In Historic First, USAF Deploys B-1s to India for Exercise

April 13, 2023 | By Greg Hadley

A pair of B-1B Lancers from Ellsworth Air Force Base, S.D., will participate in a joint exercise with the Indian Air Force this week—the first time the BONE has participated in an exercise there.

F-15E fighters, C-130J cargo planes, and C-17 transport aircraft also are taking part in Cope India 2023, Pacific Air Forces told Air & Space Forces Magazine. Indian news outlets first reported the B-1s’ participation, citing PACAF commander Gen. Kenneth S. Wilsbach.

The visit is the second trip to India in three months—in February, Lancers conducted flyovers at the biennial Aero India air show. B-1s also participated in Aero India 21, the first time a Lancer had ever landed in India.

The Cope India joint exercise between the USAF and IAF began in 2004 and has subsequently been held in 2005, 2006, 2009, and 2018. Over the years, the U.S. Air Force has sent F-15s, F-16s, C-130Hs, C-130Js, and C-17s to the exercise.

The first phase of the 2023 edition began April 10, according to a release from the Indian Defence Ministry, with a focus on air mobility. C-17s from the 15th Wing at Joint Base Hickam-Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and C-130Js from the 374th Airlift Wing at Yokota Air Base, Japan, participated.

The second phase, which kicked off April 13, will include F-15Es from the 4th Fighter Wing at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, N.C., in addition to the B-1s. The Indian Air Force will fly Su-30 MKI, Rafale, Tejas and Jaguar fighter aircraft.

The exercise is slated to conclude April 24. The USAF has yet to release any imagery from Cope India 23.

The Biden administration has sought to foster ties with India recently, both as part of its broader efforts to bolster alliances and partnerships in the Indo-Pacific against the influence of China, and in an attempt to further alienate Russia over its invasion of Ukraine. In particular, the U.S. Air Force brought a considerable presence to Aero India 23, including F-35 fighters, as the Indian Air Force mulls upgrades.

B-1s have also become a regular sight in the region as of late, thanks to Bomber Task Force rotations. Lancers have flown four times with South Korean fighters this year, as well as exercises with the Japanese Air Self-Defense Force.

Two U.S. Air Force B-1B Lancers, assigned to the 34th Expeditionary Bomb Squadron, fly over Aero India 23 at Air Force Station Yelahanka, Bengaluru, India, Feb. 14, 2023. The weeklong biennial exhibition is Asia’s largest aviation event and hosts government delegations and corporate executives from 26 countries. (U.S. Air Force photo by Master Sgt. Richard P. Ebensberger)

The exercise is slated to conclude April 24. The USAF has yet to release any imagery from Cope India 23.

Air Force Futures Lays Out Four Scenarios for 2040 in New Report

April 13, 2023 | By Greg Hadley

Transformative advances in computing, far greater emphasis on information warfare, and increasingly scarce sanctuaries from adversaries’ reach are among the factors that will shape air warfare in 2040, according to a new report from the Air Force’s futurists.

The Global Futures Report released April 12 by Air Force Futures defines four very different potential states of the world in 2040, each shaped by different trajectories applied to data and other emerging trends.

Lt. Gen. S. Clinton Hinote, director of Air Force Futures, and his co-authors say the scenarios do not aim to precisely predict the future, but rather to offer foresight to decision-makers preparing for whatever future is actually in store. Compared and analyzed against each other, they also offer takeaways on the trends leaders must watch in the years to come.

“Hubris warns that no entity can create the exact future it wants,” the report states. “However, organizations have a duty to discover opportunities and take advantage of them, make unforeseen disasters foreseeable and avoid them, and work diligently and disruptively to shape the future to their advantage. For the USAF and the DOD, the risk of a narrow vision and inaction is simply too high.”

Four Futures

The four scenarios envisioned are based on the Four Future Archetypes, a methodology developed by the Hawaii Research Center for Future Studies that defines four general paths the future might follow.

“A trend can either continue on its current trajectory (Continued Growth), encounter significant limits (Constrained), form a discontinuity to leap to a different market and growth curve (Transformational), or fail to adapt or become the cause of change (Collapse),” explain the report’s authors.

Applying those trajectories to identifiable trends, Air Force Futures examined the joint force’s core functions— Fires, Protection, Movement and Maneuver, Information, Intelligence, Command and Control (C2), and Sustainment. Unsurprisingly, the future trajectories vary wildly.

In a future of continued growth, great power competition between the U.S. and China continues, with more proxy wars enabling both sides to develop and test new technologies, such as hypersonic weapons, biological and chemical weapons, and even gene-editing to improve troops’ performance. Artificial intelligence and automation continue to progress, but ethical and political considerations limit the U.S. military’s use of it. More and better sensors, long-range fires, and kill webs force planners to abandon the concept of “sanctuaries” and focus on dispersing assets and troops. Supply chains remain vulnerable and interconnected.

In a “constrained” situation, biological and natural disasters have limited resources, and widespread anti-access/area denial systems have made it even harder for militaries to maneuver. Exquisite long-range fires mean the Air Force and other services have to disperse their assets to smaller, hardened bases, even within the U.S. The advanced weaponry also causes a stalemate between Great Powers, leading to more “gray zone” activities that fall short of open conflict, such as information warfare and the hacking of key infrastructure. However, due to polarization, limited resources for the military, and a focus on developing advanced weapons, the U.S. is ill-prepared to pivot to deterring and defending against gray zone activities.

In the “transformational” future, countries gain the ability to strike targets from space near-instantaneously, thanks to advancements in areas like directed energy. There are no “sanctuaries,” and countries also develop new weapons of mass destruction based on new biological and chemical breakthroughs. Artificial intelligence and quantum computing have advanced such that humans are out of the loop, and the speed of cyber is so fast that commanders are unable to change a course of action midway. The Air Force has consolidated its forces into small, hardened bases and increasingly relies on high-speed vertical takeoff and landing platforms enabled by advancements in energy technology.

In a “collapse” scenario, the effects of climate change threaten military bases and disrupt ground stations that control satellites, causing a collision in low-Earth orbit that creates massive clouds of debris and limits access to space. Technological advancements are proliferated throughout the world, giving smaller states and non-state actors outsized influence and capabilities. The U.S. is roiled by internal political and social division and steps back from the NATO alliance as isolationism builds, leading the Air Force and other military services to shrink with lower investment. Information warfare becomes increasingly crucial as communications degrade but technology advances, giving individuals the ability to manipulate the system.

Takeaways

Air Force Futures acknowledged that “readers should maintain healthy skepticism about each trend’s direction and velocity. … None of the trends are inevitable and few will occur in the manner laid out in this report.”

However, the authors noted six broad takeaways:

Transformational Computing. In every scenario, artificial intelligence, machine learning, autonomous systems and quantum computing were crucial factors.

The Myth of Sanctuary. Advances in sensors and weapons systems—especially without effective countermeasures—will likely make sanctuaries a myth, even within the U.S.

Cognitive Soft Targets. Information warfare leveraging artificial intelligence, neuroscience, and intelligence operations, will expand and become more effective.

Force Multipliers. Unforeseen developments will have cascading effects, creating potential force multipliers in areas that could include “AI/ML, Quantum Computing, Directed Energy, Energy Webs, Sensor Ubiquity, and Space Operations.”

Economic Interconnectedness. If global economy interdependence declines, the future world will be much different. What happens “defines the next 20 years,” the authors said, presenting vulnerabilities in the supply chain, breakdowns in trade, and declining intellectual collaboration.

Life Science Collapse. Between climate change, limited resources, nuclear weapons, chemical and biological warfare, and gene editing technologies, potentially dramatic changes could impact the fundamentals of life as we know it.

Such takeaways are intended to be a starting point for more analysis and discussion, the authors say.

“The report will be used to inform planners, strategists, and wargame scenarios positioning Airmen to anticipate, prepare, and operate in the future,” according to an Air Force release.

Army, Air National Guard Need a Strategy for Better Helicopter Safety, GAO Says

April 12, 2023 | By David Roza

The Army and Air National Guard need to sharpen their strategies for promoting safety and mitigating risk in helicopter units, the Government Accountability Office wrote in a report released April 12.

From fiscal year 2012 to 2021, there have been 298 accidents involving National Guard helicopters during noncombat flights. The GAO determined many of these accidents were caused by human error, with broader institutional issues that also need to be addressed.

Though some of the GAO’s report and recommendations apply more to the Army National Guard than the Air National Guard, the common ones include not routinely evaluating processes for preflight risk assessment; overworking unit safety officers; and pilots not getting enough flight hours due to lack of maintenance, funding, staffing, or other organizational shortfalls.

The report comes in the wake of two deadly Army helicopter accidents that occurred earlier this year. The first occurred in February when a Tennessee Army National Guard Black Hawk helicopter crashed during a training sortie in Alabama. The second occurred in March when two Black Hawks from the 101st Airborne Division crashed in Kentucky. Two Soldiers were killed in the first crash, while nine were killed in the second.

Though both the Army and Air National Guard have a range of safety and risk reduction measures, the components can do more to make sure those measures are being implemented effectively, the GAO report states.

The Data

Of the 298 helicopter accidents reported by Army and Air National Guard from 2012 through 2021, 45 were serious Class A or Class B accidents that involved death, permanent disability, prolonged hospitalization, or more than $500,000 in damages—40 involving Army National Guard helicopters, five involving Air National Guard helicopters.. The worst of those accidents killed 28 Guardsmen.

The discrepancy between the Army and Air Force Guards is likely due in part to the difference in flying hours between the two components—the Army National Guard flies helicopters for an average of 200,000 hours per year, while the ANG averages 3,500 flying hours. The Army National Guard also flies more types of helicopters, whereas the GAO report studied only the HH-60 Pave Hawk on the Air National Guard side.

Army National Guard helicopter accident rates were below those of the Army Active-Duty component, while the Air National Guard accident numbers were too small to make a meaningful comparison with its Active-Duty counterpart.

When the Army or the Air Force investigate an accident, the services look to see if it may have been caused by human error, material failure, environmental factors, or any combination of the three. Human error was listed as a contributing factor in most of the accidents, the GAO found. On the Army side, investigators detected that not following training procedures, a lack of situational awareness, and overconfidence contributed to many accidents, while on the Air Force side, “wrong choice of action during an operation” and “inadequate real-time risk assessment” were the most commonly cited factors.

The data informed GAO’s recommendations for how to more effectively implement safety and risk reduction measures.

What’s Going Wrong

The GAO found that while the Air National Guard has a stringent process for documenting the implementation of safety recommendations made after helicopter accident investigations, the Army National Guard has no such system. Creating such a system was the GAO’s first Army-specific recommendation. Another Army-specific recommendation was to regularly evaluate National Guard helicopter aircrew performance during training, also something the Air National Guard does.

Other GAO recommendations applied to both the Army and Air National Guard, such as a direction that the components both need to make sure their helicopter units continuously evaluate and update their risk management worksheets. Aircrews use risk management worksheets to gauge risk levels and mitigation strategies before a flight and, if necessary, receive approval for the flight from higher up the chain of command.

The flaw in the system is neither Army nor Air National Guard helicopter units regularly update their worksheets to reflect lessons learned in safety and risk reduction.

Service officials were hesitant to develop standardized worksheets for all units due to the diversity of aircraft and mission sets across the force, but Air Force officials said making sure those worksheets are continuously updated could be part of the service’s unit inspection program.

The GAO also found that unit safety officers in both the Army and Air National Guard were “hindered due to workload and staffing imbalances.” Between conducting safety briefings, analyzing hazards, coordinating with other safety organizations, recording accidents, and their regular flying duties, unit safety officers have a lot on their plates, and many who spoke with the GAO said they could better support safety if it was their primary duty or they were assigned to the role full-time.

“They will not let you just be the safety guy; you will always have additional duties,” one safety officer told the report authors.

The GAO found neither the Army nor Air National Guard have a consistent approach to staffing safety officers, though the Air Force Safety Directorate has recommended wing commanders assign full-time personnel to the wing Chief of Safety position.

The report also found that both Army and Air National Guard helicopter units suffer from low flying hours. On average, Army helicopter pilots did not meet the proficiency goal of 9 flight hours per month for the majority of helicopter types, while Air Force helicopter pilots often fall short of their goal of 12.5 hours per month.

Many factors contribute to the low hours. In some cases, Army and Air National Guard units used up most of their annual flying hours at the start of the year, often assisting with state and regional emergency support, which meant they could not fly as much through the rest of the year. In other cases, finding time to fly was difficult to juggle for pilots with full-time jobs.

To make matters worse, Guard units often do not have enough funding to bring in pilots for more hours, and they also struggle with maintenance and parts availability, all of which makes scheduling part-time pilots more difficult. There are also not many instructor pilots to go around, and the same problem applies to non-pilot aircrew, who are often essential for safe or realistic training.

Flying hours also rely on maintenance hours, which is another pain point for many Guard units. The GAO found that no Army National Guard helicopter type met its annual mission capable goals from fiscal year 2017 to 2021, while the Air National Guard Pave Hawk missed its goals in fiscal year 2017 and 2019. Air National Guardsmen told the GAO that two-shift maintenance operations are required for helicopter units, but they do not have enough people to staff both shifts.

Finally, Guard helicopter pilots often have trouble accessing simulators to meet flying hour goals and provide training even through bad weather and maintenance hiccups. The Air Force’s only Pave Hawk simulator available to Air National Guard pilots is at Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M.

Fixing It

Though the Army and Air National Guard have taken steps to address these challenges, their actions remain incomplete, GAO wrote, and neither component has established clear priorities to address the challenges preventing Guard helicopter pilots from reaching their flying hour goals. Nor do either of the components have comprehensive data for monitoring progress.

“The challenges are complex and require a coordinated approach to ensure that any resource adjustments are supportable and are aligned with priorities,” the GAO wrote. “By developing a comprehensive strategy that defines goals, priorities, and performance measures, the Army and Air Force would be better positioned to address the complex and inter-related challenges that have hindered National Guard helicopter pilots from achieving their training objectives.”

The GAO recommended the Army and Air National Guard:

Implement measures to make sure helicopter units continuously evaluate and update operational risk management worksheets.

Assess the resource and workload allocations of safety personnel to ensure helicopter units have enough staff and resources to implement operational flight safety programs.

Develop a comprehensive strategy including goals and performance measures for challenges that hinder helicopter pilot training.

Boneyard-Bound: USAF Retires First of 13 AWACS

April 12, 2023 | By Greg Hadley

The aging E-3 AWACS fleet got a little smaller last week, as the first of 13 E-3s to be retired this year took off from Tinker Air Force Base, Okla., for the last time.

E-3 Tail Number 0560 departed for the Boneyard at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Ariz., on April 6, a week after the 552nd Air Control Wing hosted a retirement celebration with retired and Active-Duty Airmen getting a chance to sign their names to the airframe, an Air Force tradition.

“It’s sad. It means a new way is coming, but it’s still sad because we have a lot of great memories,” a former Airman told local television station KOLO. “We had a great mission back 20, 25 years ago.”

With the retirement, the Air Force’s AWACS fleet shrunk to 30 aircraft, on its way to under 18. Based on the commercially defunct 707 airframe, E-3s are expensive to maintain, their mission-capable rates plunging below 65 percent in recent years.

Air Combat Command boss Gen. Mark D. Kelly called the E-3s “unsustainable without a Herculean effort” last year, praising “miracle worker” maintainers for getting the aircraft to fly at all. Averaging over 40 years old, the AWACS fleet is among the oldest in the Air Force.

The Air Force first announced plans to retire 15 E-3s from Tinker in April 2022, but Congress paused the push with a provision in the 2023 National Defense Authorization Act approving retirements only if USAF demonstrated progress acquiring its replacement, the E-7 Wedgetail.

The Air Force had to submit an acquisition strategy for the Wedgetail before it could retire 10 E-3s, and must award a contract for the procurement of E-7s before it can retire three more.

The Air Force formally awarded a contract to Boeing for the E-7 Wedgetail in late February, clearing the way for the AWACS retirements to begin.

“While some may see the divestment as the end of an era, the retirement of this aircraft marks the beginning of modernization for the 552nd,” Col. Keven Coyle, 552nd ACW commander, said in a statement. “Despite a fleet reduction the mission will remain the same, providing worldwide management as well as command and control operations as required.”

In a release, the Air Force said divesting the 13 E-3s will allow it to focus on maintaining the remaining airplanes. And parts harvested from the retired aircraft at the Boneyard will be recirculated, “providing a temporary improvement for aircraft availability.”

The Air Force is hoping to have its first E-7 ready for operational duty by 2027 and is undertaking a rapid prototyping effort to make that happen, hoping to limit any gaps in intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance/command and control. All told, the service wants to buy 25 Wedgetails by 2032.

E-3 AWACS retirement — Current and former members of the 552nd Air Control Wing sign the left wing of E-3 Sentry Aircraft #75-0560 during a divestment event at Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma, March 31, 2023. The final destination for this aircraft will be with the 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group at Davis-Monthan AFB, Arizona. U.S. Air Force photo by Paul Shirk

US in ‘Focused’ Talks to Offer Multirole F-16s to Philippines

April 12, 2023 | By Greg Hadley

U.S. and Philippine officials will hold “focused discussions” about selling the Philippine Air Force multirole fighter aircraft—one of several weapons systems the two countries discussed during a recent dialogue.

The talks are part of the U.S.-Philippines Ministerial Dialogue on April 11, where Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III and Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken welcomed their counterparts to Washington, D.C.

Austin announced during a February visit to the Philippines expanded U.S. troops’ access to four new bases in the country, which is strategically important given its location in the southwest Pacific. U.S. Air Force F-22s deployed to the Philippines in March, the first fifth-generation aircraft ever to operate there. And more than 17,000 U.S. troops are participating in the annual Balikatan exercise in the Philippines, which started this week.

In a press conference after the 2+2 meetings, Austin said he and Philippine Secretary of National Defense Carlito Galvez discussed “near-term plans to complete a security sector assistance roadmap to support the delivery of priority defense platforms over the next five to 10 years, including radars, unmanned aerial systems, military transport aircraft, and coastal and air defense systems.”

Austin did not mention negotiations for fighters, but a fact sheet distributed after the event said the two governments will “prioritize the modernization of shared defense capabilities,” specifically “focused discussions on an acquisition plan for a fleet of multirole fighter aircraft for the Philippine Air Force.”

It also said the two would also leverage “the additional $100 million in Foreign Military Financing that the United States announced last fall to support the acquisition of medium-lift helicopters.”

The Philippine Air Force has been in the market for a dozen new multirole fighters since at least June 2022, when then-President Rodrigo Duterte approved a plan. At the time, former Philippine air chief Lt. Gen. Connor Anthony Canlas Sr. said the Islands sought a fourth-generation fighter, having received proposals for U.S. F-16s and Swedish JAS-39 Gripens.

The PAF’s primary fighter today is the FA-50 trainer/light-attack jet from Korea.

The Philippine government ordered 32 Black Hawk helicopters in February 2022 and as many as five new C-130J transport aircraft in 2021. The U.S. Air Force has also transferred C-130Hs to the PAF in recent years.

B-1 and B-2 Bomber Spending to Dwindle as Focus Shifts to B-21, B-52

April 11, 2023 | By John A. Tirpak

Air Force budget documents show B-1 and B-2 bomber spending dwindling through the end of the 2020s, as the service puts priority on the new B-21 and the upgraded B-52. Though the B-1 and B-2 potentially have additional years of service, the near-cutoff in spending in the next five years could make it difficult to keep them credible into the 2030s, should Congress direct that they be retained.

Global Strike Command has said in the last few years it intends to devote its finite manpower and fiscal resources to a two-bomber force—the B-21 and B-52—and retire the B-1 and B-2, which have recorded middling mission capability rates in recent years.

From the small B-2 fleet of just 20 aircraft, GSC can muster about 14 for operations at any given time, the remainder either being in test, depot, or down for maintenance. The B-2’s stealth systems, though improved over the last decade, remain challenging and a voracious consumer of maintenance man-hours. The B-21 is expected to offer a sharp improvement in availability—a “daily flyer” as Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. said at the aircraft’s December 2022 rollout—and require a smaller manpower footprint.

The B-1 fleet was reduced to 45 aircraft less than two years ago, although the maintenance manpower and funding for the 17 retired airplanes was retained to boost the mission capability of those that remain.

The Air Force is requesting $284.9 million for B-2 procurement over the Future Years Defense Plan, running from fiscal year 2024-28. Funding would start at $107.9 million in FY ’24, drop by almost half to $57.16 million in 2025, fall slightly in each of the next two years, and then plummet to $15.78 million in 2028. The “to completion” line in the B-2 procurement account is zero, meaning no further funding is expected to be requested beyond that point.

Research, development, test, and evaluation for the B-2 shows an even more stark dropoff, starting with $87.6 million in 2024, but again falling by more than half to $33.14 million in 2025, followed by just a few thousand dollars a year until 2028, and nothing after that.

Much of the money requested for the B-2 is to upgrade its avionics, communications systems, cockpit displays, weapons, stealth capabilities, training gear, support equipment, and supportability initiatives.

Aircraft that were modified to test the canceled Defensive Management System will be de-modified to make them consistent with the other aircraft in the fleet.

The Air Force will also “study multiple structural, avionics, and engine modifications, as well as advanced weapons integration and advanced communications, that could improve the performance of the aircraft and engines and reduce maintenance man-hours and the logistics footprint of the fleet,” the service said in its budget justification. The B-2 will also receive a cryptological upgrade.

Supportability funding will go toward identifying and fixing specific issues that “drive” non-mission capable rates, USAF said. This will help improve the availability rates for the in-demand bomber.

Funding also supports stealth improvement, called the Low Observable Signature and Supportability Modifications (LOSSM) program. These include improved a broad range of low-observable materials and structures, as well as “radio frequency (RF) diagnostic tools, evaluation systems, and other key support equipment,” the Air Force said. These investments tend to yield a high rate of return on B-2 operating costs and availability, the service noted.

Other improvements include an upgraded identification, friend or foe (IFF) system, training systems and simulator upgrades, and initiatives to address “Diminishing Manufacturing Sources” issues, where parts are hard to get because they are no longer made, or, in the case of software, where systems are at ”end of life” and no longer supportable. The Air Force wants to move toward “a modular, common open system architecture that is sustainable and cyber-resilient.”

Money that was added by Congress in fiscal year 2023 will be used to explore “commercial technologies to include autonomous robotics perimeter defense system, 5G testing support, and advanced software tools.”

The Air Force’s B-1 procurement funding request is $12.8 million in fiscal 2024, falling to $3.31 million in 2025, $4.74 million in 2027, and to around $1 million a year in 2027-28. Over the same period, more was programmed for RDT&E, with $32.68 million across the entire FYDP, but that total is front-loaded to 2024 and 2025, with only a few thousand dollars a year each in 2027 and 2028.

Budget justifications describe the B-1 as an aircraft “with an expected service life beyond 2037.”

The Air Force is constructing a “digital twin” of the B-1B to explore new sustainment technologies developed using digital methods.

Funding items include urgent radio upgrades to prevent the B-1B from losing “secure line of sight, beyond line of sight, and anti-jam communication with ground and air forces,” due to decommissioning of some forms of satellite support and other time-critical changes. Other improvements are being made to cryptological systems and, generally to address Diminishing Manufacturing Sources. Other improvements will require “significant hardware and software development and testing.”

The B-1 will also be provided with gear to carry new weapon systems—particularly, hardware and software for external carriage of hypersonic weapons, although Air Force budget documents did not specify whether those would be the AGM-183 Air-Launch Rapid Response Weapon (ARRW), which the Air Force has since said it will not pursue into production, or the Hypersonic Attack Cruise Missile being developed by Raytheon and Northrop Grumman.

Space Force Satellite Control Network Is In Urgent Need of Upgrades, Watchdog Says

April 11, 2023 | By David Roza

The Space Force system for controlling U.S. government satellites is in urgent need of an update, and the branch also needs an up-to-date plan for delivering it, the Government Accountability Office said in a report published April 10.

The Satellite Control Network (SCN) is made up of 19 antennas stationed around the world, from Diego Garcia Island in the Indian Ocean to the village of Oakhanger in southern England to Schriever Space Force Base, Colo., where the primary control center for SCN is located.

SCN operators use the antennas to track a satellite’s location, collect its health and status reports, and send signals to control its subsystems such as power supply, antennas and mechanical and thermal control. These functions are collectively called tracking, telemetry, and commanding (TT&C), and satellite users across the federal government rely on the Space Force’s SCN operators for TT&C support.

The satellites controlled by the SCN support a wide range of important activities such as positioning, navigation, and timing; intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance; missile warning and missile defense; communications; weather; and research and development, the GAO noted in its report. But as space becomes increasingly crowded with government satellites, the growing demand for SCN operations has fallen on an aging antenna network that is difficult to maintain and too small to meet the need.

“The SCN makes over 450 daily contacts with satellites,” GAO wrote. “Satellite users who rely on the SCN and whom GAO interviewed said that this increased demand, and resulting limits on system availability, could compromise their missions in the future.”

The problem is not new to the Department of Defense, which has known of the challenges facing SCN capacity since at least 2011, the GAO wrote. The military even developed a plan in 2017 for the long-term sustainment of SCN. However, the large reorganization of the military’s space authorities that occurred after Space Force was launched in late 2019 meant that the Life-Cycle Sustainment Plan (LCSP) is in need of an update to match the current organizational structure. The Space Force initially estimated an update the LCSP would arrive by the fall of 2022, but that update is yet to materialize.

“Without updating the LCSP for the SCN in a timely fashion, Space Force will not have sufficient information to appropriately plan and budget SCN sustainment efforts in the future,” the report states.

satellite control network — The 23rd Space Operations Squadron operates the largest of eight global U.S. Air Force Satellite Control Network remote tracking stations at New Boston Space Force Station, N.H., Sept. 16, 2022. U.S. Space Force photo by Airman 1st Class Kaitlin Castillo.

Part of the challenge affecting the SCN today is that its antennas can maintain contact with only one satellite at a time, and not for very long before the satellite passes over the horizon and out of contact, as Air & Space Forces Magazine has previously reported.

This has led to a scheduling system where SCN users contact the Space Force’s 22nd Space Operations Squadron to request a contact time, and the 22nd SOPS uses a prioritization matrix to schedule a time and assign operators from the 21st or 23rd Space Operations Squadrons to carry out the contact, the GAO report notes.

The problem is that as demand for SCN support grows and supply of contact times does not keep pace, scheduling conflicts occur and are exacerbated by unexpected outages, maintenance needs, or emergencies like recovering a satellite that has drifted out of its planned orbit. There were 15,780 scheduling conflicts from January 2021 through June 2022 alone, GAO noted. And as the current antenna infrastructure ages, SCN operators have to choose between maintenance needs and satisfying demand. Deferred maintenance can lead to antenna failures, one of which lasted 18 months before it could be restored to function.

Outdated infrastructure further aggravates the problem. The Space Force has had to pay a manufacturer to create a production line for making replacement parts for obsolete SCN equipment, GAO noted, and branch officials at Schriever Space Force Base, the primary control center for SCN, said the power infrastructure there is so out of date that “efforts to maintain current operations at the base are unsustainable and mitigation efforts are close to exhausted.”

How to fix it

The Space Force is aware of its growing SCN problem and has several efforts for fixing it. One effort is called the Satellite Communication Augmentation Resource (SCAR), a phased-array antenna that would allow each antenna to contact 18 to 20 different satellites at the same time rather than the one-at-a-time limit imposed by today’s parabolic SCN antennas. It would also cost less to operate the SCAR system, but the technology requires further development, a prototype is not expected until 2025, and operational units may not be available until the 2030s.

In the meantime, the Space Force is working to expand SCN capacity and make SCN scheduling more efficient. These include using five National Oceana and Atmospheric Administration antennas to help boost capacity, though it will take until the end of fiscal year 2024 for necessary upgrades to be finished. The Space Force is also exploring using commercial antennas to increase SCN capacity, though the number of commercial antennas available would depend on how many could meet government bandwidth and cybersecurity requirements.

Meanwhile, the Space Force is also looking to make its scheduling system more efficient by replacing its current “manual and labor-intensive process” with a cloud-based system, GAO wrote. The branch also plans on yanking out 80 percent of the current number of old modems, decoders, and data processors and replacing them with new, lower-footprint systems that would cut down on maintenance time by 20 to 25 percent.

However, some of these changes were not included in the 2017 Life-Cycle Sustainment Plan (LCSP), and the GAO report authors worry that could throw off the Space Force’s implementation of the plan. Branch officials say an ongoing challenge has been delineating between headquarters staff and field commands as to who is responsible for the overall SCN architecture and how those responsible can assess new systems or augment the current architecture, the report states.

Though the Space Force is working on an update for the plan, officials say it has been delayed due to reasons “including updating SCN budget information and an unclear process to finalize the LCSP,” the GAO wrote.

The need to finalize and implement the plan is urgent as the Space Force expects the number of satellites requiring SCN contacts to more than double between 2019 and 2027.

Thule Air Base Gets a New Name: Pituffik Space Base

April 11, 2023 | By Greg Hadley

The northernmost U.S. military base in the world has a new name, and it’s even harder to pronounce than the old one: Thule Air Base was renamed Pituffik Space Base on April 6.

Pronounced “Bee-doo-FEEK,” the new moniker reflects the Inuit native people’s name for the settlement where the Greenland base was built and recognizes the base’s primary role in support of space missions.

Located nearly 700 miles north of the Arctic Circle, Pituffik has been home to U.S. Air Force personnel since the early 1950s, where its strategic location makes it vital to missile defense and space domain awareness. Pituffik hosts the 12th Space Warning Squadron and its Upgraded Early Warning Radar, and Detachment 1 of the 23rd Space Operations Squadron, which does telemetry, tracking, and controls dozens of satellites.

Pituffik’s original Inuit residents were forcibly relocated in 1953, a history that remains controversial in Greenland to this day.

The base’s former name, Thule, came from explorer Knud Rasmussen early in the 20th century, a reference to Greek and Roman maps that cited a mysterious northern island called “ultima Thule”—named for an ancient Greek explorer who sailed far north and landed on an island whose name he heard as “Thule.”

“This renaming represents our wish to celebrate and acknowledge the rich cultural heritage of Greenland and its people and how important they are to the sustainment of this installation against the harsh environment north of the Arctic Circle,” Chief of Space Operations Gen. B. Chance Satlzman said at a ceremony unveiling the name change.

Greenlandic Minister for Foreign Affairs, Business, and Trade Vivian Motzfeldt attended the ceremony and hailed the change as important for Greenlandic culture.

“With the decision to rename, the U.S. has demonstrated its respect to the friendship between us, recognizing cultural heritage, and the history of the base,” Motzfeldt. “I hope that this day will serve as an example of the ability of great nations to listen to even their smallest neighbors. … Today the U.S. has proclaimed to the world, that here lies Pituffik Space Base, where even this far north, there is a people, and they have a name for the place from where we keep watch over all our peoples.”

About 140 Airmen and Guardians are stationed at Pituffik, plus some 450 contractors, civilians, and military personnel representing Denmark, Canada, and Greenland. The base is completely locked in by ice and mostly shrouded in darkness for nine months out of the year.

Pituffik got some rare public attention in the past year, hosting late night TV host and comedian Stephen Colbert for a special in December and F-35 fighters, which landed there for the first time in January.

Pituffik is the latest Space Force installation to be renamed. Others include:

Peterson Space Force Base, Colo.

Buckley Space Force Base, Colo.

Schriever Space Force Base, Colo.

Cheyenne Mountain Space Force Station, Colo.

Patrick Space Force Base, Fla.

Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Fla.

Vandenberg Space Force Base, Calif.

Cape Cod Space Force Station, Mass.

Cavalier Space Force Station, N.D.

New Boston Space Force Station, N.H.

Clear Space Force Station, Alaska

Kaena Point Space Force Station, Hawaii

Los Angeles Air Force Base, Calif., which hosts Space Systems Command, is expected to be renamed, as well. No word yet, though, on when that might happen.

Watch and Read: All the Videos and Transcripts from AWS 23

April 11, 2023

The 2023 AFA Warfare Symposium held March 6-8 in Aurora, Colo., brought together dozens of the leading voices shaping the Air Force and Space Force of today and the future.

You can access the entire program via on-demand video and complete transcripts starting now, with every keynote session and panel discussion. All sessions are listed here.

Keynotes

Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall “One Team, One Fight”

Chief of Staff of the Air Force Gen. Charles “CQ” Brown, Jr. “Airmen in the Fight”

Chief of Space Operations Gen. B. Chance Saltzman “Guardians in the Fight” and “Competitive Endurance”

Gen. Thomas A. Bussiere, commander of Air Force Global Strike Command, “Global Strike”

Panel Discussions

Senior Enlisted Advisor to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Ramón “CZ” Colón-López; Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force JoAnne S. Bass; and Chief Master Sergeant of the Space Force Roger Towberman, “The Enlisted Imperative”

Gen. Kenneth S. Wilsbach, Commander, Pacific Air Forces; Gen. James B. Hecker, U.S. Air Forces in Europe Commander; and Lt. Gen. Nina M. Armagno, Director of Staff, USSF, “Airmen & Guardians in Demand: Meeting the Need”

Lt. Gen. John P. Healy, Chief of Air Force Reserve; Lt. Gen. Michael A. Loh, Director of the Air National Guard; Brig. Gen. Neil Richardson, Deputy Director of Operations, Strategic Deterrence and Nuclear Integration, Headquarters Air Mobility Command; and Maj. Gen. Clark J. Quinn, Deputy Commander Air Forces Central Command, “Building High-End Readiness: Deploying Under the Air Force Generation Model”

Gen. B. Chance Saltzman, Chief of Space Operations; Gen. David W. Allvin, Vice Chief of Staff of the Air Force; Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force Joanne S. Bass; and Chief Master Sergeant of the Space Force Roger A. Towberman, “Warfighting from the Homefront: Senior Leaders Perspective”

Lt. Gen. Alexus G. Grynkewich, commander of Air Forces Central Command; Lt. Gen. Scott L. Pleus, deputy commander of U.S. Forces Korea; Maj. Gen. Derek France, commander of the Third Air Force; and Brig. Gen. Anthony J. Mastalir, commander of United States Space Forces Indo-Pacific, “Defending Forward Bases”

Gen. Mike Minihan, commander of Air Mobility Command, and Gen. Duke Richardson, commander of Air Force Materiel Command, “Logistics on the Attack: The Build Up and the Delivery”

Gen. David W. Allvin, Vice Chief of Staff of the Air Force; Gen. David D. Thompson, Vice Chief of Space Operations, “Joint Warfighting Requirements: The Forces Needed to Fight and Win”

Andrew P. Hunter, the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition Technology and Logistics, and Maj. Gen. Steve Whitney, the Military Deputy of the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Space Acquisition and Integration “Answering the Warfighters’ Needs”

Gen. John E. Hyten, USAF (Ret.), former Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; Gen. Glen D. VanHerck, commander of U.S. Northern Command; and Lt. Gen. John Shaw, deputy commander of U.S. Space Command, “Evolving Threats: Protecting the Homeland”

Col. Charles B. DeBellevue, USAF (Ret.), the highest scoring ACE of Vietnam War and last American ACE; Col. Lee Ellis, USAF (Ret.), Vietnam War POW (1967-1973); and Lt. Col. Gene Smith, USAF (Ret.), Vietnam War POW (1967-1973), “Lessons from Vietnam: 50 Years Later”

Lt. Col. Elizabeth Blakeman, co-lead of Air Combat Command’s Sword Athena program; Kristen Christy, resilience trainer with Fortify the Force; and Maj. Bridget Pantaleon, Family Life Action Group, “United Forces and Families”

Lt. Gen. Leah G. Lauderback, deputy chief of staff for intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and cyber effects operations; Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Kruse, director’s advisor for military affairs at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence; Maj. Gen. Gregory J. Gagnon, deputy chief of space operations for intelligence, “Threats, Targets, and Intelligence Advantage”

Retired Maj. Gen. Kimberly Crider, former mobilization assistant to the Chief of Space Operations and Acting USSF Chief Technology and Innovation Office; Bill Torson, warfighting architect for Kessel Run; Col. Alan “Doc” Docauer, chief of command and control/intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance operations for Air Combat Command; Col. Frederick “Trey” Coleman, commander of the 505th Command and Control Wing, “The New Air Operations Center”

Lt. Gen. Jim Slife, deputy chief of staff for operations; Lt. Gen. Brian S. Robinson, commander of Air Education and Training Command; Maj. Gen. Jeannie M. Leavitt, chief of safety for the Department of the Air Force, “Ready to Fight: Flying Hours, Flight Safety, and Training the Next Generation of Pilots”

Brig. Gen. Jeffery Valenzia, DAF Advance Battle Management System Cross Functional Team lead; Col. Frederick “Trey” Coleman, commander of the 505th Command and Control Wing; retired Lt. Gen. Dave Deptula, dean of the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies; Heather Penney, senior resident fellow at the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies, “Optimizing C2 to Assure Kill Web Dominance”

Lt. Gen. Tony D. Bauernfeind, commander of Air Force Special Operations Command; Lt. Gen. Alexus G. Grynkewich, commander of Air Forces Central Command; Lt. Gen. Michael A. Loh, director of the Air National Guard; Maj. Gen. Derek C. France, commander of the Third Air Force; Col. David Pappalardo, French Air and Space Attaché, “Agile Combat Employment: Are We Ready?”

Retired Lt. Gen. David A. Deptula, dean of the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies; Gen. Mark D. Kelly, commander of Air Combat Command; Lt. Gen. Stephen N. Whiting, commander of Space Operations Command; and Lt. Gen. Alberto Biavati, Italian Air Force Operational Forces Commander, “Every Threat a Target”

Industry Panels

Maj. Gen. R. Scott Jobe, director of plans, programs, and requirements for Air Combat Command; Brig. Gen. Dale R. White, program executive officer for fighters and advanced aircraft; David Alexander, president of the aircraft systems group for General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc.; and Mike Benitez, director of product for Shield AI, “Advancements in Collaborative Combat Aircraft CONOPs”

Willy Andersen, vice president of multi domain-special programs and capabilities at Boeing’s Phantom Works; Jon Norman, vice president of air power, requirements and capabilities at Raytheon; and Doug Young, vice president and general manager for strike programs for Northrop Grumman, “Global Strike”

Chad Haferbier, vice president and division manager for multi-domain operations of Leidos; Lance Spencer, client executive vice president for AT&T Global Public Sector; Joseph Sublousky, vice president for joint all domain command and control at SAIC; and Col. Frederick “Trey” Coleman, commander of the 505th Command and Control Wing, “Operationalizing ABMS-JADC2”

Maj. Gen. Heather Pringle, commander of the Air Force Research Laboratory; Andre McMillian, vice president of sustainment operations for military engines at Pratt & Whitney; Brian Morrison, vice president and general manager of cyber systems at General Dynamics; and David Tweedie, general manager of advanced products at GE Edison Works, “Transitioning to a Wartime Posture Against a Peer Competitor”

Willy Anderson, vice president of Boeing’s Phantom Works; Renee Pasman, vice president of integrated systems for advanced development programs at Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works; and Gregory Simer, vice president at Northrop Grumman, “Defining the Next-Generation Air Dominance Family of Systems”

Brig. Gen. Luke C. G. Cropsey, the Air Force’s program executive officer for command, control, communications, and battle management; Elaine Bitonti, vice president and general manager of connected battlespace and emerging capabilities mission systems for Collins Aerospace; Dan Markham, director for Joint All Domain Operations / Advanced Battle Management System in Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works division; retired Lt. Col. Ron Fehlen, vice president and general manager for Air Force and Space Force programs at L3Harris, “Operationally Focused ABMS”

Jason Brown, professional services manager for Google Public Sector; Joel Nelson, senior director for strategy and business development for Space Systems at L3Harris; Kay Sears, vice president and general manager for space, intelligence and weapon systems for Boeing Defense, Space & Security; Lt. Gen. DeAnna M. Burt, deputy chief of space operations for operations, cyber, and nuclear, “Defining Resilient and Effective Space Order of Battle and Architectures”

Ryan Bunge, Vice President & General Manager Resilient Networking and Autonomy Solutions, Collins Aerospace; Thom Kenney, Technical Director, OCTO, Google; Brad Reeves, Director for C4I Solutions, Elbit America, “Defining Optimized Resilient Basing”

Paul Ferraro, president of air power at Raytheon Technologies; Dave Richards, senior director of precision weapon systems and precision targeting solutions at Elbit America; Mike Shortsleeve, vice president of strategic development at General Atomics Aeronautical Systems; Maj. Gen. R. Scott Jobe, director of plans, programs, and requirements for Air Combat Command, “Achieving Moving Target Engagement at Scale”