Kendall: Major DAF Review to Focus on 5 Key Functions with Recommendations by January

Kendall: Major DAF Review to Focus on 5 Key Functions with Recommendations by January

Sept. 11, 2023 | By John A. Tirpak

The sweeping review of Air Force readiness that Secretary Frank Kendall announced last week will pursue five lines of effort, he said in his keynote address at AFA’s Air, Space and Cyber conference on Sept. 11.

“There is no time to lose,” Kendall said of the assessment, which will be conducted, reviewed, and ready for implementation by January 2024. At that time, “that major effort will shift from identification” of areas needing improvement “and analysis of alternatives to execution of recommendations,” Kendall said.

The review is meant to “reoptimize” the Air Force for an era of great power competition with the likes of China and Russia, Kendall said. After launching his seven operational imperatives in March 2022 to modernize the platforms and the equipment the department needs for that competition, Kendall said he and his leadership team “are not as comfortable with other aspects of our enterprise.”

Specifically, the review and reorganization will focus on five lines of effort, led by “five teams formed from the Department of the Air Force Secretariat, the Air Force and Space Force staffs” with participation from the field, Kendall said. The five lines are:

  • Organization: “How we are organized, both in the headquarters and in the field,” Kendall said.
  • Equipment: “How we equip the force.”
  • Personnel: “How we recruit, retain and train our people, including how we optimize career paths and manage talent.”
  • Readiness: “How we create, sustain and evaluate readiness across the Air and Space Forces.”
  • Supporting the force: “How we provide support to the operational Air & Space Forces, to include providing installations, mobilizing, demobilizing, providing operational medicine, etc.”

“All these efforts will be closely guided by the Department’s senior leaders,” Kendall said. “It will be an inclusive process, open to and encouraging of innovative thinking. Just as we have challenging and innovative potential adversaries, we must be open to new ways of organizing and doing business ourselves.”

Kendall said that it is his goal that by the time of the next AFA national conference—in September 2024—“the changes we need to reoptimize for great power competition and possible conflict will be underway.”

He did not specify when he expects the reorganization to be complete but emphasized that time is of the essence, and the nation’s competitors are not relaxing their push to modernize and organize for future combat.

“It has become increasingly clear that more change is needed and that we need to accelerate this process,” Kendall said. “We must ensure that the Air Force and Space Force are optimized to provide integrated deterrence, support campaigning, and ensure enduring advantage.”

Kendall noted that some major changes are already underway, pointing to the Air Force Force Generation model (AFFORGEN), and “evolving allocations of responsibility across Space Force field commands.”

He also said that he created three Air Task Forces on Sept. 8 “to serve as pilots in order to experiment with ways to more effectively provide deployable integrated units.” Two of these will be tied to U.S. Central Command and one to U.S. Indo-Pacific Command.

“These are not the final, permanent deployable units we expect to form, but they are a major step in the right direction, and we will learn from this experience,” Kendall said.

The Air Force is also deep in the process of deploying its Agile Combat Employment model for dispersing forces across a wide array of operating locations, and is developing its “Multi-Capable Airman” concept, Kendall said, although neither is yet “fully implemented.”

Kendall noted that China has been reorganizing its armed forces since 2016, across exactly the same five lines of effort he laid out.

“Last week we briefed some of our outside advisers on this effort. One of them was born in China and is a leading expert on Chinese culture, history, and government. Her reaction was interesting; her view is that the DAF five lines of effort—organizing, equipping, personnel, readiness, and support—are essentially identical to the lines of effort [President] Xi Jinping has been implementing since 2016 to prepare China for war with the United States,” Kendall said. He repeated that the Air and Space Forces must not delay in optimizing for battle, the better to deter a conflict that the U.S. does not seek.

After Mobility Guardian, Minihan’s Advice For His Troops: ‘Be Demanding of Me’

After Mobility Guardian, Minihan’s Advice For His Troops: ‘Be Demanding of Me’

Sept. 11, 2023 | By David Roza

In July, Air Mobility Command wrapped up Mobility Guardian 2023, a massive exercise where 70 aircraft, 3,000 personnel, and several international partners practiced moving troops and supplies across the Pacific for two weeks. 

After the exercise, AMC boss Gen. Mike Minihan identified three areas for improvement:

  • Strengthening command relationships to prevent wasteful efforts during operations
  • Enhancing command and control by investing in beyond-line-of-sight communications
  • Improving his troops’ ability to ‘explode into theater,’ which is defined by how quickly mobility Airmen can serve the joint force in an unfamiliar environment.

A college football aficionado, Minihan compared himself to a coach “coming off of a win, but a win that didn’t have the magnitude that it was supposed to have,” he told Air & Space Forces Magazine in a recent interview. “So the coach is mad. Not mad in an angry way, but mad in a ‘we can do better’ way. I could not be more pleased with the effort, but we’ve got work to do here.”

Particularly for exploding into theater, Minihan noted that over the past 20 years, Airmen typically had months to prepare for deployments to the Middle East, where they took familiar routes to the desert and had robust support along the way. Mobility Guardian 2023 was meant to provide the opposite experience.

“It was intentionally set up so that we didn’t have all those comforts, that our explosion was done very quickly,” Minihan said. “The en route support was what it was. We didn’t set it up to be successful, we did not set it up to be a challenge, we just let the real world be the real world. And it proved itself to be a handful.”

mobility
Staff Sgt. Jacob Roy, Air National Guard, marshals a C-130 Hercules at Yokota Air Base, Japan, July 17, 2023, in support of Mobility Guardian 23. U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Christopher Hubenthal

Minihan said he wants his troops to “understand the urgency for which they need to get into theater, get into the employ phase and that they just won’t be denied that rapid entry.” Cultivating that attitude will take practice in the form of austere exercises, but Minihan said most of the burden for improving the ‘explosion’ falls on him and his headquarters.

“The first mirror check is with me, to make sure that this headquarters is doing everything possible to organize, train, and equip our Airmen for success,” he said. “Have we given everything to our Airmen that they need? Have I given them enough guidance that has depth to it?”

Mobility Airmen already supply troops, respond to natural disasters, refuel aircraft, conduct rescue missions, fight wildfires, and much more. When asked how Airmen are supposed to juggle these responsibilities and practice new war-fighting skills, Minihan was empathetic.

“When you talk about the multiple competing priorities of very important missions as presented by all the combatant commands, both functional and geographic, for a team that’s got 110,000 folks total force and we fly a little over 1,000 airplanes, that’s going to be a handful,” he said.

There will never be enough time, people, and money to meet the burden, which means the command must “invest our intellect” to be successful, Minihan said.

“That’s the responsibility I have,” he said. “I have to create the time and the priority for the team to be ready. I have to understand the ops tempo so that there’s not burnout. I have to create an atmosphere where they can get after the priorities that they need to be successful.”

Part of the purpose of Mobility Guardian was to see how responding to a conflict would go amid Air Mobility Command’s many other duties, duties that are not going away anytime soon. Meanwhile, the general’s advice for how Airmen can be ready to ‘explode’ was simple: ask him for more.

“Be demanding of me, be demanding of me and the team up here,” Minihan said. “We have to make sure that we’re working as hard as the Airmen are on all of these things.”

Hundreds of Airmen Stuck Waiting To Start Pilot Training As Shortage Persists

Hundreds of Airmen Stuck Waiting To Start Pilot Training As Shortage Persists

Sept. 11, 2023 | By Greg Hadley

While some future Air Force pilots wait for cockpits to open up so they can start training, they’re doing everything from public affairs to marshaling aircraft on the flight line, the head of the 19th Air Force said recently—highlighting the persistent problems the service faces in trying to reduce its pilot shortage. 

As of Aug. 25, more than 900 Airmen are waiting to enter the pilot training pipeline, according to 19th Air Force data. Roughly a quarter have been waiting less than three months, but most are between three and nine months. Another quarter—around 220 people—have been stuck even longer.

“Wings will have these lieutenants that are waiting pilot training work in their PA shop,” Maj. Gen. Clark Quinn said during a briefing with reporters. “They will have them work in their command post, doing reporting. They will actually take some of them and teach them how to not necessarily do aircraft maintenance, but put them out on the flight line and marshal aircraft in and park, and get them connected to the mission. So they are kept gainfully employed unless they choose to take some leave and obviously take some time off.” 

A spokesperson later added that future pilots also knock out their survival training while they wait. Some are assigned to earn postgraduate degrees. 

The total number of those waiting is down slightly from a peak of more than 1,000, Quinn said. The Air Force is limited in part by the availability of its training aircraft, all of which entered service at least two decades ago. 

The T-38 Talon, in particular, used to train future fighter and bomber pilots, is “frankly, struggling,” Quinn said. Production of the T-38 ended in 1972.

“The mission capable rates of the T-38 are not good,” Quinn added, noting that engine problems have forced the 19th Air Force to limit flying hours—and, in turn, prevented it from reaching its goal of producing 1,500 pilots per year. 

The T-38 is not alone in experiencing issues, however. A batch of T-6 Texan IIs were damaged in a recent storm at Vance Air Force Base, Okla., Quinn said. And the service is in the process of retiring the T-1 Jayhawk, with aircraft already heading to the Boneyard at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Ariz. 

Long term, the Air Force plans to replace the T-38 with the T-7 Red Hawk, an advanced new trainer currently undergoing flight testing. However, the Red Hawk has been delayed several times through development and is now not expected to reach initial operational capability until 2027. 

There’s nothing Quinn can do to speed up the T-7’s schedule, but he said gaining it in the fleet will not only increase availability but also improve the overall training pipeline. 

“[The T-38] a 60-plus-year old design that was designed for a type of aircraft that we haven’t flown in 30 years, and we spend a lot of time in training teaching young aviators how to do things that they don’t need in their next aircraft,” Quinn said. 

In fiscal 2022, the Air Force produced 1,276 pilots. In 2023, that number increased slightly to around 1,350, but still short of the goal of 1,470. With demand from commercial airlines strong, the need for new pilots to replace those leaving the service is persistent. The 19th Air Force’s goal will be 1,500 new pilots in fiscal 2024, a spokesperson said. 

Quinn said the overall pilot shortage remains at around 2,000, roughly the number it has been for the last several years. Vice Chief of Staff Gen. David W. Allvin previously told Congress that the Air Force has taken steps to ensure the shortfall doesn’t mean aircraft aren’t flying.  

“In order to have a healthy pilot professional force, you need first and foremost the combat cockpits filled,” Allvin said in April. “Then you need the trainer cockpits filled. Then you need the test cockpits filled. And after you fill out the cockpits, then our next priority is the leadership—you want the leadership positions filled. And then after you have all those filled, then you go to the staff positions. That is where we are currently absorbing our shortage: in the staffs.”  

Echoing Allvin, Quinn said that not filling staff positions has a long-term effect by stunting the “mentoring and growth of the officers that we expect to be able to lead our Air Force in the future.” 

Pilots aren’t the only staffing shortfall—even the civilian flight instructors who teach future pilots on simulators are undermanned, Quinn said.  

“We have openings at all of our locations. In some cases manning is down at the 60 to 70 percent level,” Quinn said. “What we ended up having to do is take military instructors to fill those civilian gaps and teach them and when you’re teaching the sims, you’re not teaching the flights.” 

To address that problem, the 19th Air Force is trying to hire remote simulator instructors to entice civilians who don’t live near Air Force training centers. At the moment, though, Quinn’s team is working on a latency issue affecting that effort.

F-35 Program Director: More Delays Possible for Tech Refresh-3 Update

F-35 Program Director: More Delays Possible for Tech Refresh-3 Update

Sept. 10, 2023 | By John A. Tirpak

The Tech Refresh-3 update of the F-35 fighter may face more delays due to insufficient manpower and test resources and suffers from an unrealistic degree of concurrency, the Joint Program Office director told Air & Space Forces Magazine in an exclusive interview.

What’s more, there was no backup plan in case the TR-3, needed for the much-anticipated Block 4 upgrade, did not deliver on time, said Air Force Lt. Gen. Michael J. Schmidt.

Now “here we are,” more than two years late in delivering the capability, he said Sept. 8.

“I still see risk in front of us,” Schmidt added of the TR-3 update. Although testing of the TR-3 is well underway, the first F-35s built with the new system won’t start reaching the fleet until next year. Schmidt took over the F-35 program in August 2022.

Lockheed Martin, the prime contractor on the F-35, announced last week the first TR-3-equipped jets won’t be delivered until between April and June 2024, after previously saying they would arrive by the end of 2023.

“As a result, we now expect to deliver 97 aircraft in 2023, all in the TR-2 configuration,” the company announced. “We are continuing aircraft production at a rate of 156 per year while simultaneously working to finalize TR-3 software development and testing.”

Schmidt echoed Lockheed in saying the Joint Program Office’s timeline is now April to June. The delays stem from hardware arriving late, software behind schedule, and a late start to flight testing, he said. There are also not enough people working on the program, he added.

The TR-3 update replaces the computational core of the F-35 with a much more powerful processor, which will run the Block 4’s more powerful electronic warfare suite and accommodate a greater number of weapons and classified capabilities. The Air Force has held down the number of F-35s it’s bought in recent years, saying it prefers to wait for the more powerful Block 4 version.  

There was an “extremely optimistic” plan for shifting from the TR-2 to TR-3 versions, Schmidt said, with “a lot of assumptions about improvements in time that would be made that did not come to fruition.”

“Block 4 by itself is 80 or so different capabilities. … And we have a plan to put them into various lots, but in my opinion, that plan wasn’t informed by true technical decision-making at critical junctures that said, ‘no kidding, we can get it into this lot,’” Schmidt said. The TR-3 is supposed to go into F-35s built in Lot 15.

Schmidt added that “there’s a lot of concurrency in this program, which is fine. Concurrency … is good, in a lot of cases.”

However, “you need to look at what is the probability” of implementing an update according to schedule, he said, as well as “the consequences of it not being ready on time.” Integrating a new weapon is one thing, while a fleetwide hardware and software change is another.

“We did not have a backup plan with the old hardware,” he said. “We made a decision a number of years ago that we were going to go all-in, and, in my opinion,” given the magnitude of the upgrade, perhaps should not have “made the decision to implement this in Lot 15, or we would have at least had a backup plan before going forward with it. And so here we are … late to need on TR-3.”

While “the hardware is doing pretty well right now, the software integration started late. And so that was a challenge,” he said.

Much of the problem has to do with resources, Schmidt said.

“Our lab infrastructure is not what it needs to be,” he said. “The lab is not fully representative of the flight test environment, and the lab capacity is nowhere near what it needs to be.” Testing is still underway with the latest version of the TR-2 hardware and software, and that’s pulling lab time away from TR-3, he added.

“We’ve got the first version of software for TR-3 in the labs right now and then even the follow-on version of software for TR-3 is in the labs. And they’re literally having to switch the labs over from one to the other, which is a significant amount of time to try to work those things in parallel,” Schmidt said.

On top of that, “our flight test infrastructure is old; it is really old,” he asserted. “We are doing everything we can to limp it along. We have a lot of support from the U.S. and our partners to buy additional flight test airplanes. We should have bought or replaced those aircraft years ago, but here we are.”

There are three dedicated TR-3 test jets coming, Schmidt said, “that were appropriated a couple years ago,” and six more are needed to flesh out the TR-3 test fleet. It hasn’t been decided yet how they will be apportioned among the F-35A, B, and C types.

“We’re not talking about flight test aircraft, I’m talking about Flight Sciences aircraft,” Schmidt said. “So fully wired-up, test aircraft.” Some are targeted for software testing and others are needed for full weapons integration testing.

Then there’s a new Engine Core Upgrade coming, “hopefully, with the support of the Congress, and that will require flight test aircraft as well,” Schmidt said.

As a result, the availability of test aircraft is a limiting factor.

An F-35B is prepped for a test flight at Pax River Integrated Test Force in Patuxent River Md. May 24, 2017. Official Marine Corps Photo by Cpl. Timothy R. Smithers

“I still see risk in front of us,” Schmidt said. “We’re not done. We are flying in flight test … almost every day. … I think we’d flown 110 or so TR-3 flights, but you know, we need to get the software stable and to where it needs to be with all of all of the capabilities built into the system, to get it moving forward.”

He would not characterize how the software instability is manifesting, saying only “the software is not as stable as it needs to be and we still have additional capabilities that we need to get some of the deficiencies worked out.”

Asked why the resources to accomplish TR-3 in a timely manner weren’t anticipated, Schmidt said a review last year determined “there was not a good model” for the effort.

“On paper, you can say, ‘I think I need this many humans,’ and those humans cost this many dollars and should take about this much time. The reality is, you don’t always have all the humans that you wish you had,” Schmidt said. “The lab capacity was competing against those other things. … Jets don’t necessarily fly every single day, especially older jets.”

Since then, newer models have been “very telling in terms of our capacity, relative to delivering capability,” he said. Those new models don’t just apply to TR-3, but “we’re now working with a model-based, data-driven discussion on every single capability that we are trying to deliver in this airplane, which is feeding into that that Block 4 contract and what we’re committing to.”

The models for delivering TR-2 were “extremely optimistic,” he said. The resulting delay is now at least “a couple of years from the beginning” but the full delay “all depends on where you start the movie.”

Schmidt would not discuss how the TR-3 situation is affecting contract negotiations for Lots 18 and 19 of the F-35, but he did say there is no urgency to get those negotiations concluded by the end of fiscal 2023 on Sept. 30. There are “an enormous number of things in those conversations,” he added.

A Lockheed spokesperson said the TR-3 “remains our No. 1 development priority” The company is has more than 500 employees, 15 labs, and flight testing at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., and Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Md., dedicated to the effort.

However, in a statement, Lockheed pointed to the development of the new Integrated Core Processor (ICP) by L3 Harris, a key part of TR-3, as a source of some delays “due to unexpected challenges associated with hardware and software development, component and system integration testing and system qualification testing. The hardware development challenges impacted hardware/software integration, compressing the software testing schedule.”

Lockheed also said it had deployed employees to L3 Harris to help expedite hardware delivery and are also working with Raytheon to speed up delivery of the Next Gen Electro Optical Digital Aperture System (EODAS), another element of TR-3.

An L3Harris spokesperson said the company “overcame some early design challenges and delivered a fully qualifiable Integrated Core Processor (ICP) to Lockheed Martin well over a year ago. In June 2022, L3Harris began delivering flight test hardware after completing Safety of Flight (SOF) qualification testing. We continue to work closely with [Lockheed] to support them in the integration of their software into the TR-3 hardware.”

Undergraduate Pilot Training 2.5 Is Now Just UPT After Being Fully Implemented

Undergraduate Pilot Training 2.5 Is Now Just UPT After Being Fully Implemented

Sept. 10, 2023 | By Greg Hadley

The Air Force has fully implemented its new syllabus for training pilots, Undergraduate Pilot Training (UPT), formerly known as “UPT 2.5,” the head of the service’s flying training enterprise said recently.

But more tweaks might be coming, Maj. Gen. Clark Quinn, the commander of the 19th Air Force, part of Air Education and Training Command, said in an Aug. 22 briefing with reporters.

Quinn took on the job several months ago and now oversees everything from UPT; formal training units; training programs for air battle managers and weapons directors; Air Force Academy Airmanship; and survival, evasion, resistance, and escape (SERE). 

UPT 2.5 has been the most high-profile change to Air Force flying training in several years. With an increased emphasis on self-paced learning, virtual reality, artificial intelligence, and increased simulator time, the revamped syllabus also made a major change in granting wings to pilots after they finished initial pilot training on the T-6 Texan II, but before they completed advanced training on either the T-38 Talon or T-1 Jayhawk. 

“Getting the wings at the T-6s, I’ve answered several questions, maybe not from the press, but concerns that we’re potentially giving wings early,” Quinn acknowledged. “If you looked at just the historic examples of attrition rates, after the T-6 phase of training, the attrition rates are really, really low in the Air Force in both the T-1 and T-38,” at around 1 to 2 percent.

“The way that I assessed that is, for all intents and purposes, even under the old program before we revised the T-6 syllabus, you were largely a pilot at that point and then just continued on to a little bit more specialized training in either a mobility platform or a fighter platform. And we’re just recognizing that now, instead of holding the wings away from you for another four or six months waiting for you to finish that, we recognize you’re a pilot at the completion of the T-6.” 

Critics of UPT 2.5 had been concerned that the syllabus relied too much on simulators and cut back on actual flying hours. But Quinn and other 19th Air Force officials said they added flying hours as part of the new syllabus, in addition to taking advantage of the immersive technology now available. 

“A lot of folks think that as we’ve modified pilot training, it was a lot of reductions,” Quinn said. “But we’ve actually added a lot of those virtual and immersive training hours, some of which are self-paced. So instead of the way that I did it and some of my other peers 30 years ago, which was sitting in a chair with a piece of cardboard taped to the wall, you’re actually sitting in something that looks like a cockpit with a VR headset on and actually just chair flying, for lack of a better term, in a much higher fidelity chair and actually able to see and do some things.” 

U.S. Air Force Maj. Gen. Clark Quinn, 19th Air Force commander, is greeted by U.S. Air Force Col. Justin Spears, 49th Wing commander, at Holloman Air Force Base, New Mexico, Aug. 23, 2023. U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Corinna Diaz

UPT hasn’t been the only part of training that’s changed. Earlier this year, the 19th Air Force introduced a new Fighter Bomber Fundamentals (F/BF) course, combining the T-38 Undergraduate Training and Introduction to Fighter Fundamental classes. 

“The initial F/BF, if you press me on it, I’ll tell you it’s really just taking two different syllabus and connecting them together,” Quinn said. “It’s not a huge refinement. It’s not a huge leap in technology. It’s a first step. And what [our team is] going to do will be that second and third step to actually make it better and longer lasting.” 

It’s too soon to draw any conclusions from the new F/BF course, Quinn said. To an extent, the same is true for the new Undergraduate Pilot Training. Officials say they haven’t seen any dropoff in performance, but Quinn said it will take several years to understand the results of the change fully.  

“I would say to get a full assessment, probably five years,” he said. “And that gives enough time for that initial cadre and a couple of other cadres that graduated that way to get not only through their formal training unit, but to get into their [operations] unit. Because we will do graduation surveys. The formal training unit does a graduation survey. Then a year later, we reach out to the gaining operations unit to say, ‘Hey, how are these folks doing?’” 

But the syllabus does not need to be frozen in place until then. 

“We can make immediate changes,” said Quinn. “I’m not saying we’re going to wait five years to make an adjustment. So as soon as we see things that we can do better. I don’t want to just say hey, this is the syllabus, we’re not going to touch it again.” 

Minihan: Connectivity Is The ‘Single Best Investment’ For a Better Mobility Fleet

Minihan: Connectivity Is The ‘Single Best Investment’ For a Better Mobility Fleet

Sept. 10, 2023 | By David Roza

Coming off of a massive exercise over the Pacific Ocean this summer, Gen, Mike Minihan, head of Air Mobility Command, says improving the connectivity between mobility air and ground crews is the best investment the Air Force can make for preparing the enterprise to operate across the vast reaches of the Pacific.

Connectivity in the mobility world usually involves a line-of-sight radio, Minihan told Air & Space Forces Magazine in a recent interview. But modern crews will need a variety of tools including radios, satellites and LINc-type devices so that Airmen can communicate within and beyond line-of-sight, relay both classified and unclassified information, and have layers of redundancy should one or more tools fail.

“The first and largest contribution [connectivity] has is to survivability,” Minihan said. “When I can understand exactly where the blue [friendly] forces are and exactly where the red forces are, and I don’t have to transmit to understand that lay-down, then mobility will have the ability to, one, operate in a higher-contested environment, and, two, support the joint team so that they can operate in a higher-contested environment.”

mobility
U.S. Air Force Maj. Michael Bakke from the 621st Mobility Support Operations Squadron, Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, New Jersey, prepares as a Japanese C-130 lands on Baker Landing Zone in Tinian, U.S. Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas, July 12, 2023. Courtesy Photo

Mobility Airmen are already experimenting with a few gadgets that could enable connectivity with minimal changes to the fleet. The Utah Air National Guard flies a KC-135 refueling tanker equipped with datalink and beyond-line-of-sight communication technologies that make up its “real-time information in the cockpit” (RTIC) system, which displays threats, target data and the locations of allies on a display on the flight deck.

“For years, I have relied on AWACS or receiver aircraft, a grease pencil, and a laminated chart to build a real-time combat picture,” Lt. Col. Jeff Gould, a Utah Guardsman, said in a 2021 press release about the system. “With RTIC, my ability to gain situational awareness is near instantaneous and much more accurate.”

Minihan stressed that RTIC technologies must be easy to install onto existing aircraft “without having to take the airplane completely apart … so roll-on, roll-off,” he said. “Take advantage of systems that already exist, and instantly improve the connectivity of the entire mobility fleet.”

The general’s goal is to connect 25 percent of the fleet by 2025. He also wants to better connect his ground elements: the air operations centers, air mobility operations wings, and contingency response groups which command and control, maintain aircraft, move cargo, and open airfields downrange.

“I want to make an aggressive move here, because I believe this is value that exists,” Minihan said.

Funding is the main obstacle. Air Mobility Command estimates the effort will cost about $500 million and “will take aggressive approaches in the near term to get there, such as implementing a Commander’s withhold and re-prioritizing end-of-year purchases to the max extent possible,” a spokesperson said in a statement sent to Air & Space Forces Magazine. “The Command also acknowledges it’ll need external help, such as rapid contracting and aircraft modification capacity.”

Minihan said he hopes to convey “a deep and deliberate message when it comes to the importance of this connectivity and showing the value to the joint team. Showing the value to both the deterrence lens and also the ‘win-decisively’ lens is going to be key to that funding.”

U.S. Air Force Tech. Sgt. Justin Shepherd-Helm, 61st Airlift Squadron loadmaster, watches from the ramp of a U.S. C-130J Super Hercules during a coalition air drop for exercise Mobility Guardian 23, July 12, 2023, over Rota Island. U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Christian Sullivan

Minihan’s call for connectivity complements Combined Joint All-Domain Command and Control, the Pentagon’s sweeping plan to connect sensors and shooters across the globe. The network will necessarily require a broad range of devices and investments, Air Force officials have said.

Better connectivity could also help Air Mobility Command shore up three key areas for improvement which Minihan identified in Mobility Guardian 2023, the massive exercise in which 70 aircraft, 3,000 personnel and several international partners practiced moving troops and supplies across the Pacific for two weeks:

  • Command and control
  • Command relationships
  • “Exploding into theater”

Besides the connection to successful command and control, connectivity also contributes to command relationships, Minihan said, highlighting unity of effort as the “magic” behind successful operations, particularly in a wide conflict where mobility Airmen will likely serve multiple commanders and priorities.

During Mobility Guardian, Minihan said he noticed a lack of unity when two C-17s from two different units landed at the same airfield at the same time. While each crew was executing a mission as tasked, there could have been better coordination between the two Air Operations Centers overseeing them. Having both C-17s on the ground at the same time could expose the jets to greater risk from enemy fire, especially at smaller airfields where maintenance, fueling, loading and unloading can take a while, Minihan said.

“We create efficiency as well as effectiveness when we have unity of effort,” he said.

‘Exploding into theater’ involves quickly getting Airmen into place to serve the joint force in an unfamiliar environment. Minihan wants his troops to “understand the urgency for which they need to get into theater,” he said.

Lean Operations and Commitment to Service Make King Aerospace a Trusted Government Partner

Lean Operations and Commitment to Service Make King Aerospace a Trusted Government Partner

Sept. 9, 2023

With procurement contracts and practices under the microscope in the media and before Congress, companies supporting the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) and other government agencies must remain mindful of the need to offer the best possible value. 

Lean management, straightforward lines of communication and a commitment to God, Country and Family ensure that King Aerospace capably fulfills this important and privileged mission.

“We work diligently to provide the best possible solution for our government customer at the best value for the government and for the taxpayer,” said Mike Riley, company contracts manager. “That is how we approach every contract because, after all, we are all taxpayers, too.”

Brian Sinkule, chief financial officer, is a 30-year industry veteran and very familiar with the nuances of government procurement contracts. He noted that, although DoD maintains compliance requirements for all approved contractors to help keep costs in check, most large companies simply have “a lot of bureaucracy built into their processes.

“With a smaller company like King Aerospace, the government avoids paying for the layers upon layers of management that are common at larger entities,” he said. “We maintain a lean cost structure that really does provide the best value to our government customers.”

This commitment extends far beyond numbers on a spreadsheet. For King Aerospace Chairman and Founder Jerry King, the privilege to serve the country in this capacity is very personal.

“I am forever grateful to the U.S. Air Force, in particular, because had it not been for the Air Force there wouldn’t be a King Aerospace today,” he said. “Throughout our company, we share a similar commitment to protect and defend our beautiful country as those serving, and who have served, in our armed forces.”

In fact, more than 33% of King Aerospace team members have served in the military, and that is by design. “We want people with that same team spirit and sense of patriotism to come work for our company, earn their King Aerospace wings and continue their commitment to service,” King added.

Family-owned and “built differently”

Of course, practically every smaller company also wants to become a larger company, and King Aerospace is no exception. For more than 30 years, however, the family-owned company has successfully maintained a leaner operational model even as it, too, has expanded its footprint and services. 

“It comes down to growing your cost structure at a lower level than your revenue stream,” Sinkule added. “When King Aerospace bids for a new contract, I don’t need to cover the costs for dozens of company executives. We are able to still grow as a company and grow our capabilities without raising those costs.”

While additional staff may be needed to execute a contract responsibly and effectively, “that usually doesn’t require another executive,” noted Riley, who served as a U.S. Air Force procurement officer before joining King Aerospace in 2015. “That enables us to be more responsive, less bureaucratic and less costly.”

Companies must also resist “mission creep” and adding costs as work on a contract progresses. “Other companies may also look [at government contracts] for opportunities to add costs down the line,” Riley continued. “There are lots of times when a contractor may come back and say, ‘we bid to do A-B-C, but you really want A-B-C-D.’ 

“King Aerospace does not overstep like that,” he emphasized. “We are up front about exactly what we determine will be necessary to fulfill our government customer’s requirements.

“We’re built differently than most of our competitors,” he continued. “We’re staffed differently, and we execute differently. We’re more responsive and less costly. And, I truly believe – I know – that our government customers appreciate that very, very much.”

Serving our customers, not just the bottom line

Of course, value extends far beyond cost considerations to other metrics, including the ability to perform quality work, on time and to the customer’s complete satisfaction. By definition, leaner operations also require fewer layers of communication.

“It might take weeks for a request to pass through all the channels at larger organizations,” Riley says. “Our customers know that if they have a question or concern, they can simply give me a call and have an answer immediately.”

A strong company ethos, commitment to Servant Leadership and adherence to its Cornerstone Principles all guide King Aerospace’s relationship with the government. Sinkule, a longtime finance expert who “is always worried about the bottom line,” admitted he must still occasionally adjust his thinking a bit.

“It actually creates a little bit of conflict sometimes between Mr. King and me, but it’s a healthy conflict,” he chuckled. “I try to move him more my way and he tries to keep me more his way, opening my eyes to the fact there’s more to business than that ‘bottom line’ way of thinking.”

“He truly has a different mission in life,” he concluded, “and that takes some getting used to for a CFO. Most of us usually don’t get to live in that kind of world.”

Learn more about King Aerospace.

Still ‘In the Beginnings’ of Nuclear Modernization, STRATCOM Has Low Margin for Delay

Still ‘In the Beginnings’ of Nuclear Modernization, STRATCOM Has Low Margin for Delay

Sept. 8, 2023 | By Chris Gordon

OFFUTT AIR FORCE BASE, Neb.—At U.S. Strategic Command’s headquarters here 10 miles outside Omaha, a B-2 Spirit stealth bomber appeared in the skies in late August. A few minutes later, STRATCOM’s commander, Air Force Gen. Anthony J. Cotton, joked he had to apologize to the mayor of nearby Bellevue every time the flying wing B-2 made an appearance because of all the fender-benders from gawking residents.

While the B-2 still elicits awe from the general public, the Spirit is already due to be replaced by the B-21 Raider, which is scheduled to fly for the first time later this year.

The B-21 is just one part of the triad of air, land, and underwater nuclear forces being modernized simultaneously. Also in line is the Sentinel intercontinental ballistic missile, originally targeted for 2030 but now likely delayed due to manufacturing issues. Meanwhile, the U.S.’s chronic shipbuilding issues also pose hurdles for keeping the Columbia-class nuclear ballistic missile submarine program on track.

And STRATCOM officials are quick to point out yet another element due to come online in the coming years: a modernized airborne Survivable Airborne Operations Center command and control aircraft that will replace the half-century-old E-4B Nightwatch “Doomsday Plane.”

”I think we as a nation understand that it’s not a ‘Should we?’” Cotton said when asked by Air & Space Forces Magazine about the development and price tag of those programs. “It’s a ‘We must.’”

Senior Airman Erskine Jones, a member of the 595th Command and Control group, ensures cooling and heating systems are functioning properly for all the communication assets aboard the E-4B “Nightwatch” aircraft during at Lincoln Airport, NE on April 26, 2022. U.S Air Force photo by Senior Airman Reilly McGuire

President Joe Biden pledged during his campaign for president to reduce the role of nuclear weapons in U.S. defense policy, but he is also committed to modernizing the nuclear triad, as is reflected in the Pentagon’s 2022 Nuclear Posture Review. 

That Pentagon review made clear that the U.S. will, for the first time, confront a world in which it will have to deal with two nuclear peers. The New START treaty the U.S. has with Moscow, which limits each side to 1,550 strategic nuclear warheads, is set to expire in February 2026. No new arms control talks with Russia are underway.

China, which has so far shut the door on arms control talks, is projected to have about 1,500 nuclear warheads by 2035 if it continues at its current pace, the Pentagon says. 

Still other threats exist. North Korea’s steadfast commitment to developing its missile and nuclear program has also prompted Washington to publicly reaffirm its commitment to extended deterrence—covering nations under its nuclear umbrella—to South Korea and Japan.

Some experts put the cost of all the U.S. nuclear modernization programs at more than $1 trillion. The Government Accountably Office has called all that modernization “an extraordinarily complex job that requires significant resources”—over $600 billion through 2030.

Yet the military says the modernization is long overdue.   

“What the United States of America has right now is a credible deterrent,” said Cotton. But, he asked rhetorically, “For how much longer?”

The U.S. wants to build a new fleet of 12 Columbia-class boats—estimated to cost roughly $10 billion a ship—400 Sentinels to replace the Minuteman III, and at least 100 B-21 stealth bombers, with the first of them still yet to fly.

A looming question, which the Biden administration has yet to answer, is whether the U.S. will need to expand its strategic nuclear arsenal beyond 1,550 warheads to respond to the Russian and Chinese nuclear programs. 

The nuclear modernization program’s “foundation” was largely planned for the world as it existed in 2010— when Russia had not yet invaded Ukraine and China seemed satisfied with a very modest nuclear deterrent, Robert Taylor, STRATCOM’s director of capability and resource integration, also known as the J8, told Air & Space Forces Magazine. 

“It’s a complex question and a complex answer,” said Taylor, who is in charge of developing and advocating for STRATCOM’s future forces, when asked if the command needed more forces or additional capabilities.

Some, including Cotton’s predecessor, Adm. Charles “Chas” Richard, have advocated for a lower yield, so-called “tactical” nuclear weapon such as the nuclear sea-launched cruise missile (SCLM-N), a program the Biden administration canceled. But Cotton has been less specific, saying the U.S. may need a low-yield, non-ballistic system to provide the president with more options. 

“Nuclear deterrence isn’t just a numbers game,” Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III said when  Cotton assumed command last December. “In fact, that sort of thinking can spur a dangerous arms race.”

U.S. Air Force General Anthony J. Cotton relieved U.S. Navy Adm. Charles “Chas” A. Richard as commander of U.S. Strategic Command (USSTRATCOM) during a ceremony at Offutt Air Force Base, Dec. 9, 2022. U.S. Strategic Command photo by Zachary Hada

While the debate over whether to increase the U.S. arsenal is still unsettled, the Pentagon first has to deliver on what’s already being planned—no easy task. STRATCOM is in a “low margin transition” to modernize, Taylor said.

“The difficult part of a discussion about how do you get to potentially new capabilities, different capabilities, or more capacity is significantly dependent on the defense industrial base,” he added. “If there are increased requirements for capacity—and this is something that the department is talking about, that capacity—it will be significantly difficult to deliver that inside the programs that exist today.”

While America’s shipbuilding remains a difficult problem to solve, the Air Force side of the equation is largely on track with the B-21 and Sentinel, STRATCOM officials say.

“The Air Force is doing amazing work trying to make all of this happen in a tough budget environment,” Taylor said.

But for all the optimism, the B-21 and the Sentinel have still yet to fly.

“I’d much rather be able to articulate to people that we’re at the end of our modernization instead of the beginning,” Cotton said. “Well, it is what it is. So we’re in the beginnings of our modernization program. But I’m comfortable with where we’re going.”

Outstanding Airmen of the Year: Senior Master Sgt. Sedrick Evans 

Outstanding Airmen of the Year: Senior Master Sgt. Sedrick Evans 

Sept. 8, 2023 | By Patrick Reardon

The Air Force’s 12 Outstanding Airmen of the Year for 2023 will be formally recognized at AFA’s Air, Space & Cyber Conference from Sept. 11-13 in National Harbor, Md. Air & Space Forces Magazine is highlighting one each weekday from now until the conference begins. Today, we honor Senior Master Sgt. Sedrick Evans, the Pacific Air Forces (PACAF) Enlisted International Affairs Manager at Headquarters PACAF, A5/8 Directorate of Strategy, Plans, Programs, and Requirements.

Evans leads the Pacific Air Forces’ enlisted Air and Space Security Cooperation strategy—he finds funding and manpower to execute professional military education (PME), specialized training courses, and integrated exercises designed to improve allied enlisted forces for 36 nations around the world.

Before Evans undertook this duty with PACAF, there was no official agreement between the senior enlisted leaders of Indo-Pacific nations that indicated a commitment to PME. To solidify PACAF’s commitment to a collaborative coalition and increase the opportunities for cross-nation PME, Evans wrote an enlisted charter at the Pacific Air Chiefs Symposium 2021. The charter was agreed upon by the senior enlisted leaders of 13 different nations.

Following its passage, Evans secured $20,000 in funding to send two language-enabled Airmen to attend Taiwan’s Senior NCO Academy for the first time in U.S.-Taiwan history. The initiative was a two-year effort that Evans realized in 2022 by coordinating with the Tawain Air Force’s senior enlisted leadership, sourcing the funding, and identifying the Airmen for the job.

Senior Master Sgt. Sedrick Evans, Pacific Air Forces International Enlisted Engagements Manager. Master Sgt. Gena Armstrong

“They were [able] to share common practices, best practices, and cultural differences and commonalities between the two air forces to help educate [and] inform them on how we develop PME,” Evans said. “We were able to give them some feedback on ways ahead, and things that we would be interested in maybe leveraging [for] future professional military education initiatives.”

Evans was also selected by the Institute of Security Governance (ISG), a subsidiary of the Defense Security Cooperation University, to attend Sri Lanka’s National Defense Conference. The ISG had found that Sri Lankan Airmen lacked motivation to attend NCO Management School, so Evans sat on a panel called “The Impact of the NCO” alongside eight other DOD representatives. Evans was able to share his unique perspective as an enlisted Airman to 147 enlisted service members at the conference.

“It was an open forum for them to ask as many questions as they could think of, to look at motivation, retainment, and their ability to excel,” Evans said. “They had questions on service commitment: ‘What motivates you?’ ‘What incentivizes you to continue to excel?’ ‘Why do you continue to serve?’ And, ‘What type of education opportunities [do] you have to grow within your Air Force?’”

Evans designed yet another international PME event in 2022, the first-ever professional military education exchange in Philippines Air Force history. He established a two-week leadership development course for 40 sergeant majors taught by two Senior NCO Academy instructors. 

“What they liked about it was their ability to get up. A lot of the modules and lessons require them to actually act, be vulnerable, lead, and give their leadership manifesto. Things that are uncommon to them, versus death by PowerPoint or just a lecture,” Evans said. “In this forum, they were able to actually get up and showcase their capability and their capacity to be leaders at their levels.”

Senior Master Sgt. Sedrick Evans. USAF.

Evans said he enjoys leading PME initiatives for enlisted service members, but it’s a job that comes with great responsibility, especially when working with international partners with different cultural norms. He said the key to teaching true leadership is leading by example.

“Whatever culture you want to create, you have to be an example of that culture,” Evans said. “We really go in there and understand their culture, their common practices, and then try to adjust to their culture—a lot of them do not have a lot of power like our enlisted do, so we focus a lot on NCO empowerment, so they can lead at their levels.”

When he considered the leaders in his own life who have served as examples to him, Evans nameed Chief Master Sgt. Dave Wolfe, the PACAF Command Chief, who has been a mentor for nearly a decade.

“The most powerful feedback he gave me [was] when I asked him, ‘What is one thing I can do to be better?’ back when I was a tech sergeant in 2016. He said, ‘Read more.’ That’s it … And so that’s been something that I kind of took to heart, to really start reading more,” Evans said.

Evans added that his success—and now his recognition as an Outstanding Airman of the Year for 2023—is a culmination of all the positive people he has surrounded himself with throughout his career.

“I can attribute my success to my three groups of people who have always supported me,” Evans said. “My mentors, such as Chief Wolfe; my teammates, such as Senior Master Sgt. Sarah Buckley, who drives this portfolio with me; and last and especially not least, my family: my wife and three kids, who have always supported me and made it possible for me to actually go out into the field in the AOR and do the things that we were able to accomplish last year.”

Meet the other Outstanding Airmen of the Year for 2023 below: