Unique F-15E Paint Job Pays Tribute to WW2 Aviation

Unique F-15E Paint Job Pays Tribute to WW2 Aviation

May 19, 2023 | By Greg Hadley

Eagle-eyed World War II buffs at the Wings over Wayne airshow in North Carolina this weekend will be challenged to catch all the historical references adorning the 4th Fighter Wing’s F-15E flagship jet. 

From nose to the tail, the F-15E Strike Eagle’s heritage paint job offers tribute to the wing’s historic lineage, which traces back to the 4th Fighter Group in World War II. Now based at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, N.C., the wing highlighted the jet’s new look in a recent Facebook post.

Perhaps most striking: A portrait on the inside face of the right tail depicting renowned Ace Col. Donald Blakeslee, believed by many to have flown more missions and hours in World War II than any other American fighter pilot and credited with 17 aerial victories. Blakeslee scored the first air-to-air kill in a P-47 Thunderbolt and flew escort on the first bombing mission over Berlin. Under his command, the 4th Fighter Group destroyed more than 1,000 German aircraft. 

On the outside of the left tail, just above the tail code, the jet sports the Royal Air Force Eagle Squadrons emblem, recognizing the American volunteers who flew those planes in the early days of WWII before the U.S. entered the war. Those squadrons eventually became the 334th, 335th, and 336th Fighter Squadrons of the 4th Fighter Group. 

Other historic references in the paint scheme include a flaming spear meant to represent “the performance of the 4th Fighter Group in WWII and how the 4th Fighter Wing currently serves as the ‘tip of the spear’ for the United States Air Force,” a wing spokesperson told Air & Space Forces Magazine. 

Just below the cockpit is the blue and yellow National Star Insignia used by the 4th Fighter Group during the war. And near the nose, a cartoon “fighting eagle” that appeared on the planes of historic Aces William Dunn and Don Gentile 

“Invasion Stripes”—alternating black and white stripes—dress up the wing tops as they did on 4th Fighter Group aircraft during World War II and the Korean War.  

Finally, its green and gray camouflage pattern pays homage to the group’s Supermarine Spitfires, which flew from September 1942 to March 1943. 

It took more than a month for the 4th Equipment Maintenance Squadron to complete the elaborate paint scheme, which made its debut April 25.  

Four other flagships—for the 333rd, 334th, 335th, and 336th Fighter Squadrons—each with their own references and homages, will also be on display at Wings over Wayne. The airshow is open to the public on Seymour Johnson May 20-21. 

USAF’s New ICBM Cancer Study to Examine ‘Everyone Possible’

USAF’s New ICBM Cancer Study to Examine ‘Everyone Possible’

May 18, 2023 | By Chris Gordon

The Air Force is pressing to find out why some Airmen and former Airmen who worked wth the nation’s intercontinental continental ballistic missile fleet are being diagnosed with blood cancer—years after the service dismissed such concerns in the early 2000s.

A new Missile Community Cancer Study launched earlier this year aims to “make sure we get to the truth, whatever that truth is,” said Col. Robert D. Peltzer, a senior medical officer with Air Force Global Strike Command.

Air Force reviews of cancer rates among missileers in 2001 and 2005 could not identify an increased rate linked to missile service, but new medical knowledge has emerged since, Peltzer said. Doctors have “a better understanding” of factors that can cause cancer today.

“Look at [the herbicide] Roundup being one of those,” Peltzer said. “Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma is the No. 1 cancer on the list when you look at it. We didn’t know [Roundup] caused those types of cancers back in 2001.”

Armed with greater knowledge and detection capability, the Air Force will also have better access to highly classified ICBM facilities and the health data for a broader range of personnel, including both those working in underground bunkers for 24-48 hours at a time.

Peltzer said maintainers, security forces, and food service workers—among others—will also be in the new study, not just those who worked in launch facilities. Members of the study team, which is led by the U.S. Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine, visited bases to better understand the facilities and potential exposure issues.

“We want to make sure we didn’t miss out or exclude groups that actually are just as much—or potentially as much—at risk, or more at risk, than those members,” Peltzer said. The research team is made up of experts experienced in conducting cancer studies, including one that showed increased risks of cancer among pilots in recent years. That study led to a broader Pentagon review that validated the Air Force study’s conclusions.

“This is the same team and through that they learned which data sources and what they could get and how long it took them to get it,” Peltzer said.

But to conduct a study, Air Force medical officials said, they first have to know what an ICBM base is and what ICBM forces do—from an “operational, occupational, and environmental” perspective.

Col. Tory W. Woodard, commander of the USAF School of Aerospace Medicine, told Air & Space Forces Magazine that seeing the bases was a new experience for the research team. “Many of the medical experts had not previously been to a missile base or been in the operational locations where the missileers work,” Woodward said. “This visit was extremely important in order to inform the future cancer studies.”

Woodard was on the team that visited three ICBM bases— F.E. Warren Air Force Base, Wyo.; Minot Air Force Base, N.D.; and Malmstrom Air Force Base, Mont. The visit took place from Feb. 27 to March 7 and included his staff, members of the AFGSC Command Surgeon’s office, and experts from the Defense Health Agency.

“The team did not see any acute risks that needed immediate attention,” Peltzer said.

But Peltzer said there was no intention to dismiss cancer risks as they reviewed the facilities and flagged other possible medical concerns, such as running vehicles too close to air vents, burning documents indoors, or signage that indicated the presence of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), which have long been banned and should have been removed. Whether the signs were left behind after the PCBs were removed years ago is not clear. To locate traces of PCBs and a long list of other possibly toxic substances will require extensive sample testing, according to AFGSC.

ICBM facilities are often surrounded by private land where agricultural products may have been used without regard to the potential effect on missileers working nearby. The next-generation Sentinel ICBMs that will eventually replace today’s 50-year-old Minuteman III ICBMs will likely also be safer, given modern understanding. But an AFGSC official noted that even new missiles will have their own hazards.

Air Force officials said these first visits were not intended to draw definitive conclusions.

“It’s not the epidemiology study, so it wasn’t looking at cancer-related items,” Peltzer said. “That will be done later through the actual study itself.”

Interest and focused attention on the issue comes only after long-held concerns among some members of the missileer community pushed to the fore earlier this year, following a presentation detailing cases of Non-Hodgkin lymphoma at Malmstrom by a Guardian who formerly served there. His Powerpoint slides later surfaced on Facebook, prompting AFGSC Commander Gen. Thomas A. Bussiere to call for and launch the study in February.

Bussiere, Woodard, and AFGSC Command Surgeon Col. Lee D. Williames briefed members of the ICBM community at a recent virtual hall, Air Force officials said. Bussiere directed his staff to explore the idea of assigning medical professionals directly to ICBM units, modeled on how flight surgeons support flying crews. Because of the remote and classified nature of ICBM work, that could yield more real-time access to sensitive areas.

While the study is inspecting the three current active bases, which have ICBMs spread out over five states, the service is going through military, federal, and state cancer registries. The study will then have to match that data with service personnel files. That is not a straightforward process as the Air Force has changed job titles over time. The study is expected to take 12-14 months from start to finish, according to Woodard. The time is largely due to the amount of data that needs to be collected and analyzed, Peltzer explained.

“They will look at everyone possible,” Peltzer said.

A number of since-shuttered bases will also be examined as the service reaches back four decades in its data gathering process. Only the on-site work is limited to those three-active bases.

Peltzer said researchers will use Air Force Specialty Codes, bases, and timelines. “We know them all and all locations that were active since 1983,” he said. “Those members will be captured into this data study because that seems to be a great concern, especially of those who are retirees or former retirees if they’ve already passed away.”

Former and current service members have expressed skepticism over previous Air Force health studies, criticizing them for leaving the Air Force to study itself. The new study leverages epidemiologists from the Veterans Administration and the National Cancer Institute to monitor the study and provide feedback.

“There’s going to be outside entities,” Peltzer said. They “will give us a fair and objective look at what we’re doing to make sure we’re aboveboard.”

Now: Medals and Promotions for Airmen, Guardians Who Refer Recruits

Now: Medals and Promotions for Airmen, Guardians Who Refer Recruits

May 18, 2023 | By Greg Hadley

Looking to close a huge projected recruiting shortfall, the Air Force is dangling medals and promotions as an incentive for Airmen of all stripes who do some recruiting on their own.  

The Stellar Talent Acquisition Recruiting Referral program will award an Air and Space Achievement Medal to any enlisted Airman or Guardian up to senior master sergeant and any officer up to lieutenant colonel for referring a recruit who departs for basic training. 

Three referrals will score them a second medal. And any enlisted service member or officer up to colonel who refers five recruits will earn an Air and Space Commendation Medal. 

There’s more. The Stripes for Referrals program targets the Air and Space Forces’ most junior members, E-1s. An Airman Basic who refer two enlisted candidates can be promoted to Airman in the Air Force, or Specialist 2 in the Space Force. Refer four candidates “who join the Delayed Entry Program or Delayed Entry Training” and they can jump straight to E-3—Airman First Class or Specialist 3. 

To get credit for referrals, participants must use the Aim High recruiting app, specifically the “Refer a Friend” information fields. 

Both programs were formulated as part of the Department of the Air Force’s Barriers to Service Cross-Functional Team, championed by Air Force Vice Chief of Staff Gen. David W. Allvin. The team has now pushed several policy changes aimed at boosting recruitment and retention. 

While the Space Force continues to receive more applicants than it has jobs to fill, the Air Force is struggling to meet its fiscal 2023 goals, making 2024 look like it’s going to be just as hard. Officials blame declining eligibility among young people, low civilian unemployment, and perceptions of an overly politicized military. Lingering effects of the pandemic, the long wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and declining faith in the military have also been cited as factors.  

Air Force leaders anticipate missing recruiting targets by 10 percent this year for the Active force, and by even more in the Guard and Reserve. 

Other initiatives pushed by Allvin’s cross-functional team include restoring programs to help repay college loans for enlisted members and speeding up the citizen naturalization process for new recruits at Basic Military Training.  

The Air Force Recruiting Service is trying to expand its universe, plotting an ambitious new marketing campaign focused on women in sports, as well as paid partnerships with influencers on social media. And turning its non-recruiter Airmen, the Air Force launched its We Are All Recruiters program, which grants permissive TDY status to Airmen who agree to participate in recruiting events. 

B-2 ‘Safety Pause’ Lifted, Flights Set to Resume Within Days

B-2 ‘Safety Pause’ Lifted, Flights Set to Resume Within Days

May 18, 2023 | By Chris Gordon

The B-2 Spirit is returning to the skies, Air Force officials told Air & Space Forces Magazine. The first aircraft is projected to take off May 22 after a break in flying operations due to a safety pause.

The return to flight was recently approved by Air Force Global Strike Command boss Gen. Thomas A. Bussiere, after a roughly six-month safety pause following a mishap in December.

“The B-2 fleet safety pause is officially lifted,” Maj. Gen. Andrew J. Gebara, commander of the 8th Air Force, which controls the nation’s strategic bomber fleet, told Air & Space Forces Magazine. “Gen. Bussiere, at my recommendation, made a final determination on the necessary actions taken and approved a return to flight.”

Gebara and other Air Force officials declined to say what the safety issue was or what was done that allowed the service to resume flight operations.

“I wish that the safety pause was not necessary,” Gebara said. “But I think that it was really important that we find out what happened and make sure that was all mitigated before you start flying again, and that’s what we did.”

Gebara said there would not be onerous restrictions on missions.

“I want them to come back in a disciplined, deliberate manner,” Gebara said. “But we will do full operational missions. So you’re not going to see one loop around and land kind of sorties. It’ll be a normal sortie. I actually am not concerned at all about the mission aspects of the force.”

He said there would be a “phased approach” as the fleet returns to flight, with the most experienced pilots getting in the seat first and “several weeks to get the entire community back up to speed.”

But Gebara added a cautionary note to America’s adversaries: “That is distinct, though, from having enough pilots for whatever mission is required if there was a crisis.”

The Air Force declined to reveal the exact cause of the mishap, which temporarily blocked the lone runway at Whiteman Air Force Base, Mo. The service also declined to detail what actions were taken to lift the safety pause. The pause began in late December after a B-2 was damaged after an emergency landing December 10 at Whiteman—the only base to host combat B-2s, assigned to the 509th Bomb Wing and its Air National Guard associate, the 131st Bomb Wing.

Bussiere, a B-2 pilot and the former 509th Bomb Wing commander, took over AFGSC just days before the mishap.

Air Force officials said the aircraft remained ready to execute missions if needed, serving a critical role as the nation’s only stealth nuclear-capable bomber in service.

“The B-2 fleet could still fly missions if so required,” Gebara said. “Our ability to provide nuclear deterrence never stopped.”

B-2 pilots spent time during the safety pause in the advanced simulators at Whiteman and increased repetitions in T-38 trainers. Only 21 B-2s were produced, costing over $1 billion per plane, according to the Air Force. One was destroyed in a crash in 2008. Nineteen of the current airframes are at Whiteman—one of which is a test aircraft normally based at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. One combat B-2 has been parked at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii, which shares runways with Daniel K. Inouye International Airport in Honolulu after the safety pause went into effect while the aircraft was at the base. 

It is unclear what will happen to the B-2 damaged in December. The entire B-2 fleet will eventually be replaced by the B-21 Raider, which like the Spirit, is a stealthy flying wing produced by Northrop Grumman. The first B-21 is scheduled to fly later this year.

Air Force Global Strike Command has been conducting regular maintenance of all B-2s, and officials from the 509th Bomb Wing and Gebara said the stealth low-observable coating, which is critical for the B-2’s nuclear mission, was well taken care of.

“The way that the B-2 is we have a stair step approach to low observable maintenance,” Gebara said. “So a certain number of B-2s are fully low-observable ready to go.”

Despite a pause in operations, Gebara said America’s nuclear deterrence was not undermined.

“It’s hard to get inside the head of another country and figure out what they feel,” Gebara said. “I think it would not have been wise for them to doubt our deterrence, and I’m reasonably confident they don’t.”

In Secret Solicitation, Air Force Starts Bidding for NGAD to Replace F-22

In Secret Solicitation, Air Force Starts Bidding for NGAD to Replace F-22

May 18, 2023 | By Greg Hadley and John A. Tirpak

The Air Force kicked off the process for selecting the contractor for its Next Generation Air Dominance fighter on May 18, releasing a classified solicitation to industry for Engineering and Manufacturing Development. 

In a release, the service said it hopes to award a contract by 2024. 

The NGAD is the Air Force’s ultra-stealthy and highly classified successor to the F-22 Raptor, which the service has said it must retire by around 2030 because its capabilities will be overcome by systems fielded by China and potentially other global competitors.

Details of the solicitation are classified for the secretive NGAD program. But the Air Force noted in its release that the solicitation defines expected requirements for the aircraft, which is intended as the world’s first sixth-generation fighter and the centerpiece of a planned “family of systems” that are one of Secretary Frank Kendall’s seven operational imperatives. 

A service spokeswoman said the Air Force is “soliciting for an integrated weapon system,” and could not elaborate on the EMD statement as the program is “now in source selection.”

Typically, for a program of NGAD’s magnitude, there is a 60-90 day period in which offerors can ask questions about a draft request for proposals, followed by a similar period in which to respond to a final RFP, and then several months for source selection to be made, so late 2024 is a likely award timeframe. However, the NGAD may not follow a typical acquisition pattern.

“The NGAD platform is a vital element of the Air Dominance Family of Systems which represents a generational leap in technology over the F-22, which it will replace,” Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall said in a statement. “NGAD will include attributes such as enhanced lethality and the abilities to survive, persist, interoperate, and adapt in the air domain, all within highly-contested operational environments. No one does this better than the U.S. Air Force, but we will lose that edge if we don’t move forward now.” 

The Air Force release noted NGAD will perform counter-air missions and be able to strike ground targets, confirming 2021 comments by Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown, that the platform would also have “some” ground attack capabilities to provide theater commanders with options. The release also seemingly suggested the aircraft will have a Suppression/Destruction of Enemy Air Defenses (SEAD/DEAD) mission as well.

From an acquisition standpoint, the NGAD program strategy seeks to stimulate and broaden the defense industrial base, the Air Force said, requiring an open architecture to encourage future competition for upgrades and “drastically [reducing] maintenance and sustainment costs.”

Past programs have incentivized contractors to lower up-front costs while seeking to make up for narrow margins there with long-term sustainment revenue. Maintenance costs have been a major concern with the F-35, for example. 

The likely competitors include are not hard to guess. Last August, the Air Force awarded contracts to airplane builders Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman—in addition to engine-makers Pratt & Whitney and GE Aerospace—for the prototyping phase of its Next Generation Adaptive Propulsion engine program, which will power the future NGAD. Experts speculated then that their inclusion pointed to the importance of integrating engine and airframe designs. 

In June 2022, Kendall said NGAD had entered the engineering and manufacturing development phase, though he later clarified the program remained a competition.

The Air Force typically does not enter into an EMD phase until it has conducted a competitive prototyping phase. Former Air Force acquisition executive Will Roper revealed in September 2020 that at least one NGAD prototype had already flown and “set records,” though he did not say what they may have been. Other Air Force and industry officials have said privately that NGAD has progressed past the Preliminary Design Review phase with at least two companies.

The service could not immediately say if the solicitation is open to only those companies who may have competed in the prototyping phase—and how many might be in that group—or whether the solicitation is truly open to any comers.

Competition for the program is likely to be fierce—Kendall has said the aircraft will cost “multiple hundreds of millions of dollars” per tail, several times the $80 million-per-copy cost of the Air Force’s F-35A. The exact size of the planned fleet is unknown, but Kendall has suggested a notional figure of 200 airframes. Senior Air Force leaders have also hinted that NGAD may come in at least two variants—one shorter-range model intended for the European theater, and one optimized for the longer distances required to operate in the Pacific theater.

At one point, led by Roper, the Air Force planned building 50-100 examples of an NGAD and moving immediately to a next iteration or completely new aircraft, retaining each iteration only 8-12 years, then retiring it, the better to keep at the cutting edge of technology. But Kendall has seemingly poured cold water on that notion, saying the system is too complex for that quick a rhythm.

The Air Force’s 2024 budget proposal seeks $1.933 billion for research, development, test, and evaluation for NGAD, a figure that will only grow in the years ahead. USAF projects investments of $16.23 billion on RDT&E for NGAD over the next five years. That includes funding to develop uncrewed Collaborative Combat Aircraft that will will fly alongside the manned NGAD fighter. 

The solicitation issued this month is independent of any CCA development, the Air Force said in its May 18 release. 

USAF Looks to Fill Intelligence Gaps from Space

USAF Looks to Fill Intelligence Gaps from Space

May 17, 2023 | By Greg Hadley

As the Air Force plans to retire many of its aging intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance aircraft in the next few years, its looking to the Space Force and Intelligence Community to fill potential gaps and gain persistent coverage around the globe, the service’s top intelligence officer said May 17. 

USAF budget documents show plans to divest the entire fleet of E-8s, U-2s, and RQ-4s by fiscal 2027, with the E-3 AWACS fleet also slated to be cut significantly. Deputy chief of staff for ISR and cyber effects operations Lt. Gen. Leah G. Lauderback said the changes are necessary and unavoidable.

“I think that the Air Force has had a difficulty messaging this,” Lauderback said during one of AFA’s Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies Aerospace Nation events. “The truth is, [the divestitures] were backed up by a number of studies over the last number of years, that this is the right thing to do in order to get ready for a peer competitor.” 

Lauderback said the current ISR aircraft cannot survive in a conflict with China or Russia. But the fact that the divestments are happening without immediate replacements—at least publicly acknowledged ones—means there may be “small gaps” in ISR during the transition, officials have previously said and Lauderback confirmed.

“It’s not something that the Air Force is going to do by ourselves,” Lauderback said. “This is a team sport, and that team includes the intelligence community. We continue to have conversations with the intelligence community, primarily with the [National Reconnaissance Office], but also the combat support agencies, who are the functional managers for those capabilities.” 

The Air Force faces a short-term gap in capability at a crucial time when experts see China building capability with an eye toward a potential future invasion of Taiwan. 

“We all understand that we’re working in competition right now and then we’ve got to be prepared for conflict,” Lauderback said. “And none of us wants to have a gap. And so we’re going to address that as best as we can, … through Space Force as well as the intelligence community.” 

Space-based ISR will be pivotal in the years ahead, as new satellite technologies mature. “We’re going to have incredible amounts of sensors that are coming that are space-based and thus have a certain amount of resiliency, more resiliency or more survivability, certainly, than some of the airborne capabilities that [the Air Force is retiring],” said Lauderback. 

Satellites are also more persistent, able to stay on constant watch, something airborne platforms cannot do. When Lauderback was director of intelligence for Operation Inherent Resolve in the Middle East, the command lacked the ability to keep constant watch. “We didn’t have persistence to be able to chase ISIS around” with Joint STARS aircraft, she said. “The things that we had persistence with were [uncrewed] MQ-9s, Global Hawks would help us for sure. But in a permissive environment like that you can have that persistence. That persistence is very, very satisfying as a targeteer—somebody that wants to be able to track, in this case, ISIS maneuvering from one place to the next. We need to do that for peer competitors as well, for when or if we go into conflict, … before conflict even.” 

Of course, making all those connections and ensuring the Air Force and other branches have access to all the intelligence they need presents other challenges. Lauderback called for more table-top exercises for the Pentagon to help determine and inform what space-based ISR will look like in the coming years. 

But at the moment, she said she is encouraged by the Air Force’s conversations with the Space Force and Intelligence Community. 

“I would actually tell you that any space-based ISR—whether it’s owned by an intelligence agency today or if it is a DOD entity—you can use those things in tactical environments,” Lauderback said. “It’s just a matter of the scale that you can do, how long it is that you can use those in a tactical sense. So we certainly have experience using those in a tactical sense today and nothing that stops us from doing that in the future.” 

Lauderback’ has unique insight into how the Air Force and space-based ISR can work together, given her stints ‘s tour as the Space Force’s first deputy chief of space operations for intelligence and as U.S. Space Command’s director of intelligence give her particular insight into what space can do for the Air Force. And she’s hard at work trying to access whatever the IC can offer the military branches.  

“The space-based layer … does not necessarily [belong] to the Intelligence Community,” she said. “We’re in these conversations right now, the departments, both DNI and the DO. So we’ll see what comes out of that.” 

NORAD: Russian Warplane Flew Near US Airspace for Second Time in a Week

NORAD: Russian Warplane Flew Near US Airspace for Second Time in a Week

May 17, 2023 | By Chris Gordon

A Russian warplane flew off the coast of Alaska during a large U.S. military exercise May 15—the second time Moscow’s military has gotten close to U.S. airspace in less than a week, according to the U.S. military.

In a short statement, North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), said it detected and tracked a Russian aircraft in the Alaska Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) on May 15. In a departure from common practice, U.S. planes did not intercept the Russian aircraft, nor did NORAD disclose what type of aircraft Russia was operating. The ADIZ serves as a buffer zone in international airspace, extended past U.S. sovereign airspace.

A NORAD spokesperson declined to provide further details.

While Russia regularly flies in the ADIZ—NORAD says the number of flights is roughly six or seven per year—the latest incidents are notable in that they come during a large U.S.-led exercise, Northern Edge, occurring over Alaska and in waters off the coast. While the Russian aircraft did not present any risk to U.S. and allied forces or North American sovereign airspace, according to NORAD, they did necessitate monitoring.

“An ADIZ begins where sovereign airspace ends and is a defined stretch of international airspace that requires the ready identification, location, and control of all aircraft in the interest of national security,” NORAD said. “NORAD remains ready to employ a number of response options in defense of North America.”

Russia conducted a flight of six warplanes near Alaska on May 11, also during Northern Edge, which began May 4 and is scheduled to wrap up May 19. Thousands of U.S., U.K., and Australian troops are participating in the exercise, along with roughly 150 aircraft and five ships.

Northern Edge drills are “multi-domain operations designed to provide high-end, realistic warfighter training, develop and improve joint interoperability, and enhance the combat readiness of participating forces,” according to Pacific Air Forces. The exercise is taking place “in and over” the Joint Pacific Alaska Range Complex and the Gulf of Alaska.

NORAD did not disclose either of the two most recent incidents until days after they occurred. There have been at least four Russian flights in Alaskan ADIZ this year—none of them were seen as a threat, according to NORAD.

“According to U.S. Northern Command, Russian military aircraft have flown in our ADIZ during large-scale U.S. exercises on occasion, so the timing of this most recent activity is not something considered particularly out of the ordinary,” Pentagon Press Secretary Brig. Gen. Patrick S. Ryder said in a statement released May 15, the day the latest publicly known incident occurred but before it was disclosed.

Rolls-Royce Tests New B-52 Engines, Nacelles Before Early 2024 Critical Design Review

Rolls-Royce Tests New B-52 Engines, Nacelles Before Early 2024 Critical Design Review

May 17, 2023 | By John A. Tirpak

INDIANAPOLIS—Rolls-Royce is in the last few months of testing its F130-200 engines before a critical design review of the powerplants, which will equip the re-engined and upgraded B-52J, a company official said.

“We’re about one-third through” engine runs with F130-200 Nos. 1 and 2, F130 program manager Scott Ames said in a briefing at the company’s Indianapolis facilities where the powerplants will be assembled. The F130-200 critical design review is expected in January 2024, and Ames said Rolls-Royce sees no threat to passing the review.

Boeing, which built the B-52, is the overall integrator for the re-engining and upgrades, such as the radar, that will turn the Air Force’s 75 B-52Hs into B-52Js. Boeing and Rolls-Royce provided travel, lodging, and meals for reporters visiting the companies’ B-52 upgrade facilities.

The tests of the Rolls-Royce engines mark the first time two engines have been operated simultaneously on the same test stand, Ames said. The B-52 is unique in having two engines each in four pods under its wings, for a total of eight engines per aircraft.

The engines are being tested at NASA’s Stennis Space Center in Mississippi on a specialized test stand that allows a complete, two-engine pod to be operated under a variety of conditions. A giant wind fan tests the engines in simulated crosswinds of up to 50 knots from various directions, and a platform on a scissor lift in front of the engines can simulate operations at various heights above a runway.

Ames said Rolls-Royce is now on its seventh iteration of the pod design, in search of the best configuration under most conditions—as well as looking for unexpected interactions between the engines. So far, there have been no harmonic issues between the powerplants, nor has there been unexpected ingestion of gases from one to the other, Ames said.

What’s being explored is “how does the air coming into the engine nacelles … behave?” Ames said. “You don’t really see a lot of dual-pod configurations like this. So we want to make sure all our modeling matches … the physics of the situation.”

Three months into the tests with three more to go, Ames said “we’ve been able to operate both engines up to full power and all of the test data we’ve gotten back has been in line with what our models predicted. … It’s proven that we’ve got it right. And by the way, it matches what Boeing predicted as well. So that’s good, but it’s always good to do a physical test to back that up.”

To that point, Ames said, both Rolls-Royce and Boeing are “happy” with this latest pod design but are testing to “make double sure” it’s the right one.

After that, “we will run [a] similar test to this in a couple of years” on the final version, with all the equipment and auxiliary systems the aircraft and pod will have, he noted.

“We wanted to get the front end right now,” Ames said. “It was something we proposed to de-risk the overall program, because if you find that you’ve got to make some big change you want to know now and not three years from now.”

The F130-200 is a derivative of Rolls-Royce’s commercial BR725 engine, and will be manufactured from parts sourced from the same suppliers. It differs from the commercial version in the digital engine controls and connection of hydraulic and fuel lines, all of which are unique to the B-52 application, Ames said. The F130-200 factory will be patterned on the main BR725 production line in Germany but with improvements geared to the F130-200’s unique features.

Ames also noted the F130-200s are not “handed,” meaning they are not hard-wired to be on the left or right side of the nacelle, unlike the TF-33 engines now flying on the B-52. This will give the Air Force improved flexibility both at home and on deployments, he said.

With the TF33, due to its left- or right-side orientation, “you have to take extra spares on deployments,” he said. “With our engine, you don’t have to worry about that. So with the kit, you can change it from a left hand or right hand in about 90 minutes.”

Rolls-Royce tested that timeline with two veteran mechanics who did not have specific experience with the F130.

“We gave them a set of instructions and the kit of parts and said ‘Go convert this from one to the other,’” Ames said. “We videotaped it, and provided that to the Air Force. In about 90 minutes they were able to convert it over. We think it gives the Air Force a ton of flexibility.”

21 AMC Jets Line Up, Take Off from Travis to Cap Two-Week Exercise

21 AMC Jets Line Up, Take Off from Travis to Cap Two-Week Exercise

May 17, 2023 | By David Roza

A line of 21 C-5s, C-17s, and KC-10s rolled down the runway and into the skies over Travis Air Force Base, Calif. on May 12 in a “maximum aircraft generation event.”

The impressive display of airpower came on the final day of a nearly two-week exercise that saw Airmen, Marines, and Sailors practice moving people and cargo to locations in California and Nevada. Between the exercise and the large takeoff, nearly all of the aircraft at Travis were off the ground May 12, leaving the base, known as the “Gateway to the Pacific,” nearly empty.

“It was interesting to see our ramp pretty bare,” Capt. Ryan Huber, the chief of plans at the 60th Air Mobility Wing, told Air & Space Forces Magazine. Huber and his team had been working since the end of January to put together the exercise, which under other circumstances might take the better part of a year to plan out. 

“Caffeine was definitely a big help, a lot of long days,” he said. “But to be a part of the process from the beginning, where this was just an idea, all the way through execution was a pretty cool experience.”

Air Mobility Command, which oversees the tanker and transport jets such as the ones at Travis, is preparing to move troops and supplies over vast distances in a short amount of time should a conflict break out with a near-peer adversary such as China or Russia.

“AMC is the meaningful maneuver. There is too much water and too much distance for anyone else to do it relevantly at pace, at speed, at scale,” AMC boss Gen. Mike Minihan said last year. “Everybody’s role is critical, but Air Mobility Command is the maneuver for the joint force. If we don’t have our act together, nobody wins. Nobody’s lethal. Nobody’s in position.”

The exercise at Travis—which was really three separate but interconnected exercises—aimed to prepare Airmen for exactly that responsibility. Dubbed Exercise Golden Phoenix, it saw transport crews depart Travis and head south to Camp Pendleton, Calif., where they picked up more than 340 Marines and Sailors and their equipment, then distributed them to three smaller locations in California and Nevada as part of the 1 Marine Expeditionary Force’s Readiness Exercise (REDEX).

One of those locations was Fort Hunter-Liggett, situated about halfway between San Francisco and Los Angeles, where Airmen from the 921st Contingency Response Support Squadron (CRSS) and the 621st Contingency Response Wing had arrived earlier to prepare the dirt airstrip for large numbers of aircraft coming through as part of Exercise Storm Crow. Contingency response Airmen specialize in quickly turning austere airfields into thriving airpower hubs, a skill which may come in handy in the Pacific.

“Our largest success was demonstrating the ability to assess, open, and operate airfields in a contested environment with the help of our joint force partners,” Lt. Col. Timothy Kniefel, 921st CRSS commander, said in a press release. “This capability will be absolutely critical to the future fight, and we couldn’t have done it without the Marines, the 60th AMW, and the unwavering dedication of every single multi-capable CR member on the team.”

By ‘multi-capable,’ Knifel was referring to the Air Force concept of Airmen picking up skills outside of their usual job specialty, which could help the service set up operations without as many people or supplies. During the exercise, Huber said he saw civil engineering Airmen pull security, cyber communication Airmen help fix HVAC systems, and non-cargo-moving Airmen help transport supplies around the airfield. It was rewarding to see people step out of their normal job description and work together to accomplish the mission, he said.

After the contingency response Airmen set up initial operations at the dispersed airfields, Airmen from the 60th Air Mobility Wing moved in to practice taking over the long-term operation. 

“The expeditionary air base was tasked with taking over the base from contingency response (CR) forces in order to allow them to project the cluster farther forward,” Maj. Cal San Filippo, the expeditionary air base detachment commander, said in the press release. “We immediately integrated into the CR’s operating schedule and began manning shifts. The team wasted no time.”

Meanwhile, Airmen with the 60th Medical Group and the 60th Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron practiced transporting simulated casualties from deployed locations, and Airmen from the 60th Maintenance Group (MXG) made sure the aircraft could sustain moving 1.53 million pounds of cargo and more than 700 passengers over 12 days.

“They’ve been working 24 hours around the clock to produce the airlift needed for this exercise,” Lt. Col. Tom Reynolds, 60th MXG deputy commander, said in the press release. “They’ve done an incredible job and we’re incredibly proud.”

The final day was the maximum generation event, where 21 aircraft took off in rapid succession—a helpful tactic if an airfield must be evacuated quickly. It was the second-largest launch in Travis history, with the largest involving 22 aircraft in 2013.

As big and complicated as Exercise Golden Phoenix was, there will be an even larger Air Mobility Command training operation later this summer. Operation Mobility Guardian will take place over an area of more than 3,000 miles under U.S. Indo-Pacific Command’s jurisdiction and will involve at least 7 countries plus nearly every branch of the U.S. military. Minihan said in March the exercise will be a chance for his troops to “understand intimately what the tyranny of distance is and what the tyranny of water is.”

Part of the idea behind Exercise Golden Phoenix was to help prepare the 60th Air Mobility Wing for Mobility Guardian, Huber said.

“The whole machine is working that power projection: being able to move out our partners to go do their missions,” Huber explained.