More Casualties, Less Comms: How Aeromedical Evacuation May Look in the Next Fight

June 16, 2023 | By David Roza

PITTSBURGH—Part of what 1st Lt. Mackenzie Puch enjoys about her work in aeromedical evacuation (AE) is its unpredictability. Each time she and her fellow AE Airmen pick up patients aboard a C-17, a C-130, or another transport aircraft, some of those patients might be scared of flying, others might have injuries that require flying below certain altitudes, and others might show up without warning, she told Air & Space Forces Magazine.

“You just don’t know what you’re going to get patient-wise,” said Puch, a reservist who is a civilian nurse in her regular job and a flight nurse with the 911th Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron during her duty days.

Now the aeromedical evacuation field is preparing to become even more dynamic. For the past several decades, AE Airmen have worked with uncontested airspaces, stable communication channels, and relatively small numbers of casualties as they brought injured service members and civilians from frontlines in the Middle East and Southwest Asia to higher levels of medical care in Europe or the U.S.

But as the Pentagon prepares to potentially fight a near-peer adversary like China or Russia, the aeromedical evacuation field is preparing to care for more casualties with fewer resources and spotty communications. That kind of unpredictability requires a different mindset, one where relatively junior Airmen may have to make life-or-death choices regarding patient triage and treatment.

“You might fly to a location and find many more patients than you expected, and you might be the one deciding which patients get on the plane,” said Lt. Col. Adam Foster, director of operations for the 911th AES. “I don’t want it to be their first time making decisions that are uncomfortable when they’re out there.”

Part of preparing aeromedical evacuation Airmen to make difficult decisions is allowing them to take on more risk. In the past, if an AE crew encountered uncertainty, they likely had access to specialized experts who could help them make the best choice. Crews often work with Critical Care Air Transport Teams (CCATTs), highly-specialized units typically made up of a physician, a critical care nurse, and a respiratory therapist. CCATTs provide expertise to treat critically ill or injured patients, but if communications are down and the nearest medical doctor is across an ocean, the AE Airmen on the scene may have to decide how to best care for those critical patients.

“We’re trying to teach our aeromedical evacuation members to assume risks that they probably would not have in the last 20 years when it comes to patient care,” Foster said.

Indeed, Puch said reservist AE crews are often paramedics or nurses in their civilian jobs, so they are accustomed to the chaos of an emergency room or intensive care unit. Still, she said much of AE training emphasizes staying within regulations. There are extensive checklists for setting up medical equipment on an aircraft, maintaining care in-flight, and for handling emergency medical situations. But circumstances may dictate different approaches.

“Do those regs go out the window and you just ask for forgiveness so that you can do everything you need to do within your scope to keep that patient alive?” Puch asked.

To try to foster that mindset, the 911th AES has created a series of “non-standard training” scenarios that take place unexpectedly during the squadron’s twice-a-month local training flights or other duty days.

“You might take off with the patients you expected and then they have you turn around saying ‘we need you to come back, there’s three more,’” said Capt. Mike O’Neill, a medical service corps officer with the 911th. “That is a very real scenario where patients show up late.”

There also may be fewer trained Airmen aboard to deal with problems. AE crews typically fly with two flight nurses and three medical technicians, or with three flight nurses and four med-techs on a deployment. But future flights may have just one flight nurse and two med-techs. A C-17 can accommodate about 60 floor-loaded litters, so small AE crews will have to be creative to treat so many patients.

“You might even use other patients who are ambulatory to help put tourniquets on people,” Puch said. “You could tell them ‘this is what you need to feel for, please let me know if you do not feel that,’ so you can instruct patients or you can have the loadmasters help with CPR or [basic lifesaving skills].”

Working short-handed is not unfamiliar to aeromedical evacuation crews. During the 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan, some of the flights carrying hundreds of evacuees had just one AE Airman and a small bag of supplies, Foster said. Some wound up helping deliver babies aboard C-17s during evacuation flights.

Still, it takes effort to break well-established habits within the community.

“We’re teaching our people to mentally flex a little bit and get out of their comfort zones,” Foster said. “Our people have become very good at doing AE one way, but we need to learn to do it this other way. If we never do it the second way, great, but I’d rather be prepared.”

Beyond more casualties and fewer resources, AE crews may also have to contend with longer flights in the Indo-Pacific than they saw in CENTCOM. Flying from Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar, to Germany is not too bad, Foster said. But a 12- or 18-hour flight from Japan back to the U.S. is a much more demanding haul for the crews, patients, and resources available aboard the aircraft.

And that’s assuming transport aircraft are even available to support the AE mission. Military planners are concerned that C-130s, C-17s, C-5s and other transport planes will be swamped in a near-peer fight flying troops and equipment across the vast theater, which means AE may have to hitch a ride on aircraft performing other missions.

“In past deployments, if AE were on a mission, that mission was ‘fragged’ [tasked] as AE,” said O’Neill who, along with Puch, recently returned from a deployment to the Middle East. “I’ve noticed on this past deployment, the mission may be ‘fragged’ as not AE and we need to fit onto it.”

Foster said AE crews are accustomed to working with what they have, even if it is just one or two pallet positions.

“They don’t make a habit of moving those aircraft nearly empty,” he said. “The idea of moving patients and cargo, passengers, and weapons, that’s not unfamiliar at all to us.”

Still, the lack of free space may limit the choices an AE Airman can make if they have more than 100 patients in need of transport.

The Air Force may also have to use non-standard aircraft for moving patients. While AE Airmen often say the C-17 is the AE transport of choice, they can also work aboard C-130s and tanker/transports like the KC-135 and KC-46. They may have to become even more flexible.

“In the near-peer fight, it’ll be like ‘does this airplane start? Let’s take it,’” Foster said. “There might be situations that are non-standard.”

Staff Sgt. Jorge Padron, 911th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron flying crew chief, talks to aircrew members during an inspection of a C-17 Globemaster III after landing in Bangor, Maine, to go through customs, Dec. 16, 2019. (U.S. Air Force photo by Joshua J. Seybert)

Some AE units are already training on non-standard aircraft. Earlier this winter, New York Air National Guard medical technicians practiced working on Royal Canadian Air Force ‘Twin Otter’ transports, which are much smaller than C-130s.

Being prepared for such flexibility is important not just for U.S. service members and civilians, but also for foreign partners. Though other militaries may have AE-equivalent units, the U.S. Air Force is the only institution that can provide long-distance aeromedical evacuation at scale. Despite the obstacles and uncertainty facing AE in a near-peer fight, Foster is confident his troops have the right attitude to meet the challenge.

“We have young reservists who come in here and are like ‘I’ll jump right in that,’” he said. “I’ve been in this game a little while, so it’s reinvigorating to me to see people do that and come to the squadron with a level of professionalism that I probably didn’t have at that age.”

Top Lawmaker Wants to Create Emerging Tech Position to Advise Secretaries, Eliminate CAPE

June 15, 2023 | By John A. Tirpak

House Armed Services Committee chair Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) wants to create a new position in each service’s secretariat, with the responsibility of finding promising new technologies and helping shepherd them across the so-called “valley of death” between successful prototypes and a program of record.

He also wants to abolish the Office of the Secretary of Defense’s Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation shop.

The new job—outlined in the chairman’s mark for the fiscal 2024 National Defense Authorization Act—would be called the “Principal Technology Transition Advisor” and would report directly to each service secretary, not the service’s acquisition executive. Instead of a new hire, each secretary would have the authority to “designate” an existing staff position to perform the functions of the principal tech transition advisory role.

The position would “advise the secretary on the transition of technologies, including technologies from science and technology program of the department, private commercial entities, research institutions, and universities, to fulfill identified and potential warfighter requirements for the military department,” the draft bill’s language states.

Pentagon technology developers have long complained that promising new capabilities which shine in demonstrations and prototyping often can’t make the leap to a program of record because there isn’t a “pull” requirement from operators. Frequently, such technologies never make the transition, resulting in the gap between useful emerging technologies and operational capability being dubbed “the valley of death.”

The new position is aimed at giving such capabilities greater visibility and top-level sponsorship within each military department.

The tech transition advisor would coordinate with other military departments and the DOD on emerging technologies being developed within the Pentagon’s research and development enterprise, as well as in academia and industry, to nominate programs for acquisition that have already been demonstrated. The new advisor would also coordinate with program managers, informing them about the availability of new technologies that could be inserted into existing programs.

Specifically, the measure says the tech transition advisor will coordinate with the Defense Innovation Unit, the Air Force “AFWERX” organization, or any other similar organization in DOD, with a “focus on accelerating the adoption of emerging technologies for mission-relevant applications or innovation.”

The position would come into being one year after the passage of the 2024 NDAA. Every year thereafter, the officeholder would provide a report to Congress on technologies pulled from the tech base and put into the acquisition track, along with how much was spent on them from various DOD technology incubator accounts.

The chairman’s mark also moved to eliminate CAPE, typically regarded as an independent voice in assessing the validity of service program office cost estimates.

A HASC member staffer said the move was specifically prompted by CAPE questioning congressional mandates regarding the numbers of ships the Navy should build, exploring other options when ship numbers had been set in law by the previous NDAA. The CAPE has had the effect recently of slowing the acquisition process by introducing approaches “that are not up for debate,” the staffer said.

The language would leave up to the Secretary of Defense which organization would fulfill the CAPE’s mission. The Office of the Secretary of Defense said it does not comment on pending legislation.

The full committee markup is expected June 21.

NATO Allies Reveal New Details on Ukrainian F-16 Training

June 15, 2023 | By Chris Gordon

BRUSSELS—Western defense chiefs provided the most detailed public outline yet of their plans to remake Ukraine’s air force with Western jets such as the F-16 on June 15.

“The Netherlands and Denmark are stepping up to lead this consortium, and they are outlining the plan for training,” Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III told reporters at NATO headquarters after a gathering of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, a collection of roughly 50 nations supporting Kyiv.

Kajsa Ollongren, the Dutch Minister of Defense, explained portions of that plan to the media after Austin’s remarks.

“We want to kickstart it first as soon as possible, but then work towards a more sustainable solution,” Ollongren said. She added that the current plan is to train “the first batch of Ukrainian pilots relatively soon. Our ambition is really to start this summer.”

Long-term, according to Ollongren and a Dutch Ministry of Defense press release, the so-called fighter jet coalition is looking to set up a training center in “one of the eastern European countries.”

For months, the U.S. would not pledge its support for foreign delivery of American-made fighter jets, arguing they were too costly and complex of a platform. But last month, the Biden administration relented after pleas from Ukrainian officials and prodding from key allies.

European nations jumped into action.

“We’re really doing this step-by-step,” Ollongren said. “So the green light that we got about two weeks ago from Washington is about starting training Ukrainians on the F-16.”

Among others, Belgium, Luxembourg, and the United Kingdom—which has been forward-leaning in its aid and provided advanced weapons such as long-range cruise missiles to Ukraine—are taking part.

“We will see what who can bring to the table,” she added. “We have F-16s that we can make available. We even have two seaters [training variants] that we can make available. But we’re still in the planning phase to see if that is needed or not.”

Before Ukraine embarked on a recently-begun counteroffensive to regain territory, its troops were trained in Western-style combined arms operations. The talk at NATO headquarters over the past few days has had a strong focus on maintenance and sustainment, and away from “phases” of plugging various holes in Ukraine’s military and defense, though denying the skies to Russian aircraft, missiles, rockets, and drones remains the West’s top focus.

“We will stand by Ukraine as long as it takes,” Austin said.

Ukraine has exceeded Western expectations in its ability to use advanced weapons systems. It has intercepted what Russia bills as a hypersonic missile with one of the U.S.’s prized PATRIOT batteries. With the knowledge that the Ukrainian’s resolve to fight remains strong, Western officials acknowledge it will need to build a strong, Western-style military to fend off Russian aggression, even if a diplomatic solution can be reached. But the multirole F-16 will require Ukrainian pilots to rethink how they employ airpower with Western tactics.

For now, Ollongren cautioned that despite the rapid pace of the planning after Washington’s sign-off, “it starts with a limited number of Ukrainian fighters, which is normal because you have to begin with the ones that are English-speaking, excellent flyers, etc. That’s the ones you want to get in first. And then later on, we will build upon that.”

U.S. officials indicated the decision to sign off on F-16s was not due to sea change in expectations on how long providing the aircraft will take, and there is no direct commitment to provide American aircraft.

“This will take some time, but they’re really moving out in a very impressive way,” Austin said of the fighter coalition. ”Over the weeks and months, we’ve worked with Ukrainians. We’ve also changed in terms of the kinds of things that we’re providing them, and it’s been successful … can be seen in where the Ukrainians are today on the battlefield.”

New Missile-Tracking Satellites Capture First Images, But Next Launch Date Faces Delay

June 15, 2023 | By Greg Hadley

The first missile-tracking satellites in a constellation planned by the Space Development Agency have maneuvered into their intended orbit and sent back their first images, the agency announced June 14. But the next SDA launch will likely slip past its June target date.

SDA put eight communications satellites into space in its first launch, and while all are still undergoing tests, one apparently appears compromised by an “assembly issue,” the agency added in social media posts. A spokesperson declined to share the first images publicly.

Meanwhile, an SDA spokesperson told Air & Space Forces Magazine that the agency has “low confidence” that it will meet its planned June timeline for the second launch of its “Tranche 0” satellites, due to “critical elements necessary for the satellite’s intended demonstrations.” The spokesperson declined to clarify.

SDA still plans for 28 satellites in Tranche 0 of its Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture and that the next launch will still reach space this summer. The agency is trying to build constellation of hundreds of satellites in low-Earth orbit, with an ongoing stream of new satellites that will make it nearly impossible to shut down the constellation.

SDA director Derek M. Tournear described this first batch of satellites as the “warfighter immersion tranche,” giving service members the opportunity to work with the systems, understand their capabilities, and begin to imagine how they might be employed.

With the first parts of the Tracking Layer, used for missile warning and tracking, in place, the satellites will now being looking for what Tournear previously called “targets of opportunity”—any sort of launch over the next few months to detect and track to gather calibration data. After that, formal assessments that track U.S. test objects will begin in the spring of 2024.

The Transport Layer satellites, used for carrying data and communications, “are undergoing the necessary steps to begin tactical data demonstrations and orbit raising soon,” SDA wrote in a social media post.

The biggest challenge for those satellites will be testing their ability to relay data to the ground using Link 16, the military’s tactical data network. Those demonstrations haven’t taken place yet, but the agency has transmitted data using radio frequency channels.

Officials in the Pentagon and Congress are watching Tranche 0 closely as a proof of concept for SDA’s unique approach, which is defined by rapid timelines, numerous small spacecraft, and increased contractor competition. The first eight satellites went from from contract to orbit in two and a half years, extremely fast for a military space program. SDA has already started soliciting proposals for Tranche 2, having awarded deals for Tranche 1 earlier. Last week, Space Systems Command announced it had assigned seven launches for Tranche 1, five to SpaceX and two to United Launch Alliance.

In its markup of the 2024 National Defense Authorization bill, the House Armed Services strategic forces subcommittee requested a briefing from the Secretary of the Air Force on SDA’s plans “to acquire on-orbit capabilities including the best available apertures to include multibeam active phased array antennas, the ability to connect multiple users with an efficient deployment of satellite assets, and efficient implementation of space-based tactical data links.”

The New TRANSCOM Enlisted Chief Started Out As a Troubled Airman

June 15, 2023 | By David Roza

On June 13, the Pentagon announced Chief Master Sgt. Brian P. Kruzelnick, the top enlisted member of Air Mobility Command, had been selected as the next command senior enlisted leader for U.S. Transportation Command, which oversees the movement of troops and equipment around the world.

The prestigious assignment is the latest in a series of leadership roles stretching back over Kruzelnick’s 29-year Air Force career. But the Airman did not always show such promise—Kruzelnick had a tough start in life, which contributed to tough start in service.

“I came from the mean streets of New Jersey, struggling to survive in the world in which I lived,” Kruzelnick, a native of Passaic, wrote in a blog post about his early military career on The Mobility Forum after taking on his current role at AMC in 2020.

“I lacked basic physical and psychological needs, from shelter to a feeling of belonging,” he said.

On the recommendation of a friend, Kruzelnick enlisted in the Air Force as an aircraft maintainer, but the early years were a challenge.

“It was hard to correct my undisciplined and unstructured background to meet military expectations, which led me to be a less-than-desired Airman,” he wrote. “Living in ‘survival mode’ for so long made me combative and stopped me from developing healthy relationships. Although I did have a strong work ethic, my behavior was not acceptable.”

Specifically, the chief told Air & Space Forces Magazine that he would “find myself in altercations with others and have my First Sergeant pick me up at the Security Forces Squadron, and I had problems with authority as I felt everything was a personal attack or I had to always show ‘strength.'”

As time went on, Kruzelnick eventually found solace, pride, and acceptance in the teamwork and accomplishment needed to generate aircraft on a flightline. He was also inspired by deployments in support of Operations Deny Flight and Provide Promise, both of which were related to ethnic conflicts in Bosnia and Herzegovina in the mid-1990s. Those deployments allowed Kruzelnick to “[witness] AMC flat out delivering hope to those in need,” he wrote.

Over the next several decades, Kruzelnick grew “as an Airman and as a person on every flightline around the world,” he added.

As he climbed through the ranks and mentored younger troops, Kruzelnick found his background, formerly a hindrance, had become a strength.

“I feel very comfortable leading Mobility Airmen because I had similar experiences and can relate to their trials and tribulations as well as their successes,” he wrote.

Leaders who want to help Airmen from many walks of life succeed must take the time to get to know their stories, Kruzelnick said.

“In our ranks are those driven and meek, strong and vulnerable, carefree and overwhelmed,” he wrote. “As leaders, we can decide what matters but never who matters because everyone does. We must have a curious nature to create opportunities to bond with one another.”

Kruzelnick is not the only senior enlisted leader who reinvented himself in the Air Force. Chief Master Sergeant of the Space Force Roger A. Towberman recounted his own rocky road to service at the AFA Warfare Symposium in March.

“I messed up my life in every way imaginable between 17 and 22,” he said. “I’ve stolen food to feed myself. It doesn’t matter what I do—I don’t think my debt with the United States Air Force, and now Space Force, will ever be paid.”

The top enlisted Guardian believes sharing these stories is a key part of how the Department of the Air Force can meet a nationwide recruiting crisis, where polls show fewer young Americans are interested in serving in the military. He said the service should highlight “real stories of teamwork, love, second chances, of late bloomers.”

Kruzelnick has certainly bloomed during his time in the Air Force. According to his official biography, he served as the senior enlisted leader at the squadron, group, wing, and Numbered Air Force level before reaching AMC. His units have tasked with training, mobility, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, electronic attack, command and control, and space operations.

Kruzelnick emphasized empathy and patience in his advice for Airmen who struggle with mental wellness, relationships, or understanding the “why,” as he once did.

“Don’t give up, have grace and keep an open heart,” he told Air & Space Forces Magazine. “Most people really do have your best interest in mind. For those that lead these Airmen, have grace and don’t give up on them. See these individuals for who they are, past life experiences and all. You can’t help them get to a better destination if you don’t know where they are starting from. Meet them where they are and help them get to a better place.”

Air & Space Forces Magazine Recognized for ‘Journalism Excellence’

June 14, 2023

Air & Space Forces Magazine’s 10-part series in 2022 profiling the history of every living former Air Force Chief of Staff won first place for series in a trade publication in the 2023 Dateline Awards for journalism excellence presented by the Society of Professional Journalists’ Washington D.C. chapter.

The Magazine also was a finalist in three other categories in a contest that received a record number of entries, according to SPJ. “The scope of outstanding journalism that takes place each year in the D.C. metro area is astonishing,” said Denise Dunbar, president of SPJ’s D.C. Pro Chapter.

The Chiefs series, which appeared in print and online in the August, September, October, and November issues, tells the story of the Air Force from 1986 to 2020 through the eyes of the 10 chiefs who led the force over those 34 years. The 10 articles can be found here.

The Magazine was also recognized as a finalist in these categories:

Magazine Column, for John Tirpak’s March 2022 Strategy & Policy column, “Fast-tracking the Wedgetail.”

Editorial/Opinion Writing, for a collection of editorials by Tobias Naegele

Cover Design, for the April, August, and November 2022 magazine covers by Art Director Dash Parham, Production Manager Eric Lee, and Photo Editor Mike Tsukamoto

“A magazine is a team, the sum greater than all of its parts,” Naegele said. “This is a team achievement. Our readers are well aware of the work we do every day in our Daily Report and in each issue of the printed magazine. They are the most important judges of our output. But it’s aways good to know, as well, that that our coverage is also appreciated when compared to the very best work of all the other excellent journalists in a competition like this. We are grateful for the recognition.”

New House Armed Services Panel Will Focus on Quality of Life

June 14, 2023 | By Greg Hadley

Two Air Force veterans from opposite sides of the political aisle will chair a new House Armed Services Committee panel on quality of life issues affecting military families and service members.

Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.), a retired USAF brigadier general and RC-135 pilot, chairs the panel, while Rep. Chrissy Houlahan (D-Penn.) a former engineer and program manager in the missile defense field, will be the ranking member.

Four issues will draw their focus to start, the two said June 14 at a Capitol Hill briefing:

Pay, especially for junior enlisted

Housing

Health care

Spouse employment and child care

Transition issues after military service could be a future area of inquiry, Houlahan said.

“I don’t think coming up with a short list of what it is that we should be talking about when we’re talking about quality of life takes a whole lot of muscle or brainpower to figure that out,” she said.

Bacon promised a methodical approach to issues and concerns. “We want to identify problems and verify they’re problems,” Bacon said. “And then we want to look at courses of action to fix them, and through getting expert opinion, select the best course of action and recommend it to the Armed Services Committee as ways forward to solve these problems.”

Starting in July, the panel will hold at least two hearings per month, calling on Pentagon officials and outside experts, Bacon and Houlahan said. The panel’s work will culminate in a written report to the HASC’s personnel subcommittee and recommendations for the committee to consider as part of the 2025 National Defense Authorization Act.

Bacon said the effort will be a multiyear endeavor. That process has already begun in the 2024 NDAA—the personnel subcommittee included in its markup a 5.2 percent pay raise for troops, plus an added “inflation bonus” targeted at service members for all grades below E-6. It has also proposed changing the baseline for receiving the Basic Needs Allowance, funds that are meant for the neediest service members, by removing housing allowances from the equation.

Houlahan said the two have already started considering improvements.

“We went through the history of ideas, the landscape of all the things that have happened in these particular [areas], and I have reviewed most of those,” Houlahan said. “And so I think it’s not dissimilar from a lot of the things that are happening in Congress—there aren’t a whole lot of new ideas out there, but it is important to try to identify what those ideas are that could actually move the needle and expand upon them or elevate them and actually make them happen.”

The two Air Force vets agree on many issues, but each is more focused on different matters. Houlahan said she is “passionate” about childcare. “It’s personally one of the reasons I separated from the military,” she said. “My oldest child is now 30. She’s the one that I had when I was in uniform. And as near as I can tell, the waiting list has not abated and maybe they’re even longer, and the affordability issues are just as pressing and the paucity of daycare is just as scarce. I think we’ve not made any progress. And I have ideas on that for sure.”

Bacon calls housing “the No. 1 issue for the military right now when I talk to [service members].”

During a visit to Offutt Air Force Base, where Bacon once commanded the 55th Wing, he said, “The housing issue was very loud and clear. … I was actually a bit surprised at the amount of feedback on housing. Frankly, it was a little more than I suspected.”

Houlahan was bothered by the different standards for officers and enlisted members during a recent visit to bases in Texas.

“I can attest to the fact that we have a different level of quality that we give to our enlisted personnel than we do to our officers, and that’s unacceptable and untenable,” she said. “And we need to make sure that the housing we’re providing is something where you would like your child or your family to live in.”

Noting that the Basic Allowance for Housing is only supposed to cover about 95 percent of housing costs, Bacon said the “cost-sharing” element is contributing to problems both on- and off-base.

“Those who live off base, obviously that digs into their basic pay for utilities and things like that,” Bacon said. “But if you’re on base, all those privatized owners are getting 5 percent less [for upkeep], and I think it’s having an impact. It has taken a toll over time on modernization and repairs and things that they should be doing to [maintain] base housing.”

Bacon also questioned whether pay rates need to be reconsidered, suggesting it may be time for “right-sizing” enlisted compensation.

Tackling compensation and housing will be expensive, the lawmakers acknowledged. But not fixing them may be even more costly. With military recruiting in crisis, and the services struggling to retain talent even in the midst of a business downturn, Houlahan said, these are “the pressing issues of our time.”

F-22s Deploy to CENTCOM as Russian Pilots Act in ‘Increasingly Unsafe’ Manner

June 14, 2023 | By David Roza

U.S. Central Command announced June 14 that Air Force F-22 stealth fighters have deployed to the Middle East, the latest action amid growing tensions between the U.S. and Russia in the skies over Syria—but also tied to Russia’s war in Ukraine.

“This is one place where combatant command [boundary] lines aren’t helpful,” Air Forces Central commander Lt. Gen. Alexus Grynkewich said at the Defense One Tech Summit. Grynkewich said he speaks with Gen. James Hecker, head of U.S. Air Forces in Europe-Air Force Africa and NATO Allied Air Command, more than any other air component commander “and it’s because of the confluence of Russian activity. … The center of gravity of what Russia is doing right now is of course in Ukraine, but we see that manifesting here.”

In particular, the U.S. has noted “increasingly unsafe and unprofessional behavior by Russian aircraft in the region,” according to a CENTCOM press release about the F-22 deployment. Grynkewich tied that behavior to the March 14 incident in which two Russian Su-27 fighters dumped fuel on and flew in front of a U.S. MQ-9 Reaper drone over the Black Sea. One of the fighters struck the drone’s propeller, forcing the U.S. to intentionally crash the drone, and the Russian pilots were honored by Moscow. That sets a precedent for Russian pilots elsewhere, Grynkewich argued.

“If you’re going to give medals to Russian fighter pilots for pouring gas on a UAV and then knocking it out of the sky by crashing into it while they’re operating over the Black Sea, then the Russian pilots that serve in other parts of the world such as Syria see that and that’s going to incentivize them,” he said. “Now we see similar aggressive behavior, not quite to that degree yet, but we see very aggressive behavior out of their pilots.”

In recent months, Grynkewich has spoken up about Russia upping its harassment of U.S. forces in Syria by overflying U.S. positions with armed fighters, closing within a few hundred feet of U.S. fighters. Air & Space Forces Magazine previously reported that in November, the Russians fired a surface-to-air missile that detonated within 40 feet of an MQ-9 and damaged the aircraft.

Grynkewich said the belligerent behavior could be driven by “a confluence of our adversaries.” As the Russian Air Force uses Iranian-made drones in Ukraine, the Russian government is compelled to act in Iran’s interests in a way which “has resulted in collusion, if you will, between the Russians and the Iranians, both of whom want to see us out of Syria,” he said.

That collusion gets in the way of the real mission in Syria, which is to ensure the enduring defeat of ISIS, Grynkewich added. Instead, Russia, Iran, and Syria seem to be focused on frustrating U.S. efforts there—though he claimed such attempts were fruitless.

“There’s no way they can actually push us out of the airspace,” he said. “I don’t think they want direct conflict with the United States, we certainly don’t want direct conflict with Russia. So to me it’s kind of akin to a gnat swirling around your head. It’s very frustrating and annoying sometimes, but in the end it doesn’t really matter.”

f-22 — A U.S. Air Force F-22 Raptor pilot climbs into the cockpit at an undisclosed location in Southwest Asia, July 11, 2016. U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Larry E. Reid Jr.

Even so, Central Command saw the need to bring in F-22s, as a reminder of America’s “ability to re-posture forces and deliver overwhelming power at a moment’s notice,” the command said in its press release. Still, Grynkewich said U.S. forces strive to maintain a “de-escalatory posture” in the region.

“We ought to all get back to focusing on ISIS and I hope they decide to do that,” he said.

Though U.S. military planners are increasingly focused on countering possible Chinese expansion in the Pacific, the competition with Russia in CENTCOM and China’s economic interests in the Middle East show that the region is still crucial, Grynkewich said. The Center for Strategic and International Studies reported that more than 45 percent of China’s oil imports pass through the Strait of Hormuz, and Grynkewich says China sees the Middle East in part as a gateway to the rare earth minerals located in Africa that are essential for both civilian and military electronic technology.

“Where the Chinese economic objectives begin, their military interests will follow,” said the general, who cautioned that if the Persian Gulf were to become “a Chinese lake,” it could severely limit U.S. options should war break out in the Indo-Pacific region.

At a tactical level, Grynkewich said many of the challenges U.S. troops face in CENTCOM are akin to what they may face against China in the Pacific. As China adopts an anti-access, area denial strategy using thousands of ballistic missiles and advanced air defenses in Pacific island chains, Iran is using a similar strategy in Southwest Asia, he said.

“The lessons that we learn here in AFCENT as we look at that tactical problem … after years of thinking just about violent extremist organizations, the lessons that we learn, I would posit are exportable across the entire globe,” he said.

Draft NDAA Would End ARRW Early, as Hypersonic Test Concerns Linger

June 14, 2023 | By John A. Tirpak

Air Force leaders have already said they are shifting their focus away the hypersonic Air-Launched Rapid Response Weapon (ARRW). Now, the program may not get funding to complete a final few tests if the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee gets his way.

In his markup of the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act released June 12, Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) completely removed $150.3 million in completion work on ARRW the Air Force had requested to “close out” and collect data from the program, which the service has said it won’t pursue into production after a series of test failures.

Congress’ interest in hypersonics, however, has not waned. Rogers’ mark includes a boost of $20 million for the Hypersonic Attack Cruise Missile (HACM), the Air Force’s other hypersonic program, and the strategic forces subcommittee included a provision in its NDAA markup pushing the Pentagon to submit a hypersonic testing strategy and study two additional hypersonic live-fly testing corridors.

Additional testing corridors could be particularly crucial, as the Air Force Research Lab’s chief technology officer warned June 14 that a lack of testing capacity is the biggest obstacle to fielding new U.S. hypersonic weapons.

In a livestreamed event with Defense One, AFRL’s Timothy Bunning also called for patience and a willingness to accept failures in testing hypersonic weapons. Noting that there has been high-level and public scrutiny of tests that haven’t succeeded, Bunning said “we’re really exercising muscles that we haven’t exercised in a while” relative to hypersonic testing. Hypersonic vehicles are “complex systems, and things go wrong, and we have to be tolerant of that failure,” he added.

ARRW was the most high-profile example of test failures—the missile, developed by Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control, suffered a series of test failures in 2021 followed by a successful all-up flight in 2022. Then in March, a second all-up test failed.

Shortly after that, Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall told the House Appropriations defense panel that the service is shifting its focus to HACM, being developed by Raytheon and Northrop Grumman, because it is smaller, has long range, and can be carried by a wider range of Air Force aircraft than the ARRW, which can only be deployed by bombers.

Yet even as the Air Force prepared to move on from ARRW, acquisition executive Andrew Hunter told lawmakers in written testimony March 30 that there is “inherent benefit to completing All-Up Round (AUR) test flights” of ARRW to get the maximum benefit of “the learning and test data that will help inform future hypersonic programs and potential leave-behind capability.”

USAF officials had said that up to four test flights of ARRW could be flown in fiscal 2024 before shutting the effort down. Should Rogers’ mark go unchanged in the final NDAA, the program would end the effort in September, leaving the Air Force with an undisclosed number of test assets which it has said could potentially be used operationally.

In comparison to testing failures like ARRW’s, Bunning argued that competitor nations are “doing lots of tests and they fail all the time, and maybe don’t have the political pressure, [the] public pressure, [the] negative pressure” to succeed in the way U.S. systems do.

In addition to that pressure, Bunning also highlighted the need for more testing the toughest challenge to going faster on hypersonics.

Bunning said the Air Force Scientific Advisory Board reviewed the service’s hypersonics efforts recently and called shortfalls in testing capability the “No. 1 threat” to the portfolio.

“It is not solved,” he said. “We don’t have what we need to … operate at the speed of relevance right now.”

In the fiscal 2023 NDAA, lawmakers directed the Pentagon to submit a hypersonic testing strategy, to be updated every other year, and to study additional hypersonic testing corridors. A year later, those plans are still not submitted, and the strategic forces subcommittee is threatening through its 2024 markup to restrict senior Pentagon official travel until it gets them.

While AFRL is trying to accelerate testing in its part of the hypersonic enterprise through modeling and simulation, as well as cooperative testing with Australia, which has extensive test ranges, the overall capacity is well behind the need, Bunning said.

AFRL’s role in hypersonics is mainly focused on the heat-tolerant materials needed for air vehicles operating in the extreme environment of Mach 5+, where friction temperatures stress typical aerospace materials, Bunning said. AFRL is also working on the “aero packaging” of vehicles and the warheads that go with them, he said.

“We’re trying to stay true to our role … to look forward, provide technologies that we know will have an effect that will shape the fight,” Bunning said.

“Clearly, range and speed are big drivers for the portfolio right now,” and AFRL is pushing hypersonics forward “where needed,” he added.