Americans’ Support for Ukraine Aid Stays High After F-16 Decision

Americans’ Support for Ukraine Aid Stays High After F-16 Decision

June 26, 2023 | By Greg Hadley

Support for sending military aid to Ukraine remains high among the American public, according to a new poll, but many want European allies to do more. 

The survey, released June 25 by the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute, was conducted between May 31 and June 6—shortly after President Joe Biden announced the U.S. would support allies who provide fourth-generation fighters such as F-16s to Ukraine. 

Of 1,254 American adults surveyed, 59 percent said they support military aid to Ukraine, nearly double the 30 percent opposed. That is virtually unchanged from a the Reagan Insitute’s prior poll last November, which recorded 57 percent in favor of aid and 33 percent opposed. The questions were phrased differently. 

“The polling does not indicate that there’s Ukraine fatigue or aid fatigue,” said Rachel Hoff, policy director at the Reagan Institute. “There’s not decreasing levels of support for sending military aid to Ukraine. That’s remained consistent.” 

The poll did not ask specifically about F-16s or fighter aircraft. Hoff told Air & Space Forces Magazine that the Institute chose not to ask questions about specific kinds of military aid to avoid the risk of making the survey too long for respondents. 

However, the survey did ask respondents for their opinions on whether U.S. aid to Ukraine has been worth the cost. Here, support was somewhat less emphatic: 50 percent of respondents said the cost has been worth it, while 33 percent said it had not. When offered additional information on the cost of that aid and the results, however, support jumped to 64 percent. 

Specifically, pollsters told respondents that “the U.S. has spent roughly $24 billion on military aid to Ukraine, which is roughly 3 percent of the U.S. military’s own budget. Ukraine remains in control of roughly 83 percent of its territory, and U.S. intelligence believes the war has severely degraded Russia’s military power and its ability to threaten NATO allies.” 

The exact cost of Ukraine aid remains in flux. Last week, the Pentagon announced it had previously overestimated the value of some weapons sent to the Ukrainians by $6.2 billion.  

The cost of sending F-16 to Ukraine would be substantial, as much as $1 billion for the first 10 aircraft, and the same amount to sustain them, according to Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark A. Milley. Others say that overstates the cost, especially if the aircraft are surplus hand-me-downs.

The Netherlands and Denmark are leading a cohort of allied nations who will train Ukrainian pilots on fourth-generation aircraft, with plans to start that training in the next month or so, officials previously told Air & Space Forces Magazine. 

On June 26, Danish Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen told broadcaster DR that Denmark’s F-16s will be retired in 2025, two years ahead of schedule, paving the way to transfer those aircraft to Ukraine. And earlier this month, Dutch State Secretary of Defense Christophe van der Maat scaled-back plans to sell Dutch F-16s to private contractor Draken, potentially making them available to Ukraine. 

Such developments should be encouraging to Americans. The Reagan Institute poll, which took place before those facts surfaced, found 56 percent of Americans critical of Europe, saying European allies are not “doing their fair share” in support of Ukraine; exactly half as many said Europe is doing its part.  

The poll also found that among those who support military aid to Ukraine, 17 percent believe the most important reason for supporting aid is becaue Ukrainian success on the battlefield “sends a message to others considering wars of aggression—like China invading Taiwan.” 

Elsewhere in the poll, 52 percent of respondents said they supported increased arms sales to Taiwan to deter China, a slight decline from seven months ago. 

Airmen Compete For ‘Top TACP’ Title, as Air Force Plans Deep Cuts to Career Field

Airmen Compete For ‘Top TACP’ Title, as Air Force Plans Deep Cuts to Career Field

June 23, 2023 | By David Roza

If there were an Olympics for special warfare Airmen, it would probably look like the Dragon Challenge, a three-day competition at Fort Campbell, Ky., where 33 Airmen performed feats of physical strength and technical wizardry for the chance to be named the best in their career field in the 18th Air Support Operations Group (ASOG).

The Airmen came from three career fields: Tactical Air Control Party (TACP), intelligence, and special warfare mission support (SWMS). TACPs are experts in air-to-ground communication who embed with ground troops to call in air strikes and other forms of air support. The intelligence Airmen assigned to the 18th ASOG help paint the situational awareness picture for TACPs by performing surveillance and reconnaissance duties and data analysis. 

Meanwhile, SWMS Airmen provide logistics, radio, cyber, supply, life support, and vehicle management to “sustain the TACP weapon system,” Capt. Katie Tamesis, public affairs officer for the 93rd Air-Ground Operations Wing, told Air & Space Forces Magazine.

The annual Dragon Challenge includes teams from each of the four squadrons of the 18th ASOG (which features a dragon on its emblem). Over the three-day contest, participants pushed through physical fitness events, a job knowledge exam, shooting challenges, and a 17-hour simulated special operations mission. The Airmen vie for the title of top team in the TACP, SWMS, and Intel categories, and the top TACP team gets to represent the group in the Lightning Challenge, where teams from the entire Air Force and Air National Guard will compete to be the best TACPs in the service later this year.

The Dragon Challenge pushed participants “to their physical and mental limits,” said Tamesis. That makes the challenge feel realistic, since performing complicated tasks under the strain of physical and mental fatigue is essentially part of the job description, said Capt. Tyler Johnson, operations flight commander for the 19th Air Support Operations Squadron (ASOS).

“Potentially having to infill 20 kilometers to your objective before the mission even starts, you’re going to be tired,” he said. “Carrying all of the equipment you need to accomplish the mission over a long period of time, you have to have that endurance and that physical fitness built into your training plan.” 

Practice makes perfect, and while Dragon Challenge is a competition, lives may depend on the skills it tests.

“A lot of the skills that TACP operators are trained to are perishable skills, so if you’re not constantly honing those skill sets, you’ll lose them,” Johnson said in a press release about the contest. “In order to have the advantage in the next fight, in the next major combat operation that we’re involved in, it’s important that TACPs maintain those skills.”

The simulated mission began with a helicopter infiltration to the mission site, where the competing teams dismounted and walked through simulated enemy terrain to the objective area, where Airmen gathered intelligence both with their own eyes and the help of Army Black Hawk helicopters serving as eyes-in-the-sky.

To make things more interesting, the Black Hawks later acted as enemy aircraft, which the Airmen had to avoid without being spotted. A few of the Airmen created “concealed communication notes” for relaying targeting data up the chain of command in order to develop strike packages and back down again to help with command and control. After a long night at the objective area, the teams moved to an exfiltration site, where they provided medical care for simulated combat casualties before heading home aboard the Black Hawks.

“The entire mission demonstrated the versatile command and control capabilities TACPs bring to decision makers, combatant commanders, and joint partners in a near-peer conflict and contested environments beyond close air support,” Tamesis said.

The focus on skills beyond close air support comes as the broader Air Force prepares for a near-peer conflict—and may drastically reshape the TACP career field. As first reported by Air Force Times, the service plans to cut its TACP workforce (including enlisted, officers, and civilians) from 3,700 slots to 2,130 by 2025, a 44 percent drop. 

The drop in TACP personnel coincides with the gradual retirement of A-10 Warthog close air support jets, which Air Force officials say would not survive sophisticated air defenses in a potential conflict with a near-peer adversary such as Russia and China.

Still, the uncertain future did not seem to affect the effort the TACPs put into Dragon Challenge. 

“I get chills, I honestly do,” Col. Richard Kovsky, commander of the 18th ASOG, said in the press release. “These guys are taking it really seriously, you look around and you see them, you know, a little bit nervous, and then they’re out there, they’re on showcase … everybody’s watching.”

At the end of the contest, the 19th ASOS took the title of best overall team, best TACP team and best SWMS team. The 14th ASOS won best intel team, and Staff Sgt. Daniel Edgar of the 15th ASOS took the title of top performer.

Senate Panel Says It Will Allow A-10 Retirements, But F-22s Appear Safe

Senate Panel Says It Will Allow A-10 Retirements, But F-22s Appear Safe

June 23, 2023 | By John A. Tirpak

Time appears to be running out for the A-10—the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) announced June 23 that it will allow the Air Force to retire 42 A-10s as part of its 2024 National Defense Authorization Act, approved this week.

The Senate panel’s decision follows on a similar one by the House Armed Services Committee, indicating that lawmakers are prepared to let the A-10 go after years of defending the venerable close air support aircraft from divestment.

One platform it appears the committee is still not ready to let go is the F-22, despite the Air Force once again requesting to to divest 33 older Raptors.

Unlike their House counterparts, lawmakers on the Senate committee consider their version of the NDAA in secret. While they released a 34-page summary of the bill, they have yet to release the full text.

The summary states that the NDAA “reduces the total number of fighter aircraft the Air Force is required to maintain from 1,145 to 1,112.” While that reduction matches the number of F-22s the Air Force wants to divest, the law currently on the books states that the service specifically has to maintain 1,145 combat-coded fighters. The 33 Block 20 F-22s the Air Force wants to divest are not combat-coded but instead used for training.

Meanwhile, the SASC’s bill summary does not mention the F-22 specifically in any capacity—suggesting that a provision in last year’s bill prohibiting the retirement of any F-22s is still in place.

A SASC staffer said the reduction language in the summary doesn’t refer to the F-22s but acknowledged the discrepancy and said it may be clarified in the full mark. He also suggested the A-10 reduction would only affect the Air National Guard.

The committee also wants to block the Air Force from retiring any RQ-4 Block 40 aircraft, which have been used as Battlefield Airborne Communications Node platforms.

On the procurement side of things, the markup summary says the committee approved the Air Force’s requests for new aircraft and munitions. The SASC also wants to increase funding for the Joint All-Domain Command and Control operational experimentation testbed and accelerate development of “semiautonomous adversary air platform” systems. The Air Force is pursuing such a program to develop a moderately stealthy platform for use in Aggressor-type activities.

Also funded is the development of a “next-generation unmanned aerial system distribution platform.”

On electronic warfare, the SASC requires “the designation of a Joint Electromagnetic Spectrum Operations Center at U.S. Strategic Command,” along with codification of the “Electronic Warfare Executive Committee.” The Pentagon will also have to “address deficiencies in the electronic protection of defense systems” and supply “an assessment of [DOD] ranges for Electromagnetic Warfare training.”

The draft NDAA would also require a number of briefings or reports from the Air Force, including:

  • A briefing on how the Air Force will harvest and use parts from retired F-16s to keep later versions of the fighter in service.
  • A briefing on the Air Force’s strategy for acquiring Collaborative Combat Aircraft, the autonomous unmanned “loyal wingmen” that will fly alongside crewed aircraft in future combat, including the service’s progress in acquiring and operating test aircraft; how it will assess CCA mission effectiveness, and how it will trade off missions between manned and unmanned systems.
  • A report on how the Air Force will provide self-protection capabilities for aviation forces. The provision is similar to language included in the House bill which would require the Secretary of Defense to determine whether or not the Pentagon has enough resources and capabilities to defend its bases and deployed forces in the Indo-Pacific and Europe from “hypersonic-, ballistic-, cruise-missile and air attack.”
  • A report on USAF’s overall plans to modernize the fighter force structure, also similar to a provision in the House bill.
  • Periodic reports on the implementation of the Pentagon’s “electronic warfare strategy, plans and budgeting across the Department.”
Biggest Air Exercise in NATO History Wraps Up: Here Are Some of The Best Photos

Biggest Air Exercise in NATO History Wraps Up: Here Are Some of The Best Photos

June 23, 2023 | By Greg Hadley

Air Defender 2023, the largest air exercise in NATO’s history, wrapped up June 23 in Europe.

Over the course of two weeks, around 220 aircraft and 10,000 personnel from 25 countries practiced large-scale air warfare, including Red Air aggressors to help allied “Blue” crews learn to work together against a common foe.

The exercise was led by Germany’s Luftwaffe and concentrated over three regions of Germany, with participants also leveraging operating locations in the Czech Republic, Estonia, and Latvia.

Some 100 U.S. Air Force 100 aircraft joined in, most from the Air National Guard. USAF officials said units from 35 states would fly F-35s, F-16s, F-15s, A-10s, KC-135s, KC-46s, C-130s, and C-17s in Air Defender. Images and releases shared during the exercises showed a B-1 bomber and an MQ-9 drone joining in as well.

Here is a selection of some of the best photos from the event.

A-10s

While the Air Force plans to retire its entire A-10 fleet in the coming years, the popular close air support aircraft featured prominently at Air Defender, with Guard units from Idaho, Maryland, and Michigan all sending ‘Warthogs.’

F-16s & F-15s

ANG units from Colorado, Massachusetts, Louisiana, Alabama, and the 52nd Fighter Wing at Spangdahlem Air Base, Germany, contributed fighters as well.

F-35s

The Vermont Air National Guard’s 158th Fighter Wing, the first Guard wing to get the F-35, sent its fifth-generation fighters.

C-130s

Workhorse C-130 Hercules cargo/transport aircraft played a key role as well.

Other Aircraft

Tanker aircraft formed an “air bridge,” providing the gas needed for fighter aircraft to make it across the Atlantic and to Europe. A B-1 performed a hot pit refuel in Romania, and an MQ-9 landed in the Czech Republic.

Partner Nations

Of course, the U.S. wasn’t the only nation to send aircraft—fighters and transport planes from a host of countries participated.

Ground Forces

Ground troops were involved in the exercise as well, coordinating close air support and jumping out of USAF C-130s.

Maintainers and Ammo

Personnel on the flightline and in maintenance hangars were crucial to keeping aircraft ready to go.

Other Activities

Army Chief: Ukraine Shows US Must Create ‘No-Fly Zone’ for Enemies

Army Chief: Ukraine Shows US Must Create ‘No-Fly Zone’ for Enemies

June 23, 2023 | By Chris Gordon

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has reinforced the need for America and its allies to maintain control of the skies in a conflict, top U.S. Army officials said June 23.

“We’re going to have the ability to provide or assist in providing a no-sail zone, and as we develop our air and missile defense capability and integrate it, the ability to have a no-fly zone,” Army Chief of Staff Gen. James C. McConville told reporters on a conference call after a meeting of top officers from U.S. and European land forces in Germany.

Over Ukraine, neither side has been able to achieve air superiority due to each side’s effective ground-based air defenses. McConville, a former Army helicopter pilot, said the U.S. cannot let an adversary get the upper hand in the air or overwhelm its air defenses with relatively cheap drones as Russia has tried to do to Ukrainian by using Iranian-designed drones to pummel Ukrainian infrastructure. That tactic has strained Ukraine’s air defenses and forced the West to keep restocking its capabilities with pricey interceptors.

“That’s certainly a concern there,” McConville, joined by the boss of U.S. Army Europe Gen. Darryl A. Williams, said after the Conference of European Armies, which brought together 33 European army chiefs, including from Ukraine. While the U.S. Army Chief is soon retiring, he hopes the next generation of air defenses will be able to defeat targets with the appropriate weapons.

The U.S. has many advanced air defense systems, such as PATRIOT batteries, THAAD systems, and so-called SHORAD, which comprise a myriad of short-range air defense systems, which the Army has been reinvesting in.

An issue for Ukraine has been making its patchwork system of Western-provided air defense knit together. But the U.S. hopes that it can create a more coordinated system for itself.

“We’re in the process of fielding our Integrated Battle Command System that ties these sensors together, and we are working very closely with our allies and partners in the region to make sure that their systems integrate into our systems,” McConville said. Ground-based air defense is not just a problem for the Army—the systems McConville ticked off are vital components of U.S. military plans to protect critical sites such as Guam, which serves as a significant Air Force hub in the Pacific.

While the U.S. military still sees a need for armor and infantry, the Army boss said, the conflict in Ukraine has highlighted the “game-changing” abilities of long-range precision fires, such as those from HIMARS launchers.

“We’re certainly seeing the value of long-range fires and how that works,” McConville said. “The ability to target logistics is something that we all know is extremely important.”

Nor are all of those long-range capabilities ground-based. The longest-range precision weapons system Ukraine has right now is an air-launched cruise missile, the British Storm Shadow, which has reportedly been used against key targets during Kyiv’s counteroffensive. Storm Shadows have a range of over 300 miles, roughly in line with JASSM air-to-surface and related LRASM anti-ship cruise missiles that the Air Force plans to buy as much of as possible.

It has now been around a year since the U.S. provided much-lauded HIMARS launchers to Ukraine, though with the limitation of using GMLRS rockets, which have a range of roughly 50 miles, rather longer-range ATACMS missiles. But Storm Shadows from the U.K. and JDAM-extended range guided bombs from the U.S. have increased Ukraine’s strike range from the air.

Those long-range weapons provide the “ability to put logistics at risk and command posts at risk and help shape the battlefield for the close combat events that will happen afterward,” said McConville.

But despite Western efforts to aid Ukraine’s air defense and enhance its long-range strike capabilities, Russian airpower is returning, particularly with attack helicopters that have been used to help blunt Ukrainian advances since the counteroffensive began earlier this month. Meanwhile, Kyiv is still awaiting Western decisions on where and when to begin training Ukrainian pilots on F-16s.

“One the biggest challenges we are facing on the ground is the dominance of Russia in the air,” Ukrainian foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba told the BBC on June 23.

Kendall: Air Force Recruiting Shortfall Not a ‘Crisis’

Kendall: Air Force Recruiting Shortfall Not a ‘Crisis’

June 22, 2023 | By Chris Gordon

The Air Force does not have serious long-term concerns about recruiting, Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall said June 22.

“We have things that we can do to manage our way through this, so we’re not in any kind of crisis,” Kendall said at an event hosted by the Center for a New American Security. The Air Force is in line to miss its recruiting goal by about 10 percent this year for the Active-Duty Force, with slightly worse numbers for the Guard and Reserve.

Kendall said the service has tried to offer more flexibility in a competitive job market to help bridge the shortfall.

Led by Gen. David W. Allvin, the service’s Vice Chief of Staff and expected successor to Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., the Air Force has looked to make policy changes that make the service a possibility for those who may have previously been excluded.

Kendall said Allvin has led a team to “kind of push through some of the bureaucracy that makes policy changes slow.” The target of one of Brown’s four signature ‘Action Orders,’ bureaucracy is an oft-cited bogeyman for the service’s woes as it is trying to rapidly modernize to meet the challenge posed by China’s growing military might.

“We’ve got a long list of things that where we have rules in place that really didn’t make any sense,” Kendall said. “We’re not lowering our standards.”

But the service is loosening its tattoo rules, changing how it measures body mass index, and offering a second chance for some prospective Airmen who test positive for marijuana. Individually, Kendall said, the policies are not revolutionary. Together, though, they are part of a broader effort to appeal to more Americans.

“We’re doing some things on the margins and we’re seeing very specific increases coming out because of that,” Kendall said. 

Kendall said those lessons could be applied more wholesale across the service to offer more flexibility.

“The situation we have right now is probably going to give us an opportunity to, I think, take a look at a number of policies and adjust them where we can be more open to terms of people we weren’t letting in before,” Kendall said. While the Space Force doesn’t have recruiting issues, Kendall said, the young service allows for more innovative thinking, such as directly commissioning officers from industry to attach high-level talent.

In addition to the challenges the Department of the Air Force faces from the labor market, military personnel issues have become increasingly politicized as of late. Kendall said one of his biggest concerns is misperceptions of the military—misperceptions that are often reinforced during contentious hearings on Capitol Hill.

“There are, both on the left and on the right, there are some criticisms and some issues that get brought up, and I think overemphasized,” Kendall said.

Two main issues can be misconstrued, Kendall said: the military is not concerned with preventing sexual assault and the Air Force’s efforts to be diverse and more welcoming to people with a myriad of backgrounds are undermining its core mission as a fighting force.

“The positive story there is that we’re working very hard to address sexual assault, sexual harassment,” Kendall said. “On the diversity side, the military is essentially a conservative organization. It has always been, and I think always will be. But it’s a diverse force, and it’s getting more so over time, and you want it to be as effective and capable as it can be. That means that people are going to have to work with people that they haven’t had a chance to be exposed to or understand in the past, have some empathy for them, understand what they’ve been through in their lives, and be able to make them as effective as they can be and be able to work with them well on a team.”

Kendall framed his views on personnel through the lens of his trademark focus: China and the possibility of a near-peer conflict.

“All the things we’re doing in making it a safer place to work and to make it a place where teams everybody on the team is respected and is working to their full potential is all about our ability to do our job at the end of the day,” Kendall said. “We may be back in a combat situation sometime where we have a lot of casualties. We will have to do other people’s jobs. We have to keep working under extreme stress. So that’s what we’re shooting for. All the other things that we talked about contribute to that. They give people the freedom to focus on their work.”

NORAD Boss: Future of Homeland Defense Will Look ‘Vastly Different’

NORAD Boss: Future of Homeland Defense Will Look ‘Vastly Different’

June 22, 2023 | By Greg Hadley

The U.S. must focus on detecting and tracking potential air and missile threats to the homeland even before they launch, said Gen. Glen D. VanHerck, head of U.S. Northern Command and North American Aerospace Defense Command.

VanHerck said changing that means homeland defense to “look vastly differently than it does today.” Understanding the threats to homeland defense took on greater urgency earlier this year when a Chinese surveillance balloon was discovered traversing U.S. and Canadian airspace. VanHerck acknowledged that multiple balloons had slipped past NORAD undetected in recent years. 

“Domain awareness needs to feed a globally integrated air and missile defense capability where you can do real-time collaboration,” Vanherck said June 22, as AFA’s Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies rolled our a new report on Arctic defense. “Think of JADC2, and you can do that with allies and partners so they can generate effects forward for me.  

“It also involves getting away from competition with my fellow combatant commanders for fighters or AWACS or tankers, and getting unmanned autonomous platforms with domain awareness capabilities with effectors that are both kinetic and non-kinetic, that we can think of as airborne but also maritime, that we can utilize in the Arctic or we could utilize off the eastern seaboard, the western seaboard, or around the globe wherever we need to be.” 

Collaboration across military services, government agencies, and also among allies will be crucial to ensure they can collectively stay “left of launch”—that is, track preparations for threats to arm key decision-makers with more options and more time to decide which to employ.  

Gathering and processing data faster with the help of artificial intelligence will also buy time, VanHerck agreed. Dr. Caitlin Lee, who authored the Mitchell Institute report, said: “We need to improve Arctic surveillance or domain awareness now so that decision makers have the information they need to dissuade actors from launching these cruise missile attacks in the first place.”  

Asked whether defense of the Arctic requires more data or more processing power, VanHerck indicated he needed more of both—and then more on top of that. Getting allies to work together seamlessly is no less challenging.

“It’s a cultural problem and a policy problem as well, to be able to be comfortable with sharing data and information data that currently is stovepiped,” Van Herck said. Reasons range “sometimes, “from policy or legal considerations within either the intel community” as well as security concerns about allies’ networks. Sometimes, VanHerck said, “we can’t share with allies and partners or receive because they haven’t made their systems resilient enough and secure enough that we trust those things.”  

Such issues were laid bare by the Chinese spy balloon incident. VanHerck said U.S. radars have the capability to detect and track objects like the balloon, but NORTHCOM and NORAD had been filtering that data out and therefore didn’t pick up on the balloon right away. And the previous balloons that went undetected were identified by the intelligence community, but the military didn’t find out until after the fact. 

The balloon that eventually transited the entire continental U.S. was detected over Alaskan islands near the Arctic—highlighting the region’s increased strategic value. 

“It’s a vast expanse and it’s increasing in its importance each and every day with environmental change, commercial travel, access to resources,” VanHerck said. “And all of those create opportunities and they create vulnerabilities. It’s the shortest path to our homeland from potential adversaries, such as [China] or Russia, and now there’s more access and opportunity there which will create the potential for strategic competition. So the importance of the Arctic can’t be overstated, candidly.” 

There are many things the Pentagon can do to realize VanHerck’s long-term vision for enhanced security in the region. In the short term, though, Lee recommended in her report that: 

  • Congress create a “North American Deterrence Initiative” 
  • The Air Force increase funding to field new over-the-horizon radars in the Arctic faster 
  • The Air Force establish a rotational drone presence in the Arctic 
  • The Air Force increase funding to field the new E-7 Wedgetail faster and keep legacy fighters 
  • The Air Force, Space Force, and the rest of government work more closely with commercial industry and allies and partners 

VanHerck, for his part, noted that there may be policy issues that need to be resolved to ensure drones, especially future autonomous drones, could fly in the region. But on the whole, he endorsed the suggestions. 

“I concur with the recommendations that Dr. Lee made,” said VanHerck, who is set to retire soon and be succeeded by Air Force Lt. Gen. Gregory M. Guillot. “I think there’s some great recommendations there.” 

Farewell ‘Big Sexy’: Airmen Bid Adieu to Final East Coast KC-10

Farewell ‘Big Sexy’: Airmen Bid Adieu to Final East Coast KC-10

June 22, 2023 | By David Roza

JOINT BASE MCGUIRE-DIX-LAKEHURST, N.J.—Then-Capt. Rob McAllister was a brand new aircraft commander in November 2004 when he was flying over Fallujah, where U.S. Soldiers and Marines were fighting a fierce battle in the streets of the Iraqi city. Flying a KC-10 tanker, McAllister pulled long hours refueling coalition aircraft flying in to provide close air support for ground troops.

“As the Navy F/A-18s and F-14s came up to refuel, they had less bombs on the rack, and there were more plumes of smoke in the city, because they were trying to protect the guys on the ground,” McAllister told Air & Space Forces Magazine. “We provided a lot of flexibility to the fight, helping guys stay on station longer. That happened all the time.”

Nearly 20 years later, McAllister is now a colonel with 5,328 flight hours on the KC-10, more than any other Active-Duty pilot. This week, he and several hundred other Airmen past and present gathered with friends and family members under drizzly, overcast skies at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, N.J. to see the last KC-10 stationed there take its last flight to the 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group, also known as The Boneyard, in Arizona.

With 42 years of service under its belt, the KC-10 can carry more than 356,000 pounds of fuel, almost twice the amount a KC-135 can haul, and nearly 170,000 pounds of cargo, almost matching the capacity of a C-17.

“I don’t know how many missions we’ve done where we’ll carry a unit’s cargo, drag the fighters, and bring their maintenance with us,” said Master Sgt. Andrew Leo, a flight engineer with 10 years of experience in the KC-10. “We’ll go somewhere like ‘All right, we’re all here, here’s your entire air wing.’”

kc-10
The last KC-10 Extender assigned to the 305th Air Mobility Wing takes its final flight during its retirement ceremony at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, N.J., June 22, 2023. (U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Sergio Avalos)

The Extender, affectionally known by many Airmen as ‘Big Sexy’, first arrived at then-McGuire Air Force Base in 1994 before flying in military operations and humanitarian missions around the world. The last jet to leave, tail number 84-0188, has 33,017 flight hours, with 11,000 or so air crew members helping to refuel 125,000 U.S. and coalition receivers from 25 different countries. Another 12,000 maintainers worked on the aircraft over its 39-year career.

And that’s just one of the 60 KC-10s the Air Force has operated, 32 of which have been based at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst.

“Projecting America’s airpower, standing watch over America and delivering hope … that’s the legacy of the KC-10,” Lt. Gen. James Jacobson, deputy commander of Pacific Air Forces, said at the farewell ceremony on June 21. An old hand on the KC-10, Jacobson flew from Hawaii for the honor of piloting the tanker on its final journey to the Boneyard. He choked up at the thought of it during his speech.

“I’m thankful for the opportunity to do what I think everybody else in this room would want to do, which is say thanks,” he said. 

The KC-10s both at McGuire and at Travis Air Force Base, Calif., are being retired to make way for the KC-46 as part of the Air Force’s recapitalization of its tanker fleet.

“We should have bought 160 of those things [KC-10s] and we will regret it for the rest of our time, but sometimes you make fiscal decisions you don’t like,” said Jacobson, who later added that the aircraft is aging out of use. 

“America can’t afford to make the spare parts to make an airplane that almost is out of service across the globe,” he said. 

The good-bye was made more bittersweet by the fact that some KC-10 Airmen will not be making the jump to the KC-46. Leo will work a ground job, perhaps with Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst’s Contingency Response Wing. Tech Sgt. Tiffany Irby, a refueling boom operator with about 10 years of experience on the KC-10, is going to nursing school and hopes to work in aeromedical evacuation.

No matter where they go next, they will carry memories of the KC-10 with them. Chief Master Sgt. Ryan Guerrette, a maintainer who worked on only KC-10s throughout his 29-year career, remembered coming in on Sept. 11, 2001 to put a KC-10 back together that had been partly disassembled for an inspection, a two-day task under normal circumstances.

“Within 12 hours that aircraft was put back together, out on the flightline, refueled and airborne, ready to start this war on terror,” he said. “That was just an insane moment, everybody came together, got the aircraft inspected and serviced, and it was gone.”

kc-10
The 305th and 514th Air Mobility Wings bid farewell to the last KC-10 Extender set for retirement during a ceremony on June 21, 2023, at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, N.J. (U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Sergio Avalos)

The KC-10s first flew over the East Coast to refuel fighter jets performing combat air patrol, but within a week they were deployed to support combat operations over the Middle East. Leo remembered plenty of times over Afghanistan being at just the right spot to give a combat jet the gas it needed to keep providing close air support for troops in contact.

“One thousand pounds of fuel for us is nothing, but it’s everything for an A-10 that needs to do a couple more gun runs,” he said. “That long day, that 10-hour day makes sure we can be there to support the minutes or seconds that matter.” 

Not all the KC-10’s missions were combat-focused. Irby remembered flying on an Extender filled with bags of rice and roof trusses for a humanitarian mission in the Caribbean.

“Somebody was getting fed and somebody was getting a roof over their head,” she recalled. 

On one unusual mission, Guerrette remembered refueling a C-17 on its way to Ascension Island, in the middle of the south Atlantic, to pick up a family of Cheetahs on their way from Namibia to the Cleveland Zoo. 

Due to their long range and large fuel load, KC-10 crews often spent 12 hours or more on a single sortie, and that often led to crews embarking on culinary adventures using the jet’s two small ovens. Leo recalled one ambitious co-pilot attempting to bake a quiche, while Irby recalled chicken fingers, salads, spaghetti, and pizza made on pita bread scrounged out of the base dining facility (DFAC).

“It’s usually whatever you can find in the DFAC,” said Irby who, as the boom operator, also served as the crew’s de facto cook. “You do what you have to do, because you never know how hot that oven is actually going to get.”

As the boom operator, Irby also worked closely with the pilots of the receiving aircraft. She recalled playing trivia with receiving fighter pilots and listening to them recite from a book of dad jokes. 

For both Irby and Leo, the fondest experiences aboard the KC-10 were seeing young aviators gain experience and confidence aboard the jet, especially when they have a “light bulb” moment understanding their role in the crew. Irby said many of those Airmen are taking that experience over to the KC-46.

“It’s rewarding in the sense of ‘I helped you get there and I’m very proud of you,’” she said.

Yet even as Airmen bade farewell to the aircraft, Jacobson hinted that the Air Force’s days of needing the the KC-10 may not be over as the service prepares for a potential conflict over the vast reaches of the Pacific.

“My hope is—my expectation is—it will find another life, along with all the other jets still at Travis, to continue serving America. My concern is we need it now to help forces get ready, and we may need it in the future if deterrence fails,” Jacobson said. “Fuel matters if deterrence fails in the Pacific, and nothing delivers fuel like the KC-10.”

HASC Seeks Greater Missile Warning and Defense Around the Globe

HASC Seeks Greater Missile Warning and Defense Around the Globe

June 22, 2023 | By Greg Hadley

The House Armed Services Committee, concerned about missile warning and defense, is pressing for more information and analysis on the threats and countermeasures needed to protect the nation from long-range fires.

The HASC’s version of the 2024 National Defense Authorization bill, approved in the early morning hours of June 22, would require the Secretary of Defense to determine whether or not the Pentagon has enough resources and capabilities to defend its bases and deployed forces in the Indo-Pacific and Europe from “hypersonic-, ballistic-, cruise-missile and air attack.” 

The report would be due by June 30, 2024, plans for how to defeat such attacks through 2030. The provision was introduced by Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.), a former Air Force brigadier general, and supported by the Air & Space Forces Association, which publishes Air & Space Forces Magazine.  

“AFA believes this study and plan will be a significant tool for enabling the Department of Defense and Congress to determine if our forces have sufficient counteroffensive and defensive weapons systems, and for recommending how best to increase our capabilities to meet these growing threats,” said AFA Chairman Brig. Gen. Bernie Skoch (Ret.) in a letter to Bacon. The letter, co-signed by AFA President Lt. Gen. Bruce “Orville” Wright (Ret.) continues: “Recent events in Europe and Asia only underscore the critical importance of having a robust defense against missile and air attack.” 

Another amendment, offered by Rep. Michael Turner (R-Ohio), would direct the Pentagon to provide “options to improve the existing integrated air and missile defense architecture to detect, track, and defend against increasingly complex adversarial missile threats to the territory of member countries of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and deployed members of the United States Armed Forces.” 

Missile defense in Europe, where NATO members are concerned by Russia’s missile and drone attacks on Ukraine, is a growing concern. Ukrainian defenses have surprised many, but Russian missiles, rockets, and drones continue to impose costs and destroy targets, killing hundreds. 

In Asia, China’s advanced hypersonic missiles are feared able to challenge U.S. defenses in new ways. To defense Guam, the closest U.S. territory to the Pacific rim, the Department of Defense wants to invest $1.5 billion in a new missile and air shield in fiscal 2024, part of a long-awaited effort to better defend the Air Force and Navy bases on the island.  

Two more amendments approved by the HASC seek greater transparency about those plans. Rep. Dale Strong (R-Ala.), sponsored an amendment seeking a report from the Missile Defense Agency on anticipated munitions requirements for the Guam missile defenses. and the associated fielding schedule for the new system. And a second measure, proposed by Del. James Moylan (R-Guam) would require a report by March 2024 and a briefing to Congress by November to define a concept of operations for how the system will defend Guam. The lack of definition, Moylan said, makes “it difficult for the program to maintain schedule and remain on track to achieve an initial operational capability.” 

Another amendment offered by Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.) would require the Air Force to procure up to six over-the-horizon radars for U.S. Northern Command to detect “increasingly complex threats.”  

HASC members also want more insight into the Pentagon’s missile defense plans. An amendment from Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-Colo.) would require the Air Force and U.S. Strategic Command to brief Congress on how they are integrating the Space Development Agency’s planned megaconstellation of low-Earth orbit satellites—called the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture—into the military’s broader missile warning enterprise. 

Finally, to respond to missile threats with force, a provision proposed by Rep. Scott DesJarlais (R-Tenn.) seeks an independent analysis of how “space-based interceptor capabilities” could be integrated into U.S. defenses. The measure would require the study to consider the technical risks, maturity, and estimated costs for developing and operating such weapons.