Air Force Investigates After B-52 ‘Crabbing’ at Airshow Appears to Knock Out Runway Lights

July 19, 2023 | By David Roza

The Air Force is investigating an incident involving a B-52H Stratofortress that took place at RAF Fairford, United Kingdom, during the Royal International Air Tattoo on July 16.

Video footage that circulated on social media appears to show the B-52’s wheel-tip landing gear knocking out runway lights as it taxied at Fairford. The public affairs office for the 307th Bomb Wing, to which the B-52 belongs, declined to provide more details, citing the ongoing probe.

“The incident is under investigation at this time,” a spokesperson told Air & Space Forces Magazine. “While the investigation is ongoing we can’t speculate as to what happened.”

Still, many social media commenters were intrigued by the way the bomber appeared to move nearly sideways down the runway. The technique is called ‘crabbing’ and it helps B-52 crews negotiate narrow taxiways.

B52 crabbing
byu/newnoadeptness inAirForce

Unlike many other planes, the B-52 has wingtip landing gear near the ends of its 185-foot wingspan. Those wheels keep the wings, which can flex down 10 or 12 feet depending on how much gas is stored in the wing fuel tanks, from dragging on the ground. The wingtip landing gear is particularly helpful while taxiing and during takeoff, but it can create problems when the runway is too narrow for both wingtip wheels to set down.

“Other aircraft, their wings can hang out over the grass no problem,” Dave Prakash, a former B-52 pilot, told Air & Space Forces Magazine. “But we have tip gear that need runway to touch down on.”

To solve this and other problems, the B-52’s landing gear was designed to rotate up to 20 degrees to the right or left, which helps the large jet land in a crosswind. The swivel wheels can also help the jet move sideways down a narrow runway. In those circumstances, B-52 crews can also move gas from one wing to another, so that the loaded wing’s landing gear is on the ground while the unloaded wing gear is hanging in the air.

“You’re changing the width of the aircraft when you make it tilt to one side and crab to one side,” Prakash said. “Now you’ve reduced your necessary runway [width] by half, because the one wing is now 10 feet in the air so it can hang out over the grass.”

Unfortunately in the video, the loaded wing’s landing gear appears to have still made contact with some of the lights, which can happen now and then, said Prakash—who flew the B-52 at RIAT in 2009, though he did not recall having to crab there. Pilots typically know the runway dimensions in advance so that they can plan accordingly, he said. Often, a crew member gets out and guides the aircraft down the runway to make sure there are no collisions with the lights.

While crabbing is a big help for fitting down narrow runways, it is also essential for B-52s landing at airfields afflicted by crosswinds. Normally, when pilots of other aircraft are about to land on a runway with crosswind, Prakash explained, they fly into the wind until the last moment, at which point they dip a wing down a bit and apply rudder so that they can land with their wheels and nose pointed straight down the runway.

The B-52 can’t play that game due to its large and very flexible wingspan. Dipping those wings at the wrong moment could scrape a wingtip or, at worst, cause a catastrophic cartwheel, Prakash said. So instead of using the rudder and a wing dip to straighten out at the last moment, the B-52’s swivel wheels allow the pilot to keep the aircraft crabbing into the wind while the gear itself points straight down the runway.

“In the B-52, you can be in such a crab angle that the pilot is looking out one of the side windows, because the side window is what’s lined up with the direction of the runway,” Prakash said. “It makes it easier to land because now you don’t have to worry about finessing your rudder or anything like that.”

Instead, B-52s can maintain their crab position all the way down the runway, then stop and reset the wheels to straight-ahead. After that, it’s just a matter of avoiding the runways lights.

Mobility Guardian Ditches ‘Easy Button’ to Put Airmen to the Test in the Pacific

July 19, 2023 | By Chris Gordon

U.S. and allied air forces are wrapping up one of their largest mobility exercises in history: Mobility Guardian 23. The two-week drill is designed to take on the challenges of operating in the vast Pacific region, now the primary focus of America’s military strategy.

“The joint force cannot fight if they’re not in place to fight,” Maj. Gen. Darren R. Cole, Air Mobility Command’s director of operations, strategic deterrence, and nuclear integration, told Air & Space Forces Magazine in a recent interview. “That’s not as easy as it may sound. And it may look easy, but it’s just not. It takes a lot of practice.”

Whether it’s the Army, Marines, Navy, Air Force, or Space Force, all components of the U.S. military are practicing how they would operate in the Pacific this summer in joint and multinational drills.

Mobility Guardian has not only rehearsed AMC’s capabilities but has also supported other U.S. and multinational exercises carried out in parallel across the Pacific. It has even been called upon to execute a real-world search and rescue operation.

All told, 70 aircraft and 3,000 personnel have been involved in the exercise, which runs July 5-21 and has included operations in Hawaii, Guam, Australia, and Japan.

Compared to other Air Force major commands, AMC generally doesn’t receive much public attention despite its pivotal role in military operations. It has airlifted billions of dollars worth of U.S. aid to Ukraine, provides aerial refueling for aircraft across the world, and operates Air Force VIP jets. While publicity photos of fighters and troops may be splashed across social media pages, those pictures are often taken out of the back of an AMC tanker or cargo plane.

A U.S. Air Force KC-135 Stratotanker prepares to refuel a KC-46 Pegasus during Mobility Guardian 23 over the Indo-Pacific region, July 14, 2023. U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Heather Clements

AMC’s job is to “glue all of those people together to provide the forces and then maneuver them into the right place,” said Cole, the exercise director for Mobility Guardian 23. “It familiarizes all the participants with, to them, what’s the new region to the world.”

Many of the early lessons learned were practical, including how to operate from smaller and more austere bases.

“They have logistics and they have communications, so you just don’t have to bring things with you in other parts of the world,” Cole said.

Throughout July, AMC and allied forces also practiced airlift, land and maritime resupply missions, air refueling, aeromedical evacuation, disaster relief, and supporting other exercises and a Bomber Task Force.

Gas is king in the Pacific, and one particular focus was refueling—and not just in the air. Mobility Guardian exercised forward area refueling points (FARPs), in which aircraft are refueled on the ground independent of base infrastructure, including “hot-pit” refuels of aircraft that keep their engines running.

“We’re doing a lot of those activities to try to minimize downtime and operate with agility,” Cole said.

Such maneuvers support the Air Force concept of “Agile Combat Employment,” in which the service will seek to disperse its forces to operate from less established bases.

Given that a future conflict will likely involve an adversary who will attack U.S. and allied communications, Mobility Guardian has also tested the ability to operate effectively if centralized command systems are interrupted.

“We give them the authority to make decisions based on what’s known at that location,” Cole explained. “The Airman who is closest to the action can use their well-trained mind to make a decision. And then we’re going to accept the outcome of that.”

Previous Mobility Guardian exercises, which occur every two years, have been conducted over the continental U.S. This year, AMC moved the exercise to the Pacific, requiring coordination with four combatant commands and multiple U.S. allies, whose military posture in the Pacific may differ from America’s.

“The globally integrated nature of the exercise is extremely new, but extremely important,” Cole said. Seven countries—Australia, Canada, France, Japan, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the U.S.—are participating.

French Air and Space Force A400M pilots conduct a search and rescue mission over the Pacific Ocean, July 10, 2023. The crews were alerted and searched the ocean for a disabled vessel, which they located and provided air support for local search and rescue crews. U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Michael Cossaboom

AMC’s boss, Gen. Mike Minihan, has been blunt about his goal since taking the job two years ago: developing the capability to deter China as soon as possible. As the former deputy commander of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, Minihan’s warnings to prepare for a potential China contingency have sometimes been brusk—in January, he created international headlines when he issued a memo that predicted war with China in the next few years. That led to recriminations from Beijing, and the Pentagon distanced itself from the prediction.

Still, China remains the “pacing challenge” for the Department of Defense as outlined in its National Defense Strategy. And working in the Pacific creates challenges that must be considered.

“If you do an exercise in the continental United States, you don’t have to go through that in reality, you just have to simulate it,” Cole said. “If you want to hit the easy button, you don’t do that.”

Congress Clears Way to Restart Bonuses and PCS Moves. What will USAF Do Now?

July 19, 2023

After weeks of delay, Congress approved the Pentagon’s request to reprogram personnel funds, Air & Space Forces Magazine confirmed July 19. But it’s not yet clear if the Air Force will reverse its hold on reenlistment bonuses and permanent change-of-station orders imposed as a result of that freeze.

House Armed Services Committee spokeswoman Justine Sanders said in a statement the committee “has approved reprogramming requests related to military personnel and continues to review additional reprogramming requests from the Department of Defense.”

An Air Force spokesperson confirmed the service’s personnel-related request had been approved by Congress. But the Air Force is still working on what this means to specific policies and programs, the spokesperson said.

On July 10, the Air Force announced it was reviewing all pending PCS orders for Airmen with a projected departure date of Aug. 1 or later. Additionally, the service said it would delay moves for Airmen on long tours overseas, such as those accompanied by their families, whose “Date Estimated Return From Overseas” (DEROS) fell between Oct. 1 and Dec. 31.

On top of that, the service also said it was pausing its Selective Reenlistment Bonus, Aviation Bonus, and Assignment incentive pay programs. Any Airmen already approved for those bonuses would receive them, but nobody new would be able to take advantage.

Air Force officials said the moves were necessary in order “to avoid exhausting funds” in its military personnel account. Higher-than-expected PCS costs, a result of inflation, and higher retention and recruiting bonuses depleted those accounts faster than anticipated. The Air Force asked Congress to authorize shifting money from other accounts, as Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. confirmed during an appearance before lawmakers July 11. But when the request wasn’t answered in time, officials had to take action to avoid running over budget.

The holdup was to result of a political fight over the permanent home of U.S. Space Command. Colorado Democrats accused HASC chairman Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) of holding up the reprogramming request to force a basing decision on the headquarters for U.S. Space Command, which is under review by Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall after years of controversy. In its final weeks in office, the Trump administration announced SPACECOM would move to Redstone Arsenal, Ala. Colorado lawmakers cried foul, and the issue has been in dispute ever since.

Rogers initially called the allegation a “partisan, parochial, and untrue misrepresentation of HASC processes.” But he later admitted to Military.com that he was holding up the request in protest of the SPACECOM decision.

It’s not clear what, if anything, changed his mind. But now that personnel-related reprogramming requests have been approved, others are still pending. Exactly how much has and has not been OK’d has implications for how the Air Force redistributes funds ove the remaining 10 weeks of the fiscal year. Punchbowl News published one reprogramming request from June that showed the Air Force also needs extra funds to cover pay and allowances for enlisted Airmen. No word yet on that request.

PHOTOS: Six Countries Contribute to Impressive Elephant Walk on Guam

July 19, 2023 | By Greg Hadley

Six allies joined in an elephant walk at Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, on July 19, showcasing the international air armada they are currently fielding in the Indo-Pacific.

The U.S., United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Japan, and France all contributed to the 23-plane formation, which included fighters, bombers, transports, and aerial tankers.

U.S. Air Force aircraft included:

Five F-35 fighters from the 419th Fighter Wing at Hill Air Force Base, Utah

One B-52 bomber from the 2nd Bomb Wing at Barksdale Air Force Base, La.

Two KC-135 tankers from the 92nd Air Refueling Wing at Fairchild Air Force Base, Wash.

Two C-17 transports from the 60th Air Mobility Wing at Travis Air Force Base, Calif.

One C-130 from the 19th Airlift Wing at Little Rock Air Force Base, Ark.

Joining in from the allies were:

France: Four Rafale fighters, one A400 Atlas transport aircraft, and one A330 MRTT from the French Air and Space Force

United Kingdom: One A400 Atlas from the Royal Air Force

Canada: One C-130J and one CC-150T Polaris from the Royal Canadian Air Force

Japan: One C-130H from the Japan Air Self-Defense Force

Australia: One C-130J from the Royal Australian Air Force

Nearby, additional B-52s were parked on the flightline, noted an Air Force Global Strike Command social media post.

The aircraft are in the region for several exercises and oevents, including Mobility Guardian, Air Mobility Command’s signature exercise meant to practice the logistics and mobilization necessary for a vast conflict in the Pacific. Mobility Guardian is overlaid in support for concurrent exercises led by Pacific Air Forces: Northern Edge, normally held solely in Alaska, expanded to other regions of the Pacific this year; and Cope Thunder, a joint U.S.-Phillipines exercise.

All told, PACAF estimates that more than 15,000 U.S. and Allied forces are currently engaged in exercises around the Indo-Pacific.

The French Air and Space Force is also holding its own exercise, PEGASE 23.

Those exercises come amidst a series of Bomber Task Force rotations in Guam and Japan. involving both B-52s and B-1s.

Russian Fighter Put ‘Lives at Risk’ By Harassing a USAF Surveillance Plane Over Syria

July 18, 2023 | By Chris Gordon

A Russian fighter harassed a U.S. manned surveillance aircraft over Syria on July 16, engaging in a maneuver that risked the lives of the four American crew members, U.S. officials said July 18.

The move comes as escalating tensions with Iran and Russia have led the Pentagon to order more forces, including fifth-generation F-35s and F-16 fighter jets to the region.

“We’ve got adequate capabilities to defend ourselves,” Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Army Gen. Mark A. Milley told reporters at the Pentagon July 18.

Milley cautioned that the U.S. was unsure what is behind Russia’s recent behavior, but U.S. officials have noted a closer defense partnership between Iran and Russia as of late.

“We’re monitoring it very closely,” Milley said. “As to the reason why [there has been] the little bit of an uptick, I’m not really certain. We’ve got analysts trying to figure that out.”

Some U.S. officials have suggested Russian pilots and commanders may be trying to pressure U.S. forces to leave Syria, where U.S. forces have been helping partners fight the remnants of ISIS.

The July 16 incident began at around 6:45 pm Syria time, when a Russian Su-35 fighter caught a U.S. MC-12 Liberty on an intelligence-gathering mission against ISIS, according to the Department of Defense’s account of the incident. The Russian Su-35 flew in the flight path of the MC-12, a small turboprop plane based on the civilian Beechcraft King Air 350, forcing the U.S. plane to fly through the fighter’s wake turbulence.

“This reduced the crew’s ability to safely operate the aircraft and put the four crewmembers’ lives at risk,” Air Forces Central (AFCENT) commander Lt. Gen. Alexus G. Grynkewich said in a statement. “These actions against a manned aircraft represent a new level of unsafe and unprofessional actions by Russian aircraft operating in Syria. We strongly urge Russian forces in Syria to cease reckless and threatening behavior that could result in an accident and loss of life, and adhere to the standards of behavior expected of a professional force.”

The Associated Press first reported details of the incident, which was was similar to other near confrontations with U.S. adversaries in recent months.

In May, a Chinese fighter flew in the path of a U.S. RC-135, another intelligence plane, over the South China Sea. The jet wash from the Chinese fighter caused the RC-135, which is related to the Boeing 707 jetliner, to experience severe turbulence. The encounter was captured on video from the RC-135’s cockpit, which the Pentagon released.

Two Russian Su-27 pilots harassed a U.S. MQ-9 over the Black Sea in March, with one Russian fighter clipping the American drone, which the Pentagon said made the drone uncontrollable and forced the operator to intentionally crashed the MQ-9 into the water.

The DOD has also released videos of other Russian interactions with U.S. drones, which have included acts such as dropping parachute flares and engaging a fighter’s jet engine afterburner in front of MQ-9s.

But the Pentagon did not publicize video footage of the July 16 incident between the Su-35 and MC-12. A U.S. official said high-quality, publicly releasable video from the MC-12 was unavailable. U.S. officials did not say how close the Su-35 got to the MC-12.

The incident happened a day before the Pentagon announced additional forces were heading to CENTCOM, including the guided missile destroyer USS Thomas Hudner.

Just days before that, Russia overflew the U.S. outpost of Al Tanf Garrison in eastern Syria with an An-30, which like the American MC-12 is a crewed turboprop ISR aircraft.

Armed Russian aircraft have also been regularly overflying U.S. troops in eastern Syria and getting as close as 500 feet to manned U.S. fighters since March 1.

Milley said the U.S. forces had the proper authorities to operate safely in Syria, where the U.S. has 900 ground troops working with Kurdish groups to battle the remnants of ISIS. American fighter aircraft, which are usually armed with air-to-ground and air-to-air weapons when flying over Syria, supplement and protect those troops. The U.S. also uses platforms such as MQ-9s for ISR and airstrikes.

“We have rules of engagement,” Milley told reporters at the Pentagon. “If at any point in time any of our troops sense a hostile act, a hostile intent, they will protect themselves.”

But the July 16 incident fell below that threshold, Milley said.

“If there’s unsafe or unprofessional acts, that’s a different issue,” Milley said. “We try to work that out through the deconfliction channel that’s going on at the tactical level, so that we don’t have an inadvertent air-to-air accident or incident.”

Milley added he was confident the U.S. has enough forces in the region following the latest announcement. However, it is unclear when the additional fighters will arrive.

A senior U.S. defense official told Air & Space Forces Magazine that the F-35s could be used around the Strait of Hormuz, where Iran has attempted to seize oil tankers, if the airspace became contested. But the F-35s could also be used over Syria if Russia presented a more significant threat, the official said. F-22 Raptors were deployed to the region in June and are departing.

“Having that fifth-gen capability up in Syria doing defensive counterair gives us more capacity up there,” the senior U.S. defense official said. “It’s effective against some of those Russian provocations that we’ve previously countered with the F-22.”

National Guard Charts New Course for Growing Overseas Partnerships

July 18, 2023 | By Greg Hadley and Chris Gordon

Thirty years ago, the National Guard Bureau established its State Partnership Program (SPP) by pairing 13 former Soviet bloc countries with state National Guard organizations to leverage joint training as a means of bolstering cooperation and democracy.

Today, more than 100 countries around the globe participate in the program, with 88 active partnerships. All 54 states, territories, and the District of Columbia have at least one partner nation. And as officials gathered for a conference at National Harbor, Md., to celebrate the anniversary, they also laid out a vision for the future of the program—one focused less on expansion and more on deeper cooperation covering more capabilities and domains.

“The future is not going to be, ‘Let’s do another 100 countries in 30 years, slap the table, and call it done,’” said Maj. Gen. William Zana, director for strategy, plans, and policy at the National Guard Bureau, during a panel discussion. “It’s really a different evolution, and a different set of processes in progress that we’re going to have to see.”

Several days earlier at the Pentagon, Zana told Air & Space Forces Magazine the program historically focused most on land forces. But more recently, he said, “We see a tremendous increase in the partnerings across Air Force and Air Guard, and I think we just expect that to continue.”

Lt. Gen. Dan Cain, associate director for military affairs at the CIA, recalled in a keynote address, his experience with the Georgia Air National Guard, traveling to “fly together with the Argentine Air Force and learn, grow, and trust each other in a new and different way.”

Future partnerships could even extend into space. More than 1,000 Air National Guard members spread out in six states support space missions, and while lawmakers are still debating whether to create a separate Space National Guard, more and more countries are getting involved in space.

“We absolutely see a demand signal from our partners and an opportunity to work with them much more closely on space,” Zana said. “We see that at scale and at different levels. Different nations are either directly involved in some of the things that they want to do for their own interest in terms of space, or other nations, in some cases, adversaries, have an interest in their capabilities. So it's a great opportunity for us to both learn, grow, and share with partners.”

Deeper partnerships across those areas could be crucial to bolstering partner nations in strategically important areas like Eastern Europe, the original focus of the SPP, and the South China Sea, where the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Thailand, and Indonesia are all part of the program now.

“I have to admit that we see this state partnership program promoting the strategic message that the U.S. is interested in the Black Sea region, the region where a war is happening right now,” Romanian chief of defense Gen. Daniel Petrescu said in a panel discussion. “So we start with the mission, and I believe we should look also at the strategic environment. … We are at an inflection point right now. And maybe the way we created this state partnership program in the '90s, in the former Warsaw treaty countries, getting them to move towards democracy, maybe the next step will be [teaching] these democracies how to defend against challenges and build the capacity.”

The SPP has earned plaudits for the ties it built between Ukraine and the California National Guard, ties that have proved invaluable as the Ukrainians have fought off Russia’s invasion. Moving forward, officials say they want to build more such ties—and increase interoperability in case of a conflict.

“When you look across the landscape, [there’s] a continued desire for speed and depth of interoperability,” said Vice Adm. Stephen “Web” Koehler, director for strategy, plans, and policy for the Joint Staff, in the panel discussion. “And I know that's what everybody wants, but as we get to having, one, the ability to deter, and, two, should that fail, get ready to get after a conflict, those things need to be done before the conflict. So as we talk about a surge in trust, that comes with interoperability and depth thereof.”

Building those connections does not come without cost, said Air Force Maj. Gen. Paul Knapp, adjutant general of the Wisconsin National Guard. “Predictable and stable funding is critical for the State Partnership Program and coordinating across different fiscal years. Our fiscal year is probably different from the fiscal year of the country that we're a partner with, and providing that predictable funding will allow us to have more stable events and engagements."

U.S. Guard units must also be sized to be able to support that growth, he said, adding: As the U.S. builds additional partnerships, "I think it's important for us to attempt to gain additional force structure and staffing in the states in order to adequately manage those partnerships.”

Air Chiefs from US, Britain, and Australia Align on E-7 Wedgetail

July 18, 2023 | By Greg Hadley

The heads of the U.S., British, and Australian air forces signed a “joint vision statement” in a ground-breaking declaration of intent to co-develop the E-7 Wedgetail for airborne early warning and control, the U.S. Air Force announced July 17.

USAF did not immediately share details of the joint vision statement, but noted in a release that the deal will cover “Wedgetail capability development, evaluation and testing, interoperability, sustainment, operations, training, and safety.”

Cooperation could potentially accelerate USAF’s fielding of the Wedgetail—something both Air Force leaders and Congress has pushed as the aging E-3 AWACS fleet nears retirement. Current plans have the U.S. Air Force fielding its first of 26 E-7s in 2027.

The Royal Australian Air Force already has six E-7s, and the Royal Air Force, which plans to buy three, is aiming for initial operational capability in 2024.

U.S., British, and Australians have been talking about working together on the E-7 for some time. Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall broached the topic with U.K. Minister for the Armed Forces James Heappey in February, and Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. said recently U.S. Airmen will travel to Australia to train on the aircraft.

At least one USAF official, program executive officer for the digital directorate Steven Wert, has suggested the U.S. and U.K. could share E-7 testing data, and officials at Boeing, the airplanes’ maker, have indicated willingness to accelerate U.S. deliveries.

But this week’s announcement is the first formal agreement addressing the aircraft. Brown; the Royal Air Force Chief of the Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal Sir Rich Knighton; and the Chief of the Royal Australian Air Force, Air Marshal Robert Chipman, signed the document during a ceremony at the Royal International Air Tattoo at RAF Fairford, U.K.

The U.S.-U.K.-Australia trilateral partnership, easily the closest among Western allies, has grown stronger in recent years. The three agreed last year to share nuclear submarine technology, and their so-called AUKUS accord has since expanded to include hypersonic and other emerging technologies.

USAF’s release on the Wedgetail agreement did not indicate whether the new joint vision statement will formally expand AUKUS.

“Collaboration and interoperability are critical to our warfighting advantage,” Brown said in a statement. “Signing this joint vision statement represents another step in the long-term, enduring commitment we have to the future and to the security of our three countries. The relationship between the United Kingdom, Australia, and the United States is more robust than ever, and we share a mutual understanding of the challenges we face in the air domain and the need to address them.”

A Royal Australian Air Force E-7A Wedgetail, Airborne Early Warning and Control (AWACS) aircraft, is parked at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada, May 6, 2022. U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Makenna Gott

Why Are Air Force PJs Training in a 140-Year-Old Copper Mine?

July 18, 2023 | By David Roza

Air Force Pararescuemen, also known as ‘PJs,’ are trained to save lives anywhere on Earth, from the middle of a desert to the open water. But while each environment has unique challenges, underground tunnels and caves can be particularly dangerous, leaving rescuers unable to see, hear, and even breathe at times.

In May, PJs got to train in just such dangerous conditions at an exercise hosted by the 414th Combat Training Squadron at the the San Xavier Underground Mining Laboratory, near Tucson, Ariz. From 1880-1952, the mine produced silver, lead, zinc, and copper. Now owned by the University of Arizona, it’s used as a training and research facility for mining and geology students, government agencies, and search and rescue teams.

“The darkness underground and the smoke makes it difficult to see or use lights sometimes,” Master Sgt. Sean Sylvia, a PJ with the Air Force Reserves and the ground operations manager for special warfare with the 414th CTS, told Air & Space Forces Magazine. “It’s sensory deprivation, which is what we’re trying to go for at the training site because that is the biggest lesson the team walks away with: figuring out different ways to handle those types of scenarios.”

The exercise wasn’t just to acclimate PJs to tunnels and caves, though—Tech Sgt. August O’Niell, a section chief of special warfare for the 414th CTS, said there were lessons for confined spaces of all kinds.

“Since we’re rescue specialists, we have to be able to get into and out of all different types of scenarios, and one of those is very small spaces, whether it’s a collapsed structure, or an underground situation, or the inside of cars,” O’Niell said.

air force pj — A U.S. Air Force pararescueman ascends out of a mine shaft during an exercise at the San Xavier Mine, Ariz., May 4, 2023. The pararescueman used a rope pulley system to safely exit the mine. (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman William Finn)

In a confined space, rescuers may have to wear firefighter-style breathing masks to filter smoke or toxic gasses; their voices may be muffled or distorted; their radio signals may be blocked by layers of earth and concrete; their night vision goggles may not have enough light to function; and some of the tools they rely on to breach doors and other barriers may set off an explosion due to pent-up gasses.

“It’s a completely different arena,” said Sylvia. “Communication really breaks down in these situations, so you have to figure out with your teammates how you’re going to pass signals and messages back and forth.”

Before the exercise began, the participating PJs went over a system of hand signals, rope pulls, and chem lights (glow sticks), but these can break down under pressure.

“Even with the best-laid plans, things happen when you’re down there,” said O’Niell. “One person, after memorizing all those signals, may mix up a left-hand turn with a right-hand turn and communicate that. It’s something that we need to embed with each team, that they need to work on these things before the entrance to a confined space.”

In the most recent exercise, Airmen responded to a simulated explosion that trapped and injured a handful of patients. The PJs had to breach in, assess the patients, some of whom were screaming in mock pain, treat any immediately life-threatening injuries, and move them out of the mine. To make things more interesting, the mine was completely blacked out and the 414th CTS ran smoke machines “to enforce that sensory deprivation so they can barely see their hand in front of their face,” Sylvia added.

The organizers also closed off the rescuer’s initial entry point, forcing them to rely on their mission prep to find a way out.

“A big thing about going into a space like this is you have to know your environment,” said O’Niell. “We were able to assess if they actually did their map studies by seeing if they were able to find other exits that they had available.”

Just keeping track of one’s gear can be a difficult task.

“They have a lot of equipment that they’re constantly taking on and off to work with,” Sylvia explained. “In those types of situations, if you set something down and you get distracted, you may lose it somewhere in the dark. A lot of it comes down to knowing how your equipment works and not losing it.”

While the May exercise was challenging, there are other scenarios PJs may practice at San Xavier that would challenge them in entirely different ways. One includes a 150-foot vertical shaft that rescuers must descend with ropes. Once they reach the patient at the bottom, they have to figure out how to pull him or her back up without causing additional harm. In the future, the 414th CTS plans on flooding a 100-foot section of one of the mine tunnels, forcing rescuers to dive to reach their patients—a situation reminiscent of the 2018 Thai cave flooding, where rescuers dove through flooded tunnels to reach a trapped youth soccer team.

“There’s only one small entry point at the beginning of it and a very small entry point at the end and then it’s dry after that,” O’Niell said. “They would have to SCUBA dive through this tunnel, come out the other side, treat their patient on that side and then communicate back what is needed to retrieve the patient.”

Ideally, rescuers can move patients out of the dangerous conditions of a mine before administering advanced medical care, but they may not always have that option. The patient may have been pinned beneath a fallen structure or have an injury too serious for movement. Air Force PJs cannot choose which scenario to prepare for, so they are trained to use various extrication tools and medical procedures to keep those patients alive.

“If they’ve been pinned for more than six hours, there are drugs that have to be pushed to keep all of that acidic blood from reentering the body and causing cardiac problems once you’re able to extract them,” O’Niell explained. “The team has to slow down, right? Nobody’s ever running through these types of situations. It takes what’s called a tactical pause to kind of talk through what’s happening and relay it to the rest of your team to get to the next phase.”

Those skills could save lives in a future humanitarian mission or conflict, which some experts predict could include brutal underground fighting.

“Rudimentary tunnel systems as experienced during the Vietnam War are not unique to that conflict; it is an underground pattern that continues today,” wrote four Army majors in a 2013 thesis on subterranean warfare for the Naval Postgraduate School. The thesis, “The Enemy Below,” was also cited by a 2019 series of Army Times articles on the subject.

Going underground can help avoid airborne surveillance or airstrikes. ISIS fighters dug tunnels throughout the Iraqi cities they occupied, and future urban warfare campaigns may include significant subterranean fighting.

Not all Air Force bases have a training mine nearby, and O’Niell said he was grateful Davis-Monthan Air Force Base does. The 414th CTS plans to return this August to put another visiting PJ team to the test.

“Having an area to do these things is key,” he said. “Maintaining proficiency over currency is something that is highly sought after and rarely happens with certain skill sets. It’s important that our guys are able to go after some things like this.”

F-35s Deploying to CENTCOM After ‘Alarming’ Actions by Iran, Pentagon Says

July 17, 2023 | By Chris Gordon

The U.S. is deploying F-35 fifth-generation fighters and additional F-16s to the U.S. Central Command region, the Pentagon announced July 17.

The Department of Defense is also authorizing the deployment of an additional guided missile destroyer in response to “an alarming number of recent events in the Strait of Hormuz,” deputy Pentagon press secretary Sabrina Singh told reporters. Earlier this month, Iran sought to seize two commercial oil tankers and fired on one of them before abandoning the attempt when an American guided missile destroyer, the USS McFaul, arrived on the scene.

Iran is not the only threat in the region. The U.S. and Russia have had close calls in the skies in recent months, both over western Syria with Russian aircraft harassing American MQ-9 Reapers, and with manned Russian aircraft flying near manned American fighters and U.S. troops in eastern Syria.

A senior U.S. defense official told Air & Space Forces Magazine that the F-35s could be used over the Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz if the airspace became contested and could be used over Syria if Russia presented a more significant threat.

The Strait of Hormuz is a choke point between the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman, through which roughly 20 percent of the world’s oil supply flows. To deter Iran, the U.S. has A-10s and F-16s patrolling the skies in the area, in addition to P-8 Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft. Another destroyer, the USS Thomas Hudner, will now join the U.S. maritime force in the region.

“In light of this continued threat and in coordination with our partners and allies, the department is increasing our presence and ability to monitor the Strait and surrounding waters,” Singh said.

Singh said Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III consulted with the commander of U.S. Central Command, Army Gen. Michael “Erik” Kurilla, and decided to send “assets to the region that they felt it was important to do at this time.”

“It’s just an additional asset to help,” Singh said of the F-35 deployment. “We’ve seen Iran continue to engage in destabilizing activity.”

A-10s are most useful in uncontested airspace, which is why the Air Force wants to retire them by the end of the decade, figuring they are not suited to a high-end fight. Iran has fighter aircraft such as American-made F-4 Phantoms and surface-to-air missiles along its coast that can reach out over the Strait of Hormuz, where Iran previously downed a U.S. RQ-4 drone in 2019. F-22 Raptors that were rushed to the region last month in response to Russian actions are leaving CENTCOM, according to U.S. officials.

“If the maritime domain becomes contested, the F-35s would be able to operate and conduct that mission,” the senior U.S. defense official told Air & Space Forces Magazine.

While the senior U.S. defense official said they didn’t anticipate Tehran would seek to challenge the U.S. in the skies, the F-35s would be well suited to respond.

“They could suppress the enemy defenses if you got to that level,” the official said. “If F-4s start flying out to harass the A-10s, we could fly F-35s out there and the F-4 is not really going to be a particular issue.”

Despite a reduced permanent U.S. presence in the region, the DOD has been forced to bulk up its force in the Middle East on short notice in response to threats from Iran and Russia multiple times in the past year.

“We have the capability present where we need it,” Lt. Gen. Douglas A. Sims II, the director for operations for the Joint Staff, said July 13 when asked if the U.S. would need to increase its force in the region in response to Russian actions over Syria. “I believe that the combatant commander—in this case, in the Central Command—has all the necessary assets if there was an issue.”

U.S. MQ-9 drones have been harassed by Russian planes over western Syria this past month. Since March 1, Russian aircraft have regularly overflown U.S. troops in eastern Syria and have flown within 500 feet of American manned aircraft, actions which Air Forces Central commander Lt. Gen. Alexus G. Grynkewich has repeatedly called out as “unsafe and unprofessional.” The U.S. has roughly 900 troops in Syria and partners with Kurdish groups to defeat the remnants of ISIS. U.S. aircraft support the effort by providing intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance, force protection, and airstrikes. Meanwhile, Russia is in Syria supporting the regime of Bashar Al-Assad.

The A-10s were the first Air Force assets to fly maritime missions in response to recent Iranian actions, before being bolstered by F-16s, which are faster and have a greater ability to conduct counterair missions, in the last few days. F-35s will add additional fighter capacity and counterair capability, both in the Gulf and over the skies of Syria.

“It’s a stealthy fifth-gen platform with advanced avionics and sensor suite,” the senior U.S. defense official told Air & Space Forces Magazine. “It’s very useful in a contested environment.”