The Focus Is Fighting Tonight For New Air Mobility Boss

The Focus Is Fighting Tonight For New Air Mobility Boss

Oct. 3, 2024 | By David Roza

A few months after the U.S. invaded Afghanistan in 2001, Capt. John D. Lamontagne was a C-17 pilot at Charleston Air Force Base, S.C., where he and his fellow Moose drivers started flying with night vision goggles to prepare for blacked-out landings in the Middle East in the new Global War on Terror.

“At the time, night vision goggles were a mission set for our most experienced crew members,” Lamontagne, now a four-star general and the new head of Air Mobility Command told Air & Space Forces Magazine 23 years later. “9/11 basically drove the whole team at Charleston, and then I’d say probably across Air Mobility Command, to be qualified on NVGs … it didn’t turn night into day, but it was very much a key enabler to do what we needed to do at a lower level of risk.”

So when Lamontagne’s squadron commander asked if he’d be interested in flying a special operations team to Kandahar in the early months of the war, Lamontagne said he was ready to go. But since he was working directly for the wing commander at the time, he had to get the colonel’s permission first.

“The wing commander did not let me get out from behind that desk,” he said. It was a letdown, but the point remains: the young pilot was ready to fly a new mission for a new war the nation was fighting. Likewise, Lamontagne wants the 107,000 Airmen and 1,100 aircraft now under his command at AMC to be ready for the next conflict, even if it breaks out today.

“The crews can only operate with what they have, the forces can only operate with what they have,” he said. “As far as flying, fighting, winning tonight, we can only do it with what we have tonight.”

lamontagne
Gen. John D. Lamontagne accepts the Air Mobility Command guidon from Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David W. Allvin during the AMC Change of Command ceremony on Scott Air Force Base, Illinois, Sept. 9, 2024. (U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Shelby Rapert)

The fight in question is a potential conflict against near-peer rivals such as China and Russia. Officials say it will require new technology, new tactics, and a new mindset about what it means to deploy. On top of that, AMC must also meet an insatiable demand for airlift and aerial refueling as the U.S. military responds to conflict and natural disasters around the world. 

To make things even more complicated, Lamontagne will also have to navigate a new place for AMC as the Air Force pursues a sweeping reorganization to prepare for near-peer conflict. In the reorg, some major commands will become institutional commands, responsible for organizing, training, and equipping forces, while others will be service component commands, responsible for presenting forces to joint combatant commands. 

AMC is one of those service component commands, charged with presenting forces to U.S. Transportation Command, while the new Integrated Capabilities Command will oversee force modernization efforts for the entire service, including AMC.

It’s a lot of change, but the months after 9/11 saw a lot of change, too.

“The commanders laid out the vision for what we needed to be able to do, identified the risk they were willing to accept, gave the team some pretty wide swim lanes to go do it, and we went and did it,” he recalled. “It was a very empowering atmosphere which allowed the good ideas to bubble up from the bottom up, in accordance with their vision.”

Lessons Learned

Before moving back to Scott Air Force Base, Ill., for the AMC job, Lamontagne’s old post was in Germany, where he spent the past three years as chief of staff for U.S. European Command and then as deputy commander for U.S. Air Forces in Europe-Air Forces Africa. 

It was a busy time to be in Europe; about eight months after Lamontagne became chief of staff, Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, raising tensions across the continent and prompting a wave of Air Force-borne supplies and equipment for Ukrainian troops that continues to this day. 

One of the lessons the general has taken away from the war is the importance of air refueling tankers, which keep the fighters flying so they can achieve air superiority. Neither side in Ukraine controls the skies, which officials say has contributed to its yearslong grind.

“There are some strong threats in both Europe and the Pacific that have been designed to take away that very asymmetric advantage that we have with rapid global mobility,” said Lamontagne, who started his career as a KC-135 tanker pilot. “It is really central for us to work air refueling … so that we can negate those defenses and continue to provide air superiority so that our forces can win.”

The other lesson he took away from Ukraine is the proliferation of small uncrewed aerial vehicles that can strike or spy on enemy targets. Airmen are not typically trained or equipped to sense and counter those threats, Lamontagne said, but they need to be going forward, both at home station and while deployed.

Beyond warfighting, Lamontagne wants to give mobility Airmen the opportunity for rewarding experiences in uniform. For his part, the general looks back fondly on his time as assistant operations officer, then operations officer, then commander of the 15th Airlift Squadron at Charleston both at home and on a combat deployment from 2007 to 2010.

“The absolute professional highlight of my career, probably until now,” he said. “Never in my wildest dreams would I think that I would be here, but I look forward to setting the conditions for others to have the same level of success or more that I was able to enjoy.

“The good old days are today, right?” he added. “Today is the good old days for the captains, the NCOs, the Airmen. So I want to set a culture that will let them thrive in their personal environment and thrive in their work environment. That is what we are aspiring to do.”

Gen. Johnny Lamontagne
Lt. Gen. John D. Lamontagne, U.S. Air Forces in Europe – Air Forces Africa deputy commander, meets Brig. Gen. Otis C. Jones, 86th Airlift Wing commander, team at Ramstein Air Base, Germany, March 22, 2023. (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Kaitlyn Oiler)

Fight Tonight

Lamontagne has two buckets for priorities: acquisitions and operational. Acquisition includes programs such as the Next Generation Aerial refueling System (NGAS) and “25 by 25,” an effort launched by his predecessor, Gen. Mike Minihan, to upgrade the fleet with secure, beyond-line-of-sight communications.

While it’s not clear when those capabilities will arrive, the general wants to take a more deliberate approach towards prioritizing which airframes get connectivity first and how Airmen employ, sustain, and train on them. He has already met with Maj. Gen. Mark Mitchum, the head of the newly-established Integrated Capabilities Command, which will coordinate the Air Force’s modernization efforts.

The conversation was “a great opportunity to say ‘hey, we’re going to send you our talent so that you can develop those interoperable systems, not just in one portfolio, but across, so that we can have one Air Force,’” Lamontagne said.

Meanwhile, the operational bucket includes the tactics and techniques that Airmen can work on today to be ready to “fight tonight,” he explained. For example, Minihan pushed AMC’s ability to “explode into theater,” meaning they can quickly get from home station in the continental United States out to the distant frontlines where they are needed most.

“There’s probably going to be a healthy amount of continuity with what Gen. Minihan had already put in place,” Lamontagne said.

The general also wants to better integrate AMC’s Illinois-based 618th Air Operations Center (AOC) with the Hawaii-based 613th AOC, which oversees Air Force operations in the Indo-Pacific, and the Germany-based 603rd AOC, which does the same for Europe and Africa.

Doing so will align AMC’s time and tempo with the commands where the next conflict may break out.

“We will certainly need to project forward, but we’re going to need to be able to sustain them on their timing and tempo, and I think there’s some work to do to strengthen that alignment and integration across our C2 formations,” he said.

At the same time, Airmen have to be ready to carry out their commander’s intent even when communications have been cut off by the enemy. It’s another skill that AMC can train on now, because conflict could break out any time, Lamontagne said.

“You can only train with what you have,” he explained. “We, the headquarters, are going to work those acquisition pieces and eventually provide that capability. But if it doesn’t deliver until tomorrow, figuratively, it doesn’t help those squadrons tonight. So we’re going to focus on tonight.”

Photos: Big, Ugly, and Orange B-52 Lands at Barksdale

Photos: Big, Ugly, and Orange B-52 Lands at Barksdale

Oct. 3, 2024 | By Greg Hadley

B-52s touch down frequently at Barksdale Air Force Base, La., but the one that landed Sept. 30 looked a little different. 

Sporting bright orange paint on the cockpit, wing tips, engine nacelles, and tail, the Stratofortress seemed dressed for an early start to hunting season in Louisiana; in fact, the special paint scheme was a nod to the B-52’s roots more than 60 years ago. 

“The orange color represents the test and evaluations conducted during the 1950s and 1960s, honoring the B-52’s history,” the 2nd Bomb Wing noted in a photo caption of the B-52 landing. 

Only three B-52A bombers were built, and two of them became test units for launching the X-15 rocket plane and other cutting-edge technologies: NB-52A 52-0003, nicknamed “The High and Mighty One,” and NB-52B 52-008, nicknamed “The Challenger.” 

Collectively dubbed “motherships,” the two sported orange markings at times to better identify them as test vehicles. The Buff landing at Barksdale in September matched the pattern on “The High and Mighty One.” That airframe’s orange accents are still on display at the Pima Air & Space Museum in Arizona.

A B-52 mothership carries the X-15 aloft for a research flight in April 1960, leaving behind high-altitude, as Air Force Maj. Robert M. White readies for his first X-15 flight. Courtesy photo/NASA

Fittingly, the orange-accented B-52 that landed at Barksdale is assigned to the 49th Test and Evaluation Squadron, the bombers’ operational testing lead. 

A photographer identified as Redhome Aviation posted images to Facebook on Sept. 30, showing the bomber taking off from Tinker Air Force Base, Okla., where B-52s get depot-level maintenance.

The Air Force is upgrading its B-52Hs with new engines, radars, and cockpit equipment over the coming years. The changes will carry a new designator, B-52J, and keep the bombers in service into the 2050s, when the airframes will approach 100 years old.  

How to Get a Continuous ATO: The Secret to Success

How to Get a Continuous ATO: The Secret to Success

Oct. 3, 2024 | By Adam Stone

Every time a government agency deploys a new piece of software, someone has to issue an Authority To Operate. It’s a sort of Good Housekeeping seal of approval for secure, reliable software. It can also be a hurdle too high to enable frequent software updates. 

It doesn’t have to be. 

In May, the Pentagon blessed a new methodology for supporting rapid software updates: The continuous ATO (cATO) requires a cultural and process change, but is ultimately a more secure and reliable alternative, according to the Continuous Authorization to Operate (cATO) Evaluation Criteria. 

Bryon Kroger, Founder and CEO of Rise8 who coined the term and pioneered the first cATO at the Air Force software factory Kessel Run, said the concept is built on the Risk Management Framework developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology and embodied in NIST 800-53.  

A cATO ensures that “when we’re ready to release software, it’s already authorized,” Kroger said.

As Chief Operating Officer at Kessel Run, Kroger led acquisitions, development, and operations for the enterprise-scale software factory. His team proved that cATO speeds software deployments and enhances security. But translating that pioneering success more broadly is anything but instant. 

Obstacles to cATO Success

Adopting the agile processes and cultural mentality of DevSecOps, the software processes that combine development, operations, and security, are a tall order for any organization. 

cATO “involves a lot of continuous monitoring,” Kroger said, and that scares people off. Automation can ease that burden, with machines tackling much of the routine compliance work, but that too can be scary—requiring a level of trust, confidence, and commitment from all parties. 

“People hem and haw about how bad RMF is,” Kroger said. But having a framework is the first step to developing better processes. Rather than wringing one’s hands over one more set of requirements, he said, project managers should just “Go understand the system, go read the RMF—it’s a surprisingly good set of documentation.”

Once a development team fully understands the Risk Management Framework, the door is opened to a more collaborative relationship with authorizing officials because now everyone is speaking the same language. That, in turn, can fuel the shift to cATO.

Secrets to Success

All of Rise8’s processes are geared to the cATO model. After years of work there and at Kessel Run, Bryon lays out the key factors to adopting a cATO culture.

Topping the list is “controls inheritance.” With potentially hundreds of different controls at play within the development pipelines, app builders need a way to move forward consistently and efficiently as they strive for continuous authorization.

By inheriting the underlying controls, developers can streamline their processes, freeing them to focus on development and on their specific areas of concern. By adopting controls inheritance, “they’re only truly responsible for their portion” of a program, reducing the number of controls they have to worry about from as many as 400 or 500 to a fraction, Kroger said.

Next comes the assessors’ experience. Across the DoD, “we practice user-centered design with warfighters,” Kroger said. That means building products and processes that meet a specific user’s needs. If the user is pleased, the project is successful. 

Likewise, the continuous assessment and monitoring process should take the assessors into account, since “they’re the ones using [and reviewing] this process.”

The assessors “are doing one of the most important jobs in the military, which is making sure our software is secure,” he said. So the processes that define a cATO ought to be built to meet their needs.

Ultimately, the Defense Department must change the conversation around authorizations. Rather than making exceptions for cATOs, the default option should be cATO and the conventional processes should become the exception. 

In consideration of early presumptions that speedier software development would mean a higher-risk software, the truth is that when implemented with the RMF in mind, cATOs reduce risk by more rapidly fixing known problems. A vulnerability can be identified and mitigated in hours, rather than months or years, reducing risk. 

“We need to do a better job of showing how what we’re doing today is very risky,” he said of conventional updating and ATO processes. “Going slow is a risk in and of itself.”

Speed should be seen for what it is—a benefit rather than a liability. 

“When we go fast, we actually are able to reduce some risks,” he said. Security flaws get fixed faster, and the risk of under-provisioning warfighters is mitigated by more rapid software delivery. 

Highlighting those benefits and the risks of sticking with a conventional go-slow approach can change the nature of the conversation. Agile software, delivered and improved incrementally, and authorized continuously, is better for everyone. 

Navy Will Pick a 6th-Gen Fighter as Air Force Pauses NGAD

Navy Will Pick a 6th-Gen Fighter as Air Force Pauses NGAD

Oct. 2, 2024 | By Chris Gordon

In the race to field the first sixth-generation fighter, the U.S. Navy is pressing ahead as the Air Force pauses its program amid concern that it’s too expensive and might not be the best answer to emerging threats. The Navy expects to award a contract for its next-generation, carrier-based fighter and expects the long-range attack jet to enter service in the 2030s, its top officer said Oct. 2.

“We expect that sixth-generation platform to be able to have advanced sensors, advanced lethality, advanced range, and being able to integrate with manned and unmanned capabilities together,” said Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Lisa Franchetti. “That’s one of the things, as we learn from the Air Force and the work they’re doing, to integrate that with what we know that we need to be able to do.”

The Navy will soon decide between competitors Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman. “We have three companies that have provided proposals for that and we’re actually in source selection right now,” Franchetti told reporters at a Defense Writers Group event.

Franchetti’s commitment to the program, referred to as F/A-XX for now, comes as the Air Force is reevaluating its future combat jet, the Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) aircraft, with a rapid analysis over the course of the next three months.

Air Force leaders have indicated they would prefer a less-costly option. But making NGAD less expensive would likely mean sacrificing range and payload, which could mean opting for a single engine rather than two. Shorter range is also only possible if the Air Force also fields a stealthy Next-Generation Air-refueling System (NGAS), the Air Force’s hoped-for future tanker concept.

The Navy’s F/A-XX is meant to replace its F/A-18 Super Hornet multi-role fighters and E/A-18 Growler electronic warfare attack aircraft. It is planned to deliver greater range and possess more sensing and electronic warfare capabilities than the service’s F-35C fifth-generation fighters.

The Navy is not without budget challenges of its own, however. Earlier this year it delayed roughly $1 billion in investments for F/A-XX to focus on near-term readiness—and Congress may cut the F/A-XX budget even more. But Franchetti’s comments indicate a new crewed fighter is still a Navy priority at the very moment when the outlook for the Air Force’s next-generation fighter appears to be in limbo.

“Air platforms are equally one of the strategic advantages we have” as a service, she said, noting that the other principal advantage is submarines.

Asked if the Air Force pausing NGAD was concerning, Franchetti indicated it is important for the individual services to align their future aircraft plans in some ways, but not so much that the Air Force’s decision—whatever it may be—would be a show-stopper for F/A-XX.

According to the most recent plans, NGAD’s engine was to come from the Next Generation Adaptive Propulsion (NGAP) program. NGAP was to be a more compact application of technologies developed for the Adaptive Engine Transition Program (AETP), which was nixed as an option for the F-35 Lightning II a year ago.

It’s likely that F/A-XX could share engine technology with NGAD.

The Air Force’s NGAD crewed fighter was conceived as a replacement for the F-22 Raptor. Both NGAD and the F/A-XX are intended to operate in concert with uncrewed platforms such as Collaborative Combat Aircraft.

The cost of a crewed NGAD airplane is believed to be between $200 million and $300 million, a major driver behind Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall’s decision to pause the program this summer while there might still be time to rethink the program. Asked in September at AFA’s Air, Space & Cyber Conference what price he would consider reasonable, he indicated he’d prefer to pay no more than the price of an F-35—about $80-100 million.  

The Air Force must make a decision within the next few months on the future of NGAD to inform the service’s fiscal 2026 budget. Kendall is confident NGAD will go forward in some form, saying in July that “we’re still going to do a sixth-generation, crewed aircraft.”

“I think more broadly, as all the services work together to make sure that they have complementary capability, ‘Where can we learn from each other?'” Franchetti asked. “Where can we leverage that learning so you can be more common in the future?”

Pentagon Wants to Fastrack Buy of Cheap One-Way Drones

Pentagon Wants to Fastrack Buy of Cheap One-Way Drones

Oct. 2, 2024 | By John A. Tirpak

The Pentagon’s Defense Innovation Unit is soliciting industry to offer commercial, inexpensive, one-way drones to perform a variety of battlefield tasks—and the military wants them soon.

The DIU said that once a solution or solutions are chosen, there may be no further competition and that selected systems may go right into development “following a live flight demonstration during Phase 2 of the Commercial Solutions Opening (CSO) selection process,” according to an agency announcement. The Pentagon’s technology arm wants responses by midnight on Oct. 14.

Under the expedited format, the government is looking for heavy involvement of small businesses or “nontraditional” defense contractors.

The solicitation did not specify that the uncrewed aerial systems would be used by any particular military service. It also did not refer to the Pentagon’s year-old Replicator initiative, in which inexpensive, autonomous systems would be produced at scale to augment and enhance the fighting force.

“Recent conflicts”—presumably in Ukraine and the Middle East—“have highlighted the asymmetric impact low-cost, one-way unmanned aerial systems (UAS) have on the modern battlefield,” the DIU said. The Defense Department “must be able to employ low-cost precision effects at extended ranges. Reliable, affordable, and adaptable UAS platforms that allow for employment at scale will maximize operational flexibility for the joint force,” it added.

The Pentagon wants commercial systems that:

  • Can operate from 50-300+ kilometers with at least a 10 Kg payload; “ideally, 25+ Kg”
  • “Launch quickly and expeditiously” from the ground
  • Are “difficult to detect and track”
  • Navigate at low altitudes
  • Carry a variety of payloads
  • Operate beyond-line-of-sight in “disrupted, disconnected, intermittent and low-bandwidth (DDIL) and Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS)-denied environments.”

The DIU wants systems “capable of supporting high-speed, low-altitude, beyond-line-of-sight flight operations” under DDIL conditions, explaining that the UAS “should be able to execute its mission without continuous communication from an operator, though solutions that provide multiple pathways and mechanisms for two-way communications are desired.”

The announcement didn’t specify cost bounds for the submitted systems.

Replies are to be in the form of a short presentation that describes “the mechanism of ground launch, operational limitations, and rate of launch per team.” The DIU said it strongly recommends all proposals “be formatted as presentations no more than 12 slides in length.” 

Responses are to explain “the ability of the platform to perform terminal guidance in denied environments and the capabilities available on the platform to support such maneuvers.”

Companies pitching a system have to provide details on “the precision, accuracy, and reliability of the proposed solution,” the number of flight tests accomplished so far, and “any information about testing environments, production facilities, and projected production capacities.”

Companies proposing a solution also have to “discuss the mission planning software that will be made available with the submitted platform.” That software should be “intuitive and integrate other first- and third-party platforms.”

The DIU noted that offerings will be assessed for their ability to “on the order of hours, integrate third-party software and hardware components (including payloads) in a modular, warm-swappable manner.”

Offerings must also use open hardware and software interfaces “that allow for seamless integration of third-party systems.”

The DIU isn’t interested in an intellectual property negotiation. It won’t accept any “proprietary interfaces, message formatting or hardware” requiring vendor licensing.

While DIU will accept “teaming solutions,” all proposals must “address the hardware and software requirements holistically.”

Any award made in response to the solicitation “may result in the award of a follow-on production contract or transaction without the use of further competitive procedures,” DIU said. The resulting “follow-on production contract or transaction will be available for use by one or more organizations in the Department of Defense and, as a result, the magnitude of the follow-on production contract or agreement could be significantly larger than that of the prototype” agreement.

Any prototype “Other Transaction” deal may result “in the award of a follow-on production contract or transaction without the use of competitive procedures,” DIU said.

Air National Guard Delivers Lifeline on C-17 After Hurricane Helene

Air National Guard Delivers Lifeline on C-17 After Hurricane Helene

Oct. 2, 2024 | By Unshin Lee Harpley

In the aftermath of Hurricane Helene’s wrath, the North Carolina Air National Guard has launched a relief effort to distribute 100,000 pounds of essentials across the state using C-17 Globemaster aircraft, the Guard said.

North Carolina is among the hardest hit states by the storm, with tens of thousands of residents in the western part of the state without running water and at least 90 lives reportedly lost as of Oct. 2.

The delivery included 48 pallets of Meals Ready to Eat (MREs) and 24 pallets of water, with each pallet weighing about 1,000 pounds. The cargo plane transported them from Charlotte-Douglas International Airport to Asheville Regional Airport, which has become a key distribution center providing aid to the western part of the state as local roads remain blocked by flooding and debris. With rural areas also cut off from regular supply routes, ground transportation is not an option.

“It was a big effort by the Aerial Port and some augmented personnel we had here in Charlotte,” USAF Master Sgt. Jesse Huneycutt of the 145th Logistic Readiness Squadron said in a release. “All cargo had to be prepped, loaded onto 463L pallets, inspected, and planned for safety before we could load it on the jet. Completing all of this in just a few hours took a lot of people working long hours at a fast pace.”

The 463L pallets, the service’s primary air cargo pallets, are used for transporting food, medical supplies, ammunition, and other types of cargo on military aircraft, including C-17s, and various civilian cargo planes.

The C-17 enabled the Air National Guard to deliver the equivalent of three fully loaded semi-trucks in just 30 minutes—compared to the seven hours it would take for vehicles to navigate the treacherous conditions, the ANG said. At Asheville Regional Airport, which is currently powered by generators due to outages, an advance team unloaded the cargo for the NC National Guard’s helicopter network, enabling the supplies to reach remote communities.

The statement added that the Air National Guard’s relief effort will continue “to ensure food, water, and essential goods reach every corner of the region affected by Helene” by partnering with the Federal Emergency Management Agency and local authorities.

The Kentucky Air National Guard has also deployed 11 Airmen to Hickory, N.C. to assist with the humane recovery of flood casualties. Members of the 123rd Airlift Wing’s Fatality Search and Recovery Team arrived in the state to assist coroners and local officials in their recovery efforts.

“The nature of the work is demanding, but absolutely the best part of the job is the closure we are able to bring families,” 1st Lt. Zachary Endicott, the team’s officer in charge, said in a release. “We are not, unfortunately, in the business of rescuing. However, to be able to deliver somebody back home to their family and their loved ones so that they can say their final goodbyes is something that really drives this team to complete the mission.” He said that the team is well-prepared for the challenging mission that could involve navigating downed power lines and potentially toxic floodwaters.

Members of the 123rd Airlift Wing’s Fatality Search and Recovery Team prepare equipment for deployment form the Kentucky Air National Guard Base in Louisville, Ky., Sept. 30, 2024, in response to massive flooding across North Carolina following Hurricane Helene. The 11-Airman team left Louisville Oct. 1 and will operate from Hickory, N.C, where they will assist coroners and other local officials in the recovery of flood casualties. U.S. Air National Guard photo by Phil Speck

President Joe Biden visited the state and South Carolina on Oct. 2 and took an aerial tour of Asheville while receiving operational briefings and engaging with first responders and local officials. Biden has instructed the Department of Defense to deploy up to 1,000 active-duty soldiers from Fort Liberty, N.C., to support the North Carolina National Guard in delivering supplies, food, and water to isolated communities. The department also has over 6,500 service members actively involved in relief efforts across six states, including 3,500 Guardsmen activated in Florida and 1,400 in Georgia.

“U.S. Northern Command is also providing active-duty support efforts to FEMA, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is providing emergency power planning and response teams to Georgia as well as dam, levee, and bridge inspection to Tennessee and Kentucky and temporary power to North Carolina,” Pentagon Press Secretary Air Force Maj. Gen. Patrick Ryder told reporters on Oct 1.

Ryder added that a multi-state, multi-agency effort is in full swing, with over 80 Guardsmen and 13 helicopters joining more than 800 North Carolina Guardsmen to support the ravaged communities of North Carolina.

Six days after the hurricane slammed into Florida, the national death toll has risen to more than 180, with hundreds still missing, and many caught in flooding across southeastern states.

Air Force Report: Hurricane Hunters Stretched Thin Amid Brutal Storms

Air Force Report: Hurricane Hunters Stretched Thin Amid Brutal Storms

Oct. 2, 2024 | By David Roza

New storms may already be forming in the Caribbean and tropical Atlantic, even as rain soaks the East Coast in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene last week, which killed at least 130 people and closed two major Air Force bases.

That means hurricane season is far from over for the 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron, an Air Force Reserve unit stationed at Keesler Air Force Base, Miss.

Better known as the Hurricane Hunters, the squadron flies into storms to collect atmospheric data that help scientists at the National Hurricane Center (NHC) predict the size of the storms and where they will make landfall, which in turn helps decision-makers make calls such as evacuation orders. 

Their work makes a big difference, increasing weather model accuracy and hurricane track forecasts by 20 percent. That saves lives and money; it costs at least $1 million to evacuate a mile of coastline, so it helps when planners have a better sense of where to focus safety efforts.

Helene was a case in point. The 53rd WRS flew nine missions into the storm from Sept. 23 to 26, according to a press release.

“[W]e have been working around the clock to provide data for NHC forecasts,” the squadron wrote on Instagram as Helene approached Florida.

The squadron’s work is particularly important for rapidly intensifying storms such as Helene, which grew from a tropical storm into a Category 4 hurricane in just 64 hours.

“Rapid intensification is a phenomenon that is difficult to forecast and forecast models still have a hard time predicting it,” Capt. Amaryllis Cotto, an aerial reconnaissance weather officer, said in the release.

“This is a feature that Hurricane Hunters can analyze while flying the system, providing real-time insight of the storm,” she added. “By relaying how well or fast it’s developing, NHC forecasters then have the chance to make quick updates on their watches and warnings and quality check the current forecast trends.”

hurricane hunters
Maj. Joyce Hiraii, 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron aerial reconnaissance weather officer, flew through Hurricane Helene, Sept. 25. (U.S. Air Force photo by Jessica L. Kendziorek)

Bargain Hunting Hurricanes

But providing that data requires aircraft, personnel, and funding, and the 53rd WRS is stretched thin covering a longer hurricane season and an increasingly busy winter season. The squadron has seen an 18 percent increase in demand flying hurricanes since 2018, Air & Space Forces Magazine reported in May. 

When hurricane season wraps up in November, the 53rd WRS switches to atmospheric rivers: bodies of water vapor flowing through the skies over the Pacific Ocean that can carry massive amounts of potential rain, snow, and flooding across the West Coast. Historically, winter was a chance for the squadron to recuperate after hurricanes, but the demand for winter missions has climbed 606 percent since 2018, with no new resources to meet it.

“The resources we’re working with today were established and set in 1996 and no significant changes have happened since then,” Maj. Chris Dyke, another aerial reconnaissance weather officer, said in April. “At that point it was resourced for a six-month hurricane mission. We are now a 10-month operational mission and a two-month road show. … To be honest, it’s not enough time for the aircraft.”

In last year’s defense spending bill, Congress required a report from the Air Force on whether the 53rd WRS has enough resources to meet requirements. The Air Force completed the report in April and Air & Space Forces Magazine obtained a copy late last month. The report lays out in greater detail why the squadron’s resources are insufficient today and will be even more so in the near future.

“Looking ahead to 2035, projections indicate a consistent rise in operational demands for weather reconnaissance,” Lt. Gen. John P. Healy, chief of the Air Force Reserve, wrote at the top of the report. “Despite the impressive contributions of the 53rd WRS, the report identifies substantial challenges due to resource constraints.”

The 53rd WRS’ requirement to fly hurricanes falls under the National Hurricane Operations Plan, which lays out that Air Force weather reconnaissance forces must provide 24/7 coverage of current or potential tropical cyclones threatening the U.S. or its interests on both coasts from up to three locations simultaneously.

The minimum force for covering one storm 24/7 is three aircraft, 54 aircraft maintainers, 18 aircrew members, and 23 support personnel, the report said. But as storms approach the mainland, that amount goes up by one aircraft, 13 aircrew, and three support personnel. That means to conduct operations any time during hurricane season (June 1 through Nov. 31), the squadron needs 10 operational and available aircraft, 164 maintainers, 67 aircrew, and 72 support personnel, the report said.

At first glance, the 53rd WRS appears to hit most of those numbers, with resources allocated for 10 WC-130J aircraft, 278 maintainers, 100 aircrew, and 57 support staff. But the number of missions keeps rising, and not all the squadron’s allocated people or planes are available to carry them out.

“The unit has averaged just above 50 percent available manning due to position vacancies, members in training, and members not medically available,” the report read.

Further more, only 110 of the squadron’s maintainers are authorized for mission generation, but the standard for C-130Js is 54 maintainers for three aircraft at each location, the report said. That means the squadron can support only two locations even if all its authorizations were available at all times.

“Given current challenges and compounded by the anticipated future growth in demand, we are not positioned to be able to fully support NHOP requirements,” the report states.

hurricane hunters wc-130j
Staff Sgt. Kyle Stoeger, of the 403rd Aircraft Maintenance Squadron at Keesler Air Force Base, Miss., inspects the interior WC-130J assigned to the 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron’s windows after it returned to Keesler from San Antonio Aug. 31, 2021. (U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Kristen Pittman)

The squadron’s aircraft are in a similar situation. When it adopted the WC-130J in 1999, the 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron was among the first units in the Air Force to fly the ‘J’ model, the latest version of the venerable C-130 aircraft. But 25 years later, the fleet is feeling the effects of a quarter century of rough skies. The average availability aircraft for the squadron was 65 percent, according to the report, with at least one aircraft in long-term depot maintenance and another in short-term maintenance at any given time. That leaves just eight available aircraft to handle requirements.

“Because it’s aging, it gets worse each year, and so the vast majority of your non-mission capable time is scheduled maintenance, and that increases each year,” Col. William Magee, commander of the 403rd Maintenance Group, said in April.

Hungry Winters

Why the rise in demand? Scientists need to identify tropical cyclones earlier in their development and provide more persistent coverage to spot changes in storm track and intensity, the report said, and advances in weather model capability make that coverage even more important. Mother Nature also has a vote, with the squadron expecting a bump from 15 to 16 storms per year today to 18 storms by 2035.

The squadron faces similar demands and challenges in the winter, which is covered by the National Winter Season Operations Plan (NWSOP). Like with hurricanes, the NWSOP requires 24/7 coverage of potential environmental threats on both coasts from up to three locations at the same time. 

Fulfilling that requirement for one location at any given time requires the same minimum package of 3 aircraft, 54 maintainers, 18 aircrew, and 23 support personnel, the report read, but being ready to handle more than one location from Nov. 1 to March 31 takes more people than the 53rd WRS might have available at any given time. 

The number of winter flying hours has gone up more than 600 percent since 2018, with Airmen flying missions all over North America. The squadron expects its winter storm flights to bump up from 50 today to 65-70 by 2035. 

“Given current challenges and anticipated future growth in demand, we are not positioned to be able to fully support NWSOP requirements,” the report states.

A heads-up display shows the directional markers inside a U.S. Air Force WC-130J Hurricane Hunter aircraft assigned to the 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron, based at Keesler Air Force Base, Mississippi, during a flight into Hurricane Harvey over the Gulf of Mexico Aug. 24, 2017. (U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Heather Heiney)

Then there are the dropsondes: the small cylinders which crew members drop out of the aircraft on a mission. Suspended by parachute, the dropsondes collect atmospheric data and transmit it to the aircraft as they descend through the storm. But as demand for weather reconnaissance has surged, so as the 53rd WRS’ use of dropsondes: the squadron burned through 1,796 this past year (868 for winter missions, 928 for hurricanes) for a total of $4 million when including training, the report said.

Though Congress provides regular budget increases for dropsondes, the squadron said it will need even more to keep pace with demand.

When It Rains, It Pours

Beyond its hurricane and winter requirements for the homeland, the 53rd WRS is also seeing more demand from U.S. European Command and U.S. Indo-Pacific Command. For example, tropical cyclones “have been identified as the most significant environmental threat” across INDOPACOM, according to the report, particularly from July through December, which overlaps with both the hurricane and winter seasons.

That timing “would drive a significant increase to the demand already placed on the mission,” the report read. “Based on the currently limited resources of the 53 WRS (aircraft, flying hours, personnel and dropsondes), if these requirements were added, the mission capability would drop to approximately 25 percent.”

The squadron already has to decline some missions; Dyke recalled a moment last year where the 53rd WRS pulled aircraft out of the Caribbean island of St. Croix and sent them back to Keesler to track Hurricane Idalia, which was deemed the more important storm.

“That was an example where we’re asking the hurricane center, ‘OK, pick and choose, what’s your priority?’” he said in April. “There are impacts from the one we don’t fly. We’re talking about potential impacts to stateside readiness, homeland defense.”

Congress did not require the Air Force to estimate how many more aircraft, personnel, and other assets it would need to meet growing requirements, but it was clear from the report that today’s mix is not enough.

“Despite these expanded responsibilities and significant extension of the operational season, the number of aircraft in the 53 WRS has remained constant, challenging their ability to cover these diverse and increasing demands,” the report read. “As the frequency and severity of weather-related disasters rise, alongside the growing global strategic concerns, the demand for reliable weather data, especially in data-sparse regions has never been more critical.”

Pratt & Whitney Gets $1.3 Billion to Mature F-35 Engine Core Upgrade

Pratt & Whitney Gets $1.3 Billion to Mature F-35 Engine Core Upgrade

Oct. 1, 2024 | By John A. Tirpak

RTX’s Pratt & Whitney received a $1.31 billion contract on Sept. 30 to continue maturing its Engine Core Upgrade for the F-35 fighter’s F135 engine. If the program goes according to predictions, the first operational engine should be flying in 2029.

The cost-plus-incentive fee contract covers “design, analysis, rig testing, engine test preparation, developmental hardware, test asset assembly, air system integration, airworthiness evaluation and product support” as the ECU continues development. The Navy, which oversees F-35 contracting at this time, made the award.

The contract comes two months after Pratt said it completed the ECU’s preliminary design review, “affirming the ECU is on schedule.” The upgraded powerplant is intended to increase the durability of the engine, the life expectancy of which suffered in recent years as requirements increased and new equipment was added to the F-35 fighter. It also supports the additional demands that will be placed on the engine as the F-35’s Block 4 upgrade proceeds. The upgrades will require more engine performance, cooling, and electrical power.

Pratt said in July that it expects to conduct the Critical Design Review on the ECU—one of the last steps before fabrication begins—in mid-2025.

Jill Albertelli, president or Pratt’s military engine business, said the contract is “critical to continuing our forward momentum on this program.”

The award “allows us to continue work in the risk reduction phase with a full-staffed team focused on design maturation, aircraft integration, and mobilizing the supply base to prepare for production.”

The F-35 Joint Program Office has decided to make Lockheed Martin, the F-35 prime contractor, the “Lead Systems Integrator” for what is now known as the Power Thermal Management Upgrade to the Power and Thermal Management System, or PTMS, for the F135 engine.

In an Oct. 1 statement, the JPO said said that after “extensive market research” this year, only Lockheed was found to be capable of performing this function.

“Contract award for the upcoming phase of the PTMU program is expected in Fall 2024,” the JPO said. “We will work with Lockheed Martin throughout the entire process to ensure all known PTMU solution options are evaluated for performance and economical retrofitability to existing aircraft; bringing maximum capability to the warfighters while accounting for cost.”

It was not clear from the JPO’s statement whether Lockheed will select the PTMS contractor.

The Government Accountability Office has said a new PTMS is needed because the additional electronics that are part of the Block 4 upgrade will require a more robust cooling system. The existing system is “overtasked,” the GAO said in a May 2023 report, and requires the F135 engine “to operate beyond its design parameters,” increasing wear and tear on the powerplant and requiring excessive maintenance costs of up to $38 billion over the planned 58-year life of the F-35 program.

The existing PTMS is made by Honeywell, but Collins Aerospace—which, like Pratt, is part of RTX—has readied an Enhanced Power and Cooling System (EPACS) proposal for a possible competition.  Collins said last year it could be ready to enter an engineering and manufacturing development effort for EPACS as early as mid-2024.  

The ECU was selected as the way ahead for the F-35’s propulsion needs after the Pentagon chose not to adopt either of the Adaptive Engine Transition Program (AETP) powerplants developed by Pratt and GE Aerospace. The AETP engines weren’t compatible with the Marine Corps F-35B short take-off/vertical landing variant and would have been difficult to adapt to the Navy’s F-35C version as well. The AETPs were expected to deliver as much as a 30 percent increase in performance over the F135.

Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall said last year that one of his main regrets about the fiscal 2025 budget request was that the service couldn’t afford to develop and produce the AETP for its own F-35 fleet.  The Pentagon insisted on the ECU instead to preserve commonality among the variants for all U.S. and foreign users of the fighter.

Pratt insists the ECU will take advantage of many AETP innovations.   

A Pratt spokesperson said the company has delivered “more than 1,200 F135 production engines, with more than 900,000 engine flight hours recorded.”

Pilot Errors Led to $25 Million Loss of MQ-9 Drone in Africa: New Report

Pilot Errors Led to $25 Million Loss of MQ-9 Drone in Africa: New Report

Oct. 1, 2024 | By Unshin Lee Harpley

A previously undisclosed crash of an Air Force MQ-9 crash in Africa in February stemmed from the pilot’s failure to follow the takeoff guidelines and to properly recover the descending aircraft, according to a newly released report.

The Feb. 11 incident, which occurred at an undisclosed location, caused no injuries or damage to civilian property, but it led to the complete loss of a $25.8 million unmanned aerial vehicle. The Reaper, belonging to the 432nd Wing at Creech Air Force Base in Nev., struck the ground just beyond the runway’s departure end.

The Air Force has frequently used Reapers’ ISR capabilities for the U.S.’s counterterrorism efforts across the Middle East and Africa for more than 15 years.

The investigation highlighted two main causes of the crash: the pilot’s oversight in completing the throttle adjustment according to the checklist, and a lack of situational awareness to increase the throttle control in time. At the time of the accident, the MQ-9 was operated remotely by a pilot and a sensor operator from the 12th Expeditionary Special Operations Squadron.

A U.S. Air Force MQ-9 Reaper taxis in for a warm refuel test, where the aircraft is grounded and refueled while powered on but with the engine not running, at Creech Air Force Base, Nevada, Sept. 2, 2021. Warm refuels can increase the MQ-9’s operational agility through reducing turnaround time on the ground. Tech. Sgt. Emerson Nuñez

At 8:30 p.m. UTC, the pilot announced that the Reaper’s Automatic Takeoff and Landing Capability (ATLC) was on and continued to engage the ATLC seconds later, which commanded engine power to 100 percent. However, the pilot did not complete the checklist step to set the throttle to 100 percent leaving it at flight idle (0 percent). This meant there wasn’t enough power during the transition from automated to manual control of the aircraft.

“The cause of the mishap was the pilot’s failure to comply with the takeoff checklist guidance to move the throttle control to 100 percent after initiating an ATLC takeoff, causing thrust to decrease at the transition from ATLC to manual control,” the report noted.

The aircraft took off around 8:31 p.m. While climbing, the pilot indicated plans to turn off the ATLC sooner than expected and continued to disengaged it, triggering warnings of a rapid drop in engine performance. A little more than 30 seconds after takeoff, the sensor operator questioned why they were climbing slowly. Although the aircraft continued to climb briefly, it soon began to descend, leading the sensor operator to mistakenly believe they were experiencing a mechanical failure.

The pilot didn’t begin to increase the throttle until 22 seconds after turning off the ATLC. When the aircraft continued to fall, the pilot declared an emergency and just one second before the Reaper hit the ground, was able to command the throttle to 100 percent.

But by then, it was far too late to regain control, and the drone crashed at 8:32 p.m., just 44 seconds after takeoff, with a nose-low position and at slow airspeed. The landing gear was still retracting, and the engine was “near idle thrust,” resulting in insufficient power before impact.

“The pilot failed to accurately analyze the resulting situation in time and subsequently increased the throttle control too late to recover from a low altitude thrust-deficient descent, resulting in the aircraft impacting the ground,” the investigation concluded.

The analysis also revealed that if the pilot had responded appropriately to the decreasing thrust and adjusted the throttle within 18 seconds of the transition to manual control, the crash could likely have been avoided, as demonstrated by a simulator recreation.

“The Mishap Pilot should have prioritized analyzing the situation and flying the Mishap Aircraft, over transmitting the emergency radio call,” the board noted. “It is reasonable to expect that MP analysis of the situation and execution of the appropriate response should have required less than 18 seconds.”

The investigation also identified two other contributing factors to the accident.

Ineffective crew resource management created distractions during ground operations, limiting the crew’s ability to complete pre-takeoff checklists effectively. The report details that around 8:16 p.m., the mission support officer tried to discuss the Takeoff and Landing Data known as TOLD, but the pilot interrupted, saying, “we’ll get it on the roll.” Before taxiing, the crew was also “initially uncertain what data to load into the Mishap Aircraft” due to confusion with similar callsigns.

Additionally, the pilot turning off the ATLC just 21 seconds after takeoff at a low altitude, further complicated the situation. Although the pilot didn’t break any rules by doing this, waiting until reaching a higher altitude to switch to manual control would have provided more time to handle any problems.

“Delaying turning ATLC off until a higher altitude would have provided more time to recover manually from any anomalies during the transition from automatic to manual control,” the report noted. The report added that the 12th Special Operations Squadron crews were accustomed to turning ATLC off at a low altitude, due to “airspace requirements at Cannon AFB driving turns shortly after takeoff.”

The Air Force has suffered a string of MQ-9 mishaps over the last two years.

In January 2023, a contractor crashed a drone, causing $16 million in damages in California. In May 2023, engine failure led another MQ-9 to crash at an undisclosed location in Africa, where it was destroyed. And in September, another contractor was killed after she walked into the propeller of an MQ-9 during ground testing. The service has also disclosed at least one other MQ-9 crash this year—U.S. Air Forces in Europe announced that a Reaper crashed in Poland in January.