480th ISR Wing Honored with Gen. Doolittle Award

June 1, 2023 | By Patrick Reardon

The 480th Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance Wing at Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Va., received the 2023 Gen. James H. “Jimmy” Doolittle Award in recognition of its top-notch ISR support of major commands and joint and combined force commanders across the world over the past two years.

The 480th ISR Wing is the 10th recipient of the award, which is presented by the Air Force Historical Foundation to an active Air Force or Space Force unit for demonstrating “gallantry, determination, esprit de corps, and superior management of joint operations” as it pursues its mission.

The award was presented by Gen. Doolittle’s granddaughter, Jonna Doolittle Hoppes, the president of the Air Force Historical Foundation. The ceremony was held at the Air Force Memorial in Arlington, Va., on June 1.

“There isn’t any group that works harder behind the scenes and gets things done and nobody even sees,” said Doolittle Hoppes. “We don’t realize that you’re there until the mission that we’ve set out on is accomplished.”

Among the 480th’s notable accomplishments are its support of the bed down of Afghan refugees, both in the air and on the ground; its collection of crucial intelligence around the Russia-Ukraine conflict; its support of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s first-of-its-kind visit to Taiwan; its involvement in watching North Korean ballistic missile launches; and its assistance in bringing down the Chinese surveillance balloon earlier this year.

“I’m tremendously proud of this unit and our accomplishments, and they’ve already reached the stratosphere,” said 480th Commander Col. Nathan L. Rusin, who accepted the award. “I’m also extremely proud of receiving recognition of those accomplishments because again, we do a lot of this shrouded in secrecy. As I talked about before, we celebrated our 20th birthday of the 480th ISR Wing this year, and truly I can’t wait to see what we accomplished by the time we hit 40.”

F-35 Block 4 Costs Keep Going Up. The GAO Says It’s Hard to Know Exactly Why

June 1, 2023 | By John A. Tirpak

The development cost of the F-35 fighter’s Block 4 upgrade is up more than $16.5 billion over original estimates, the Government Accountability Office said in a new report. But because of the way the program is structured, it’s hard to know whether the jump is due to mismanagement, added scope, or a combination of factors.

Block 4 is an ambitious, long-planned, and highly-anticipated upgrade to the F-35, the basic design of which was set in the early 2000s. It includes the new AN/APG-85 radar, electronic warfare systems, other sensors such as an upgraded electro-optical targeting system, communications and navigation upgrades, new weapons, new antennas, and a raft of classified capabilities.

But costs have steadily increased in recent years. Starting in 2018, it was expected the program would cost $10.6 billion in then-year dollars. The GAO recorded a $300 million increase in 2019, then a $3.5 billion jump in estimate in 2020. By June 2021, the estimate had grown another $700 million, and just two months later, it had surged again, to $16.5 billion. The figures were not adjusted for inflation.

The GAO’s most recent congressionally-mandated assessment, released May 30, is based on that August 2021 estimate—data that is now almost two years old. Costs have likely increased since then.

“The program’s cost reporting mechanisms do not fully explain the reasons for cost growth,” the GAO report states. “For example, DOD’s reports to Congress on Block 4 cost growth do not distinguish higher-than-expected costs for previously planned Block 4 capabilities from growth due to adding new capabilities. Consequently, Congress does not have a complete picture of escalating F-35 modernization costs.”

Keeping Block 4 within the baseline F-35 program masks cost increases by making them a smaller percentage of the overall program, GAO noted, making them less likely to trigger “Nunn-McCurdy breaches”—under the Nunn-McCurdy law of 1982, if a program has cost increases beyond certain benchmarks, it receives added scrutiny or may be automatically canceled.

The audit agency said better visibility into where the money is going could be obtained by making Block 4 its own Major Acquisition Program, something GAO previously recommended but the Pentagon has declined to do.

Previous F-35 program executive officers have argued against separating Block 4 or the planned F-35 propulsion upgrades from the main F-35 program, saying such moves would create obstacles to coordination and information-sharing within the program and reduce their ability to manage it comprehensively. It would also make it harder for partners and allies to participate in those aspects of the program, they have said.

The F-35 Joint Program Office “describes Block 4 as an evolving, and ever-increasing, set of new capabilities with a rising overall cost for completing them,” the GAO report states. But without information on what parts of extra costs are due to newly-added capabilities, “the program’s cost reporting is inadequate for useful oversight,” the GAO pointed out.

Further, “without the program formally tracking the estimated cost of each capability to the actual cost of developing each and sharing that information,” it’s harder to hold the program and contractor Lockheed Martin accountable, the audit agency said.

That issue formed the basis for one of GAO’s recommendations: the undersecretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment should ensure the F-35 program office reports to Congress on the difference between original estimates and actual costs for a defined group of capabilities.

The Pentagon concurred with that recommendation. In a statement, the F-35 Joint Program Office said it looks forward to working with Congress and Pentagon leadership on GAO’s recommendations. It did not offer a rebuttal to GAO’s assessment of the program.

The centerpiece of Block 4 will be its electronic warfare system, outgoing Air Combat Command chief Gen. Mark D. Kelly said at at the AFA Warfare Symposium in March.

“Most of what we need the F-35 to do rests on the Block 4 electronic warfare capabilities,” he told reporters.

However, Block 4 depends on the timely success of the Tech Refresh 3 upgrade, now in flight testing, which adds a reported 25 times more processing power to the jet. That additional processing activity is one of the reasons the F-35 will need much more cooling power with the advent of Block 4, which GAO discussed separately in its report.

Deficiencies

In addition to Block 4 costs and cooling power, the GAO report also noted that as of January 2023, the F-35 has 821 open deficiencies.

Five of those deficiencies are classified as “Category 1,” defined as “critical and could jeopardize safety, security, or another requirement.” The rest are Category 2, “those that could impede or constrain successful mission accomplishment.”

The report did not specify what the Category 1 deficiencies are but did say flight testing is needed to close them. The program office said it would address three of the Category 1 problems in 2023. The other two require additional documentation and one will also need additional funding.

The program office “does not plan to resolve all of the Category 2 deficiencies because the program office, in consultation with the warfighters and contractors, have determined that they do not need resolution,” the GAO reported.

One of the newest technical risks identified with the fighter is “Fuel Tube Vibration,” discovered in the wake of the December 2022 crash of an F-35B. The tube failed “due to a malfunction with the main fuel throttle valve.” One attempt at mitigation for the tube issue—which Pratt & Whitney has described as a “harmonic resonance” issue—hasn’t worked, the GAO said, and Naval Air Systems Command is still seeking a root cause for the December crash.

Another new issue is cracking of the “gun blast panel,” where the aircraft skin is blistering and cracking near the internal gun—unique to the F-35A model. The issue, found in Lots 13-15 aircraft, has been ascribed to higher-than-expected pressure conditions when the gun is being fired. If not corrected, the panel could break off in flight. The issue is being addressed with post-flight inspections and panel replacements.

Amid all this, the GAO noted the F-35 still has not passed its full-rate production milestone, which has been postponed four times from the original target of 2013. The main roadblock has been integrating the F-35 with the Joint Simulation Environment, which pits various configurations of the U.S. military against anticipated adversaries. The point is almost moot, though, because the F-35 program is producing 125 jets a year for U.S., partner and allied countries, very near its maximum capacity, the report stated.

Medics and Finance Personnel Repairing Runways? The Air Force Tests It Out

June 1, 2023 | By Chris Gordon

Seeking to make life harder for a potential adversary like China, the Air Force wants more airfields in more locations, giving the service more freedom to operate in combat.

But runways serve little purpose if they are damaged beyond use. The Air Force recently conducted a “beta test” to figure out if Airmen without previous specialized training could repair them quickly.

“The concept of a cross-section of Airmen carrying out important wartime tasks seems like a good idea, but does it work?” the Air Force Installation and Training Support Center wrote in a press release.

So the service sought to find out, sending 25 Airmen from Mountain Home Air Force Base, Idaho, to a training site at Dobbins Air Reserve Base, Ga. to participate in an exercise May 22-24.

The Air Force has introduced the concepts of Agile Combat Employment, operating more flexibly with a smaller fixed footprint, and Multi-Capable Airmen, asking service members to perform more tasks to support those operations. The service plans to invest billions in building out infrastructure at more bases and building aircraft shelters in the Indo-Pacific, many within the likely range of Chinese missiles. It will need to ensure those facilities can recover and get back up and running as needed.

“In a deployed location, we might not be able to rely solely on civil engineers,” Master Sgt. Broc French, a training program manager with Air Force Civil Engineer Center, said in the release.

Five of the Mountain Home Airmen from the 366th Civil Engineer Squadron attended a preparation course last year. Once at Dobbins, they walked the other members of their team through the basics of rapid runway repair for two days, according to the service.

In the end, the civil engineers, along with finance, maintenance, munitions, medical, and operations support Airmen had to complete six concrete crater repairs and other runway damage operations within four hours.

“I was super nervous to come in here and start cutting concrete after two days,” said Senior Airman Kayla Panzarella, a medic at Mountain Home.

“I can’t explain the feeling of doing this wartime task, this mission,” she added. “I remember looking out from inside [of the heavy equipment] and having the feeling of, ‘Wow, we’re doing this.'”

And according to the Air Force, they did it well.

“After two days, they’ve been able to fill craters and, if it were a real-world scenario, be able to get aircraft off the ground quickly,” French said in the release. “This is a great concept that works, and we’re looking to expand it in the future.”

If the Multi-Capable Airmen concept is to succeed, more service members who are traditionally far away from the flight line will have to get their hands dirty.

“If you could take different career fields like security forces, medical, and finance like we had out here, you could put people together” in groups that can conduct complex procedures like runway repair, Master Sgt. Patrick Murphy, the instructor lead for the exercise said. “With that, you could take care of everything with a small force, as long as you had the right attitude like we had with folks this week.”

Air Force Bomb Techs Practice WWII Tactics for Near-Peer Fight

June 1, 2023 | By David Roza

HILL AIR FORCE BASE, Utah—Over the past 20 years, military explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) technicians have become very good at using high-tech tools like robots, communications jammers, smartphones, and next-generation bomb suits to disable improvised explosive devices (IEDs) in crowded urban environments.

When it comes to a possible conflict with a near-peer adversary like China or Russia, though, EOD techs are preparing for different environments, faster timelines, less sophisticated tools, and more explosives. And to meet that challenge, they’re turning to “old-school World War II tactics,” Airmen told Air & Space Forces Magazine.

During the Global War on Terror, troops often had to secure a city block against ground attack so that bomb techs could safely defuse a single IED. In the future, Air Force EOD techs may have to clear isolated runways of large numbers of air-dropped unexploded ordnance as quickly as possible before another air attack arrives.

“We’re worried about ‘how do I clear this runway fast using the least amount of stuff,’ because it’s going to happen again,” said Staff Sgt. Cody Patterson, a member of the 775th Explosive Ordnance Disposal Flight at Hill Air Force Base.

“We are boiling down to old-school World War II tactics where we use rope, tape, and zip ties to pull submunitions off a runway all at once,” he added. “Or, if one’s available, we can fill a backhoe bucket full of concrete, drop it down, and push them off. You’re trying to be quick; the longer our planes are sitting on the tarmac, the longer they are a target.”

eod — Senior Airman Daniel West, an explosive ordinance technician with the 775th Civil Engineering Squadron, prepares to place a counter charge on a vehicle born improvised explosive devise during a training scenario at Hill Air Force Base, Utah, March 22, 2011. (U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Renae Pittman)

In a future fight against the likes of China, the Air Force’s Agile Combat Employment concept calls for dispersing Airmen and aircraft to smaller, more austere bases in order to complicate an adversary’s targeting.

But those bases won’t be immune from attack. In particular, planners worry that an adversary would drop submunitions across an airfield. Submunitions are small explosives that may be distributed over a wide area. Not all of those submunitions detonate on impact, so they pose a lingering threat to military operations such as running an airfield.

In such a scenario, EOD techs would face new challenges given the nature of those small, austere, remote bases.

“How is an EOD unit with fewer tools, less manning, fewer explosives and potentially spoofed radios on an island in the middle of nowhere going to be able to recover that runway?” Patterson said. “It is going to come down to thinking outside the box, figuring out a way to clear those out so that we can launch aircraft.”

Clearing a runway of submunitions in the middle of a near-peer fight may look relatively Stone-Aged. The old-school but effective techniques include shooting the fuse off a bomb with a .50 caliber slug or using a “tape-and-line,” where EOD techs use tape, rope, and a wrench to pull the fuse out of a bomb from a distance.

“The whole idea is to use a rope that’s extremely long, usually about 1,000 feet for a 500-pound bomb,” Patterson explained. “That technique is from the 1940s and we still test that in EOD to this day.”

eod — An Airman with the 775th EOD flight examines the wiring on a pressure plate used in an IED. Airmen from the flight participated in a week-long training event Nov. 2.-6, 2015. U.S. Air Force photo by Micah Garbarino.

In a future fight, the Air Force may not be able to fly a 700-pound robot to an island in the middle of the Pacific, but EOD techs are accustomed to working with what they have on hand.

“What we are used to operating out of, if you can give us one Humvee or a solid truck, we’re going to be able to hammer out every mission,” said Patterson, who cautioned that more equipment may be required when chemical or biological weapons are involved.

The 775th EOD Flight in particular gets plenty of practice disabling submunitions on the Utah Test and Training Range, an area about the size of Delaware where military aircraft practice dropping a wide range of ordnance. Not all of those weapons detonate on impact, which can pose a hazard to range workers or scientists trying to collect data on weapons tests, so EOD steps in to finish the job.

Part of the challenge of a possible near-peer fight is that EOD technicians may be the first ones to see some of the enemy’s ordnance up close.

“I know that they are going to drop submunitions and I know that, most likely, I am not going to know what they are,” Patterson said. “A small piece of what we’ll have to do is exploit the first one we run into, get all the technical data, figure out how it works, pass that on to our buddies and push them off the runway.”

There is also the possibility Russia or China may use IEDs as well as conventional ordnance. U.S. troops will also likely keep facing IEDs during operations in eastern Africa or the Middle East.

“It is never going to go away, but we try to treat everything similar, whether it is an IED, an [unexploded ordnance], or a WMD,” Patterson said. “We want to command and control the situation because we are the technical experts.”

eod — An example of the patch worn by the 775th EOD flight as of November 2, 2015. U.S. Air Force photo by Micah Garbarino.

Patterson emphasized that defusing explosives would not be Air Force EOD’s sole contribution to a near-peer fight. As experts in explosives, EOD technicians are frequently consulted by other service members in the process of building air bases and deciding how and where to place hardened aircraft shelters (HAS).

“They will turn to an EOD expert and ask ‘Hey, I want to put a plane in this HAS, what happens if a bomb hits the outside of it? Where should we put our common and control station? Do you think this is enough dirt to stop a bomb?’ That sort of thing,” Patterson explained. “We’re integral in the planning phase to protect assets.”

Standing up an air base or restarting it after an attack may also see EOD pick up unusual new roles. As part of its shift to smaller, distributed airfields, the Air Force also wants to generate airpower with fewer Airmen, which will require them to pick up new tasks outside their usual job specialty. EOD techs may find themselves helping a weapons jammer or refueling truck move through a recently-cleared path to get an aircraft ready for takeoff.

“We’re going to be a very vital piece not just to the recovery portion, not just to the planning portion, but to everything in between,” Patterson said. “We’re really good at greasing the cog.”

Besides clearing training ranges and disarming IEDs at home and abroad, Air Force bomb techs also help airfield crews render safe jammed aircraft guns or malfunctioning ordnance; assist with the protection of VIPs like the President or visiting dignitaries; support domestic law enforcement missions; help train foreign partners overseas; and a range of other missions.

“We’re surrounded by some of the best people in all the branches,” Patterson said. “I have not met one guy that was a bad dude or was not smart enough to handle the job. It’s been a real pleasure to serve with these guys.”

How Boeing’s KC-46A Accelerates Mission Readiness for the Joint Force Today and into the Future

June 1, 2023

As near-peer adversaries have increased their reach and lethality, the U.S. Air Force is accelerating the tanker fleet recapitalization and aggressively pulling forward the Next Generation Aerial Refueling System (NGAS) to meet the threat.

Globally operating the KC-46A has advanced mission readiness for the joint force as the service strategizes the path to a future “team of systems” for aerial refueling.

Extending the KC-46A program of record offers three key distinct advantages to the warfighter:

First, the KC-46 is ready now and primed to evolve for the future.

Second, the KC-46A offers unmatched access and operational capability.

Third, extending the KC-46A fleet frees up resources for future U.S. Air Force investment in NGAS.

Ready Now, Evolving for the Future

Boeing is already building and delivering combat-ready KC-46As to the U.S. Air Force and allies in partnership with its supplier network of 650 U.S. business. These suppliers employ 37,000 American workers throughout more than 40 states.

No other tanker meets the stringent airworthiness and performance requirements of the U.S. Air Force and Federal Aviation Administration. Boeing’s substantial investments to meet these precise and unique requirements have made the KC-46A the most advanced multi-mission refueling system in the world. Any other aircraft would require restarting the development process just to catch up to the KC-46A, delaying the mission readiness of the warfighter—and at a cost which the taxpayer would bear.

With the KC-46A, the U.S. Air Force can focus on evolving for the future by integrating emergent technological capabilities that will benefit generations of service members. As an example, Boeing partnered with the Air Force to field the Pegasus’s Remote Vision System 2.0 upgrade, which has been designed and developed side-by-side with engineers and boom operators to ensure it is exactly what’s needed for the mission.

The U.S. Air Force has also designated the Pegasus for the first Advanced Battle Management System implementation, building on the KC-46A’s existing data and communications connectivity.

Unmatched Access and Operational Capability

In addition to refueling support, the KC-46A delivers combat-ready defensive features and data connectivity necessary in a multi-mission tanker for the 21st century warfighter—capabilities that were not traditionally baked into legacy tankers.

*Shown here with a C-17, the Pegasus delivers data to the joint force, as well as fuel, enabling fleet battlespace awareness and decision-making advantage. (Photo credit: Paul Weatherman, Boeing)*

Armed with data links and an integrated tactical situational awareness suite, the KC-46A tanker and crew can relay comprehensive battlespace awareness to warfighters and long-range back to base for real-time information superiority in operational decisions. That information advantage that will further increase as the KC-46A integrates Advanced Battle Management System capabilities as well as upgrades including military-certified Gen 6 radios and additional line-of-sight and beyond-line-of-sight communications technologies with anti-jamming and encryption features. Delivering data and communications connectivity as well as fuel makes the KC-46A a game changer for the joint force.

The multi-mission KC-46A Pegasus tanker also enables Agile Combat Employment—one of the Air Force’s seven Operational Imperatives—by accessing more small bases and austere airfields, maximizing maneuverability of the USAF fleet throughout vast operational theaters, and ensuring fleet connectivity in contested environments.

By leveraging a network of smaller, dispersed locations, the KC-46A facilitates ‘more booms in the air’—more refuelers spread throughout the operational theater and closer to the battlespace—giving warfighters quicker access to fuel so they can stay in the fight where they are needed. The KC-46A can also receive fuel, unlike many legacy tankers, extending its mission range and flexibility.

With its defensive features and countermeasures, the KC-46A provides fuel, data and multi-mission transportation to support all facets of air mobility into the tactical edge of contested environments.

Sustainment Savings to Invest for the Future

The KC-46A fleet also brings lifecycle sustainment advantages for the U.S. Air Force, freeing up resources to meet future needs.

With more KC-46As already in service than any tanker except the Boeing-built KC-135, extending the KC-46 program of record ensures mission readiness today and generates operational and sustainment savings that can be reinvested in future capabilities. (Photo credit: Tech. Sgt. Victoria Nelson, U.S. Air National Guard)

As the KC-46 fleet recently surpassed 50,000 flight hours and thousands of maintenance tasks performed, the Air Force and Boeing can confidently begin fine-tuning the maintenance program based on robust fleet performance data, an improvement relative to the initial conservative assumptions of a new program. For example, as the KC-46A fleet flight hours have grown, the U.S. Air Force and Boeing are optimizing the frequency of scheduled maintenance based on the platform’s proven performance and dependability, yielding cost avoidance and increasing maintenance efficiencies.

This is just one aspect of the time, effort, and resource savings that will be gained by extending the KC-46A program of record—savings that can be reinvested in future systems and capabilities, such as NGAS, and in advancing Operational Imperatives, including resilient basing development.

Accelerating Aerial Refueling Mission Readiness

Even as recapitalizing the KC-135 with the KC-46A remains a priority, Boeing will support the Air Force as it defines the requirements and concept of operations for future aerial refueling teams of systems. Boeing continuously develops innovative solutions to deliver advanced capabilities for customers, including next generation “team of systems”-enabling platforms, technologies and concepts of operation, as well as production and lifecycle support. The Pegasus is the world’s most advanced multi-mission aerial refueling system today and continues to evolve as a pathway to NGAS. Extending the KC-46 program of record provides production, operational and sustainment advantages that assure U.S. mission readiness now and enduring rapid global mobility and power projection advantage for the future.

ICBM Cancer Study Will Include ‘Enduring’ Environmental Monitoring

May 31, 2023 | By Chris Gordon

As part of its broad study of cancer risks at the intercontinental ballistic missile bases, the Air Force is conducting a more focused, detailed investigation of environmental hazards at the installations.

“Two separate efforts are planned in the future,” Col. Tory W. Woodard, the director of the U.S. Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine (USAFSAM), which designed the study, recently told Air & Space Forces Magazine.

The first is an epidemiology study to look at cancer rates in missileer and associated career fields. The second, he added, is “dedicated environmental hazard sampling to assess the work areas.”

Concern about cancer rates at ICBM bases from the veteran community spurred the Air Force to launch its much-scrutinized Missile Community Cancer Study.

Members of the study team conducted initial visits to the ICBM bases in February and March to understand what they should look for and where. The Air Force’s three ICBM bases are Malmstrom Air Force Base, Mont., F.E. Warren Air Force Base, Wyo., and Minot Air Force Base, N.D. The ICBM silos themselves are spread out over vast fields that reach into five states.

The Air Force has studied the issue before, including a study in 2001 at Malmstrom. This time, the service is planning a more exhaustive look.

There is an improved understanding of the environment and factors that can affect the issue, as well as better technology and “access both to personnel and to the actual silos and launch facilities and launch control centers,” Col. Robert Peltzer, a senior medical official at Air Force Global Strike Command, said in a recent interview. “I don’t think the 2001 folks had that same level of ability to get to the spots that they really need to look at.”

The issue is not just a concern for veterans. The service is also trying to understand the potential hazards for personnel currently stationed at the facility.

“When they got back, they looked at, OK, here’s all the hazards we identified,” Peltzer said of the initial visits. “Let’s research and find out what equipment is out there today that can detect these things.”

Among the potential dangers, the study teams found stickers indicating the presence of polychlorinated biphenyls—commonly known as PCBs—which are present in older electronics and should have been removed long ago.

“PCBs have been demonstrated to cause a variety of adverse health effects,” according to the Environmental Protection Agency, which notes “the data strongly suggest that PCBs are probable human carcinogens.”

PCB production was banned in 1979, but ICBM facilities are decades old. An AFGSC source familiar with the study said the Air Force began phasing out PCBs at ICBM facilities in the 1980s, but it is not clear if the process was fully completed. The person said technical orders were issued for the removal of PCBs which were marked as complete, and technical orders might not have included removing the signage. But signs denoting the presence of PCBs are present at all three active ICBM bases and the Air Force is investigating.

“We’re not going to take that the stickers are inaccurate or accurate,” Peltzer said. “We’re going to make sure and validate one way or the other—are there PCBs down there?”

PCBs are not the only hazard. Another major concern for missileers is radon exposure and water contamination. Radon is a radioactive gas that comes from bedrock and soil, and missile facilities are buried underground with personnel living in cramped quarters on 24-48 hour shifts.

“There’ll be looking for air sampling, air intake, water—both above ground and below ground,” Peltzer said.

The U.S. government does not own the land around many missile facilities where some harmful materials may be present.

“We’re going to test the water and soil at different times for environmental changes,” Peltzer said, noting the schedule for doing agriculture work, as well as temperature changes, could affect the level of risk.

The team will also keep sampling equipment, which had to get special clearance to be used in ICBM facilities, on the bases to continue monitoring well into the future.

That’s in keeping with researchers comprehensive approach of “doing it, training, and then setting up the long-term enduring part of this to make sure that we don’t have anything in the future that we weren’t aware of,” Peltzer said.

He said the Air Force would not let the classified nature of ICBM operations impede the investigation.

“One of the things that we’ve ensured is that our environmental folks do have the level of clearance to go down in those areas,” Peltzer said. “They don’t have the need to know what the rest of the stuff is going on. But they can collect information or take samples and then leave. So those are things that have changed over the years.”

GAO Urges Congress to Separate Engine Upgrade From F-35 Program

May 31, 2023 | By John A. Tirpak

Congress should direct the Pentagon to break out the F-35’s propulsion upgrade from the rest of the program to better to track its scope, schedule, and cost, the Government Accountability Office urged in a new May 30 report.

Meanwhile, engine-maker Pratt & Whitney added its own suggestion that the F-35 Joint Program Office decide quickly how it wants to meet the fighter’s rapidly-growing power and cooling needs, so the company can adjust its planned Engine Core Upgrade to better mesh with those requirements.

The Pentagon has previously declined GAO’s suggestion to break out the engine upgrade element of the F-35 program as a separate undertaking, which is why the GAO is now urging Congress to direct the change.

Cost increases and problems with the F-35 airframe and engine tend to be masked under the current arrangement, GAO said, and the magnitude of those cost overruns and schedule issues, if judged separately, could incur Nunn-McCurdy breaches—under the Nunn-McCurdy law of 1982, if a program has cost increases beyond certain benchmarks, it receives added scrutiny or may be automatically canceled.

Other GAO recommendations related to the F-35’s engine include defining long-term requirements for the powerplant.

The GAO agreed with the F-35 Joint Program Office’s business case analysis that found Pratt & Whitney’s ECU is a better and less risky approach to the F-35’s power needs than integrating a new engine from the Air Force’s Adaptive Engine Transition Program (AETP), mainly because of the uncertainty and higher integration cost of a new engine. The AETP engines—GE Aerospace’s XA100 and Pratt’s XA101—also cannot fit the short takeoff/vertical landing F-35B or carrier-landing version F-35C without extensive extra development, the GAO found.

Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall has said the difficulty of integrating an AETP engine with those models was the principal reason the service—in concert with Pentagon leadership–dropped plans for the new engine, although cost was also a big factor.

“You can’t do everything you want to do,” Kendall told the Senate Armed Services Committee in April.

Pratt’s F135 director Jennifer Latka said on a May 31 call with reporters that the company feels the GAO report “validates the Department’s decision to pursue the Engine Core Upgrade on the existing F135.”

But while the GAO report noted the F-35 office has completed the business case regarding a new engine, it also pointed out the Pentagon “has not fully defined the power and cooling requirements the engine and related components will need to support” Block 4 capabilities through 2035.

Specifically, the Joint Program Office has yet to fully assess the cost and technical risks of different engine upgrade and thermal management options, the report stated.

Pratt would like the Pentagon to complete that work, Latka said, so it can determine how it wants to meet the F-35’s increased needs from its Power and Thermal Management System (PTMS), which provides cooling for avionics, radar, and other equipment, as well as emergency power, cockpit conditioning, some electrical power, and more.

Pratt officials have long argued the existing PTMS and engine can provide enough cooling for the F-35’s systems, but doing so requires more heat and stress on the engine, increasing maintenance and cost. Now, Latka said, it would be best from a design and development perspective for the F-35 Joint Program Office to decide its PTMS needs soon so they can be aligned with the Engine Core Upgrade.

For its part, the GAO report states that the current PTMS is already inadequate to meet the F-35’s cooling needs, and the planned Block 4 upgrade will place a heavier burden on the system. Running the engine hotter to produce more cooling is “reducing the life of the engine,” according to the report.

This problem was known back in 2013, and Lockheed wanted to change the F135’s design then to yield more air pressure from the PTMS, “but program officials determined it was too late to redesign the engine given the cost and schedule effects” of doing so, the GAO reported.

“Program officials decided to continue with the F135 engine’s original design with the understanding that there would be increased wear and tear, more maintenance, and reduced life on the engine because it would need to provide more air pressure to the PTMS than its design intended” the audit agency said.

“The misalignment of requirements with the engine and PTMS illustrates why it is important to fully understand the proposed designs at the beginning of an acquisition, prior to committing to development,” the GAO observed.

The GAO is projecting the F-35’s current cooling system won’t be able to meet the fighter’s future needs beyond 2029, particularly those planned for Block 4. Latka argued that is not exactly true but agreed the increased cooling will degrade the F135’s service life, requiring replacement or heavy, unplanned maintenance costs.

It’s “more an art than a science” knowing exactly when the Engine Core Upgrade and PTMS, which are separate systems, will become critical needs, Latka said, but she urged the Pentagon to get on with both efforts as quickly as it can.

“It’s really important to know that [the JPO doesn’t] have a Block 4 plan out to 2035,” Latka said. “They have increments of capabilities that are funded in the next few years that are coming on to the jet, and then they have some more thought-out ideas of what could come on to the jet …and then there are dreams of what we could put on the jet way into the future.”

The F-35’s high sustainment have been a headache for the Pentagon and a source of controversy in Congress for some time now, and the GAO is predicting an extra $38 billion in predicted life-cycle costs. Latka could not say how much of that could be avoided by Pratt’s engine upgrade and a new PTMS.

The GAO report also stated that late engine deliveries are affecting the F-35’s production line, including a chart showing that 97 percent of engines delivered in 2022 were late, up from 46 percent late in 2017.

Latka disputed that part of the report, saying it was based on old data. Deliveries of F135 engines and F-35s were paused for several months to investigate a December 2022 crash of an F-35B caused by an engine problem, and during that time, Pratt’s buffer of extra engine waiting at airframe-maker Lockheed Martin shrank. Now, however, it is back to normal, Latka said.

In a statement responding to the GAO report, the JPO said it’s waging a “war on cost” in the F-35 program, that new countries are indicating their confidence in the program by signing up to buy the jet, and that the JPO “looks forward to working with the GAO and program stakeholders” on its recommendations.

Biden Taps Air Force’s Guillot as New NORAD Commander

May 31, 2023 | By Greg Hadley

President Joe Biden nominated Air Force Lt. Gen. Gregory M. Guillot to add a star and succeed Gen. Glen D. VanHerck as head of U.S. Northern Command and North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD). The nomination was among several high-level nominations announced May 31.

The Department of Defense also formerly announced Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr.’s nomination to be the next Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Lt. Gen. Timothy D. Haugh to head U.S. Cyber Command and the National Security Agency.

Guillot, a battle manager by training, is currently deputy commander of U.S. Central Command, and led Air Forces Central before taking that role. He has been instrumental integrating air, missile, and drone defense systems across the Middle East—experience that’s applicable to the challenges facing NORTHCOM’s air and missile defenses.

If confirmed by the Senate, Guillot will succeed VanHerck, who has led NORTHCOM and NORAD since 2020. In that time, VanHerck has advocated for more over-the-horizon surveillance capabilities and warned about potential gaps in domain awareness for protecting the homeland.

VanHerck’s warnings took on new urgency when a Chinese spy balloon transited the entire continental U.S. earlier this year and examinations revealed that other Chinese balloons have slipped undetected past NORAD’s radars in previous years.

“As NORAD commander, it’s my responsibility to detect threats to North America,” VanHerck said at the time. “I will tell you that we did not detect those threats. And that’s a domain awareness gap that we have to figure out.”

VanHerck also advocated for increased attention and funding for Arctic defenses as China and Russia stake out their interests in the region, with shipping lanes opening up due to melting ice.

Guillot’s prior assignments include a stint as director of operations for NORTHCOM and in high-level positions within Pacific Air Forces and Air Combat Command. He has also commanded the 552nd Air Control Wing at Tinker Air Force Base, Okla., and the 55th Wing at Offutt Air Force Base, Neb.

Should Guillot and Haugh be confirmed, four of the 11 combatant commands would be led by Airmen—Gen. Anthony J. Cotton heads U.S. Strategic Command, and Gen. Jacqueline D. Van Ovost tops U.S. Transportation Command.

The Pentagon also announced four three-star Air Force nominations May 31:

Lt. Gen. Jeffrey A. Kruse to command the Defense Intelligence Agency. If confirmed along with Haugh, that would put Airmen in charge of two key DOD intelligence agencies. Kruse currently advises Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines on military affairs.

Lt. Gen. Donna D. Shipton to command the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, which oversees the acquisition and sustainment of weapons systems. Shipton is now the military deputy to Air Force acquisition executive Andrew Hunter.

Maj. Gen. Heath A. Collins for promotion to lieutenant general and director of the Missile Defense Agency. He would succeed Vice Adm. Jon A. Hill and oversee continued development of the Next Generation Interceptor to combat advanced missile threats to the U.S.

Maj. Gen. Michael G. Koscheski for promotion to lieutenant general and deputy commander of Air Combat Command. He would become the No. 2 to Gen. Kenneth S. Wilsbach, whose nomination to command ACC is pending confirmation. Koscheski currently leads the 15th Air Force at Shaw Air Force Base, S.C.

These nominations join more than 200 others caught up as a result of a hold placed on general and flag officer nominations by Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.), who is using his power to hold nominations in protest of the Biden administration’s policy to reimburse troops who travel out-of-state to obtain legal abortions from bases in locations where such services are no longer legal. Neither Tuberville nor Democratic lawmakers have given any indication that a resolution is coming soon.

How Maintainers at Hill Found A Cheap Way to Make the F-35 Even Better

May 31, 2023 | By David Roza

HILL AIR FORCE BASE, Utah—The F-35 stealth fighter took more than 10 years and billions of dollars to develop, but three Airmen at Hill Air Force Base found a way to make it even better with just a 3D printer, some tough plastic, and an inventive spirit. In fact, their invention could save the Air Force millions of dollars and many headaches in the long-term upkeep of its newest fighter.

“This has caught a lot of attention here and elsewhere,” one of the maintainers, Staff Sgt. Christopher O’Donnell, told Air & Space Forces Magazine. “Every couple days we’ll get an email or a phone call [from another F-35 base] asking ‘how do we go about doing this?’”

The F-35 has a small cluster of sensors on the side of each nose that collects data on air pressure and other factors that can affect the aircraft in flight. When the jet is on the ground, maintainers keep the sensors safe from dust or moisture by covering them a tool that uses rubber seals and quick-release pins to stay in place. The trouble is that the tool, which costs more than $600, is difficult to use, the pins are easily broken, and the rubber seals often fail in hot weather. Maintainers at Hill’s 34th Fighter Generation Squadron wondered if there was a better way to do things, and they knew exactly who to ask for help.

“We’re the last line of defense to fix whatever we can and put it back into service so that the military does not have to purchase replacement equipment” said O’Donnell. “In some instances, the equipment is so old that nobody makes it anymore, but it is still needed.”

f-35 — An example of the older, more fragile, and expensive data port cover. U.S. Air Force photo by 1st Lt. Nathan Poblete

O’Donnell is one of three technicians at Hill’s Air Force Repair Enhancement Program shop, where Airmen conduct homemade repairs or design replacement parts. AFREP shops exist across the country and have saved the branch millions of dollars, especially where older aircraft are stationed. For example, the AFREP shop at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Ariz. has saved about $86 million since 2001 coming up with fixes for the A-10, C-130 and HH-60.

When the Hill AFREP office heard about the issues with the F-35 data port covers, they got to work creating one that would be stronger, cheaper and simpler than its predecessor.

“We were like ‘let’s keep it as minimal as possible,’” O’Donnell recalled.

Instead of a complicated device with pins and seals, the AFREP Airmen 3D-printed a slab of rubber-like plastic that fit perfectly over the sensor cluster. Later they installed magnets and an O-ring to keep the cover fixed in place. The new design stuck on the jet through wind, rain, snow, and hail, keeping the sensors beneath it safe and dry.

“No mechanical parts, extremely durable, flexible, and it sticks to the jet,” O’Donnell said. “And the way it fits is universal so it can go on either side of the nose.”

Unlike the original part, the new covers cost only about $45 and about 22 hours to make in the shop’s 3D printers, which have been churning out covers for F-35s at Hill and other F-35 bases over the past few months. AFREP can print the covers in a variety of colors and include the squadron symbol of the unit receiving them. The Air Force is currently looking to patent the design.

“It will be awesome being able to say that I have a patent in my name,” O’Donnell said. “The Air Force will own the patent and the rights, but our names are credited for coming up with it.”

f-35 — Tech Sgt. Christopher O’Donnell holds an F-35 data port cover featuring the Black Widow mascot of the 421st Fighter Squadron. Future covers could be printed in squadron colors with squadron mascots to promote unit pride. Air & Space Forces Magazine photo by David Roza

O’Donnell and his AFREP colleagues, Tech Sgts. Justin Platt and James Dover, can see the impact of their work in the form of red data port covers gracing almost every F-35 on the flight line. But that is just one example of the many time- and money-saving fixes the three Airmen have made over the years. Others include a new alarm shutoff switch for Minuteman III launch controls, more durable computer connection boxes for F-22 maintainers, and a homemade device that can detect issues with the diagnostic wires that maintainers plug into F-35s.

AFREP Airmen take a course in miniature and microminiature electronic repair, which allows them to solder the small components that keep circuit boards running.

“If you pass, you get certified to work on the electronic equipment that goes into the jets or other planes,” O’Donnell said.

With those skills, AFREP Airmen can get old equipment like a busted missile control oscilloscope back up and running again.

“We don’t want to spend $15,000 on a new oscilloscope,” O’Donnell said. “So I spent a week’s worth of work cleaning the board, putting new copper down, epoxying, and then soldering things back on very gently, and it worked perfectly.”

An extra perk of the AFREP program is that it brings in cash for maintenance groups. Platt explained that when a maintenance group fixes a part through AFREP, it can take the money that would have gone towards a replacement part and instead use it to improve the group through capital improvements or new equipment.

“The Air Force is still spending the money but they are rewarding it back to themselves,” Platt said.

Airmen routinely bring questions and broken gadgets to the Hill AFREP shop, and while some fixes come easy, others may sit on the shelf for years before a solution presents itself.

“You never know who’s going to walk in the door with something new,” O’Donnell said. “One day I’m designing something on the computer to 3D print, that afternoon I might be fixing an electrical board, and then later I’m working on something hydraulics-related.”

The variety is part of why O’Donnell and Platt enjoy AFREP work. Before coming to the shop, O’Donnell put together bombs as a munitions systems specialist, while Platt worked as a crew chief. Those are difficult jobs, but AFREP presents a new challenge every day.

“You get proficient doing the same thing over and over again, but at the same time, it can get tedious,” O’Donnell said. “I want something different, which was great about this shop. Every day it’s something else.”