NORAD Sends Fighter Patrols to Monitor Russian Military Flights in the Arctic

Jan. 30, 2025 | By Chris Gordon

U.S. Air Force F-35s and Royal Canadian Air Force CF-18s conducted combat air patrols in response to Russian military aircraft operating in the Arctic early this week, North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) said in a news release Jan. 30.

NORAD also said it sent two U.S. Air Force F-16s from Alaska to Greenland, “exercising its standard agreement with Greenland to forward posture NORAD presence in the Arctic.”

The Russian aircraft were operating in international airspace and did not enter the Alaskan or Canadian Air Defense Identification Zones or sovereign airspace, NORAD said in its release. The command did not identify the type of Russian planes, with a spokesperson citing “operational security” concerns, but NORAD indicated they were not seen as a threat.

“Under its mission of maintaining comprehensive domain awareness in the Arctic, NORAD launched a combat air patrol from its Canadian NORAD Region (CANR) to the northern region of Canada, and an air patrol from its Alaskan NORAD Region (ANR) off the coast of the Alaska/Yukon border, to further track the activity,” NORAD said of the Russian aircraft.

The patrols occurred Jan. 28, a NORAD spokesperson told Air & Space Forces Magazine. The Canadian patrol comprised two Canadian CF-18s and one KC-135 refueling aircraft, and the U.S. patrol consisted of two U.S. F-35s, one E-3 Sentry AWACS airborne warning and command and control aircraft, and two KC-135s.

On Jan. 28, an F-35 crashed at Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska. The pilot ejected from the F-35, was taken to a local military hospital, and has been released. The incident was unrelated to the NORAD activity that occurred on the same day, a spokesperson for the command said.

NORAD did not specify where in Greenland its F-16s deployed, but the territory does host the northernmost U.S. military installation, Pituffik Space Base, a Space Force missile warning and satellite control site. Pituffik Space Base, formerly known as Thule Air Base, dates back to the 1950s when it was established as a Strategic Air Command base during the Cold War before transitioning to its early warning missile mission. Four Air Force F-35s deployed to Greenland in January 2023.

President Donald Trump has said he wants to buy Greenland from Denmark because of its strategic importance in the Arctic. Denmark has rebuffed that request.

“NORAD employs a layered defense network of satellites, ground-based and airborne radars, and fighter aircraft to detect and track aircraft and inform appropriate actions. NORAD remains ready to employ a number of response options in defense of North America,” the command added in his latest statement.

Air Force Conducts More Deportation Flights with Armed Security Forces ‘Ravens’

Jan. 29, 2025 | By Chris Gordon

The U.S. Air Force carried out deportation flights to Ecuador and Guatemala earlier this week, U.S. officials told Air & Space Forces Magazine, as the Pentagon continues to fly migrants out of the country at the direction of President Donald Trump.

On Jan. 28, a U.S. Air Force C-17 carrying detained migrants took off from Biggs Army Airfield in El Paso, Texas. It landed in Ecuador later that evening.

A C-17 transporting a deportation flight also took off from El Paso on Jan. 27 for Guatemala, the third such flight to the country.

The flight to Ecuador has not been previously reported, and neither flight has been officially announced.

Another C-17 flight took off from El Paso to Guatemala on Jan. 30, according to flight tracking data.

Those C-17 flights follow a high-profile spat with Colombia, which turned away two C-17s on Jan. 26. Colombia later relented in the face of pressure from the Trump administration and sent its own air force planes to transport the deportees.

U.S. aircrews participating in the deportation missions have included armed Air Force Security Forces personnel, known as Phoenix Ravens, defense officials told Air & Space Forces Magazine.

A photo released by the Department of Defense of the inside of a C-17 deporting migrants on a flight out of Tucson International Airport, Ariz., shows at least two U.S. service members carrying what appear to be M4 rifles.

“We can confirm the C-17 aircrews conducting deportation flights include RAVENS, who are specially trained Security Forces personnel dedicated to providing force protection for Mobility Air Force aircraft transiting through austere locations with potentially high terrorist and criminal threat levels,” a defense official told Air & Space Forces Magazine. “These personnel are strictly responsible for the security of the aircrew and aircraft and they do not engage in interdiction or law enforcement activities.”

In-flight law enforcement on the deportation flights is the responsibility of Department of Homeland Security personnel, officials said.

U.S. Airmen and U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agency personnel prepare to load people being deported from the U.S. onto a C-17 Globemaster III at Tucson International Airport in Tucson, Ariz., Jan. 23, 2025. Dept. of Defense photo by Senior Airman Devlin Bishop

From the outset of the Pentagon’s effort to rush 1,500 troops to the border and transport migrants, which it first announced Jan. 22, defense officials have said U.S. military personnel are not carrying out law enforcement activities. U.S. troops are prohibited from performing law enforcement duties under the Posse Comitatus Act.

Trump said in an executive order that the use of the U.S. military is justified because he has declared a border emergency to stop “forms of invasion including unlawful mass migration, narcotics trafficking, human smuggling and trafficking, and other criminal activities.”

The border deployments have included U.S. military police, who were transported on USAF aircraft.

The military’s role may expand in the days ahead, the Trump administration indicated Jan. 29.

Trump directed the Pentagon and Department of Homeland Security to “take all appropriate actions to expand the Migrant Operations Center at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay to full capacity to provide additional detention space for high-priority criminal aliens unlawfully present in the United States,” according to a memo issued by the White House.

“We’re ramping up for the possibility to expand mass deportations because President Trump is dead serious about getting illegal criminals out of our country,” Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said on Fox News.

Lockheed Looks to Deliver Up to 190 F-35s in 2025, Loses $1.9 Billion on Secret Programs

Jan. 29, 2025 | By John A. Tirpak

Lockheed Martin will deliver up to 190 F-35s in 2025, including both newly built aircraft and jets that have been in storage pending test progress on the Tech Refresh 3 upgrade, company president and CEO Jim Taiclet said this week.

Taiclet also said Lockheed is taking more than $1.9 billion in charges on two secret programs, at least one of which the executive described as vital to the Air Force.

“We continue to expect [F-35] deliveries will exceed the production rate over the next few years, and estimate 170 to 190 F-35 aircraft deliveries in 2025,” Taiclet said during an earnings call on Jan. 29.

That would mark a significant increased from 2024—when Lockheed delivered 110 jets, including 62 in the last quarter—and 2023, when the total was just 98. Deliveries can sometimes exceed annual production because of a variety of factors unrelated to technical problems, in which aircraft built in a previous year are not delivered immediately, a company spokesperson said.

Taiclet said he’s “confident” that production of new F-35s will reach the company’s target of 156 in 2025, reflecting strong demand from both the U.S. and international market. That would indicate the company expects to hand over anywhere between 14 and 34 of the stored aircraft this year.

Neither the Joint Program Office nor Lockheed have disclosed how many aircraft went directly from the production line to storage, but industry officials estimate the final total was around 110 airplanes. The government declined to accept the jets at the time because they were built using Tech Refresh 3 hardware and software, which had not been fully tested when production of that configuration commenced.

The delivery hold was lifted last July, when Program Executive Officer Air Force Lt. Gen. Michael Schmidt determined that the TR-3 software was stable enough for safe operations.

In October, Lockheed said it was delivering about 20 of the deferred-delivery jets per month, in addition to new aircraft coming off the line. Due to sequencing and customer needs, a mix of new and stored jets are being delivered.

The Joint Program Office also said Lockheed is receiving bigger incentive payments on delivered F-35s. The company was being docked $5 million per jet for various reasons involving the hold and TR-3 testing, but that penalty has been lightened to $3.8 million each, a JPO spokesperson said Jan. 29. The company will eventually be able to recoup the withheld funds.

“Lockheed Martin has satisfied criteria to reduce the original withhold by approximately $1.2 million for each aircraft,” the spokesperson said.

Taiclet reported the TR-3 continues “to progress in test flights. We completed qualification testing on a set of key TR-3 capabilities in 2024, and we’re making solid progress on system performance and remaining TR-3 deliverables. We expect to release additional capability this year, with further upgrades to follow.”

He noted that the JPO and Lockheed have reached an agreement in principle on Lot 18 of the F-35, and this brings the F-35 backlog to 408 aircraft. An actual definitized contract is expected “during the first half of 2025,” he added. He did not comment on Lot 19 or 20 negotiations. Lot 19 is believed to have been negotiated alongside Lot 18, and Lot 20 is expected to be the first under a multiyear contract.

Asked whether he thinks the F-35 is well positioned for continued Pentagon funding, Taiclet noted that Israel was able to operate the F-35 with impunity inside Iran, demonstrating its advanced capabilities. He also argued that having the jet in production at a meaningful rate bolsters deterrence against China.

“A part of deterrence theory is that you have to have the capability to make the adversary reconsider an adverse action against you,” Taiclet said. China “has increased production of the J-20—which is their fifth-generation airplane—to over 100 units a year. We’re doing 156. We’re ahead of them. I think if there was a dramatic change in the U.S. order book and production, that might be a signal that would be adverse to maintaining an effective deterrent to them.”

Taiclet continued that “there are some very capable people coming into the administration. They understand deterrence theory. The last thing I think this President and administration would want is to create a period of vulnerability with any of our major adversaries in the next few years. So I feel really confident about F-35 production.”

He further noted that the F-35 has demonstrated an ability to control up to eight drones in a formation, which could be crucial for the Air Force’s Collaborative Combat Aircraft program, and can also do “some classified things” in the area of manned-unmanned teaming in concert with the F-22.

Losses

Lockheed took a charge of $410 million for a secret program in the Aeronautics unit and a $1.4 billion charge on a secret munition being developed by the company’s Missiles and Fire Control unit.

Taiclet said he couldn’t divulge much on the programs, but that the financial situation will improve on the Missiles and Fire Control project.

“Outside of the fixed pricing related to this next phase … the pricing would be open, and we would expect to return to reasonable-type margins” on the program. He doesn’t expect it to “bounce back to [typical Missiles and Fire Control]-like margins, and at that point in time, there still would be kind of a ramp-up that you’ve got to deal with. But certainly the margin profile will get substantially better, and we expect this to be a long-lived program based on the technology and the value to the U.S. government.”

He added that based on his experience as a former Air Force pilot, “I can assure you, this is something they will want.”

Industry experts speculated that the program in question may be the AIM-260 Joint Advanced Tactical Missile (JATM), the successor to the AIM-120 AMRAAM. The JATM—a very long-range air-to-air missile meant to restore parity with China’s long-range missiles—was supposed to become operational in 2022 or 2023, but the Air Force has steadfastly resisted providing any public information about its progress. Service officials have only acknowledged that the weapon entered testing in 2023.

Two years ago, then-vice chief of staff for plans and programs Lt. Gen. Richard G. Moore said an uptick in purchase of AMRAAMs in the fiscal 2024 budget request did not signal a problem with JATM. That budget, he said, included “some facilitization money that will help us get to JATM faster. Once we can start procuring it, we’ll want to get to quantity as fast as we can.”

Industry sources said the other classified program on which Lockheed took a charge may be an advanced drone for surveillance.

Air Force Shuts Down Athena Programs for Review in DEI Purge

Jan. 29, 2025 | By Greg Hadley

The Air Force’s various “Athena” programs focused on women’s readiness issues at the Major Command level are shut down as the service conducts a review of programs linked to diversity, equity, and inclusion, as ordered by President Trump.

A service spokesperson told Air & Space Forces Magazine that the major commands have “paused their Athena Programs while the Air Force reviews them to determine if their focus aligns with optimizing operational readiness, lethality, and warfighter innovation.”

The Athenas, so named because the first one formed at Air Combat Command dubbed itself Sword Athena in reference the Greek goddess of war, were conceived as a means to identify and overcome barriers to combat effectiveness for women in the Air Force.

There are now Athena groups at every major command. Each MAJCOM described its plans in its own way in memos circulated on social media and verified by Air & Space Forces Magazine.

Air Combat Command boss Gen. Kenneth S. Wilsbach wrote that the “Sword Athena 2025 Summit and all other Sword Athena events are canceled,” but said his staff would “assess efforts currently underway and determine the best way forward.” The summit had been scheduled for late February, and the volunteer team had just completed a virtual kickoff event before Wilsbach’s notice.

Air Force Reserve Command and Air National Guard leaders wrote in their memo that the “ARC Athena charter and program are terminated immediately.”

Reach Athena announced it had ceased all official actions on behalf of Air Mobility Command in accordance with a Jan. 21 memo from Acting Air Force Secretary Gary A. Ashworth to “disestablish” all Department of the Air Force Barrier Analysis Working Groups.

The DAF-wide Women’s Initiative Team (WIT) was also shut down as directed by that memo.

It is possible the Athena programs could start back up again after the Department of the Air Force finishes its review, but that could take a while. Under a Jan. 27 executive order, the Pentagon has 30 days to issue guidance to its different departments, and reports on implementation must follow after 180 days. In theory, these tasks could be completed sooner.

The fate of the WIT is less clear. It was launched in 2008, 11 years before Sword Athena was formed in a grassroots effort at ACC in 2019.

In all cases, volunteers say they sought to identify problems or barriers that prevented female Airmen from performing their jobs or hurt readiness. They said at no time did they propose anything to favor women over men.

“It was never done for the sake of diversity. It was never done for the sake of inclusion,” one WIT volunteer told Air & Space Forces Magazine. “It was done for the sake of, we need every able-bodied person to be able to do their job.”

It’s about being as lethal as we can be and removing barriers to readiness,” an Athena volunteer lead added. “So everything that we did, all of our initiatives, always tied back to [commanders’] priorities.”

Some initiatives the WIT and Athena programs focused on included developing equipment built for female Airmen like flight suits, body armor, and bladder relief in the cockpit.

“The intent was just a way for our Airmen, our aviators, to be able to get appropriately fitting flight suits and gear,” the Athena lead said. “And what we said was, I mean, we showed studies that showed that especially ejection seat pilots, if they do not have properly fitting gear, then their survivability decreases.”

Another effort was to push for changes to hair regulations after years of female Airmen saying tight buns were giving them headaches and even causing hair loss. Other initiatives called for better access to basic hygiene products, child care, family readiness, and recruiting—issues volunteers said were needed to make sure they could focus on the mission.

“I don’t want [Airmen] worrying about their families back home. I don’t want them worrying about personal hygiene or anything like that,” Lt. Col. Meghan O’Rourke, a member of AFSOC’s Dagger Athena, said at the 2023 event. “I want those barriers tackled. … I want those tackled so that they can do their job as well as they possibly can.”

The WIT volunteer noted that the team was chartered under the Air Force’s equal opportunity program, not its diversity and inclusion office. That left some hope that the work can continue.

“What I’m passionate about is that there being a mechanism where tactical-level warfighters have the ability and access to senior leaders to highlight the barriers that are impacting their operational readiness,” the WIT volunteer said.

The Athena lead, however, cautioned that the work the volunteers have done could also go away.

“I know that the current climate is such that I can see it not coming back, because that would be easier than to try and redefine this,” she said.

Patches, Nail Polish, Shaving: Here Are the New Air Force Dress and Grooming Standards

Jan. 29, 2025 | By Chris Gordon and David Roza

Airmen will be subject to new uniform, grooming, and appearance standards starting Feb. 1, senior Air Force leaders announced Jan. 29.

Among the changes: Duty Identifier Patches are no longer authorized, hair cannot touch a male Airman’s ears, Airmen must shave every day if they do not have a medical or religious waiver, and female Airmen must comply with tighter restrictions on nail polish. Airmen with a shaving waiver will have to be reevaluated within 90 days of their next Periodic Health Assessment (PHA), starting March 1.

The updated appearance standards are outlined in a memorandum from Chief of Staff Gen. David W. Allvin, who sent a message to the force about the changes on Jan. 29. The Air Force also issued a separate memorandum on the updated shaving waiver process.

The new guidelines come about three weeks after Allvin announced a review of dress and appearance standards and said the Air Force would begin to more strictly enforce regulations.

“Earlier this month I released a video explaining why our service is reviewing certain policies and standards to ensure they are easy to understand, easy to comply with, and easy to enforce across our entire Air Force. Today, I am following through on my promise to swiftly distribute updates,” Allvin wrote to Airmen in an email that was provided to Air & Space Forces Magazine. “As you review the memoranda and take action to ensure compliance, never forget that discipline and accountability are, and always will be, the backbone of an effective and lethal fighting force. Complying with and enforcing standards demonstrates shared commitment to our winning team, as well as an understanding of the gravity of our profession in today’s volatile security environment.”

Allvin also released a video explaining why he was getting rid of Duty Identifier Patches, which are also known as Career Field Identifier patches—such as “SF” for Security Forces, “MUNS” for Munitions, “PA” for Public Affairs, and much more. The patches have become commonplace on the sleeves of many Airmen’s fatigues, but they are no longer authorized as of Feb. 1.

According to Air Force Instruction 36-2903, more than 130 patches have been authorized.

“This is a lot of tabs,” Allvin said. “Under the principle that we have of ‘easy to understand, easy to comply with, easy to enforce,’ this fails that test. But there’s a bigger issue at play here: as we identify ourselves as one type of Airman or another, with one specialty or one skillset or another, we really diminish ourselves. While that is a contribution we make, our real value is our integral part of a winning, warfighting team. And that’s what we want to emphasize: that we value the team over the individual.”

Still allowed are arch-shaped tabs signifying a special, unique qualification or training, such as “Air Advisor” or “Arctic,” as are graduate patches, such as ones from the Air Force Weapons School, and command patches.

Shaving Waivers

The new shaving waiver guidance covers both the Air Force and Space Force comes about five years after the Air Force began issuing five-year medical shaving waivers for Airmen with pseudofolliculitis barbae (PFB), also known as razor bumps, a skin condition caused by ingrown hairs that makes shaving painful and can lead to scarring if skin is not given a chance to heal.

The problem with that policy is that it did not give clear guidance on differentiating PFB from shaving irritation, which can be avoided or treated with proper shaving technique and topical steroids, said Air Force Surgeon General Lt. Gen. John J. DeGoes in a Jan. 27 video statement.

“This lack of standardized guidance has led to inconsistencies in how shaving profiles are issued and managed across our force,” he said.

A memo from DeGoes said extended duration shaving profiles are generally reserved for severe cases of PFB, “while mild-to-moderate cases may benefit from more frequent management, follow-ups, and temporary shaving profiles.”

New guidance will arrive starting March 1 that should make it easier for providers to differentiate between PFB and irritation, DeGoes said. But that means all Airmen with a waiver must be reevaluated by a health care provider. Current shaving profiles are valid for now, but they will expire 90 calendar days after the profile holder’s next periodic health assessment (PHA). The policy does not apply to religious accommodation shaving waivers.

An anonymous health care provider told Air & Space Forces Magazine that the goal is to use new tools, including a clinical algorithm, updated guidance, and a workflow in MHS Genesis to make PFB waiver decisions more consistent.

“We’re going to take a second look at every waiver, and we’re trying to provide healthcare providers with more tools to make more informed decisions, just to ensure that everyone who’s on a waiver actually needs that waiver,” the provider said.

The algorithm is not perfect, because even experienced dermatologists can have a tough time differentiating PFB from skin irritation. In the civilian world, it’s not a problem to avoid shaving, so there is not as much research and guidance to find the discrepancies between PFB and irritation.

But if an Airman or Guardian is on the edge between irritation and PFB, the provider might recommend they try different techniques and topical steroids to avoid irritation. If that doesn’t work and they are not interested in laser hair removal, then there’s still the five-year waiver option.

Reevaluating all shaving waivers is likely to create a massive administrative toll. Every Airman and Guardian takes a PHA, but those are often conducted virtually and exist more to refer patients to specialists.

“Airmen and Guardians are going to have to make a separate appointment with their provider to then have it looked at,” the anonymous provider said. “It’s a huge administrative burden that they’re going to be putting on the providers to support this over the next 365 days.”

Those providers may themselves refer patients to dermatologists, some of whom already have three-month waitlists.

“They’re basically just going to be running shaving waiver clinics,” said the provider, who anticipated that most providers would make the same waiver decision simply to get through the backlog of reevaluations ahead of them.

Readiness

The new policy for nail polish restricts female Airmen to “clear or French and American manicure,” which typically consists of white tips and a clear or skin-colored base. The move seemingly slashes dozens of colors that were approved last year, and service officials could not immediately provide a guide for what shades are now permitted.

Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force David A. Flosi issued a statement touting all new rules as necessary for readiness.

“Our unmatched war winning capability is built on the strength and readiness of our Airmen. Clear and enforceable standards are the bedrock for our ready and lethal flying force,” Flosi said. “Our Airmen live a life of service; we are in the Profession of Arms. We are committed to defending our nation, deterring our foes, and, if necessary, we will defeat them.”

The Air Force said the changes were not made in response to recent executive orders by President Donald Trump that have sought to make cultural and policy changes to the military.

“Gen. Allvin and service senior leadership—both officer and enlisted—have been collaborating on an approach to renew our force’s commitment and adherence to standards for months now,” Lt. Col. Karl Wiest, a spokesperson for Allvin, said in an email. He said the issue was discussed at senior leader meetings, including the high-level CORONA gathering last year, which occurred during the Biden administration.

“These updates were not directed by the new administration, but they do effectively contribute to the Department of Defense’s renewed focus on lethality, accountability, standards, and readiness,” Wiest added.

Pentagon Hands Out $7 Billion for NGAP; RTX Sees ‘Tailwind’ for Military Propulsion

Jan. 28, 2025 | By John A. Tirpak

GE Aerospace and Pratt & Whitney received matching $3.5 billion contracts to prototype their versions of the Next-Generation Adaptive Propulsion engine this week, and the CEO of Pratt’s parent company, RTX, said things are looking up for the military engine business, even if the platform that could use NGAP is in some doubt.

“We’re continuing to develop our NGAP solution,” Chris Calio, RTX president and CEO, said on a company earnings call Jan. 28. “This funding will help us continue … to drive down risks on the key requirements” for the program. “With that award, we think we’re going to have a very competitive offering … regardless of where NGAP is in the timing.”

NGAP was originally planned to be the engine for the Next-Generation Air Dominance Fighter, the Air Force’s crewed stealthy platform meant to succeed the F-22. It includes technologies developed under the Adaptive Engine Transition Program, in which Pratt and GE Aerospace prototyped powerplants that could serve as a mid-life propulsion upgrade for the F-35. But because not all variants of the F-35 could use the AETP engines, the program was halted and the remaining resources put toward NGAP.

Yet last summer, the Air Force put a “pause” on NGAD. Frank Kendall, who stepped down last week as Secretary of the Air Force, said the factors contributing to that move were the NGAD’s extremely high unit cost and concerns whether changing technology meant it was still the right approach for future air superiority. Kendall deferred the decision on NGAD’s future to the new Air Force leadership under President Donald Trump’s administration, which has not indicated when it may make any decisions about it.

In a contract announcement, the Pentagon described the new NGAP deals as “technology maturation and risk reduction” efforts, the same phrase used to describe work being done on NGAD by unnamed airframe contractors while awaiting an NGAD decision by the new administration.

“The work includes design, analysis, rig testing, prototype engine build and testing, and weapon system integration,” the Pentagon said in announcing the NGAP awards. “The contract modification … is focused on delivering a state-of-the-art propulsion system with a flexible architecture that can be tailored for future combat aircraft operating across various mission threads; and digitally transforming the propulsion industrial base.”

Officials have said little about the NGAP engines, but they have noted the powerplants will be smaller than the F135 engine that fits the F-35, and smaller than the AETP engines.

A government official told Air & Space Forces Magazine, however, he is concerned there are no guarantees the NGAP engines will ever be produced.

Trump technology advisor Elon Musk has been critical of the F-35 fighter and has called for eliminating fighter pilots and moving directly on to autonomous systems, which might not require the advanced propulsion NGAP offers, the official said.

“You’ve got a potentially hostile administration that may dump NGAD,” he said, “and in the last 20 years, we dropped three new [fighter] engines,” referring to an alternate engine for the F-35 developed by GE and the two AETP prototypes.

“If we don’t do NGAP, the ecosystem for cutting-edge military engines is going to fall behind” what is happening in China, Russia and elsewhere, the official said. “We can’t discount Chinese engines anymore,” he added. “They’ve invested to fix their problems” with designing and maintaining high-performance fighter engines.

Yet Calio projected an optimistic outlook on military propulsion. The Air Force has tapped Pratt to develop an Engine Core Upgrade to the F135 that will, to a lesser degree, meet some of the increased performance needs of the Block 4 F-35. Calio said the ECU and the NGAP creates “a tailwind” for the military engine business.

“I see this as continuing to grow,” he said. He noted that the Air Force continues to fly older aircraft, and so “the aftermarket remains strong. So I’d say, by and large, this is a tailwind for Pratt. And [we’re] happy to see this funding being put in place over the next number of years to continue this development.” He also said Pratt got F135 sustainment work valued at $1.4 billion across 2024.

The engine GE developed for AETP was given the designation XA100 and Pratt’s was the XA101. It is expected that the NGAP engines will be the XA102 and XA103, respectively.

Video: F-35 Crash at Eielson, Pilot Is Safe

Jan. 28, 2025 | By David Roza

An F-35 crashed at Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska, on Jan. 28, with videos showing the fighter tumbling to the ground as the pilot drifts on a parachute.

The crash occurred at 12:49 p.m. local time and resulted in “significant aircraft damage” the Eielson-based 354th Fighter Wing said in a press release. The pilot is safe and was transported to the nearby Bassett Army Hospital for further evaluation, the release said.

A second release posted Jan. 29 provided more details: the pilot was preparing to land during a training flight when an-inflight emergency occurred and the pilot ejected, in line with emergency procedures. The pilot has since been released from the hospital.

A video of the crash was posted to the unofficial Facebook page Air Force amn/nco/snco later that day. It shows an F-35 with its landing gear extended rolling wingtip over wingtip en route to a fiery impact. A figure in a parachute, presumably the pilot, can be seen drifting to earth not far away.

A base spokesperson confirmed to Air & Space Forces Magazine that the video is authentic, that the aircraft involved was an F-35, and that both the F-35 and the pilot were assigned to the 354th Fighter Wing.

While the pilot was safe, it was not immediately clear whether they were uninjured.

“Our people are our most important resource, and we are committed in ensuring their safety and security,” wing commander Col. Paul Townsend said in a statement. “I can assure you the United States Air Force will conduct a thorough investigation in hopes to minimize the chances of such occurrences from happening again.”

KC-135 tankers, likely assigned to the Alaska Air National Guard’s 168th Wing, are parked in the foreground of the video. A recording posted on X appears to show audio from air traffic control from just before the crash, but the wing spokesperson could not immediately confirm if it was authentic.

The crash marks the first major Air Force aircraft mishap of 2025. It comes about seven weeks after an MQ-9 Reaper was mistakenly shot down over Syria by U.S.-allied Syrian Democratic Forces.

In May, an F-35B flown by an Air Force pilot crashed in New Mexico shortly after takeoff. The pilot ejected at low altitude and suffered serious injuries, the Air Force said at the time.

This story was updated on Jan. 29 with more details from the 354th Fighter Wing.

Now CCAs Can Do Things ‘We Didn’t Think Were Possible’

Jan. 28, 2025 | By Greg Hadley

The Air Force now believes a single manned fighter can control a larger number of drones than previously thought, and can do so using less-sophisticated autonomous technology, according to USAF’s director of force design.

No one is saying yet how many Collaborative Combat Aircraft can be teamed with a single manned fighter, but testing and simulations demonstrate these larger combinations “present dilemmas to our adversary that we didn’t think were possible,” said Maj. Gen. Joseph D. Kunkel Jan. 28, during a virtual event hosted by Defense One.

The exact number of CCA drones USAF could team with its manned fighters remains classified, Kunkel said. Since 2022, Air Force leaders including then-Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall suggested ratios of from two to five drones per manned jet, with a notional plan of two drones per fighter seeming the most likely.

Now that picture is changing. “We thought that it was going to be small ratios,” Kunkle said. “And what we’re finding is, actually, it’s bigger than we thought.”

Lockheed Martin CEO Jim Taiclet, speaking separately on an earnings call the same day, suggested the ratio may quadruple.

“We can already control out of an F-35 up to eight autonomous drones,” he said. “We’ve shown this [to the] Secretary of the Air Force a few months ago. It’s … public knowledge.”

Taiclet mentioned the one-to-eight fighter to CCA ratio during Lockheed’s October earnings call, but Kunkel’s comments are the first from an Air Force official suggesting the two-to-one planning ratio may have changed. It’s also in line with recommendations from a late 2022 Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies paper, which suggested six or seven CCAs per fighter.

Not only can pilots control larger numbers of CCA drones, Kunkel said, but they won’t need drones with the most cutting-edge autonomy software to do it.

“What we thought was going to be this requirement for a great amount of autonomy and a significant amount of artificial intelligence, and really, really complex algorithms,” he said, has turned out to be instead “frankly, simple autonomy, simple algorithms, a little bit of AI sprinkled in. … We’ve been able to decrease pilot workload to a degree where they can really, really effectively utilize these capabilities.”

Kunkel called the development “probably the most exciting part” of the CCA program so far, because it opens up more options for how the Air Force can employ the drones.

“[Pilots] can take advantage of the mass and present dilemmas to our adversary that we didn’t think were possible in terms of the force ratios that we can present,” he said.

“Mass” has long been a crucial theme behind the CCA program. Because CCAs are less costly than manned aircraft, they offer a route to beefing up the combat air forces, which have declined in number over time. That provides an answer to China’s growing force size, while presenting the Chinese with a more complex targeting challenge against larger number of rival aircraft.

Speed is another emphasis. USAF leaders want at least 100 drones in the fleet by 2029, and Kunkel suggested the Air Force may soon start flying test aircraft from Anduril and General Atomics, whose designs passed a design review in October.

“The critical design review was a crucial step in this plan to field something very quickly,” Kunkel said. “The fact that both of them passed and they met the requirements that were levied upon them and frankly, they’re ready to fly, and in some cases, are flying, puts us in a really, really good spot. I feel like the next steps are to actually get them in the air.”

The Air Force has an experimental test unit working on developing the best ways to use CCAs, and the service is also using its X-62 VISTA program to experiment with the autonomy software undergirding CCAs.

The X-62A VISTA flies in the skies above Edwards Air Force Base, California, April 30, 2024. **Richard Gonzales/USAF**

“We’re making a lot of progress on autonomy, exactly what that autonomy needs to be, and then we’re learning new ways just to develop it,” Kunkel said.

With the Air Force focusing on relatively simple autonomy, Kunkel stressed that the service is not interested fully autonomous drones, because these would “not be compliant with the American way of war.”

Having a human in the loop is essential for combat aircraft operating at high speeds, Air Force leaders have said.

“If there’s a person in an airplane that’s next to this thing, the chances of it getting cut off are less, we think,” Kunkle said. “I think you’ll see that tie to the manned platform be something that’s pretty important for how we operate the future.”

Lockheed’s Taiclet said the F-35, equipped with the new Tech Refresh 3 upgrades, is capable of maintaining that tie. “TR-3 gives the F-35 the three things that you need for an effective node,” Taiclet said: data processing, storage, and connection to the cloud.

“Those are the three technical elements you need to have to be able to drive 5G-level connectivity among nodes in a network like this,” he said.

Editorial Director John Tirpak contributed to this report.

What Air Force Maintainers Think of the New Force Design

Jan. 28, 2025 | By David Roza

When the Air Force revealed a new force design for its aircraft maintenance career fields Jan. 27, it kicked off a wave of discussion on social media forums about what it might mean for one of the branch’s largest career fields. Air & Space Forces Magazine checked in with former and current maintainers for their thoughts on the sweeping change, which would start to take effect in 2027.

Proponents of the new design said it could provide junior enlisted Airmen more hands-on time to master the fundamentals of aircraft maintenance, and more experienced Airmen the chance to stay close to the flight line throughout their careers. It might also help prepare maintainers for working in smaller, isolated teams and on next-generation platforms.

On the other hand, critics fear the new design could dilute expertise across the career field and reduce local leaders’ ability to solve complex maintenance problems. Another concern is how the Air Force would switch to the new scheme amid a recent maintainer recruitment slump and resource scarcity.

The Force Design

The new plan would condense more than 50 aircraft maintenance job specialties down to just seven. Junior enlisted maintainers will start out in a generalist track, a single Air Force Specialty Code (AFSC) where they will be trained on the most common maintenance tasks, such as launching, recovering, and fueling aircraft, across multiple airframes.

Under the current system, junior enlisted maintainers start their careers in a specific niche, such as avionics, hydraulics, or structures. But in the new force design, specialization would not occur until the rank of Senior Airman. Once there, Airmen will choose between six tracks: Avionics and Electrical, Aerospace Ground Equipment, Advanced Mechanical, Crew Support Systems, Fabrication, and Intermediate-level engines.

The specialties would not be tied to a specific airframe, which would allow for more assignments and development opportunities, maintenance career field managers at Headquarters Air Force said in a memo.

Once they reach the rank of technical sergeant, Airmen can apply to join the technical track, where they would pick up skills from all six specialties to become “THE nose to tail cross-functional expert” on a given airframe the rest of their careers, managers wrote.

Alternatively, technical sergeants can stay in a specialist track until they reach master sergeant, where they switch to the leadership track, providing institutional and functional oversight. Airmen can stay in the technical or leadership track, or they could switch between the two.

Maintainers from the 18th Maintenance Group remove a tire from a KC-135 Stratotanker during an isochronal inspection at Kadena Air Base, Japan, May 22, 2019. (U.S. Air Force photo by Naoto Anazawa)

Contexts and Concerns

The memo laid out two reasons for the new force design: workload and the possibility of conflict against Russia or China. Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force David Flosi told reporters in September that only 20 percent of maintenance tasks account for 80 percent of the workload. Focusing on that 20 percent early in a maintainer’s career will build “a more agile base of early career maintainers,” the memo said.

The new force design is not an attempt to do more with less, said Flosi and the career field managers.

“We’re not trying to, like, squeeze 10 people’s worth of work into five people,” Flosi said in September. “We want to have the capability for an Airman to do as much as they have capacity for.”

A more agile maintainer base may help in a conflict against a technologically advanced adversary, where smaller groups of Airmen will have to generate aircraft from farther-flung airstrips. But one Air Force veteran worried the new force design does not address a fundamental problem: lack of resources.

“While the Air Force claims this policy isn’t about ‘doing more with less,’ it fails to acknowledge that the current maintenance workforce is already operating in a resource-deficient state,” said Chris McGhee, a retired master sergeant who spent 20 years fixing F-16s.

Last year, an Air Force Times investigation found a five-year high in aviation mishaps in fiscal 2023 and blamed it in part on an estimated 1,800-person shortage in a maintenance corps spread over a fleet of aging, high-demand aircraft.

By 2024, that gap shrank to about 500 maintainers, but it takes time to grow an experienced workforce, and McGhee worries the new force design will drag that out even longer.

“Under the current system, an Airman Basic begins their career in a specific specialty—like hydraulics—and focuses exclusively on building skills in that field,” he explained. “When they arrive at the hydraulic back shop, they aren’t an expert yet, but they’ve developed a solid foundation in hydraulics.”

That Airman Basic can always fill in as a generalist for more universal tasks, but if a critical hydraulic problem comes up, they have the specialized skills to fix it, he said. Switching to a generalist track early on would weaken that foundation for technical depth.

“It also undermines the flexibility to reallocate personnel effectively,” McGhee added. “Instead of being able to move a hydraulics troop to help avionics when needed—and still have a specialist for hydraulics—you end up with generalists everywhere, and specialists nowhere.”

Online commenters made similar points.

“We need technicians who have been reading wiring diagrams as their primary focus for YEARS,” wrote one Redditor who said they worked in environmental and electrical for 11 years. “I need someone who knows what a twisted pair, twisted triplet, and NDC cables are and that they can’t be spliced AT ALL.”

U.S. Air Force Senior Airman Jacob Millette, 134th Fighter Generation Squadron, crew chief, conducts post-flight procedures on an F-35A Lightning II after arriving at Kadena Air Base, Japan, Jan. 13, 2025. . (U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Tylir Meyer)

Hands-On

Still, other experts said they were encouraged by the prospect that younger Airmen could get more time practicing maintenance fundamentals under the new force design.

“In my opinion, it seems as if we aren’t giving maintainers a good ‘hands on’ foundation of aviation maintenance, but through the new design, every Airmen will have the opportunity to understand basic aircraft principles practically instead of theatrically through in-class training,” one anonymous production superintendent told Air & Space Forces Magazine.

Despite today’s emphasis on specializing early on, the superintendent said he has seen fuels technicians not know how to refuel or defuel their own aircraft, as well as hydraulics technicians who do not know how to verify a jet’s hydraulics system is depressurized.

“In my experience, our Airmen aren’t lazy or unintelligent,” he said. “They are frustrated because they don’t get enough reps in the fundamentals before having to become a specialist.”

The superintendent said he benefited from a flying crew chief prospect program which taught him the fundamentals of aircraft maintenance. Despite starting out as a hydraulics specialist, he soon became qualified on every maintenance task on the C-130.

Once Airmen gain a solid foundation and have a chance to specialize, the new force design may help keep those experienced Airmen on the flight line, said another anonymous maintenance NCO.

Under the current system, maintainers may start out in a specialized track, but by the time they become a noncommissioned officer, they have to take on leadership roles to stay competitive in the promotion cycle.

“If you’re a tech sergeant on the flight line, you might be the most capable mechanic, but you’re not looked at as being successful because you haven’t been a flight chief,” he said. “An Airman can say ‘I can learn how to change this brake really well, or I can find things to do that show me being a capable leader.’”

A commenter on Facebook who said they are a career crew chief made a similar point.

“By the time they [Airmen] got or started to be experts in their career field, they then got into management,” the commenter wrote in a message posted by the administrator of the unofficial Air Force amn/nco/snco Facebook page. “By the time one got to E-5 [staff sergeant] he was not [sic] longer turning wrenches full time.”

The new technical track could let experienced NCOs stay hands-on rather than lose their edge in managerial roles. It may also be a chance to re-emphasize the value of technical proficiency.

“What the Air Force has valued, to me, has been leadership skills, but what the Air Force needs is technical skills,” the anonymous NCO said.

air force mq-9 — Airmen assigned to the 20th Special Operations Aircraft Maintenance Squadron lift the radome off of an MQ-9 Reaper at Melrose Air Force Range, New Mexico, Dec. 18, 2024. (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Gracelyn Hess)

More Adaptable

A maintenance corps made up of more generalized junior Airmen guided by lifelong technical experts may help prepare the force for operating future platforms whose maintenance needs could look different than today’s fleet. Air Force officials envision a future with more expendable uncrewed aircraft whose service life may be measured in years rather than decades, though it is not clear how close that future might be amid tight budgets and shifting defense priorities.

“What I see is they are trying to make the career field more adaptable to whatever comes next,” the anonymous NCO said.

For example, the new force design emphasizes that maintainers will be platform-agnostic unless they join the technical track. By contrast, in today’s system, a C-5 maintainer can sign off on an actuator on the jet’s wing, but they may not be qualified to sign off on the same actuator on the tail of a C-17.

There are valid safety reasons why that’s the case, the NCO said, but it could be a hindrance in a future conflict where Airmen may have to jerry-rig maintenance solutions to launch aircraft from an isolated field in the Pacific.

Implementing the force design will be difficult, said the superintendent, who worried about burnout and clashes between leadership and technical tracks amid a changing cultural dynamic and a nonstop high operational tempo.

“My biggest concern is how do you hold onto the experience long enough to train the maintainers during this transition?” he said. “I worry we might slow promotions and overwork our remaining experts to fill the gaps during the transition.”

Even if the Air force sticks the landing, it will take time for the seeds of such a large transformation to bear fruit. The first generalist track Airmen won’t join the service until 2027.

“People have to buy into it, and they’re probably not going to at first because they’re not used to it,” the NCO said. “It’s a big step in a different direction, but I think it’s necessary.”