Leidos Says New ‘Black Arrow’ Small Cruise Missile Is Ready for Flight Test

Leidos Says New ‘Black Arrow’ Small Cruise Missile Is Ready for Flight Test

Oct. 3, 2024 | By John A. Tirpak

Leidos is readying its Small Cruise Missile—nicknamed “Black Arrow”–for guided flight tests out the back of an Air Force Special Operations Command AC-130 this fall, the company announced. The missile is being developed for multi-service use.

The flight testing follows successful captive carry and separation tests which were accomplished in December, 2023, Leidos said. Those tests “confirmed digital twin predictions of safe separation, benign store dynamics, and trajectory characteristics,” a company spokesperson said. The system has been integrated with the Naval Surface Weapon Center Battle Management System. Flight testing has demonstrated its operational flight software, navigation and “flight safety functionality.”

Leidos initiated the Small Cruise Missile design in 2021, building off its experience with the GBU-69 Small Glide Munition—which equips the AC-130–and X-61 Gremlins program with the Defense Advanced Projects Agency. The Gremlins program launched an air vehicle from a C-130 and also recovered it in midair.

The company signed a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with Special Operations Command and AFSOC in 2022 to develop the SCM, intended as a “low-cost, service-common, mission-adaptable ‘delivery platform,’ designed to facilitate future spiral upgrades for both kinetic and non-kinetic missions,” the company said.

“The SCM is envisioned as service-common ‘bus’ capable of being launched from a ramp, via a pallet or conventional means,” a Leidos spokesperson said. Its modular architecture allows the adaptability to kinetic and non-kinetic applications.

The Defense Innovation Unit published a request for one-way uninhabited aerial systems earlier this week; a program seemingly targeted at vehicles that will be capable of multiple missions with different payloads. The Leidos spokesperson said “low cost” will be defined by “the quantities and subsystems” of the final product.

The experience with “rapidly fielding” the GBU-69 and demonstrating Gremlins, “as well as our focus on agility and innovation, have led to achieving important milestones with our Small Cruise Missile offering,” according to Mark Miller, Leidos senior vice president for missile and aviation solutions.

“We have…made significant investments to integrate on, and test off, the AC-130J, preparing us to proceed with further activities once the CRADA is complete.”

The company said it’s using model-based systems engineering, additive manufacturing techniques and artificial intelligence “to support the timely and cost-effective development of the SCM, which aims to provide adaptability and utility for the warfighter.

The weapon’s “modular airframe and open system architecture…accommodates distributed manufacturing for individual subsystems, which can then be rapidly assembled and tested separately before final assembly,” the company said in a press release. The approach was used on the SGM, “which has delivered over 4,000 units to date.”

Leidos’ “open architecture SCM solution is intended to integrate the best subsystem solutions, regardless of the source,” Miller said. “We believe that recognizing that subsystems and payloads will evolve with different use cases is critical, and that innovation will come from outside typical prime contractors and venture capital companies entering the market with vertically integrated solutions,” he said. This was likely a reference to Anduril Industries, which recently announced an initiative to build low-cost cruise missiles for the armed forces that can be produced “at scale” and with few tools and requiring only brief training of workers.

The Air Force has been experimenting with a number of munitions for launch from cargo aircraft, notably the Rapid Dragon tests that dropped palletized AGM-158 Joint Air-to-Surface Missiles from the ramp area of C-130s and C-17s.

AFSOC has also explored launching several kinds of missiles that from AC-130s, either from wing stations or the cargo bay, specifically for the Special Operations mission.

Air Mobility Command sponsored a number of these initiatives with the idea of complicating an adversary’s targeting problem, requiring an opponent to treat cargo aircraft as potential shooters. But critics have said the Air Force would need all its airlift aircraft for transport in the event of a major conflict.   

Herk For Life: Test Pilot Hits 10,000 Flight Hours in the C-130

Herk For Life: Test Pilot Hits 10,000 Flight Hours in the C-130

Oct. 3, 2024 | By David Roza

If there were a permanent residency requirement for the C-130, Gary Hogg has hit it multiple times over. The retired Air Force lieutenant colonel and current test pilot at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla. recently eclipsed 10,000 flight hours flying the transport plane, equivalent to about 416 days spread across a 41-year career.

“It’s a milestone in a career I never knew was possible, but I am so thankful I had the chance to live it,” the 65-year-old said in a recent press release from Eglin’s 96th Test Wing. “When I stop to think about the last 40-plus years, I know I have truly been blessed.”

It all started on Nov. 23, 1983, when the Air Force Academy graduate and Kentucky native first took off from Little Rock Air Force Base, Ark., during qualification training on the C-130 Hercules, affectionately known as the “Herk.” Hogg originally wanted to fly the RF-4 reconnaissance fighter or the A-10 attack jet, but working with a crew on the C-130 won him over.

“It was more than adventure,” he said in the release. “I knew the C-130 was the right decision for me. I loved the concept of flying with a crew and the way everyone worked together to get the mission done.”

c-130 pilot
Gary Hogg, Air Force Materiel Command, inspects his C-130H prior to a historic flight Sept. 24, 2024 at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida. (U.S. Air Force photo by Samuel King Jr.)

After training, it was on to a tour in Europe. Then, starting in 1988, he flew special operations missions aboard the C-130E and MC-130E Combat Talon variants. Like its newer MC-130J cousins today, the MC-130E was equipped with aerial refueling pods to fill up special operations and search and rescue helicopters. 

Those pods came in handy during a particularly difficult mission in 1993, where Hogg flew an MC-130E supporting 14 MH-53 Pave Low helicopters en route to Haiti. When heavy thunderstorms separated a helicopter from the formation, Hogg and his crew found it and gave the Pave Low enough fuel to make it to Haiti, but it left the MC-130E so low that they had to divert to Key West, Fla.

Nothing was easy that day; storms had taken out power across the island, making it difficult to land the $75 million aircraft. Well below emergency fuel levels, Hogg’s first two landing attempts were unsuccessful, but on the third he finally made it, which was fortunate since he did not have enough gas for a fourth.

Hogg went on to fly in Air Force Special Operations Command’s standards and evaluation division, then do flight testing at Robins Air Force Base, Ga. He flew most of the military’s C-130 variants before arriving at Eglin as a lieutenant colonel in 2004, where he retired but kept working the same job as a civilian test pilot.

In the 20 years since then, flying the C-130 is still a treat for Hogg, who is now the standardization and evaluation command chief pilot at Air Force Materiel Command’s Detachment 1.

“Each model and variant can execute so many different missions, it is impossible to get bored with doing the same thing all the time,” he said.

That’s good for Hogg’s younger colleagues at Det. 1 and the 417th Flight Test Squadron who get to learn from his four decades behind the yoke.

“He’s absolutely a source of continuity here,” said Det. 1 commander Col. Brian Taylor. “He has experience flying every Air Force C-130 variant, and our unit leverages that experience and his relationships with the operational units, to oversee the diverse mission sets of the C-130 operations.”

Hogg crossed the 10,000 hour mark on Sept 24 in an MC-130H during a routine avionics modernization test mission. After landing, his 11-year-old grandson, Anthony Lindstrom, helped marshal him to a parking spot where Hogg’s friends and family congratulated him.

“The thought that keeps coming to me is how much I enjoy the team that it takes to fly a C-130,” he said. “A smooth-running team is just pure joy in the air.”

A 96th Test Wing maintainer helps 11-year-old Anthony Lindstrom marshal in his grandfather and pilot, Gary Hogg, after a successful flight Sept. 24, 2024 at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida. (U.S. Air Force photo by Samuel King Jr.)

The Focus Is Fighting Tonight For New Air Mobility Boss

The Focus Is Fighting Tonight For New Air Mobility Boss

Oct. 3, 2024 | By David Roza

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Lessons Learned

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Fight Tonight

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Oct. 3, 2024 | By Greg Hadley

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

How to Get a Continuous ATO: The Secret to Success

How to Get a Continuous ATO: The Secret to Success

Oct. 3, 2024 | By Adam Stone

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

It doesn’t have to be. 

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

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

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

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

Obstacles to cATO Success

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

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

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

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

Secrets to Success

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Oct. 2, 2024 | By Chris Gordon

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Pentagon Wants to Fastrack Buy of Cheap One-Way Drones

Pentagon Wants to Fastrack Buy of Cheap One-Way Drones

Oct. 2, 2024 | By John A. Tirpak

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

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

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

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

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

The Pentagon wants commercial systems that:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Oct. 2, 2024 | By Unshin Lee Harpley

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Air Force Report: Hurricane Hunters Stretched Thin Amid Brutal Storms

Air Force Report: Hurricane Hunters Stretched Thin Amid Brutal Storms

Oct. 2, 2024 | By David Roza

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Bargain Hunting Hurricanes

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Hungry Winters

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

When It Rains, It Pours

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

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

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

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

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

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