strange reason, think maybe I’m going to say something meaningful enough that you would sit here and listen to me. I appreciate that we fill up the room. I appreciate that you come to events like this. I appreciate that you invest in yourselves. And finally, thanks to all of those deployed and all of those employed in place, all the work and stiffs that are letting the rest of us screw around this week. So thanks to all of them back home and in places where the action happens.

So everybody’s been showing videos, and I had this idea a few years ago because we’ve been doing something incredible, standing up a new service, and I’ve been asked to do a lot of the human capital stuff and this continues to be the conversations all the time. How are we recruiting? How are we retaining? How are we developing people? And so for the last couple years, I’ve had the public affairs guys sneak cameras out now and again, and we’ve been putting together documentary footage of our journey, and I’m proud to be able to show you a little bit of a teaser of the film we’ve been making. I’m very excited about it. I do have to warn you that if you’re in the video, just be happy that you’re in the video. Don’t take it personally. It’s the real world and real things happen, so I just want to show you this. This is the Space Force’s talent management journey documentary. Let’s see what we got.

Video

Baseball isn’t just numbers. It’s not science. If it was, then anybody could do what we’re doing, but they can’t because they don’t know what we know.

I’m asking you to be OK not spending money that I don’t have. We’re going to work within the constraints that we have and you’re going to get out and do the best job that you can recruiting new players.

You’re just talking, talking la, la, la, like this is business as usual. It’s not.

We’re trying to solve a problem here.

Not like this, you’re not. You’re not even looking at the problem.

We’re very aware of the problem.

OK, good. What’s the problem?

Look, Billy, we all understand what the problem is. You’re discounting what scouts have done for 150 years. Now, there are intangibles that only baseball people understand.

You don’t have a crystal ball. You can’t look at a kid and predict his future any more than I can. I’ve sat at those kitchen tables with you and listened to you tell those parents, “When I know, I know. And when it comes to your son, I know,” and you don’t.

What I see is an imperfect understanding of where runs come from. Using the stats the way we read them, we’ll find value players that nobody else can see. People are overlooked for a variety of biased reasons and perceived flaws. Age, appearance, personality. There is an epidemic failure within the game to understand what is really happening, and this leads people who run Major League Baseball teams to misjudge their players and mismanage their teams. Your goal shouldn’t be to buy players, your goal should be to buy wins.

This is a process. It’s a process. It’s a process. Listen man, I’ve been in this game a long time. I’m not in it for the record, I’ll tell you that. I’m not in it for a ring. Any other team wins the World Series, good for them. But if we win on our budget with this team, we’ll have changed the game and that’s what I want. I think the question we should be asking is do you believe in this thing or not?

CMSSF Roger A. Towberman

Do you believe in this thing or not? So obviously ‘Moneyball,’ which should be required reading for all Guardians by the way, maybe for everyone that works in the Department of Defense, except the chair scene. That’s actual security camera footage in the E-ring of my office. The rest of it we pulled from a movie, a movie about changing the game. And every day that we come to work in my office, we come to work to change the game, to change the world, and that’s how we look at it. That’s how we talk about it. And you’ve heard from everyone else how important this is, and let me say it in yet another way, that we need the stuff and we need the leaders.

If you think that’s the only thing that we need or the most important thing we need, then you’ve got a misunderstanding of where runs come from because the enlisted force of this nation is the greatest military advantage in history. And the object, the goal is not to buy those players, it’s to win. And that means that we see them not as a means to an end, but the end itself. It means that we see our advantage as the advantage it is, and we invest in a value proposition that matters to them. If we lose that focus, if we set out to buy end strength instead of win, then the winning is at risk, and it’s so important that we understand that and get that right.

This has been an amazing journey and it’s been filled with amazing people, so I thought if it was OK with you, we’ll just go over a few things that we’ve done and learned, and mostly a recap of the wonderful people that have helped us in our little Moneyball startup. And so when we started this whole thing, we knew we needed values. It seemed like a good place to start. That’s where everyone should start. And so we got a team together, people like Chief Christina Haley, Chief Shane Pilgrim, who both retired now and moved on to fantastic new lives. Colonel Retired Jason Lamb, Mr. Chang Suh, experts in what we needed to do.

We came up with the ideal, the new CSO gets in and he says, “Let’s amplify the Guardian spirit,” and we said, “Funny you should say that, sir, because we got another book. Let’s call it The Guardian Spirit,” Dr. Matt Job, that helped us so much with that. But maybe more importantly, because you send all messages at all times and we didn’t just sit in back rooms with these experts, and they’re experts, make no mistake, but they didn’t do it on their own. We had Guardians every step of the way telling us what they valued, telling us what they wanted to value, telling us what was important to them, giving us feedback on our process. 18 months, and they turned out OK. Our four Cs matter to me, I know they matter to all our Guardians. What makes them unique is not what they are.

A lot of organizations have values, all the services have values. What makes them unique is that we have an opportunity to weave those values into everything that we do because we started with them. Our annual awards, the Polaris Awards are given for living up to our core values, competing against the standard that is accessible to every Guardian. How close can you get to Guardian perfection and courage or character or connection or commitment? We’re so proud of the work that was done, and folks like Chief Joey Williams and Chief Jess Gray, Chief Jeff Grela, Master Sergeant Fulton on the S1P team that helped make all that happen. It’s hard work. I didn’t know that we couldn’t just recognize people, we had to write policies and we had to coordinate them. And for some reason, lawyers care who I think has courage, I don’t know why. I love them.

And we were able to celebrate our first Polaris Award winners last year with the Schriever chapter out in Los Angeles, the AFA, and truly, truly appreciate them being great hosts and we look forward in February to celebrate it on a more national stage. And we’re very excited about the future, and we hope soon that our Polaris Awards will have the same eminence and the same pizazz and celebration that we have here for 12 OAY. We also were able to weave our core values into our promotions, rewriting the board charge to focus on those core values to say, “Hey, whatever you are doing, you should be doing it through these four Cs. So hey, promotion board, let’s value them through that. Let’s look at those things. Let’s get rid of the tests. Let’s be honest.”

If we’re going to use our senior master sergeants and our chiefs broadly as leaders, then why would we promote them inside their stove pipes? And we tore those down. People like Rob Romer and Chief Suwanee Carvalho, helping us put that together, and it matters. Brand new. Where’s Ana? Did she put on chief yet? Is she here? Still senior, I think Ana Franklin, brand new to the S1P team. So happy to have her. But these are the people that have been working it. We also weaved our core values into the way we develop our folks, and if you visit Space Force basic training, it’s the most beautiful, undiluted Guardian experience that you could possibly have. It’s amazing to see what the team has done down there. Major Emory and Senior Chua, our BMT team, Chief Ming that retired from Delta 1, they’ve just made an experience that feels different. And to those new Guardians, that’s what matters. They want to feel different.

Chief Britton’s here. I don’t know if Senior Brooks is here, but we’ve got our enlisted PME Center of Excellence out at Vosser in Colorado, and they’re doing incredible things, practically perfect Guardian experience. BMT is hard to match. But what they’re doing there, to make that an experience that matters to Guardians in a variety of ways. To meet them here and change their lives, knowing that fundamentally, that’s part of all of our value propositions. All of that falling under the purview of our S1D team, which is incredible, led by Mr. Turner, who’s fantastic and is never anywhere without his chiefs. Chief Bobby Scott, Chief Jason Childers, who now we’ve moved up to work with Ms. Kelly, but soon we’ll have Amber Ambramowski will be there to replace. She’s got a big fan club. But they’re really making a difference.

Remember that we develop Guardians in an ecosystem and any part of that ecosystem that gets tweaked changes everything else, and that you can approach that ecosystem one thing at a time. You can’t talk about BMT only, you can’t talk about recruiting only. You can’t talk about promotions only because you’re always talking about all of it. And so they’ve got this cool Chiclet chart that they’re working like a heat map where if somebody wants to change BMT, the other parts of the ecosystem most closely correlating to that light up red. So you’d be like, “OK, let’s get that expert in. If this is going to change recruiting, let’s get a recruiting expert in before we tweak basic training. If this is going to change PME, let’s get a PME expert in.” So we’re trying to pay attention to this ecosystem.

Also, as you guys have seen, it’s so exciting because the wear test is happening. There’s so many more Space Force. Well, they’re all Space Force uniforms, whether you’re wearing in the Air Force chassis or the new Space Force uniform, but it’s so good to see the new uniforms around. And so we shaped the way that we looked. And one person in particular, Captain Chignola, has done so much. It’s hard to describe how hard this young man has worked in his own time because he wanted to, to help us design the uniforms, to help us design the patches. He was always there, always helping, and his fingerprints are all over how we look and what we’re proud of as emblems of our heritage, our heraldry. Ms. Cathy Lovelady has been there every step of the way as well. I don’t know if Ms. Lovelady’s here, but she’s been awesome.

So the wear testing is ongoing. I am promised, I am certain that we will have PT gear by the spring broadly available, and it’s awesome and everyone will be jealous because it looks really cool, and it’s comfortable and you’ll want to work out in it. And speaking of working out in it, we also with the help of AFRL, Dr. Christensen, my man Shep, Carl Sheppard there, we’ve got our HHA study ongoing. And what we’ve already learned is that it’s a little bit about fitness requirements. It’s a little bit about commitment to mastering myself, but it’s a lot about connection. Guardians can’t wait to go clown each other on social media over what’s happening on their apps. The friendly competition, it’s almost impossible to avoid when you connect people towards a single goal. They immediately team around it. And so we’re already seeing this and by that measure, the study is just incredibly successful already. Ms. Height has been a part of that and I mentioned Dr. Christensen.

Holistic and continuous. That’s how we live. That’s how we should measure how well we’re living, not episodic, asymmetric. It’s always happening, so let’s check on it all the time. It’s going great. Our values also drove our talent management, somewhat like the movie clips sometimes. It can be a little frustrating to want to do things differently, but our talent management boards are proving incredibly successful. I see a path where it’s possible to live in a world without non-vol assignments, to live in a world without programs like EFMP because you don’t need to do that because you’re going to consider every single person’s family situation every single time. So I don’t need a program that somebody has to qualify for. Chief Bass and I learned recently that apparently, if you have a dependent parent, they don’t qualify for EFMP consideration. So here you go, bring your parent into your home to take care of them because they’re sick but whatever they have doesn’t qualify, I guess they’re not a family member in the eyes of policy. I see a path to getting rid of all of those things. I can imagine it.

So we had a lot of people that have helped us with the talent management, and you can see them there somewhere. There they are. There’s Rod Reyes, R2, and Dan Streeter and Sergeant Hircock, Sergeant Lee, and Sergeant Barker, and Sergeant Chapman. Dr. Anderson there, who gave us incredible insight, especially when it came to picking apart Sergeant Bentivegna’s head before the boss hired him. But she really helped us understand how personalities affect how teams are built and what we would look for in good teammates and how once a team is put together, how they’ll mitigate weaknesses and capitalize on strengths. None of the things we’re doing will matter if we don’t communicate well. And I know General Saltzman talked earlier today about Sergeant Terry and the incredible work that they were doing with the Guardian One app.

I won’t rehash all of that, but in addition to that, Dr. Costa, the CTIO, is putting out a newsletter to the force. Ms. Kelly in the S1 is putting out a newsletter, Mr. Turner and S1D is putting out a newsletter. We’re doing everything we can to communicate and we’re doing everything that we can to remind people that the burden of transparency is knowledge. I think sometimes we forget that. We think we want to know things, but once you know things, you got to carry that around. And back to the movie clips, carrying stuff around can be heavy because sometimes it’s not going smoothly and it’s frustrating, but it’s a pretty universal truth all over the world, all throughout history, man was super happy and then they discovered knowledge and then they were miserable. This is just a normal kind of legend.

So we’re going to keep being transparent, but keep understanding that the more you know, then sometimes the more frustrated you might become. The boss puts out the C-notes, I’ve been trying to do podcasts. I know Chief Bentivegna is going to keep doing them. We’re doing everything we can to talk to you, everything we can to communicate and be open. Keep holding us accountable, keep making us keep those promises. Besides formal communication, there’s also informal communication. And because it’s September, which is Suicide Prevention and Awareness Month, there’s a young man, I won’t dox him, as the kids say. Well, there’s a young man on Reddit who’s been one of the key moderators, maybe the first moderator of both the Air Force subreddit and the Space Force subreddit. He’s a Space Force officer, he’s a great guy.

400,000 people visit those subreddits and in 2022, that community made up of Guardians and Airmen intervened 40 different times when suicidal ideations were posted. 40 times, lives have been saved because people in their spare time want to give other people a voice. And so SilentD, I know you’re out there somewhere, I appreciate you. So what’s next? We’ve got a lot of stuff. We talked about the ideal, we talked about the Guardian spirit. We’ve got a draft of a Guardian handbook in work from some folks at Delta 9 who got the ball rolling. I wrote their names down, I don’t know if any of them are here. Sergeant Todd Richardson, Sergeant Alyssa Ruiz, Sergeant Megan Otto, Sergeant Dillon Frick, and all under the leadership of Tech Sergeant Scott McMullen. I don’t know if any of those guys are here or otherwise, Amber, you got to stand up on their behalf.

Audience

McMullen is here.

CMSSF Roger A. Towberman

Where is he? Appreciate you. So the handbook will take the Guardian spirit and continue to amplify it specific to our enlisted force to say, “Hey, this is what these promises, which are beautiful.” I’m telling you that I don’t know that I’ve ever in 33 years seen a more perfect single page document than our Guardian commitment. And if all any of us ever did was make and keep the 12 promises as team leader and make and keep the 12 promises as team member, man, it’d be a pretty awesome team. But we are going to take that handbook and we’ll say, “Hey, this is what those 24 promises mean for specialists. This is what those 24 promises mean for NCOs, et cetera.”

We also had a team from Delta 2 and I don’t know, is Chief Burkhead here? I know she is. Is any of your team here, do you know? They’re not here, but I think we got a picture. So Sergeant Boyenga, Sergeant Countrymen and Sergeant Lamb Sanchez, they came up during our last space enlisted education development panel and they briefed their idea on a fully qualified promotion system, and it was awesome. A promotion system that puts promotions in the hands of the Guardian. A promotion system that ends competition against each other and encourages cooperation with each other, where in a world where I can get to the rank of sergeant on my own by meeting certain competency requirements, or maybe I can get there faster by teaming up with my teammates and we all get there quicker. So we’re excited about that possibility.

We have some work that’s being done on new evaluation forms, which I cannot wait to see roll out. I don’t think, they’re not coming in two days, are they? No. So I’ll still get my last EPR written on a form that chief passed throughout, you guys don’t even have it anymore. That’ll be my last EPR, but we’ll pull it out of the trash and we’ll use it. I’m sure it’ll be awesome AF. AF for Air Force. It’ll be awesome Air Force. But it’s coming. It’s coming. We’re looking at ways to meet your value proposition because you deserve for us to listen to you. You deserve for us to hear you. And all of these things have to happen, but if nothing else, I hope you see how many people have been working so hard to get the stuff that’s already been given, and how much the rank and file are a part of our process and will continue to be.

You know what? I had this, I don’t know where we came up with the idea, but I was in Connecticut a couple weeks ago on leave and somebody thought it might be a cool idea to jump in my Sprinter van with me and ride from Brooklyn back to DC and interview me the whole way. I don’t know what I was thinking, but we had fun and it was a good drive. But the conversations, man, it’s longer than you prep for an interview, right? It was tough. So it got kind of real. But one of the questions that I got asked, and I get asked this from time to time, you. They talk about me, my brand, my personality, my whatever, shtick and, “You’re going to be gone, and then what’s going to happen?”

And I told him and I tell you, and I hope I just showed you that the number of people in the Space Force and in the Department of the Air Force that care about the things I care about and are passionate about, the things I’m passionate about and are willing to do the hard work to make those things happen as me, that number after Friday will be exactly the same number as it is today, minus one. That’s pretty much still everybody. And the really cool news is that we got an anybody that we’re plussing up. That’s going to be awesome. So I would appreciate it if you all would help me give a big round of applause to the Chief Master Sergeant of the Space Force number two, if he doesn’t screw up in two days, John Bentivegna. Hey, man. I’m not giving him a microphone though. I got two more days. D9, we’re so happy. We’re happy you’re here and I can’t wait. Can’t wait to see you Friday, brother. Thanks for everything. Thanks again, brother. Love you.

I promise, I’d do anything for any one of you. The other thing that gets asked a lot, “How do you want to be remembered? What are you proudest of? What’s the accomplishments?” There’s this checklist of questions you have to ask someone when they’re retiring. This is what I’d ask. If I’m to be remembered at all, I hope it’s through 1,000 different stories of 1,000 real relationships that I had with 1,000 real people, all of you and all the people that raised me and all our professional progeny for 1,000 generations. If any of us are worth remembering, we’re worth remembering in specific, real stories about how we specifically really changed each other’s lives. So thank all of you that helped change mine, and thanks for being part of my story. God bless the Air Force, God bless the Space Force. Semper Supra. I appreciate you.

Brown’s First Message to the Force as Chairman: ‘Accelerate Change’ Lives On

Oct. 2, 2023 | By Chris Gordon

Air Force Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. outlined his priorities for his term as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in a memo issued Oct. 2, highlighted by a familiar call for the U.S. military to continue to adapt.

In a Message to the Joint Force issued on his first business day after taking over from Army Gen. Mark A. Milley at midnight on Oct. 1, Brown reprised his signature motto from his time as Air Force Chief of Staff: “Accelerate Change or Lose.”

“Our nation needs us ready to fight today’s battles but also to prepare for tomorrow’s wars,” Brown wrote in his first official guidance as the 21st Chairman. “We must prepare by modernizing and aggressively leading with new concepts and approaches. Know that my conviction to ‘Accelerate Change’ has not wavered.”

Beyond the broad clarion call for change, Brown outlined three top goals as he begins his four-year term as the nation’s top military officer.

First, troops should hone their skills right now. “Deterrence depends on being your adversary’s worst nightmare in a fight,” said Brown, who wrapped up three years as the Air Force’s top officer upon becoming Chairman.

Second, the U.S. must continue emphasizing working together across the military and breaking down parochial service barriers. Troops should “focus on what is essential in Jointness—working seamlessly across domains,” Brown wrote.

Finally, the U.S. military should focus on partnering with other countries as it looks to meet the challenge posed by China while still dealing with a belligerent Russia waging war in Ukraine, as well as a myriad of other threats from North Korea, Iran, and militant groups such as ISIS.

“There is almost no challenge we will confront alone,” Brown wrote. “We must integrate our military power to deter and if called upon, fight and decisively prevail in war.”

Brown’s message echoes many of the same themes his predecessor Milley sought to leave as his legacy, including his goal to bring together modernization efforts. One notable change from Milley’s 2019 opening Message to the Joint Force: Milley did not address Guardians, as the Space Force was not created until later that year.

“As we step out together, you should know my broad expectation—that honing our warfighting skill has primacy in all we do,” Brown wrote.

Brown closed his message by highlighting the importance of service members, civilians, and their families who volunteer to serve their country.

“Through all, trust is the foundation of our profession,” Brown wrote. “Trust across the force, that we will do right by each other. The trust of our families, that we will care for them through trial and triumph. The trust of our nation and elected leaders, in our commitment to our oath and profession. As Chairman, I will strive every day to strengthen these bonds.”

New Details of Secret LRSO Missile: Nine Successful Flight Tests in 2022

Oct. 2, 2023 | By John A. Tirpak

The Air Force’s classified Long-Range Standoff (LRSO) missile has completed at least nine successful test flights, culminating in a major power-on, free-flight test of all major systems elements in October 2022, according to a recently released Pentagon report.

The program appears to be on track, though the Air Force is withholding the system’s planned Initial Operational Capability date.

According to the Pentagon’s Selected Acquisition Reports for 2022, released late last month, the Raytheon-built LRSO completed “the first full-system integrated test demonstrating design, manufacturing, and navigation maturing” in October 2022. Of the eight other tests conducted since February 2022, four powered up the missile’s engine, the Air Force said. All tests were conducted off two B-52s earmarked for LRSO testing.

The Air Force announced in March 2023 that LRSO passed its Critical Design Review, but the service has not discussed the progress of testing the missile until now. The data in the acquisition report reflects information as of December 2022, so it is likely more LRSO tests have taken place.

The LRSO will replace the AGM-86B Air-Launched Cruise Missile as part of the airborne leg of the U.S.’s nuclear triad. It will first equip the B-52 but will also later arm the new B-21 Raider stealth bomber. The program’s original plan was to build 1,020 missiles, plus 67 for testing, but current planned production figures were withheld. Service leaders have said in the last few years that a conventional variant is not planned, but they have not ruled out such a version for the future.

According to the Pentagon report, the nine successful flight tests in 2022 demonstrated:

LRSO’s ability to safely separate from the B-52

Deployment of the missile’s flight surfaces, engine operations, and flight control actuations

Capture controlled flight after employment from the B-52

The culmination came in October, when the program “demonstrated safe missile separation from the B-52, missile flight control deployment, engine start and extended range operation, warhead-arming flight discrimination events, collection of flight environment, and firedown sequence data for the warhead, and advanced navigation along a mission planned route using an operationally relevant Mission Data File,” the Air Force said. All test objectives were met.

The missile is meeting or exceeding all six of its key performance parameters and attributes, the Air Force said.

Early on in the program, the target date for Initial Operational Capability was set as May 2030, with November 2030 being the not-later-than date. However, the Air Force declined to publish the current estimate, deeming it is “Controlled Unclassified Information.” A designation of CUI means the information is not secret, but when combined with other open information in the report, could reveal sensitive programmatic details.

The Air Force also did not disclose the cost per unit of the LRSO, but said procurement is running about 6.7 percent below the baseline estimate.

While total procurement is estimated to be at about $900 million over the baseline estimate; research, development, test, and evaluation is running about $400 million below the baseline estimate of $6.7 billion. Military construction is coming in about $6 million below the baseline estimate of $134 million.

In places where costs have gone up, the Air Force said, it has been due to inflation and “overruns in discrete labor tasks. Some tasks required more support than originally planned while others are a result of inefficiencies necessary to hold schedule.”

Where schedule has slipped, it has been driven by “non-critical path material delays of castings and structures,” the Air Force said. It has applied workarounds by substituting hardware generated during the technical maturation and risk reduction (TMRR) phase.

The Air Force said LRSO is intended to have a service life of 30 years.

A modular, open-system architecture is being applied to the LRSO, which will allow other offerors to bid on upgrades and modifications in the future, “as well as the life-cycle process such as logistical support, sustainment, and technology insertion.”

Also in calendar 2022, LRSO “successfully completed nine of 10 subsystem Critical Design Reviews (sCDRs) demonstrating design maturity of the LRSO cruise missile subsystems. Additionally, the program completed 10 of 13 sCDRs demonstrating design maturity of associated LRSO Peculiar Support Equipment (PSE),” the Air Force said.

The LRSO program is funded across the future years defense program in accordance with independent cost estimates from the Pentagon’s Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation, the Air Force said.

“There are no significant software-related issues with this program at this time,” the service reported. Elsewhere in the report, the service added that “there are no known risks with this program at this time.”

A single problem mentioned in the SAR—which the Air Force said would be resolved by May 2023—involved a fit problem in the B-52’s weapons bay.

“Current calculations indicate that when four or more stores are loaded on the rotary launcher, the stores clash with the fuel tank,” the Air Force said. “Risk is fully mitigated and closure is pending receipt of final documentation.”

The Milestone C decision—approving LRSO for full-rate production—is set to come in late 2027.

How Pilot Training at Vance Got Back On Track After a Storm Battered Its T-6 Fleet

Oct. 2, 2023 | By David Roza

Two months after a surprise thunderstorm grounded nearly all of its T-6 Texan II training aircraft, Vance Air Force Base, Okla., is ahead of schedule training undergraduate pilots, an achievement that required aircraft maintainers to work around the clock and instructor pilots (IPs) to come in on weekends.

“We thought it was going to take three months to recover, to get to where we were prior to the weather event,” Lt. Col. Michael Kissinger, commander of the 33rd Flying Training Squadron, told Air & Space Forces Magazine.

“In reality, everyone came together, our maintainers and our IPs, and we got back to on-timeline within one month of the event,” he added. “We are presently about two to three days ahead of timeline two months removed from the event.”

The 33rd is one of two student pilot training squadrons at Vance that together operate 99 T-6s, the turboprop aircraft which Air Force student pilots learn to fly before moving on to specialized training for fighter/bomber, cargo/tanker, heavy propeller, or rotary wing aircraft.

A major thunderstorm was not forecasted over Vance for the night of July 21, but the base wound up being the spot where the storm cell collapsed, Kissinger said.

t-6 texan ii — An L3 Communications crew chief leads a T-6 Texan II crew to a full stop at Vance Air Force Base, Oklahoma, Oct. 19, 2017. U.S. Air Force photo by David Poe

When not in use, T-6s are usually parked outside and tied down. During the storm, they were subjected to 90 mph winds, which blew protective straps off propellers and sent them spinning. That can be hazardous to the aircraft, because without oil pumping through the turned-off engines, the propellers can grind chips off components and send them into the rest of the system.

The wind can also damage control surfaces like ailerons and elevators. In some cases, aircraft collided with each other or with structures after the wind tore off their straps.

All those risks meant even the visibly undamaged planes had to be grounded for inspections. In all, 78 of the 99 T-6s were grounded, leaving the 71st Flying Training Wing with just 21 percent of its usual T-6 fleet and no let-up in pilot training requirements. The two T-6 squadrons usually have a combined 150 students in the flight stage of their training, broken down into smaller classes staggered at different stages of the process. The syllabus calls for each student to fly about 100 hours.

“No one immediately said ‘Oh, we’re not going to graduate anyone on time,’” Kissinger said. “The general feeling was ‘well, this is a problem, and we’re going to work through it.’”

The stakes were especially high because a slowdown in undergraduate pilot training has ripple effects in specialized pilot training and operational units.

“Any time we don’t graduate on time, the Air Force feels those effects,” Kissinger explained.

The contract maintenance teams worked “24/7 in the literal sense of that term” to inspect aircraft and return them to flight as soon as possible, Kissinger said. On the flying side, planners dropped all sorties that were not essential to student production, such as airshows and upgrade training for IPs. Since not as many IPs were flying sorties due to the reduced number of aircraft, they helped run extra simulator sessions alongside the civilian instructors who usually lead the simulators. The goal was to maximize student sorties on the few available aircraft while still giving students the training they needed to graduate.

“We were trying to schedule around 130, 140 sorties a day,” before the storm, Kissinger said. “If you lose a single day, it might take several weekends to make up for it.”

Indeed, the squadron had gone from two days ahead of schedule to four days behind the timeline, a rare event at Vance. But the team rose to the challenge, with IPs working weekends in addition to their 10- to 12-hour workdays.

“You always expect military people to do their duty, but at the same time when you see people just knock it out of the park and do so while maintaining a healthy morale in the squadron, I absolutely couldn’t be prouder of the 33rd, or really team Vance at large,” Kissinger said.

While the IPs worked weekends, they also needed some luck—there was no margin left for a run of poor weather or another storm.

“We needed everyone to be 100 percent efficient with the sorties and time that we had,” he said. “But there’s no buffer, and I think that’s the stress that gets put on the force, because they’re working hard and there are some things outside their control.”

Meanwhile, the maintainers brought back all but nine of the 78 aircraft damaged from the storm, with the final nine awaiting replacement parts, said Sherry Teague, the director of maintenance quality assurance at Vance.

“Our contract partners and support personnel put in the hours to get our damaged aircraft back to a safe flying condition,” she said. “They gathered a lot of the data that the engineers used to decide how to get our fleet back up and running as quickly as possible and keep our pilots safe.”

As more aircraft returned to flight, the fleet could sustain about 150 sorties a day, allowing for IP upgrades and airshows again.

The comeback is a bright spot in the wider Air Force pilot training enterprise, which in August had a 900-pilot backlog due in part to aging aircraft like the T-38 Talon, used to train future fighter and bomber pilots.

In fiscal 2022, the Air Force produced 1,276 pilots. In 2023, that number rose to around 1,350, still short of the goal of 1,470. Facing strong demand, the branch is aiming for 1,500 new pilots in fiscal 2024—and the thunderstorm at Vance seemingly won’t interfere with that goal after all.

“That collaboration: everyone having that shared vision of what it takes to get across the line, and then executing, that’s really the big takeaway,” Kissinger said.

JSTARS Flies Its Last Operational Mission Ahead of November Retirement

Oct. 2, 2023 | By Greg Hadley

A crew of Airmen at Ramstein Air Base, Germany, flew the final operational sortie of the E-8C JSTARS aircraft on Sept. 21, paving the way for the last of the fleet to be retired early next month.

Members of the Georgia Air National Guard’s 116th Air Control Wing flew the very last of more than 14,000 sorties for the JSTARS, which is used for targeting, battle management, and command and control.

“It’s bittersweet,” Col. Christopher Dunlap, commander of the 116th Air Control Wing, said in a release. “I’ve been flying this mission on this aircraft since the spring of 2003. There’s been a lot of changes over the years.”

A spokesman for the 116th ACW told Air & Space Forces Magazine that two JSTARS aircraft now remain at Robins Air Force Base, Ga. The tentative plan is to send the last one to the “Boneyard” at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Ariz., in the first week of November.

Until then, “the aircraft may be used locally for aircrew proficiency training as needed,” the spokesman added.

Still, the final operational sorties mark one of the final milestones for the E-8. Primarily used for ground moving target indication, JSTARS also served as a battle management platform. Its most distinctive feature is the 27-foot long, canoe-shaped radome under the forward fuselage that houses a 24-foot long, side-looking phased array antenna.

The aircraft first supported combat operations during Desert Storm and played a key role in the Air Force’s contributions during the Global War on Terror. More recently, the E-8 flew missions over Eastern Europe in the run-up and immediate aftermath of Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

The Air Force has been planning to move on from JSTARS for a while. In June 2021, service leaders announced their intent to cut the aircraft from Robins, which has hosted them since 1996.

In its place, Robins is getting a Battle Management Control squadron, an E-11A Battlefield Airborne Communication Node (BACN) squadron, a Spectrum Warfare group, and support units focused on the service’s Advanced Battle Management System (ABMS).

The first E-8 departed Robins in February 2022. A month later, the service announced its intent to divest 12 of 16 aircraft in fiscal 2023 and 2024, and Congress expedited the move by repealing a previous law requiring the Air Force to maintain at least six E-8s.

This past March, the Air Force budget request revealed a plan to accelerate the divestment plan, with the entire fleet retiring by the end of fiscal 2024, which started Oct. 1.

Service leaders have said the Air Force needs to retire JSTARS because it would not survive in a future fight with an advanced adversary like China. Instead, they want to invest in various information and targeting technologies, including space-based platforms.

Over the last several months, Robins has wound down JSTARS operations, deactivating squadrons and conducting final flights. In June, the Active-Duty 461st Air Control Wing completed its last operational mission at Ramstein.

The 116th ACW spokesman said before the final aircraft is officially retired, there will be “a private farewell celebration for alumni of the JSTARS program.”

U.S. Airmen signatures on an E-8C Joint STARS aircraft engine as it sits on the flightline at Ramstein Air Force Base, Germany, Sept. 21, 2023. The JSTARS have been in service since 2002. (U.S. Air National Guard photo by Master Sgt. Jeff Rice)

U.S. Air Force Capt. Andrea Coleman and 2nd Lt. Travis Trent, pilots with the 116th Air Control Wing, Georgia Air National Guard, give the thumbs up on an E-8C Joint STARS during its last mission at Ramstein Air Force Base, Germany, Sept. 21, 2023. The JSTARS have been in service since 2002. (U.S. Air National Guard photo by Master Sgt. Jeff Rice)

U.S. Airmen with the 116th Air Control Wing, Georgia Air National Guard, sign an engine of an E-8C Joint STARS for its last mission at Ramstein Air Force Base, Germany, Sept. 21, 2023. The JSTARS have been in service since 2002. (U.S. Air National Guard photo by Master Sgt. Jeff Rice)

U.S. Airmen with the 116th Air Control Wing, Georgia Air National Guard, watch an E-8C Joint STARS taxi for its last mission at Ramstein Air Force Base, Germany, Sept. 21, 2023. The JSTARS have been in service since 2002. (U.S. Air National Guard photo by Master Sgt. Jeff Rice)

An E-8C Joint STARS aircraft taxis on the flightline at Ramstein Air Force Base, Germany, Sept. 21, 2023. The JSTARS have been in service since 2002. (U.S. Air National Guard photo by Master Sgt. Jeff Rice)

U.S. Air Force Capt. Andrea Coleman, a pilot with the 116th Air Control Wing, Georgia Air National Guard, waves from an E-8C Joint STARS during its last mission at Ramstein Air Force Base, Germany, Sept. 21, 2023. The JSTARS have been in service since 2002. (U.S. Air National Guard photo by Master Sgt. Jeff Rice)

U.S. Airmen with the 116th Air Control Wing, Georgia Air National Guard, pack up gear one last time in preperation to leave from Ramstein Air Force Base, Germany, Sept. 21, 2023. This JSTARS have been in service since 2002. (U.S. Air National Guard photo by Master Sgt. Jeff Rice)

Watch, Read: CMSAF Bass on ‘Airmen of the Future’

Oct. 2, 2023

Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force JoAnne S. Bass highlighted personal success stories of Airmen and warned about the dangers of information warfare during her keynote address at AFA’s Air, Space & Cyber Conference on Sept. 13, 2023. Watch the video or read the transcript below.

Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force JoAnne S. Bass

I see you jumping. What’s going on AFA? That sounded a little weak for about 16,000 people. What’s going on AFA? Look at this room. Look at this room. Look at the stand room only. By the way, there are some seats up here. If you want to sit next to General Brown, y’all come right up here. No, I’m serious. There’s some folks over here.

Hey, look at this room. OK, good. Y’all come on over here. Y’all can sit right there, but if Mr. Secretary comes up, you’re going to have to get on up. OK? Oh, there he goes. There he goes. No, no, no, but the secretary wants to sit by you too. Some of y’all can come on over here. Look at this room, look at the folks to your left and to your right. The people in this room, your brothers and your sisters, you are the future. Y’all give yourselves a hand clap. Every single one of you belong in this room from our Vietnam veterans to our ROTC and Civil Air Patrol cadets, from our most junior Airmen to our most senior leaders this is a powerful room. I could not be more excited to be here, to join in this AFA experience and be honored to share the stage with the speakers that you have heard over the last few days and the panelists.

I couldn’t be more excited to be here with the Secretary of the Air Force, General Saltzman, my wingman and battle buddy Toby. Toby has made a huge incredible impact on our Airmen and Guardians. Toby, you’ve done that in your over 30-year career, by the way, most of which you were United States Airmen, you were the right leader at the right time to stand up our Space Force and I could go on and on, but I’m going to share the really juicy stories later. To General Brown, my boss. In unprecedented times, I could not think of a better person to lead our force, to serve our Airmen and their families than you. You have been a steady hand in an environment full of turbulence, our Air Force and our nation owe you and Ms. Sharene a debt of gratitude as we wait for your confirmation to be our next Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

To AFA, you represent a legacy of valor through education, advocacy and support to our Airmen and our Guardians. Thank you for making this week possible. To our industry partners, to our community, and our civic leaders. We can’t thank you enough for taking time out of your day to be here with us. We can not be the force that we need without you. It will take a whole of nation approach and your work, your dedication and mostly your love for our Airmen and for our families is needed now more than ever before.

Y’all give them a hand clap to the real MVPs here, our Airmen, our Guardians, our family members, thank you. Thank you for taking the time to be here at one of the largest professional development venues in our air force. To the folks who make it happen in our Air Force every single day behind the scenes. Many of the folks who are actually sitting in the front rows, these are the folks who don’t often get the credit yet they take all the heat and they weed through the layers of bureaucracy. We see you and we know what you do for our Airmen. Those are the folks from our A1 all the way to our SG. We know what you do. One quick shoutout since I’m talking about our two letters in the front row, I’ve got to highlight a man who has served for many, many years.

In fact, he enlisted in the Air Force at the age of 17. He served 22 years as a defender. He retired as a chief master sergeant and then he served another 20 years as a department of the Air Force civilian with 10 of those years as an SES. That is 42 years total folks. He has literally touched the lives of every single Airman in our Air Force and so y’all put your hands together for Mr. John Fedrigo, if you can stand up. We won’t let Chiefs cry, but John, we wish you and Gina all the very best, especially as you embark on your next best chapter in life.

All right. OK. Why are we here? Why are we here? You heard from the secretary on Monday that we are here because we are the only thing standing between China and the realization of their 100-year goal. We are here because we are the only thing standing between freedom and tyranny. We are here because we are the only thing standing between a world we want to leave our children and a world we want to shield them from. We are here because for the past 75 years, our air dominance has remained uncontested. However, like one of my favorite books, what got us here will not get us there. In today’s environment, we are not short of challenges. You’ve heard about them all week, especially in our war fighting domains. Air, land, sea, space, cyber, and information which all vitally contribute to the sum total of our spectrum of superiority. We are also not short of adversaries who want to upend the rules-based international order.

Yet despite these challenges, it’s Airmen like Senior Airman Ariel Sanchez who I had the privilege to meet at Pittsburgh Air Reserve Station. It’s those folks, Airmen like him that will meet our adversaries head on, especially in the information domain. What impressed me most about Airman Sanchez is the talent that he brings with them to our force. In fact, the talent that all of our reservists bring with them to the force. Not only is Airman Sanchez a client systems technician for our Air Force, but he works in cyber as a civilian. He also comes to us with a bachelor’s degree from George Mason and is currently pursuing a master’s degree in IT from Virginia Tech. During his post-college job searches, he recognized a need for something different, something bigger, so he joined our Air Force Reserve. Airman Sanchez found a place where he belongs and our Air Force is better for it.

In today’s operating environment, there is a huge insatiable appetite for air power, more than ever before. Our Airmen continue to deliver. You continue to deliver. You continue to be the most competitive advantage and have been nothing less than extraordinary as you accelerate change and adapt to a world that we are in, not to a world that we wish we were in. The question becomes how do we remain full throttle while shifting into higher gears and still take care of our people?

It’s not lost on me that while we sit in this air-conditioned room, there is a maintainer on a flight line in 100-degree weather turning wrenches to maintain our projection of air power. There’s an 18-year-old defender guarding our missile fields, securing the most responsive leg of our nuclear triad. Right now as we sit in this room, there are more than 16,000 of our Airmen, your fellow Wingmen, our brothers and sisters that are currently deployed across the globe getting after our nation’s business.

Let me just share a little bit about what I’ve witnessed this past year. You’ve flown nearly 800,000 sorties, totaling 2 million hours. That’s more than 5,000 hours per day. You’ve transported more than 700,000 passengers, 300 tons of cargo and passed almost 500 million pounds of fuel. OK, AMC. You’ve had a hand in eight major humanitarian efforts, floods in Pakistan, earthquakes in Turkey, typhoons in the Pacific, as well as tornadoes, wildfires, and hurricanes here at home. That’s more than 20 named operations, 100 major exercises, ongoing humanitarian relief and supporting partners and allies throughout the world and you continue to deliver air power anytime, anywhere. That’s you. That’s why you belong.

Although we have done a lot and we will continue to do all of these great things, the battle lines have been clearly drawn across all domains, so check this out, pay attention. Especially as it relates to this information environment that we are in. In an era marked by rapid technological advancement. Information has become the lifeblood of our society. It fuels are economies, shapes our perceptions and influences our decisions. It is in this very domain that warfare has taken on a new dimension. One that operates not only on land in the air or at sea, but also within the digital realms that connect our world and demand our unwavering attention and vigilance. Our adversaries understand the power of information and they seek to exploit it, weaponize it, and use it against us. They aim to sow discord, erode trust, and destabilize nations through the spread of disinformation and propaganda through emerging technology. That sounds pretty good, right? Thanks ChatGPT. No, I’m serious.

All right. For those who might be a little alarmed that I used ChatGPT, I only did it in those last three paragraphs really as an illustration of how fast our digital domain is changing. The fact is Airmen use AI right now. Your children use AI right now. Our adversaries are using AI right now. Our role is in the ethical and responsible development of AI. It cannot be understated. Instead of avoiding it, we probably better figure out how to educate our force about the difference between using these platforms and being used by them. We better figure out how to do this fast because our adversaries are already there. Right now, there are armies of bots, swarms of trolls, legions of sock puppets strategically manipulating the information that we see to achieve their own objectives. This is unrestricted warfare and it comes with minimal to no physical force.

Information warfare is a concept that has been used for thousands of years but has evolved rapidly in recent years. To get us to the next 75 years, we are going to have to focus beyond the physical domains of air, land, and sea. To get us to the next 75 years, we cannot underestimate the cyber and the information domains and to get us to the next 75 years, we are going to need six generation Airmen who think critically, challenge the status quo, and adapt and evolve to stay ahead.

Airmen like Tech. Sergeant Christopher Leung who I had the opportunity to meet when I was at Nellis. Sergeant Leung came into our Air force like many Airmen with a bachelor’s degree and he is now pursuing his master’s degree while also going to the NCO Academy. Mr. Secretary, boss, he is already thinking critically, he’s challenging the status quo and he is ready to move the ball forward. Oh yeah, one more thing about Sergeant Leung. He was actually just going to serve four quick years, get his GI bill, and pay off his Honda Civic. Actually, that last part was me. He did just sign up to do four quick years, get his GI Bill. I added that last part, but I’m so glad that he decided to reenlist because it’s Airman like Tech Sergeant Leung who absolutely long in our Air Force.

We share similar stories, we share similar challenges, and every single one of us passed through the same gateway together and raised our right hands to support and defend this nation. The most important thing America’s moms and dads do is hand us their son or their daughter and send them to a place that they’ve never been to do things that they have never imagined. That is how we recruit, how we train, how we retain the talent we need absolutely matters. How we do that will take all of us, every single one of us in this room.

We must all focus on accelerating change and modernizing a force in a world that is rapidly changing. We must all explore new ideas and embrace innovation and we must all move forward together because what will get us there is a strong and empowered force and speaking about a strong and empowered force. The Secretary briefly mentioned when he spoke on Monday that he spoke at the Air Force Sergeant’s Association conference a few weeks ago where our Airmen focused specifically on competition and how they can be part of the solution to the challenges we have. In fact, I want to give a big thank you to General Cotton, General Minahan, General Lyfe, and all of the speakers who came out to pour into the over 3,000 Airmen and Guardians who will be the ones who will get us there. What will also get us there is working with our allies and our partners.

In fact, last week I was with 29 partner Nations to include the chief master sergeant of the Ukrainian Air Force. At the European Senior Enlisted Leader Summit, we were reaffirming our commitment to be stronger together to bolster our collaboration and to better integrate by design. One of the ways that we are getting after that is through initiatives like the state partnership program that, oh, by the way, has marked its 30th anniversary this year. If you are Air National Guard in this room, can you raise your hand? Thank you. Y’all give them a big hand clap.

In fact, last week while I was spending time with my partner nations, I called each of you the secret sauce. In fact, I couldn’t be more inspired by all of our total force Airmen, our reservists and our guardsmen. All of you are our secret sauce. And speaking of total force, let me tell you about Tech. Sergeant Kaleolani Souza, a member of the Hawaii Air National Guard. I met Sergeant Souza in my home of record in Hawaii back last November and what was pretty cool when I was talking to her was I learned that not only does she serve as a defender in the guard, but she’s also an EMT and a paramedic in her civilian capacity. Not only that, she shared with me that three of her other sisters are also members of the Hawaii Air National Guard. A big thank you, a big Mahalo to her dad for trusting the Air Force with four of his daughters.

Y’all have heard me say it before, the Air Force is family business, folks. These Airmen among countless others represent the amazing talent that belong in our air force. As Airmen, we can never forget, our nation is counting on us. Service to our nation is more than just a Honda Civic. Service to our nation requires a commitment that you do not find in everyday America. This is not Google, this is not Chick-fil-A, this is not Home Depot. Not that I don’t love any of those. This is the United States Air Force and how we do anything is how we do everything. Small things matter, big things matter. Our standards matter. Like all healthy organizations, we reflect on the things that are good and we reflect on the things that we can improve. That is why I wrote the standards memo.

It is a reminder to all of us that a strong military is a disciplined and it is a uniformed military. I share with our Airmen all the time that we absolutely appreciate the talents that every single one of them brings to our force. We appreciate the uniqueness and we appreciate their individuality. However, if we are more focused on being an individual and more focused on ourselves instead of the greater good of the force, then we are probably off target. As a panelist said earlier today, air power is absolutely a team sport and we are the strongest air force in the world because we know that and because of our commitment to discipline and we can never ever allow that to erode.

The force today and the force of the future is in your hands. The future force requires Airmen at all levels to look at the air force that we have today and to ask ourselves while it is what got us here, will it be what gets us there? It requires us to cultivate the capability our adversaries covet the most. A professionalized force capable of executing the tenants of mission command. It requires Airmen who know how to build teams, operate and survive in any and all domains with our joint force allies and our coalition partners, knowing that our adversaries will not fight fair fight.

It requires Airmen who are technical experts with additional skill sets and a mindset that allows them to fight and win as agile combat teams. It requires us to look at the career fields that we have today and ask ourselves while they are what got us here, will they be what gets us there? Our nation is counting on you to be deliberate about your service and to remember that this is not just a job, this is a higher calling. Make no doubt about it. The force that we have today and the force of the future is an operational imperative, Mr. Secretary. Always remember that our strength lies in our unity, the American spirit, and the ability to grow beyond what got us here.

Again, I ask you to look around this room because the people in this room, the Airmen and the Guardians in the Air and the Space Force are who will get us there and I usually don’t get emotional, but when I think about the challenges ahead and the people who will face these challenges, it gives me pause. And just like they say in the south, I feel some kind of way. I have greatly loved four things in life. My faith, my family … I have greatly loved four things in life, my faith, my family, my country, and this Air Force.

Thank you, thank you. I told myself if I was going to cry, I was going to tell myself I was a badass. I’ve loved those four things, people. Our Air Force is in your hands. The oath that we take is selfless. This is more than just a job. This is our profession and this is our higher calling. Every one of us raised our right hands and every one of us would lay down our life for a set of beliefs that is greater than us. Every one of us honors a history that was before us, and every one of us is building a future of hope. Every single one of us in this room has an opportunity to share our stories, to reflect on why we serve and appreciate the richness of being part of this military family. You belong in this room. Every single one of you belongs in this Air Force. Thank you.

Watch, Read: CSO Saltzman on ‘The State of the Space Force’

Sept. 30, 2023

Chief of Space Operations Gen. B. Chance Saltzman delivered a keynote address on “The State of the Space Force,” detailing the young service’s progress and upcoming initiatives at AFA’s Air, Space & Cyber Conference on Sept. 11, 2023. Watch the video or read the transcript below.

Gen. B. Chance Saltzman

Good morning, AFA. We’re all caffeinated up, ready to go, talk space for a bit? All right. I like it. Come on up closer. Thank you Secretary Kendall for your steadfast leadership, support of the Space Force, and most importantly, your laser focus on the threat, China, China, China. Your drive to make us better and optimize for the challenges we face is truly a force multiplier. To CQ, thank you for working alongside the Space Force, being such a strong advocate for space superiority. Clear skies and strong tailwind on your confirmation to be our next chairman.

Now, speaking of great partners, because these are two high quality partners, today’s my 31st wedding anniversary. More than any other, Jennifer’s kept my head in the game and focused on what really matters. Thanks sweetheart. Later this week, Chief Master Sergeant Toby Towberman is going to retire after close to 32 years of service to both our Air Force and Space Force. Toby, we could not have picked a better chief to be the first Chief Master Sergeant of the Space Force. Your efforts in taking care of Guardians will be felt for years to come. Thank you for all that you’ve done for me, the Guardians and the U.S. Space Force.

Finally, shout out and thank you to AFA for giving me the opportunity to talk about where the Space Force is heading. I speak for all Guardians when I say we appreciate all you do to bring us together each and every year.

Now, let’s get on to business. Ladies and gentlemen, the space domain that I learned to fly satellites in is no more. The new space domain is far different. It has taken on characteristics of a more dangerous and dynamic security environment worldwide, but don’t take my word for it.

Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall (archival footage):

Since World War II, our world has experienced unprecedented peace and prosperity.

US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin (archival footage):

Yet emerging threats and cutting edge technologies are changing the face and the pace of warfare.

Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall (archival footage):

We are dealing with aggressive and expansionary, authoritarian powers, something we have not seen for decades.

Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks (archival footage):

Take the People’s Republic of China, the only strategic competitor with the will and increasingly the capability to remake the international order that’s given so much benefit to so many for so long.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg (archival footage):

Russia’s unjustified and unprovoked attack on Ukraine is putting countless innocent lives at risk.

US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin (archival footage):

We’ve seen an alarming increase in the number of unsafe aerial intercepts and confrontations at sea by PLA aircraft and vessels.

Lt. Gen. Stephen Whiting (archival footage):

Space is now a war fighting domain. These threats have driven a cultural shift that has resulted in our new service, new ways of organizing and operating so that we can execute our space mission successfully.

Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall (archival footage):

War is not inevitable, but successfully deterring conflict is heavily dependent on our military capabilities.

Gen. B. Chance Saltzman:

You heard yesterday, Secretary Kendall lay out in great detail the security circumstances we find ourselves in today. I will not belabor the point, but it should be noted that no domain is immune from these circumstances, and as an integral part of our security environment, the space domain is now more contested than in any other point in history. This was the genesis of the Space Force, a military service focused on addressing the challenges and opportunities we face in the space domain. We were created for this new space era, an era increasingly characterized by great power competition. With this in mind, I recently asked our Guardians to take a look at our mission statement, and make sure that it properly described who we are and what we do. When I asked, Guardians responded. Here’s the result. This is our mission statement, and Guardians, these are your words. Secure our nation’s interests in, from, and to space.

It’s simple, it’s direct, and it clearly reflects our purpose and identity as Guardians. This new mission statement defines the why of the Space Force. Despite its simplicity, these nine words are packed with six separate and distinct concepts. These concepts help clarify what the Department of Defense tasks us to do each and every day. Let me explain.

Let’s start with the first word, “Secure.” It’s used here in the military sense. When we say secure, we’re referring to the Space Force’s charge to prepare ourselves to control, by military means if necessary, the space domain as part of any joint force effort. Next, the words “Our nation” reflect the trusted connection between Guardians and the nation we serve. The beneficiaries of our work are not a distinct, abstract group. They’re us. We are deeply connected to our work and the outcomes. Our Guardians have volunteered to answer the nation’s call to arms, and we remain fiercely committed to defending it.

The next concept, “Interests,” refers to the security and prosperity our nation derives from space. America’s interests in space are immense, and growing. From a military perspective, Guardians are integral members of the joint team, since all joint force operations depend on space capabilities and protection from space-enabled attacks. Now, the phrase “In, from, and to space” refers to core functions of the Space Force. Guardians secure our nation’s interests in space through space activities that protect the joint force and the nation from space and counterspace threats. A service must be able to control its domain in order to be able to access and exploit it. For our service, space superiority is the first core function, and it is the “In” aspect of the mission statement. It is the ability to contest, and when necessary, control the space domain at a time and place of our choosing.

In the last era, we were able to meet our mission just by accessing and exploiting the space domain. But now, this domain is contested, and therefore, control of the domain is an operational imperative. Each service must be able to control its domain: air superiority, sea control, land dominance, and now, space superiority. The ability to contest the domain with military force is the formative purpose of a service. Recognition of the need to focus on this critical function was the primary reason for the creation of the U.S. Space Force. With this space superiority, Guardians will now secure our nation’s interests from space by delivering critical global operations like satellite communications, precision navigation and timing to the joint force. A service must be able to exploit its domain. Once a service has control of its domain, it can then perform the other missions. For example, as this audience well knows, once the Air Force has control of the air domain, it can perform close air support, interdiction, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, and mobility.

What we equally know is that it is a prerequisite, meaning if we can’t control our domain, the ability to exploit it is severely limited. For the Space Force, we exploit the domain by providing global mission operations as the second core function, or the “From” identified in the mission statement. Global mission operations enable the joint force to integrate the joint functions across all domains on a global scale. This is an important distinction, and only the U.S. Space Force can provide these truly worldwide capabilities our forces absolutely require as they defend U.S. and allied interests around the world.

In short, the joint force needs global communications, indications and warning, and precision. As I speak, the Space Force’s Delta Four is guarding our joint force, assuring our allies, deterring nuclear conflict by providing worldwide missile warning. Delta Eight is on duty every minute of every day, providing the joint force with a secure, reliable and resilient global communications architecture. Additionally, Guardians operating the GPS Constellation provide the gold standard in precision navigation and timing. This audience well knows the value of GPS-enabled precision, and even the criticality of the synchronization benefits provided by the GPS timing signal. I think it’s also noteworthy that the American public is increasingly becoming aware of the contribution GPS and the Space Force make to the economy and our everyday life.

Finally, Guardians secure the nation’s entrance to space by assuring we have the ability to launch satellites into orbit and then connect to and control them with a global ground network. The service must be able to access its domain even during a conflict. The ability to get to the domain and leverage all domains in pursuit of military objectives is essential to success. Whether we call this deployment sortie generation or fleet operations, it is crucial that we be able to do it, do it effectively, and do it promptly.

For the Space Force, assured access is our third core function, the “To” in our mission statement. It takes the form of two mission areas, launch capabilities and the satellite control network. That’s the network that establishes the radio frequency links to the satellites in order to command, download mission data, or transfer information between satellites. In the end, the mission statement and core functions provide Guardians with shared purpose, a common understanding of the core functions that drive us towards our objectives. I want to invite each Guardian to consider their place within the mission statement and the core functions. They define our organizing principles, they clarify the assumptions we’re making. They help identify the equipment we need to buy, identify the training Guardians need to be effective, and the myriad of other decisions that a military service needs to make to get the mission done.

Most importantly, it allows us as a service to be laser focused on fielding a purpose-built Space Force for great power competition. As Secretary Kendall so clearly stated, the challenge we need to be ready for is not the one we have been focused on for many years. Establishing the Space Force to focus on a contested space domain was a critical step, and now we must focus our efforts on a purpose-built Space Force for great power competition. Most importantly, we must recognize that we cannot just take our old structures and processes, rename them, and expect different outcomes. This brings to mind the old adage that says something like, “Insanity is defined as doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.” No, since we know we need new outcomes, we must invest our time, energy and effort into developing and optimizing new structures and processes.

This is why Secretary Kendall’s push to optimize our service for great power competition is so critical. We’re going back to basics within those five lines of effort, and we’re creating the structures and processes we will need to be successful in this era. To put it in joint terms, we need a new force design, new force development, new force generation and new force employment schemas. Let’s dig into this a little bit.

The first element is force design. Force design is the blueprint upon which we build our Space Force capabilities. It involves planning for future challenges that we might face, understanding the changing character of war, and determining the most effective structure and composition of forces to address the threat head-on. It requires a forward-looking mindset, considering advancements in technology and emerging threats. As we design our forces, we must emphasize adaptability, versatility, allowing us to respond with agility to both traditional and asymmetric threats.

One way we are understanding future challenges is by exploring ways to better integrate commercial space. Commercial capabilities, services and activities are expanding rapidly. The Space Force wants to harness these efforts to achieve an enduring advantage through commercial augmentation during times of competition, crisis and conflict. In particular, we want to take full advantage of the capacity, the rapid technology refresh rates and innovation offered by the commercial space sector, all to enhance and support the combatant commanders. With this in mind, and many other factors, our Space War Fighting Analysis Center is conducting detailed, data-driven mission analysis to assess the architectures we need for success. The goal is to design a force optimized for a given mission area while remaining cost-informed, so that it can be delivered on an operationally-relevant timeline.

The second element of building the Space Force we need is force development. Force development is the process of refining and enhancing our military capabilities. It involves investing in exercises, war games, training and education, to ensure that our personnel are equipped with the latest knowledge, skills, tools and experiences. It is not just about acquiring new weapons and equipment, but also about fostering a culture of continuous improvement. Through force development, we invest in our Guardians, to ensure that we remain at the front edge of military excellence in the domain, and ready to face the challenges ahead.

A key program under force development centers on educational opportunities for our Guardians. In developing our professional military education for the Space Force, we took an innovative approach. We created a program where the service partnered with a civilian institution, where military officers will be educated by world renowned professors and intermixed with civilian students, to maximize perspectives and learning opportunities. Opening its doors just a few weeks ago, this new intermediate and service level education program hosted by Johns Hopkins University is a first of its kind for any of the services, and is an example of how the Space Force will create the critical thinkers we need to meet the growing challenges we know we will face.

The third element is forced generation. It refers to the assembling, organizing and preparing of Space Forces to meet specific operational requirements. It is about ensuring that we have the necessary people, skills and resources available, when and where they are needed, for mission execution. It requires meticulous planning and new processes and procedures that effectively account for the advanced activities necessary to meet the demands of a contested space domain. Successful force generation guarantees that we can rapidly respond to crises, and execute missions effectively and with confidence, thereby creating the combat credibility that deters aggression. The Space Force has come to realize that to be effective, a service must align responsibility, authority and resources for all aspects of unit readiness. This must be comprehensive, and include all the activities and force elements, from cyber, space and intelligence operations to engineering and capabilities development efforts.

There are no perfect organizational structures. The structuring of people that 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. In my mind, performance should be optimized around our missions rather than the functions that support them. In other words, we cannot afford to split mission areas’ critical activities across organizational seams. Instead, it’s essential that all elements of readiness, the people, the training, the equipment and the sustainment, fall into the same organizational structure, and that we create unity of command around those elements at the lowest possible level.

Therefore, the Space Force has started two proofs of concept we call integrated mission deltas, or IMDs, where both operations and sustainment for a mission area are under a single commander. One IMD prototype is supporting the electromagnetic warfare mission. The other IMD prototype is a new organization to support precision navigation and timing. Both of these deltas integrate operations and sustainment, creating the unity of command for all aspects of readiness, and enhance our ability to continue to provide world-class effects in the face of a determined adversary.

The fourth and final element in building the Space Force we need is force employment. It is the culmination of our efforts in force design, development and generation. Simply put, force employment as the application of our military power to achieve our nation’s interests. Force employment begins with normalizing how the service presents forces, and this began with standing up of service components to the regional combatant commands. This past year, we’ve stood up three new service components? Space Forces Indo-Pacific, Space Forces Korea, and Space Forces Central Command, to help strengthen the synergies between the domains within each of these AORs. I’m happy to announce that in December, we will stand up Space Force’s service component for European command and Africa command, to help integrate, collaborate, and cooperate with our joint teammates, partners, and allies in the region. These four basic responsibilities of a military service are foundational processes for our ability to access, control and exploit our domain.

It is critical that each of these processes produces tangible results now, so that we can address all of the current requirements and challenges that we face. However, it’s also important to realize that we must continue to develop and mature the processes themselves, as these are the engines that will allow us to always produce the capabilities and the talents the nation needs. Our force design must enhance its modeling and simulation capability, to more rapidly integrate emerging technologies into its assessments. Our force development must continually evaluate how we train, educate, and experience our force, so that we can prepare them to handle uncertainty, ambiguity and black swan events. Our force generation must adapt to dynamic threats, so that combat readiness is prompt, effective and sustainable. Our force employment must be flexible enough to provide combatant commanders an array of options to deal with full spectrum operations, from competition to crisis and conflict. When done right, not only will these processes produce what we need today, but they will allow us to remain agile and adaptable, capable of responding to rapidly evolving challenges in, from and to space.

We are living in complex strategic times, and space is critical at this inflection point. The conflict in Ukraine has made clear access to and use of space is fundamental to modern warfare. It is also clear that technology is not a force enabler on its own. It is about the readiness of the forces to use that technology that will tip the scales towards success. For the Space Force, it is our Guardians. They are the real strength of the Space Force. No matter what threat we face, I’m not worried at all, because of the amazing Guardians and their spirit of creativity, innovation and determination, and the amazing initiatives that they’re implementing in the Space Force. Let me highlight a few examples.

Guardians like First Lieutenant Tamara Fumagalli, attached to United States European Command, from the 163rd Electronic Magnetic Combat Detachment. She led a four member detail including Sergeant Brian Van Acker, Sergeant Jacob Turner, and Specialist Four Zachary Fry, on the urgent, 45-day forward deployment. Despite facing manning and time constraints, the team was able to diversify their skills by training across their specialties, each member becoming multi capable, combat credible Guardians. The team’s effort led to the operationalization of a next generation multipurpose space EW construct, and showcased the system’s capacity and capabilities to provide rapid and dependable geolocation for space electronic warfare in support of joint, NATO and allied partners. Guardians made that happen.

Another Guardian who exemplifies the Guardian spirit is Captain Connor Thigpen, from the 1st Range Operations Squadron. As you might imagine, when you launch rockets into space, it’s important to keep aircraft out of the flight path. This is done through launch closure windows, but those can be very disruptive to air traffic. Captain Thigpen reviewed the shuttle era airspace rules and thought we could do better, so he developed a solution that keeps the major air routes open through space launch windows, avoiding the traditional four-hour closures that were the norm. This ingenuity eliminated airline reroute cost, reduced the workload for air traffic controllers, and enabled the quick approval of longer launch windows. Since its implementation in April of this year, the savings have been valued at a half million dollars and counting Guardians made that happen.

In March of this year, we held our inaugural Guardian Field Forum, to ensure leaders were getting feedback from the field back up to the headquarters. We asked 59 Guardians and Airmen to come to DC, describe their most important challenges, and offer ways to get after them, and they delivered. For example, they illustrated how we could use a modest increase in instructors to dramatically increase our training pipeline capacity from 576 to 864 Guardians per year. They outlined an enhanced relationship between U.S. Cyber Command and the Space Force’s Defensive Cyber Operations units, resulting in better collaboration between cyber analysts and our cyber defenders.

They highlighted the need for clarity in roles and responsibilities between officers, enlisted and civilians in the Space Force, and the need for a better structure to leverage our super coder cadre, and I’m happy to report that all of these ideas are being implemented. Guardians made that happen.

Finally, the development of our mobile application, Guardian One, is another example. After initial estimates of costs were predictably high, and timelines predictably lengthy, we turned to our super coders, to see if they could organically create something useful, and they just blew my socks off.

Four Guardian super coders, Sergeant Tyler Overholt, Sergeant David Kerick, Specialist Three Nehemiah Alvarado, and Specialist Three Sybil Fine spent six weeks, and delivered our first mobile application, Guardian One. Developed by Guardians for Guardians, it is an online connection resource for our Guardians, with essential tools and the latest news updates and announcements. It will expand our digital service area, and hopefully become an integral part of the Guardian journey in the future. Now, this minimum viable product, the first iteration, is already available on your app store of choice. You can see the QR code there, help yourself.

The super coders are actively seeking feedback. In fact, it’s a feature on the app itself, so that they can evolve the app into the tools Guardians want it to be. My favorite part of this story is this: Master Sergeant Mark Terry, as I was getting the rollout of this application, I was just asking him what the toughest part was, and he told me that super coder training did not really include the skills needed to develop the mobile app. As Master Sergeant Terry let me know, super coder training is focused on a different kind of coding, the kind needed for our mission systems, and apparently, not all coding is the same. Who knew?

I asked, “What did you do? How’d you get this done?”

He said, “I just stayed up all night, and learned what I needed to know to code for the mobile application.” That’s right, he just pulled an all-nighter to make this happen. If that doesn’t capture the Guardian spirit, I don’t know what does. A job needed to be done, so the Guardian did what needed to be done to get after it. He used his know-how, and dedicated himself to success, and he accomplished the mission that was at hand. Now, we have a mobile application for the Space Force. Guardians made that happen. These are just a couple of incredible stories of our Guardians, and the initiatives they’re developing and implementing to get us ready for the future. We cannot stop now and rest on our laurels, because we know our enemies won’t.

Mr. Secretary, I’ve heard your call. The Space Force has heard your call, and now, I want to further charge the Guardians. In order to continue building our service for great power competition, I need Guardians who will challenge the status quo. I need Guardians who are problem solvers. I need Guardians who will articulate the roadblocks they have to their leadership, and I need Guardians who will aggressively tackle our problems as a team. I know you’re up to it, because I hear your incredible stories every day. I could not be prouder of the Space Force team that makes all this happen. Your character, connection, courage, and commitment is why I’m so confident that the Space Force will be ready to meet any threat anywhere, to secure our nation’s interest in, from, and to space.

How the Military Can Make Barracks More Livable: New Report

Sept. 29, 2023 | By David Roza

A week after publishing a report on unhealthy and unsafe living conditions found in military barracks across the services, the Government Accountability Office released a follow-up study on improving oversight of conditions for both government-owned barracks and privatized housing.

“We believe that the recommendations in our report, if fully implemented, will put the department on a better footing to address this substantial challenge,” Elizabeth Field, GAO’s director for defense capabilities and management, told members of the House Armed Services Committee in a Sept. 27 hearing. “But it will take years to reverse the chronic neglect and underfunding we uncovered.”

For its initial report, GAO visited 10 installations and found a range of substandard conditions that affected service members’ mental and physical health, such as broken air conditioning, malfunctioning fire safety systems, vacant units occupied by unauthorized personnel, and broken first-floor windows, as well as mold growth, water quality problems, bedbugs, cockroaches, and overcrowded dorm rooms.

The GAO did not specify which services the affected installations belonged to, but it identified shortcomings in how each service oversees barracks, where junior enlisted unmarried service members are often required to live. The Air Force calls such facilities dormitories, but the GAO used ‘barracks’ as a catch-all term to include dormitories. Lawmakers were incensed by the report.

“I was a base commander at Ramstein and at Offutt Air Force Base,” Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.), a retired Air Force brigadier general, said during the hearing. “If I would have had these conditions in any of our barracks, I would have got fired.”

For their part, installation commanders “felt sick” about barracks conditions and faced “impossible choices” in terms of funding, Field said, but the Office of the Secretary of the Defense had a “hands-off” approach despite its obligation to oversee barracks programs.

Considering the fierce competition for limited funding, she said the way to resolve the issue is for the department to have better awareness of barracks conditions and better tracking of barracks funding so it can more finely reevaluate and enforce its housing policies.

“Our hope is … that the department develop a joint strategy so the services can learn from one another, so that standards can be put in place that are consistent, to try to get behind this problem,” she said.

The Government Accountability Office presented images of squalor and overcrowded military barracks during a Sept. 27 House Armed Services Committee hearing. Screenshot via YouTube/U.S. House Armed Services Committee

Better assessments

Many of the recommendations for the services and the Defense Department involved revamping how the they conduct condition assessments—as an example, GAO analysis showed that nearly 50 percent of Air Force dormitories considered ‘at risk of significant degradation’ had a condition score of 80 or above. The Defense Department needs to reevaluate those assessments and offer guidance based on its findings, authors wrote.

The GAO also recommended the services and the Office of the Secretary of Defense ask service members how housing conditions affect their quality of life. While the Navy and Marine Corps conduct annual tenant satisfaction surveys for government-owned barracks, the Army and the Air Force do not. Air Force officials sometimes administer surveys at the installation level, but there is no department-wide system, which leaves a major blindspot for service leaders, GAO noted.

“We recommended that DOD update guidance to require surveys of barracks residents—thousands of whom live in barracks because they are required to do so,” the authors said. “Implementing our recommendation will ensure DOD is positioned to assess the effects of barracks conditions and identify potential improvements.”

Better oversight

Another flaw GAO identified in military barracks programs was an inadequate system for monitoring substandard barracks, tracking budget information, and coordinating inter-service collaboration. The Office of the Secretary of the Defense was unaware that the services generally did not meet its standards for privacy and barracks amenities, nor were they monitoring the number of substandard barracks.

The GAO also found that the Pentagon does not comprehensively track how much money the services spend on barracks. The three funding accounts are Operation and Maintenance, Military Construction, and Military Personnel, but it is difficult to know how much of these are spent on barracks improvements and if it is enough. Field indicated it is not.

“The facilities that most often lose out are things like barracks,” she said at the Congressional hearing. “Eventually if you don’t fund sustainment enough, you’re going to need to build an entirely new barracks, which means you need new MILCON—military construction funding.”

Field said part of the problem is a ‘tough it out’ mindset that minimizes poor housing conditions.

“I think there has been a cultural perspective within the department that ‘part of being in the military is toughing it out,’ and ‘this is just going to get them ready for the military,’” she said. “Unfortunately I think that has gotten us in part to where we are today.”

U.S. Airmen assigned to the 20th Fighter Wing clean different levels of a dormitory building during a dorm clean-up at Shaw Air Force Base, S.C., Jan. 28, 2017. U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Christopher Maldonado

GAO recommended the Defense Department develop better methods for tracking and reporting complete and accurate funding information and for increasing department-wide collaboration on housing programs. Study authors made a similar recommendation for privatized family housing, which has also suffered from inconsistent oversight and inspection standards.

“These problems are, unfortunately, not dissimilar from the ones we have observed and documented in privatized family housing,” Field said. “The only real difference is that the Defense Department has felt more pressure in recent years to fix the problems in family housing than it has to fix the problems with barracks.”

For their part, service officials were dismayed by the GAO’s report. Robert Moriarty, deputy assistant secretary of the Air Force for installations, said the service needs to regain its focus on facility maintenance. He said the service now has “a focused fund” dedicated to dormitories.

Meanwhile, Brendan Owens, the Defense Department’s chief housing officer, said in a press release that the department has “in too many instances, failed to live up to our role” of maintaining adequate housing.

“I will move out aggressively to increase oversight and accountability in government-owned unaccompanied housing and to address unacceptable living conditions impacting our service members,” he said. “My office will work with the military departments to ensure that you have a safe and secure place to live. Collectively, we will improve our responsiveness to your concerns.”

How Did Airmen Like William Tell? ‘If It Doesn’t Come Back, There’s Going to Be a Mutiny’

Sept. 29, 2023 | By Greg Hadley

When F-35s, F-22s, and F-15s took to the skies over Savannah, Ga., earlier this month, it marked the first time in 19 years the Air Force had hosted its most prestigious air-to-air competition, William Tell.

It probably won’t take anywhere near so long for it to happen again.

“We’re already talking about running William Tell again in 2025,” said Brig. Gen. D. Micah “Zeus” Fesler, William Tell Air Expeditionary Wing commander, adding that discussions within Air Combat Command and Headquarters Air Force were underway even before the 2023 competition was over.

Indeed, that was an objective for William Tell ’23, said the competition’s director, Maj. Garrett “Dodge” Getschow in an Air & Space Forces Magazine interview. “One of the feedback comments from one of the surveys was, ‘If William Tell ’25 doesn’t come back, there’s going to be a mutiny.’”

Hundreds of Airmen participated in the meet at the Air Dominance Center, which also included weapons loading and intelligence competitions, and Getschow and Fesler both said the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive—not only an encouraging sign for William Tell, but an indication of the power of competition.

“We want to make it a regular event, and I think you will also see, there used to be a competition called Gunsmoke that was an air-to-ground competition,” Fesler added. “So I think you may see those continue out over time. And you may see William Tell continue into the future.”

The idea to stage William Tell again, nearly two decades after the last edition in 2004, began roughly a year and a half ago, Getschow said. Leaders at the top of Air Combat Command saw it as a way to “invigorate that motivation through competition”—competition that had largely taken a back seat during the Global War on Terror as the Air Force faced no peer adversary.

Actually pulling off the event required months of planning, much of it led by young officers and NCOs, said Fesler. The Air Force regularly stages exercises like “Red Flag” that challenge pilots to fly against simulated enemies. But Fesler said there’s a clear difference between the two.

“In our exercises, we have a tendency to train towards our adversary, to focus on the training portion of it, which is absolutely critical,” he said. “We want to make sure the youngest Airmen, the youngest wingmen, the youngest warriors we have are ready to go to war. We want to make sure our command and control pieces are all ready to go when we really focus on bringing all those pieces together and training.

The difference between an exercise and a competition is in what is being watched and measured. “Although there are similarities … the real difference that you see is that there’s a scoreboard, and there is a scoreboard that everybody saw every night, Fesler continued. “They knew how they performed, and they could see how they were doing relative to one another’s peers. When you’re in an exercise, you really are focused on the one sortie you just flew, the one mission you just executed, and debriefing.”

In addition to the weapons load and intelligence competitions, the flying portion of the meet consisted of four segments:

One-on-one basic fighter maneuvers, or “dogfighting”

Air combat maneuvers. “We had four bandits that were surrounding two ‘blue air’ jets, and they would take turns attacking that blue air from all sorts of different directions,” said Fesler. “So imagine yourself at the center of a wolfpack, with adversary airplanes attacking you, and effectively they have to survive through that scenario.”

A gunnery contest. Participants shot their aircraft guns at a banner towed by a Learjet; judges could then examine the banners to determine accuracy—Fesler said teams got to take their banners home with them.

Fighter integration. “Four F-22s plus four F-35s plus four F-15s against 20 adversaries,” said Fesler. “And those 20 adversaries would regenerate one time, so a total of 40 adversaries. And they had to defend a piece of airspace for a 40-minute period of time. And so over that entire period, you had that team of four plus four plus four that was working together with their air battle managers, as well as their intelligence team, to put together the best game plan and then go out and execute that game plan. And that was probably the pinnacle event of all of them.”

Pilots didn’t have to worry about standard administrative tasks like coordinating refueling or setting frequencies, added Fesler. They were simply expected to show up each day, form a plan, and fly.

Trophies were handed out to the best teams and individual pilots and crew chiefs for each fighter type, as well as the top performing teams in fighter integration, maintenance, weapons load, intelligence, and command and control.

A U.S. Air Force weapons loader assigned to the 104th Fighter Wing, Massachusetts Air National Guard, celebrates his performance after winning the F-15C Eagle aircraft weapons loading competition during the William Tell competition Sept. 13, 2023 hosted by the Air Dominance Center located at Savannah Air National Guard Base, Georgia. U.S. Air National Guard photo by Senior Airman Christa Ross

“When you think about NFL football, like that level of competition, people want to win,” Getschow said. “Especially Airmen have this intrinsic drive to win. So now when you can actually codify that and put it on paper and create an awesome environment outside of that competition, I think that is where it struck everybody, not just from the competitors themselves, but the maintainers that are getting the jets ready, or the logistics guys that are bringing hundreds of trucks to make this happen, knowing, ‘If any of us fail, this might mean our wing fails.’”

Beyon the competition, organizers also wanted to use the revival as a chance to celebrate the Air Force and engage with the public.

More than 100 distinguished visitors observed the meet, said Getschow, and participating Airmen could attend keynote and panel discussions with notable Air Force figures like former Chief of Staff Gen. T. Michael Moseley; retired Col. Cesar Rodriguez, who scored three air-to-air kills in his career; and retired Lt. Col. James Harvey III, a Tuskegee Airman who was part of the winning team at the first-ever gunnery meet.

Moving forward, Getschow said he’d like to see the meet expand in 2025, with every competing wing bringing their own maintenance team and possibly an air-to-air missile shoot. At the same time, Fesler said he wants to make sure Airmen don’t become too focused on friendly competition at the expense of the mission.

Still, given how palpable and relatable competition can be, Getschow said he sees an opportunity for William Tell 2025 to capture the imagination of the public.

“I think if the country hears that we’re sending the best of the best to fight the sport of kings and see Airmen that are the tip of the spear go out and try to win, and that story can be told with the same hype and drama and suspense, I think that will inspire the American public to have a little bit more belief in the military,” he said.