If You Did Space Ops, You Could Become a ‘Legacy Guardian’

Aug. 10, 2023 | By Greg Hadley

Before the Space Force was founded in December 2019, Airmen ruled the heavens, at least as far as most military space activities were concerned. For decades tens and perhaps hundreds of thousands of Airmen controlled and acquired satellites, managed communications and intelligence, and performed other space missions. Air Force Space Command claimed more than 26,000 personnel at one point.

A bipartisan group of lawmakers are close to giving some of those Airmen a chance to claim at least an honorary part of the newest military service.

The “Space Force Legacy Guardian Recognition Act” is included in the House version of the National Defense Authorization bill, but not the Senate version. The measure would allow the Secretary of the Air Force to establish a process for veteran space professionals to be designated as honorary members of the Space Force. They would be called “Legacy Guardians.”

Legacy Guardians would be eligible for “a certificate, approved device, or other insignia of such designation,” the bill states. They would not, however, be eligible for any additional benefits.

The the measure would apply to anyone “whom the Secretary of the Air Force determines served in support of space operations as a member of the Air Force.” Space operators from the other services need not apply. Lawmakers have also introduced the matter as stand-alone legislation, but its best hope is that House and Senate conferees include it in the final compromise version of the NDAA now under construction.

A staffer for Rep. Don Bacon, the retired Air Force brigadier general who introduced the legislation, told Air & Space Forces Magazine that lawmakers won’t distinguish among specialties, however. Space acquisition, intelligence, and other career fields could all qualify potentially—that decision would be left to the Department of the Air Force.

Bacon’s bill is co-sponsored by four House members, all from the Space Force caucus, including Reps. Salud Carbajal (D-Calif.), Brian Babin (R-Texas), Doug Lamborn (R-Colo.), and Ted Lieu (D-Calif.).

Bacon was not a space operator, but he and the veterans on his staff felt strongly about recognizing the legacy of space operators who paved the way for the Space Force.

“Veterans of a service are important for a community as well,” the staffer said. “They’re representative of that service.”

The staffer noted that as things currently stand, it will take years, if not decades, for the Space Force to develop a veteran community.

Since first introducing the legislation in the NDAA, Bacon’s office has received positive feedback from veteran space operators and current Guardians alike, the staffer claimed.

“This designation would not only bring together our space operations veterans with those who currently serve in the Space Force,” Lieu said in a statement. “It would appropriately honor the dedicated veterans and culture of service of the Air Force Space Command.”

“I’m proud to stand alongside my colleagues in acknowledging the contributions of our nation’s Air Force Space Operators who laid the foundation upon which our current Space Force is built,” Babin said in a statement. “Their expertise and devotion to a country pushed us upward and outward, establishing and ensuring America’s military dominance in space.”

A Department of the Air Force spokeswoman told Air & Space Forces Magazine that department leadership was not involved in crafting the legislation and is not tracking if or how many retired space operators have requested honorary or retroactive status in the Space Force.

The Space Force Association endorsed the measure in an Aug. 9 release.

First Air Force Reserve Unit to Get the F-35 Marks a Final Milestone with the F-16

Aug. 10, 2023 | By David Roza

The end of an era is swiftly approaching for the Air Force Reserve’s 301st Fighter Wing.

One of its units, the 457th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron, is finishing its final deployment with the F-16 Fighting Falcon, widely known as the Viper. When the squadron returns home to Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth, Texas, later this month after its deployment to Prince Sultan Air Base, Saudi Arabia, the unit will begin transitioning to the F-35A stealth fighter.

The 301st will be the first Air Force Reserve Command wing equipped with the F-35. It is expected to receive its first fifth-generation fighter in 2024, but to reach that point, it will have to say goodbye to its longtime F-16s.

“These F-16s have been part of our squadron for almost 30 years and have safely carried [our] pilots through thousands of combat sorties,” Lt. Col. David Snodgrass, commander of the 457th EFS, said in an Aug. 9 press release. “However, air combat has evolved and we are grateful our squadron has been chosen to convert to the F-35. We intend to carry the strong heritage of F-16 combat prowess forward to the new airplane.”

That release noted that the F-16s will not be retired—instead they will be distributed to Nellis Air Force Base, Nev., to be aggressors and to Homestead Air Reserve Base, Fla., to join the 93rd Fighter Squadron. Officials could not immediately provide Air & Space Forces Magazine with specific dates on when the transition will begin, but previous units to exchange F-16s for F-35s started sending planes out nearly a year in advance as they started the transition process.

“The F-16 has been the backbone of our operations for decades, and it’s sad to see it go,” said wing commander Col. Benjamin Harrison in a May release. “But at the same time, we’re excited for the new opportunities that lie ahead.”

f-16 — U.S. Airmen assigned to the 457th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron (EFS) pose for a group picture on Prince Sultan Air Base (PSAB), Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, June 4, 2023. U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Alexander Frank

The jet proved its worth during this most recent deployment, where the 457th patrolled the Middle East in support of Operations Inherent Resolve, the ongoing fight against ISIS, and Spartan Shield, an effort to build up security partnerships in the region. U.S. Central Command has had an eventful summer, with multiple instances of Russian aircraft damaging U.S. MQ-9 Reaper drones and U.S. fighters deploying to deter Iranian aggression in the Strait of Hormuz.

Snodgrass said his pilots often flew long, complex missions.

“The main challenge for pilots [was] the seven-hour duration of the sorties along with balancing multiple mission types,” he said. “We began preparing for the deployment as soon as we found out about our mobilization [and] completed exercises practicing Agile Combat Employment concepts and close air support skills prior to arriving that prepared us for the challenges here.”

Heat, wind, and sand made the task of maintaining middle-aged jets even more complicated. Snodgrass said he was “amazed” by the Airmen of the 457th Expeditionary Fighter Generation Squadron, who worked through 115-degree heat and dust storms to get the job done. Lt. Col. Eric Wanless, commander of the 457th EFGS, said the speed of the operation represented another challenge.

“Compared to home station, [the] tempo is the biggest difference as it is nonstop maintenance along with flying,“ he said in the release. “Heat and wind conditions make it tough as it limits repair time as we follow heat rest cycles.”

f-16 — The 457th Fighter Squadron operates an F-16 heritage jet painted in the colors of the Texas flag. U.S. Air Force photo by Master Sgt. Jeremy Roman

Though its specialty mission is the suppression of enemy air defenses, the multirole F-35 will replace the F-16 as the backbone of Air Force operations. The jet has already arrived at operational units across the branch’s Active component, with more landing at Air National Guard and Reserve units over the coming years.

The 301st first activated in 1944 and flew the P-47 Thunderbolt, the F-105 Thunderchief, and the F-4 Phantom II before switching to the F-16, according to the unit’s history. Getting ready for the F-35 is no easy feat, but Harrison expressed confidence in his Airmen.

“Our pilots and maintainers have put in a lot of time and effort to make sure we’re ready to make the switch,” he said in May. “We’re confident that we’ll be able to make a seamless transition to the F-35 and continue to provide the same level of excellence that our unit is known for.”

How to Protect Your Air Base From Hurricanes, Part 2: 165 Miles Per Hour or Bust

Aug. 10, 2023 | By David Roza

Editor’s Note: This is the second of a two-part series on how Tyndall Air Force Base, Fla., is working to protect itself from future hurricanes. This installment covers Tyndall’s efforts to make facilities withstand future storms. Part 1, about the base’s nature-based coastal resilience projects, can be found here.

TYNDALL AIR FORCE BASE, Fla.—Five years after Hurricane Michael flattened Tyndall Air Force Base, Fla., the facility is being rebuilt as a model ‘Installation of the Future,’ complete with new buildings, new F-35A Lightning II fighter jets, and new technology to make the base safer, stronger, and more efficient than before.

Looming over the rebuild, however, is the threat of more hurricanes and severe weather. Just last year, another Category 5 storm in Hurricane Ian swept through Florida, though it mostly spared Tyndall, and scientists predict more tropical cyclones will reach very intense levels in the years to come.

In response, Tyndall is aiming to build its facilities back stronger to withstand even more punishment from future storms.

“It was an exceptional event,” Col. Robert Bartlow Jr., chief of the Tyndall-based Air Force Civil Engineer Center Natural Disaster Recovery Division, said about Hurricane Michael. “But as we’re rebuilding the base, we’re not treating this as an exceptional event. We’re treating this as the new normal.”

Wind Resistance

After Michael, Air Force engineers raised the bar for building standards at Tyndall, matching what they saw in Florida’s Miami-Dade County. Each new building is built to survive 165 mile-per-hour winds. And they’re adapting those standards to match the Air Force’s special needs.

“A lot of what’s down in Miami is commercial properties ,” said William Heiney, senior resident engineer for the Tyndall office of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which oversees the day-to-day awarding of contracts and site management on the base. “We’re going to have some unique building elements. … If they don’t have an existing system that we can use, then [the building element] is designed, engineered, and stamped by a structural engineer to meet those requirements.”

To meet the 165 mph standard, some foundations must be sunk 30 to 40 feet deep. Precast structures are common, as is an increased volume of rebar in concrete walls and screws or other fasteners to secure roof materials. The key is to keep wind from peeling doors open, shattering windows, or any other means of penetrating a facility and causing an explosive imbalance in air pressure.

“It’s not ‘wind blows and things just fall over,’” said Bartlow. “If your building envelope is compromised, those high-velocity winds cause rapid pressure changes inside that facility and it will start to come apart.”

All Dry on the Flightline

To keep the flightline flood-free, Tyndall is building a massive underground concrete tunnel, seven feet high and 12 feet wide in some sections, stretching across the area known as Zone 1, where the F-35 hangars will be located. Called a box culvert, the tunnel will funnel stormwater away from the flightline and back towards the ocean. Buildings on the base will also be situated above flood levels and sea level rise.

“Next time we get a massive flood, we’re not going to be dealing with water in the buildings,” Heiney said.

Tyndall is not the only base being fortified to weather future storms. The Natural Disaster Recovery Division also oversees the rebuild of Offutt Air Force Base, Neb., where many operational facilities were damaged by a flood in 2019. Planners there aim to enlarge and strengthen nearby levees and raise the buildings above flood elevation to prevent future damage.

The Natural Disaster Recovery Division also has a mobile component which was recently dispatched to Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, to provide an initial assessment of facility conditions after Super Typhoon Mawar, a Category 4 hurricane, struck in late May.

“Bases that are vulnerable to storms are typically pretty good at initial recovery and getting their mission back up and running,” Bartlow said. “What they are not equipped to do is start answer questions regarding the long-term plan. Congress typically wants to know very quickly how much it’s going to cost, because they’ve got to strike while the iron’s hot.”

The recovery team helps provide an initial assessment so that lawmakers can work on finding resources to fund reconstruction efforts. Bartlow anticipates the team will have more work in the future.

“Tyndall and Offutt are not the last time we’ll have a problem at an Air Force installation associated with a natural disaster,” he said.

These programs align with the Air Force’s Climate Campaign Plan, where the first priority is maintaining air and space dominance in the face of climate risks, and the first objective to achieve that is to modernize infrastructure and facilities.

The Tyndall rebuild is not expected to finish until 2027, and some of the nature-based coastal resilience projects may take longer to come to fruition. But once complete, the aim is to ensure Mother Nature will not be able to take U.S. airpower offline for long.

“These things have happened at other installations, but I think this comprehensive approach that we’re taking is fairly unique to Tyndall, and it’s something that we think we can potentially export to other installations across the Air Force,” Bartlow said.

Part 1 on Tyndall Air Force Base’s efforts to defend against future hurricanes and severe weather is available here.

USAF Needs More Money to Stop Drone Swarms

Aug. 10, 2023 | By Greg Hadley

DAYTON, Ohio—While the Pentagon continues to experiment with technologies that could disable or destroy swarms of small drones, the Air Force’s lead on counter-drone acquisition said more funding is needed to counter the threat—and to turn promising efforts into programs of record.

The counter-small unmanned aerial systems mission, or C-sUAS, is one that Steven Wert, program executive officer for the digital directorate, has been tracking for several years now.

The Pentagon started ramping up spending on counter-drone weaponry around fiscal 2018, spending hundreds of millions of dollars on the effort. Around the same time, experts began warning that small, relatively cheap armed drones could bombard bases and wreak outsized havoc—making them attractive to a whole range of adversaries from China and Russia to Iran and even non-state actors, such as violent extremist groups.

“In response to urgent operational need, we fielded gear at many of our most critical bases,” Wert said at the Life Cycle Industry Days conference July 31. “But we never got developmental funding to modernize that gear, which is now five or six years old, probably seven- or eight-year-old technology.” Nor did the Air Force fully “explore different phenomenologies in the counter-UAS space.”

Meanwhile, the threat of small drones has only grown, highlighted by their use in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Ukraine’s subsequent response.

“I have repeatedly said I’m concerned about the lack of funding there given the increasing number of incursions that we see around the world,” Wert said. “That situation has not really changed. [Today] it is at the point where labs are developing different capabilities, but we don’t have the ability to catch those into a production program.”

For the Air Force, the Tactical High-power Operational Responder, or THOR—a short-range directed energy weapon developed by the Air Force Research Laboratory—is the most high-profile example this kind of capability. THOR uses microwaves to interfere with drones’ electronics, dropping them from the sky. First unveiled in 2019, the system has had a long path to development. Earlier this year THOR successfully disabled a swarm of drones, the first test on such a scale.

AFRL said it was developing a follow-on system in 2021, calling it “Mjolnir” for the hammer wielded by the Norse god Thor. In 2022, the lab selected Leidos to build the system, saying it would employ the same technology as THOR “but will add important advances in capability, reliability, and manufacturing readiness.” AFRL said it hoped to have a prototype by 2023, but has offered no updates since.

Meanwhile, other technologies have been explored—AFRL tested both microwave and laser weapons in overseas demonstrations but has offered few details on their effectiveness.

The Army is also developing solutions. The Pentagon established an Army-led Joint C-sUAS office in 2020, and it has since held four demonstrations, most recently in July. It has worked on both directed energy and kinetic weapons to take on single-drone attacks as well as swarms.

The joint C-sUAS office issued a request for white papers on Aug. 4, seeking “potential materiel solutions that have promising technologies or approaches” for detecting, tracking, identifying, and/or defeating small drone swarms. The most promising responses will be selected for further analysis, the request said, and some may be invited to participate in the office’s next demonstration, planned for June 2024.

In a separate request for information, the joint office said the demonstration will consist of “no less than 20 but up to 50 individual aircraft (Group 1 and Group 2) at one time and no less than six Group 3 aircraft at one time.” Group 1 and 2 aircraft refer to drones that weigh 55 pounds or less and normally only fly a few thousand feet above the ground. Group 3 includes drones that weigh less than 1,320 pounds and fly no higher than 18,000 feet.

The joint office’s request for white papers notes that after the demonstration, some companies may be selected for a prototyping program and even follow-on production without competition.

USAF, Northrop Test New Tech That Lets the B-2 Update Mission Parameters ‘In Seconds’

Aug. 9, 2023 | By John A. Tirpak

Northrop Grumman and the Air Force successfully demonstrated a new mission update system for the B-2 bomber in a two-day event at Whiteman Air Force Base, Mo., last month. The system receives new mission parameters and feeds them directly into the B-2’s computers without the need for the pilots to manually input the data.

The Integrated Airborne Mission Transfer (IAMT) demonstration started July 18 after B-2 No. 1086, the Spirit of Kitty Hawk, was fitted with Northrop’s Multi-Mission Domain (MMD) open-mission architecture, meant to make adding new mission capabilities easier.

Essentially, MMD “separates the mission systems of the B-2 from the flight/safety critical systems,” allowing the insertion of new capabilities “without extensive testing,” a Northrop spokesperson told Air & Space Forces Magazine. “This will speed up the delivery of new capabilities to the warfighter keeping the B-2 relevant for years to come,” she added.

For the demonstration, MMD integrated with the B-2’s Adaptable Communications Suite (ACS). The aircrew would receive incoming transmissions from a ground station, “which loaded the mission directly through MMD interfaces to the B-2 Disk Drive Unit,” according to a Northrop Grumman press release.

With the way the rest of the B-2 fleet is configured, aircrews has to manually transfer mission updates from the ACS. In contrast, the new technology “will allow direct transfer to the disk drive unit in seconds,” the Northrop spokesperson said.

“IAMT is the first of many possible combat applications that can be hosted on the B-2 via MMD which will rapidly integrate new software capabilities onto the B-2 in the coming years,” she added.

The system not only allow aircrews to focus on executing the mission at hand, it also eliminates the chance of potential errors that might be introduced by manually updating mission parameters, Northrop officials noted.

All told, the demonstration included 50 machine-to-machine mission updates. Senior officials from the B-2 System Program Office, Global Strike Command, and the 509th Bomb Wing observed.

Nikki Kodama, Northrop’s B-2 program manager, said the company is showing that the bomber can “communicate and operate in Advanced Battle Management Systems (ABMS) and the Joint All-Domain Command and Control (JADC2) environment, keeping B-2 ahead of evolving threats.”

The integration of the software will “further enhance the connectivity and survivability in highly contested environments as part of our ongoing modernization effort,” she added.

The demo is part of the B-2 Collaborative Combat Communication (B2C3) Spiral 1 program, which is intended to enhance the B-2’s digital communications capabilities. The spokesperson said the plan is to outfit the entire 20-aircraft B-2 force with the MMD, with the modifications to be done at Whiteman. The company did not specify a timetable for the mods.

Air Force officials have said recently they do not have a firm retirement date for the B-2, instead emphasizing that it will fly until the new B-21 Raider is ready. The bomber only recently returned to the skies in May, after a roughly six-month safety pause following a mishap in December. In July, the bomber made its first appearance in a major exercise since the pause, flying in Alaska. This most recent technology demonstration was not part of any larger exercise.

USAF Now Ready to Accept T-7s, Will Start Flight Tests in ‘Coming Weeks’

Aug. 9, 2023 | By Greg Hadley

DAYTON, Ohio—The Air Force will officially take ownership of its first production-representative T-7A trainer jet “in the coming weeks” and quickly move into flight testing from contractor Boeing’s St. Louis facility, a service official said last week.

After that, the first two Red Hawks will transfer out to Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., in the “September-ish” timeframe to continue testing, T-7 division chief Col. Kirt Cassell told reporters at the Life Cycle Industry Days conference July 31.

In April, Air Force acquisition executive Andrew Hunter announced that the T-7 won’t achieve initial operational capability until early 2027—three years past its original 2024 goal. Then the Government Accountability Office said in May that the Air Force-Boeing relationship was “tenuous,” and predicted Boeing might not even meet the revised 2027 timeline.

Cassell said the Air Force and Boeing have since reset their relationship. “There have been leadership changes,” he said. “At the PEO level and at my level within Boeing, they reorganized kind of wholesale. … And so there was a lot of changeover, which actually just gave us a whole new fresh set of eyes. I have a new deputy that came on the program. So we got a new fresh set of eyes and we really just reinvigorated our relationship.”

In May and June, the first production-representative T-7 started undergoing taxi tests, then took its first official flight with an Air Force pilot.

Behind the scenes, Cassell said, the Air Force and Boeing have been working together to ensure flight testing can start as soon as the first jet, dubbed T-2 or ATP-2, is officially transferred to the Air Force.

“The team, collectively Boeing and the Air Force, have been working overtime,” Cassell said. “Like I’m not kidding, working overtime, late nights, to get through acceptance. We should be accepting that aircraft here in the coming weeks. Once that’s completed, we’ve done a whole lot of work to get ready for flight tests. We’ve completed the appropriate test readiness reviews, those are done. We’ve completed the appropriate test planning requirements.”

Shortly after ATP-2 is accepted by the Air Force, the service hopes to take ownership of a second aircraft, called T-1 or ATP-1. The two airframes will test different factors—flight sciences and loads, respectively, Cassell said.

“There’s little to nothing standing in our way to getting this jet, ATP-2, up and running,” Cassell said. “We’ll start flight tests at St. Louis. And then in or around the September-ish timeframe is when we’ll transition APT-2 and then, following up on that, APT-1 out to Edwards for continued flight testing.”

Getting the T-7 back on track and avoiding any more delays will likely be crucial for satisfying lawmakers who have expressed concerns about the program. Hailed at its unveiling as proving how digital engineering and design are breakthrough technologies for accelerating product to market, the first production-representative aircraft went from drawing board to first flight in 36 months.

Digital design is “completely transforming how we’re doing systems engineering,” Gen. Duke Z. Richardson, head of Air Force Materiel Command, said in 2022. Boeing and Saab officials predicted it would “revolutionize” how aircraft are designed and built.

Then came the delays. In 2021, the Air Force said the T-7 suffered from “aircraft wing rock” at high angles of attack, making it unstable in the roll axis. Issues arose with the jet’s flight control software, and then came questions about the trainer’s ejection seat system—which had been required to accommodate a wider range of body sizes. USAF and Boeing sparred over the test data and how to interpret it.

This May, Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall suggested digital engineering had been “over-hyped” as a way to cut development time and cost, cautioning that there are no shortcuts to real-world testing.

Boeing and the Air Force now say the T-7’s issues have largely been corrected. But lawmakers are skeptical. A provision in the House version of the National Defense Authorization bill would require the Air Force to assess the “risks associated with the overlap of development, testing, and production phases of the program and risks related to contractor management.” Whether that provision survives the House-Senate conference to reconcile the House and Senate versions of the bill remains to be seen.

How to Protect Your Air Base From Hurricanes, Part 1: Let Nature Help

Aug. 9, 2023 | By David Roza

Editor’s Note: This is the first of a two-part series on how Tyndall Air Force Base, Fla., is working to protect itself from future hurricanes. This installment covers Tyndall’s nature-based coastal resilience projects, while Part 2 covers the base’s efforts to make facilities withstand future storms.

TYNDALL AIR FORCE BASE, Fla.—Hurricane Michael tore through this base nearly five years ago, devastating hangars and aircraft and prompting some to ask if Tyndall Air Force Base should be given up for good. Instead, Air Force and Florida leaders rallied to the idea that they could build a model “Installation of the Future” complete with new buildings, new F-35A Lightning II fighter jets, and new technology to make the base safer, stronger, and more efficient than before.

The big question is: How can the base protect itself from future hurricanes? Part of Tyndall’s answer is a range of nature-based coastal resilience projects, including sand dunes, oyster reefs, and pine forests. The sand dunes in particular take the brunt of ocean waves during a hurricane.

Piled atop 18 miles of barrier islands surrounding Tyndall, they form the base’s “first line of defense for storms,” Melanie Kaeser, a biologist with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, told Air & Space Forces Magazine.

Hurricane Michael swept over dunes and wiped out much of the vegetation on the barrier islands, disrupting the habitat and opening the way for further damage in the future. Kaeser’s team is restoring those barrier islands, planting grasses and shrubs and planning to learn which prove best at trapping sand. Kaeser said the dunes are already recovering without intervention, but her team’s work is to “speed that process up.”

“If you don’t build it back up, you’re going to keep pushing back that first line of defense,” she explained. “That’s what took the brunt of the storm surge, so without these barrier islands, that storm surge would have gone right on to the installation.”

Kaeser’s team is also restoring thousands of acres of pine forests around the base to help block severe winds. Planting longleaf pines, which can resist wind, insects, and disease better than the slash pines that were there before, should prove effective over time. The team has planted 6.5 million fast-growing seedlings in the past three years and aims to plant another million within the next year.

Elsewhere on Tyndall, scientists are experimenting with biodegradable concrete and cement as a foundation for seagrass and oysters, a technology called Reefense. Once at home here, the goal is for oysters to build and repair wave-blocking reefs on their own, according to Rutgers University, which received $12.6 million from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to pursue the technology.

Living shorelines—a combination of plants, rock, and sand designed to attract marine life; oyster reef breakwaters; and expanded salt marshes are other ways Tyndall officials hope to dissipate waves and reduce flooding, according to installation documents and The Nature Conservancy, which is helping develop Tyndall’s natural defenses. Base planners hope to scale up the projects that succeed to create an integrated defense against storm surge and erosion.

“The focus of everything is slowing down that wave attenuation as it comes on shore, whether it’s natural waves, tidal surges, or hurricane-related events,” said Garey Payne, acquisition program manager with the Air Force’s Natural Disaster Recovery Division. “You have this overlapping field of effect that eventually makes the installation more robust to the effects of climate change, sea level rise, and natural erosive processes.”

Many of these techniques are not entirely new or unique to Tyndall. A few hundred miles down the Florida Gulf Coast, MacDill Air Force Base has been working on oyster reef shoreline stabilization since at least 2004. But what’s new at Tyndall is a funding mechanism to facilitate such projects. In the wake of the hurricane damage, Congress expanded the Readiness and Environmental Protection Integration (REPI) program in 2019, allowing the military to use federal funding for installation resilience projects, even if those projects are outside a base’s land or water boundaries.

That means Tyndall can use federal funding to experiment with oyster breakwaters in Florida state waters beyond the base’s shoreline. That funding can help attract state and local government or conservation agencies to work with the Air Force on such projects.

“Prior to REPI funds being available for this kind of work, it took community partnerships, it took convincing the county or state or whoever to spend their money to do a living shoreline,” Payne said. “Now we’re bringing the money to them [and saying] ‘We need you to do the legwork because it’s in state waters, but we are going to give you the money to do it.’”

Such funding mechanisms could prove useful as the Air Force writ large seeks to fortify its installations against the effects of climate change and extreme weather.

“We cannot launch or recover aircraft on a flooded runway, nor can we operate from installations devastated by hurricanes and wildfires,” Dr. Ravi I. Chaudhary, assistant secretary of the Air Force for energy, installations, and the environment, wrote in a Climate Campaign Plan unveiled in July. “Our bases are our power projection platforms and as those bases are increasingly impacted by the effects of climate change, adapting to these challenges will be critical to meet our national security obligation.”

At Tyndall, that mentality has become the norm.

“We’re not going to treat a category five storm as an exceptional event,” said Col. Robert Bartlow Jr., head of the Tyndall-based Air Force Civil Engineer Center Natural Disaster Recovery Division. “That’s the new standard.”

Part 2 on Tyndall Air Force Base’s efforts to defend against future hurricanes and severe weather is available here.

As Hold on General Nominations Persists, 100-Plus USAF and USSF Officers Remain Frozen

Aug. 8, 2023 | By Chris Gordon

With the retirement of Army Chief of Staff Gen. James C. McConville on Aug. 4, two positions on the Joint Chiefs of Staff do not have a Senate-confirmed replacement, and more than 300 general and flag officer nominations remain in limbo while Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) continues to protest the Department of Defense’s reproductive health policies with a legislative hold.

As of Aug. 8, Tuberville’s hold on unanimous consent confirmation for general and flag officers is affecting 301 nominations pending before the Senate. More than a third of those affected officers are from the Air Force and Space Force.

According to Pentagon data, 73 pending nominations are from the Air Force, 25 for the Air Force Reserve, and eight for the Space Force—106 total. The Department of Air Force says nearly two dozen are for three-and-four star positions.

Some generals actually have two separate nominations pending. Brig. Gen. Dale R. White has been nominated to move up two ranks, and Air Force Maj. Gen. Shawn Bratton has been nominated for a third star and to become deputy chief of space operations for strategy, plans, programs, and requirements, meaning he must transfer from two-star Airman to two-star Guardian, then be promoted.

At the moment, however, they’re stuck waiting, and with the Senate out of session until September, a resolution is still weeks away at best.

In the meantime, most officials have to stay in place. For example, Air Force major commands, such as Air Combat Command and Pacific Air Forces, are in limbo. Gen. Kenneth D. Wilsbach, the current head of PACAF, has been nominated to head ACC. But he cannot replace Gen. Mark D. Kelly until confirmed, forcing Kelly to stay on at ACC for now, without a clear timeframe on when the situation might be resolved.

“Largely speaking, if it's a Senate-confirmed position for example, three-to-four star, there would be a lot of situations where you would hold in place until you're confirmed, unless there's permission to act in an acting capacity,” Pentagon Press Secretary Air Force Brig. Gen. Patrick S. Ryder told reporters Aug. 7.

In high-profile positions on the Joint Chiefs of Staff, though, leaders are term-limited, leading to situations like McConville’s retirement without a confirmed successor.

McConville’s deputy, Gen. Randy A. George, has been nominated to succeed him but is now serving in an acting role. The Marine Corps is currently being led by assistant commandant Gen. Eric M. Smith on an acting basis—Smith has also been nominated to take over the top job but is still awaiting confirmation to replace now retired Gen. David H. Berger.

In the hallway of the Pentagon housing the Joint Chiefs of Staff, McConville's portrait was recently removed, joining the blank space vacated by Berger. Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Michael M. Gilday will retire later this month, leaving the Navy without a Senate-confirmed boss.

Portraits of members of Joint Chiefs of Staff pictured at the Pentagon, Aug. 7, 2023. Photo by Chris Gordon/Air & Space Forces Magazine

“Unfortunately, today, for the first time in the history of the Department of Defense, two of our services will be operating without Senate-confirmed leadership, and 301 nominations for our general and flag officers are being held up," Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III said Aug. 4 said McConville’s relinquishment of command ceremony. “Let me be clear: In our dangerous world, the security of the United States demands orderly and prompt transitions of our confirmed military leaders.”

At the end of September, Gen. Mark A. Milley’s term as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs will be up. Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. has been nominated to replace Milley but must be approved by then. If he is not, then Vice Chairman Adm. Christopher W. Grady will step in on an acting basis.

Tuberville first placed a hold on all flag and general officer nominees in March, attempting to pressure the Pentagon into reversing its policy providing paid leave and travel funds for troops requiring reproductive services, including abortions, who are based in states where those services are not available.

Majority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) could bring up nominations for individual roll call votes in the Senate. But Democrats seem unwilling to take that step for now, arguing voting one-by-one would cost too much floor time.

“There is no world in which we can use floor time for these nominations,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) told reporters Aug. 8. “It’s logistically impossible to do these nominations through regular order.”

But while most military nominations are usually confirmed via unanimous consent, some of the most critical positions, such as service chiefs or Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, have received roll call votes in the past. Brown was confirmed to his current role in an uncontroversial, 98-0 roll call vote in 2020.

Tuberville’s hold has drawn the ire of some fellow Republicans, though Tuberville has been unmoved by pressure to change his position.

“Maybe Republicans were hopeful that leading up to the August break he would relent,” Murphy said of Tuberville. "He didn’t, and we now have to adjust our strategy.”

A spokesperson for Schumer did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

How things will play out when the Senate returns is unclear. Tuberville last spoke to Austin on July 18, their third phone call on the topic according to the Pentagon, but the short conversation did not help break the impasse. Pentagon officials say they continue to attempt to engage with Tuberville’s office. But Tuberville has so far indicated he does not intend to back down.

“I remain strongly opposed to this immoral policy, and believe its development and implementation run afoul of legal authority granted to the executive branch,” Tuberville wrote in a letter to Austin on July 28, reiterating that his hold remains in effect.

"The hold simply requires military nominations and promotions to be processed through regular order rather than being approved by unanimous consent in large batches,” Tuberville’s office said in a statement at the time.

Air Force General Teases New Details on CCAs Coming at AFA Conference in September

Aug. 8, 2023 | By John A. Tirpak

DAYTON, Ohio—The Air Force will announce key new details about its Collaborative Combat Aircraft program at AFA’s Air, Space, and Cyber Conference in September, including future force design, acquisition strategy, and cooperation with the Navy, according to a top service official.

Brig. Gen. (Lt. Gen. select) Dale White, program executive officer for fighters and advanced aircraft, teased the announcement while speaking with reporters July 31 at the Life Cycle Industry Days conference.

Both the Air Force and Navy are pursuing programs to develop autonomous drones that will pair with manned aircraft, and the two services have reportedly held discussions about how to collaborate. Asked how the Air Force and Navy plan to orchestrate the handoff of targets between such aircraft, White suggested “there will be a larger discussion” of CCAs—touching on how that fleet will integrate with the Navy and USAF’s current tactical air inventory—at the ASC 2023 conference, which takes place Sept. 11-13.

“I’ll just give you a little teaser [that] there’s four specific areas that we’re focused on,” White said. “And those four specific areas will define how we pick out this path” toward a CCA capability.

White did not elaborate on the four focus areas but seemed to suggest they will at least partially involve how CCAs will tie into the Joint All-Domain Command and Control (JADC2) system.

The Air Force is “maturing our force design” for CCAs in accord with joint force design, White added, “and the Navy is doing the same.”

While the two services may have some differing views on how CCAs should be employed, “you’re starting to see that integration coming together better, because technology becomes that bond; that glue that bonds us together,” White said. “And so while we may have different requirements on the fringe, by and large, the tacair, or air dominance mission is the same regardless of what uniform you wear.”

He added that “the requirements of the end state may be a little different on the fringe. But the capability and technologies are the same.”

White also said the Air Force has had consistent collaboration with the Navy on CCAs, and the two branches are taking “that teaming approach, knowing what the other is doing, making sure we’re protecting interoperability” in the joint fight. That collaboration has also been key to ensuring the services don’t waste time or resources duplicating efforts.

From operators to the highest levels of the Pentagon, the Air Force and Navy have been “working consistently towards similar outcomes,” White added.

“We have to be in lockstep,” he said of the ability to share data and targets, adding “We’re finding architectures and standards become the foundation of interoperability. … So we’ll lay out more specific detail on that” at the ASC conference.

Air Force leaders have said they will seek at least 1,000 of the autonomous CCAs to augment the manned fighter fleet, with a ratio of at least two drones per fighter and as many as five. The Navy, for its part, has said it is working toward a carrier air wing that will be more than 60 percent uncrewed aircraft by the early 2030s.

The next step in the CCA plan is focused on force design, White said.

White also said the Air Force has to “break the mold” of how requirements are written and answered in developing new aircraft, echoing comments of Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. at the LCID conference. Specifically, Brown suggested the service should move away from “specific, detailed requirements” and toward a system where new capabilities are constantly introduced, on an operationally-relevant timetable.

In the case of CCAs, White said both Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall and service acquisition executive Andrew Hunter “have both alluded to that iterative nature” of the program, “that is defined by both technology as well as the operator.”

“Let me be clear: we are on a journey,” White said. “And so on that journey we will learn and we will continue to iterate. And as we go through constant refinement, and we go through testing … that will greatly inform where we’re going. And when you think about the agility we’ve invested in the acquisition strategy, we’re going to be able to leverage that moreso than previously.”