First All-Space Force Flight Graduates from Officer Training School

First All-Space Force Flight Graduates from Officer Training School

March 17, 2023 | By Greg Hadley

A group of 15 Guardians became the first all-Space Force flight to graduate from the Department of the Air Force’s Officer Training School on March 10—another milestone as the new service carves out space-specific education.

The newly-graduated Guardians were commissioned as second lieutenants after the standard eight-week training course of OTS—one of three sources the DAF has for commissioning officers, alongside ROTC and the U.S. Air Force Academy. 

This is not the first time Guardians have graduated from OTS, officials noted, but it is the first time there were enough of them to group them all together. 

“When I was assigned the Space Force flight, I wasn’t sure what to expect,” Maj. Kaleigh Sides, flight commander, said in a statement. “But I couldn’t be prouder of how they came together. Instead of 15 individuals, they were one team.” 

That team excelled in training, winning OTS’s Commandant’s Cup, given to the best flight which demonstrates courage, resiliency, and hardiness of spirit in a series of demanding physical and mental team challenges,” according to the Space Force. 

More all-Space Force flights in OTS may be coming in the future, said Col. Keolani Bailey, OTS commandant.  

“In the future, we’ll continue to group them as much as possible to align their training with foundational Space Force imperatives as we build warrior-minded leaders of character for our total force team,” Bailey said. 

This first flight graduated nearly eight months after the Space Force graduated its first ever class of Guardians from USSF-specific basic military training. That process similarly started with future Guardians mixing with potential Airmen, then upgraded over time to larger and larger groups. 

Due to the service’s small size, Space Force officials have shown little to no interest in establishing a separate Space Force ROTC program or a U.S. Space Force Academy.

However, the Space Force has established its own path with professional military education, partnering with Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies for intermediate- and senior-level developmental education—forgoing the usual war college in favor of what it calls “independent PME.”

Austin Takes Action on Some Suicide Prevention Recommendations. Others Will Be Tougher

Austin Takes Action on Some Suicide Prevention Recommendations. Others Will Be Tougher

March 17, 2023 | By David Roza

Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III announced new steps in a multiyear plan to improve mental health and suicide prevention in the military on March 16—issuing a memo outlining 10 steps the Pentagon will take at the recommendation of an independent review committee.

However, Austin deferred action on some of the committee’s recommendations, saying more analysis is needed in the form of a Suicide Prevention Implementation Working Group. In particular, Austin said the working group will assess the feasibility of, and put together a plan for, long-term steps such as more closely regulating firearm purchases by service members on Department of Defense property and modernizing the suicide prevention education curriculum.

The working group will present its findings to Austin by June 2, the memo states.

“We all share a profound responsibility to ensure the wellness, health, and morale of the Total Force, and the steps outlined in this memo will help us deliver on that priority,” Austin wrote in the memo.  “We must do everything possible to heal all wounds, whether visible or invisible, and we must do away—once and for all—with the tired old stigmas on getting help.”

The Suicide Prevention and Response Independent Review Committee (SPRIRC) formed last March and visited bases around the world, speaking with focus groups and individuals to create a sweeping report on the issue which was published on February 24.

The 115-page report makes 127 recommendations that are centered on four “strategic directions”: healthy and empowered individuals, families, and communities; clinical and community preventive services; treatment and support services; and surveillance, research, and evaluation. The recommendations were also grouped into high, moderate and low priority.

Of the 10 recommendations that Austin announced would be implemented, two were marked high priority, five were moderate priority and three were low priority. Pentagon Press Secretary Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder told reporters the 10 recommendations were chosen because they could be implemented quickly.

“There are areas where the department already has the authorities necessary to take immediate action,“ he said. “So that was the primary driver, was of those recommendations, what are the things that we can move on right now that will make a difference for our service members?”

lloyd austin
Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III addresses Soldiers from Charlie Company 1-3 Attack Battalion, 12th Combat Aviation Brigade during a luncheon at the U.S. Embassy in Prague, Czech Republic Sept. 9, 2022. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Caleb Minor.

Tough steps ahead

The two high-priority recommendations are expediting the hiring process for behavioral health professionals and having commanders at all levels “promote mission readiness through healthy sleep throughout the Department.” Other recommendations include expanding opportunities to treat common mental health conditions in primary care and ensuring the availability of evidence-based care for people seeking treatment or support for unhealthy drinking.

The second phase of Austin’s plan involves establishing a Suicide Prevention Implementation Working Group. The group will assess the advisability and feasibility of the remaining 117 recommendations, identify specific policy and program changes needed to implement them; provide cost and manpower estimates required to do so; provide an estimated timeline for implementing each recommendation; identify barriers to implementation; and find out which recommendations can be synchronized with actions pursued by the separate Independent Review Commission on Sexual Assault in the Military.

The working group faces a difficult task, especially because some of the recommendations may prove controversial or difficult to implement. 

Likely to cause the more uproar of the 23 high-priority recommendations, are seven that have to do with more closely regulating the purchase and storage of firearms by service members. One high-priority recommendation is to raise the minimum age for buying firearms and ammunition to 25 years on Department of Defense property, while another is to implement a seven-day waiting period for any firearm purchased on Department of Defense property, and a third is to allow the Department of Defense to collect and record information about department members’ privately owned firearms.

In its report, the SPRIRC wrote that 66 percent of active-duty suicides involved a firearm, as did 72 percent and 78 percent of Reserve and National Guard suicides, respectively.

“Several lines of evidence suggest that limiting or reducing firearm availability could dramatically reduce the military’s suicide rate,” the committee wrote. “For example, a simple policy change requiring Israeli military personnel to store their military-issued weapons in armories over the weekend led to a 40 percent reduction in the Israeli military’s suicide rate.”

Implementing some of these measures would require Congress to repeal sections of military law, a tall order given some lawmakers’ fierce opposition to gun control laws. Even efforts like collecting information about service members who own firearms have been blocked through laws like the 2011 National Defense Authorization Act—though one military lawyer told the SPRIRC that such information was useful to commanders.

“I used to be able to ask if [fellow service members] have weapons” the lawyer said. “Allowing commanders to know if a service member has a firearm off-post would be very useful; I have heard commanders lament that.”

A Wicked Problem

Other measures that do not involve firearms could be expensive or complicated to implement. For example, one high-priority recommendation is to fix pay systems so that service members are not paid late, a concern which caused considerable stress across the military, the committee found.

Fixing such a problem would require solving longstanding problems with the military’s personnel databases and systems—and the services are already struggling with platforms like the Air Force’s widely-despised myEval.

“The combination of poorly functioning systems with downsized workforce reduces productivity, increases work-related stress, and creates financial strain across the entire force,” the SPRIRC wrote. “Personnel must also work extended hours to compensate for these deficiencies, disrupting social support networks and creating relationship strain within military families.”

myeval
U.S. Air Force Tech. Sgt. Nicholas Komor, part of the myEval transition team with 36th Force Support Squadron, speaks during a “roadshow” where a four member team educated various squadrons and organizations on the upcoming transition from virtual Personnel Center to myEvaluation, which is live now at Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, April 26, 2022. U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Aubree Owens.

Another ambitious high-priority recommendation is to create a task force to reform the military promotion system in order “to better reward and select the right people for the right positions at the right time based on demonstrated leadership skills and abilities.”

The military puts too much emphasis on quantifiable skills “that have little to no bearing on leadership potential (e.g., number of jumps, number of patients seen) … resulting in the promotion of individuals with good technical skills but poor personnel management abilities,” the SPRIRC wrote. The committee cited the Army’s Battalion Commander Assessment Program as a potential model for reform. 

Promotions and pay systems may not seem obviously connected to the suicide issue, but the SPRIRC report noted that making such connections is necessary to address the root causes of the problem and make progress.

“Wicked problems are difficult to solve because they involve complex interdependencies,” the committee wrote. “To address a wicked problems like suicide, the DOD must reduce its reliance on solutions-oriented thinking and adopt process-oriented thinking instead.”

Though the problems sound daunting, the SPRIRC found a widespread desire across the force to do something about them.

“You [service members] overwhelmingly supported the DOD’s efforts to prevent suicide as the right thing to do,” the committee wrote in its report. “While some current efforts were not seen as effective, you did not hesitate to reinforce the importance of suicide prevention practices and helped us consider different options to decrease the risk of suicide among those in uniform.”

Austin echoed the sentiment.

“We will find new ways to support all who are in pain,” he wrote. “And we will redouble our effort to do right by every member of our outstanding military community.”

Tattoos, Loan Repayments, and More: Air Force Attacks Recruiting Barriers

Tattoos, Loan Repayments, and More: Air Force Attacks Recruiting Barriers

March 17, 2023 | By Greg Hadley

Air Force recruiting gutted out a “dead-stick” landing to finish fiscal 2022 and leaders are girding for a still more challenging 2023. 

Short-term challenges like low unemployment and the lingering effects of the COVID-induced pause to in-person recruiting can’t be helped. But the bigger problem facing the Air Force and the other military services are long-term recruiting trends. Fewer and fewer young Americans are even eligible to serve, with drug use, obesity, and criminal records a growing blot on the population. And now even those who are eligible are growing less and less likely to consider it.  

Vice Chief of Staff Gen. David W. Allvin told Air & Space Forces Magazine that top leaders are working the problem. Leaders late last year “put a team together to ensure that we are evaluating all of the things that we do to make sure we’re not unintentionally placing barriers [in front of] Americans who might want to join our formation,” Allvin said.

The Barriers to Service Cross-Functional Team launched then. Now, with the Air Force facing a potential 10 percent recruiting shortfall in the Active-duty component–and even more in the Guard and Reserve–Allvin is leading the team, pushing for faster results. 

“The numbers weren’t recovering as fast as we’d like,” Allvin said. “This team had already been formed, but I was called in to sort of help accelerate it.” 

Now dubbed a Tiger Team, it consists of a “core” group of 10 to 15 leaders supported by almost 400 others, enabling leaders to tackle multiple efforts at once. 

“We have Space Force representation, Air Force representation, military staff here on the Air Staff, the civilian staff as well, the major commands, of course [Air Education and Training Command] and the 2nd Air Force and the Air Force Recruiting Service,” Allvin said. 

What barriers the team chooses to tackle are largely driven by suggestions from recruiters and data showing which problems affect the biggest swathes of recruits. Many of the proposed solutions didn’t actually come from the Tiger Team, he noted. 

“They were making their way through the process,” Allvin said. The team chose some to accelerate “and see if we can’t get them done in days and weeks.” 

Two such solutions have already been put into place, and more are coming. 

Tattoos 

The Air Force announced in early March new tattoo policies permitting one tattoo of no more than an inch per hand, in addition to the previously allowed “ring” tattoos, and one tattoo of no more than one inch on the neck. 

The Air Force Recruiting Service’s data showed that tattoos were among the top reasons potential recruits get turned away: roughly 1,300 per year, Allvin said. Meanwhile, the Navy—and even the Space Force—had different, more lenient policies. 

The Air Force had previously made it easier for recruiting commanders to approve waivers for hand tattoos, with AFRS commander Maj. Gen. Edward W. Thomas Jr. saying he had personally approved dozens based on pictures sent to his phone. Now the need for such waivers is gone, Thomas confirmed at the AFA Warfare Symposium. 

“America is changing,” Thomas said. “And those applicants coming to us are changing. We’ve got to be able to adapt. We were literally turning away highly qualified applicants because of a small tattoo that was between their fingers and we were saying, ‘I wish we could make you an American Airman. But why don’t you walk next door to United States Navy, and they’ll be happy to enlist you.’” 

Recruiting Incentives 

Just a few days after the tattoo policy change, the Air Force announced it was bringing back the Enlisted College Loan Repayment Program, which helps enlisted recruits pay back student debt up to $65,000 after an absence of nearly a decade.  

“We get a twofer out of it,” Allvin said. “We get to attract Americans, we can offer an incentive and have them really come into our formation and frankly, if they’ve got some level of college for which they have debt, that means we get a pretty well-educated cohort.” 

The Air Force is also expanding the career fields in which incoming qualified recruits can receive enlistment bonuses. The new list will be released soon, An Air Force spokeswoman said. 

To fund the two programs, the Air Force reprogrammed $15 million for the loan repayments and $25 million for the enlistment bonuses. 

More Coming 

Still other changes are in the works, Allvin said.  

The Office of the Secretary of Defense, alongside the services, is looking to revive an accelerated pathway to naturalization for immigrants at Basic Military Training. 

“We have people who are here, who aren’t citizens yet but are willing to serve and die for this country,” Allvin said. “So the idea of being able to accelerate the naturalization process, the goal will be by the time they will complete [BMT] that they can become fully naturalized.” 

That broader Pentagon effort is still ongoing, but the Department of the Air Force, alongside other departments, have signed a memorandum of understanding with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to start the process and are working on the logistical and procedural hurdles to make it happen. 

Other efforts include providing more flexibility on the documents recruits need to make it through the enlistment process, Allvin said. 

“When I came in forever ago, it made sense that there was a large percentage of our force that would require driver’s licenses for the things that we would do,” Allvin said. “It would almost be an assumption. So if you don’t have a driver’s license for these things, then we really can’t take you in the service. Which was OK when just about everybody, or a large percentage, had driver’s licenses. But these days because of the lack of a demand for it, with better public transportation or the advent of other capabilities that weren’t available before. Plus, there’s some access issues. There may be folks who are in the inner city who can use public transportation or don’t have the means or the access—it doesn’t mean they don’t want to serve the country.” 

Those longer-term issues can be complicated, Allvin said, by different requirements across different states or bureaucratic hurdles—one of the issues that Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. has highlighted as part of his “Accelerate Change or Lose” action orders. And so the Tiger Team will stay in place “for the next several months at least,” Allvin said. 

“it’s very clear, it’s very tangible,” Allvin said. “Every week that we don’t do one of these things, you can count the number of Americans that are coming in that we’re having to turn away.” 

Kendall: Air Force Wants as Many as 2,000 CCAs with a Common, Modular Airframe

Kendall: Air Force Wants as Many as 2,000 CCAs with a Common, Modular Airframe

March 16, 2023 | By John A. Tirpak

The Air Force is looking for a single airframe on which to build its Collaborative Combat Aircraft concept, with interchangeable, modular elements, service Secretary Frank Kendall said March 15. And while he has set 1,000 as the “planning number” for the new class of combat aircraft, the true requirement could be twice that, he said.

The CCA the Air Force has in mind would have “a common chassis, a common airframe” with modular mission equipment “optimized against the threat that you expect to face,” Kendall told reporters after his March 15 speech at the annual McAleese defense conference.

“A reasonable way to think about it is an airframe with different payloads that can be swapped out, depending on the mission,” he explained.

It has not previously been clear whether the Air Force envisioned CCAs to be a range of dedicated aircraft in different classes or a single type with many variants to perform a variety of missions.  

In his speech, Kendall said that he gave USAF planners a figure of 1,000 CCAs as a notional target.

The figure will allow planners to ‘start thinking about organizational structures: whether they’re hybrid structures, with crewed and uncrewed aircraft in the same wing, or separate structures … that would work together,” Kendall explained.

In addition to force structure and organizational considerations, planners will also be mapping out what CCAs will require with regard to training, maintenance, range space and sustainment, he noted.

Kendall said he used the figure of 1,000 to convey to industry and Capitol Hill that CCAs are a major new initiative, that the Air Force is sincere about it, and that it needs to get underway as quickly as possible.

“What I wanted to do is give people a … sense of the kinds of numbers we’re talking about. We’re not talking about 10 or 100 or 200; we’re talking a serious number of aircraft here,” Kendall said in a Q&A after his presentation.

That serious number could wind up far exceeding the notional 1,000, he hinted.

“I think, at the end of the day, we’ll end up with more than that. … It could be twice that number or more. I don’t know yet,” said Kendall.

Air Force officials have said the planning figure was meant to send an unambiguous signal to industry that the Air Force intends to go ahead with CCAs and that their investment in technologies and concepts underwriting the concept will be worthwhile.

Kendall said in a briefing ahead of the budget release that the plan will be to carry two CCA airframe concepts through initial development, but he couldn’t say on what timeline the Air Force will select one type for production. However, whichever contractor is chosen to build the basic airframe, the Air Force’s intent is to compete the modular payloads thereafter, thus avoiding one companying having “vendor lock” on the CCA fleet.

He emphasized that developing and fielding CCAs will not come at the expense of manned aircraft, but as an enabling adjunct to them. He again made the analogy that CCAs can be thought of as independent platforms to carry the weapons, sensors, and other payloads that today’s crewed fighters carry, thus expanding the amount of sensors and weapons USAF can bring to the battle.

Kendall also joked that the CCA might join the Air Force’s “4+1” fighter plan as the “+1,” replacing the retiring A-10.

Last week, Kendall said he expected these aircraft to achieve initial operational capability “by the end of the decade,” and in parallel with the Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) family of systems, which will succeed the F-22 in about the same timeframe.

Besides the NGAD and F-35, Kendall said the F-15EX could also conceivably be a “controlling aircraft” for CCAs.

It’s premature to think about where CCAs might be based, Kendall said, calling the politically charged process of assigning aircraft to congressional districts “the bane of my existence.” However, service officials said the advent of such a large new addition to the force should make it more palatable to members of Congress to allow divestiture of legacy platforms in their districts, knowing that new systems are coming in that will likely re-use existing facilities.

The Air Force will work to hold the cost of CCAs to “a fraction” of the cost of an F-35, Kendall said, but he said it’s premature to estimate what that will be. He has previously said a CCA might come in at half the cost of an F-35, which in the last contract cost the Air Force about $80 million per copy.

“We’ve got a lot of work to do” on the CCA program and “we have to work on cost effectiveness,” Kendall said. “Where we’re going to end up” with regard to inventory, cost or exact mission “we’re not sure, yet.” But he also emphasized that “these are not zero-cost” systems.

“They’re not munitions … and they’re not attritable [but] I’m pretty comfortable we’re on the right path,” Kendall said.

Now Army Has Operational Imperatives Too, Copying Air Force

Now Army Has Operational Imperatives Too, Copying Air Force

March 16, 2023 | By Greg Hadley

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, the Army has a major fan-crush on the Air Force. 

Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall has focused Air Force and Space Force planning and investment around seven Operational Imperatives and the approach both informed and improved the budget process, leaders say. Now Army Secretary Christine Wormuth is following suit. She detailed six operational imperatives for the Army during a fireside chat at the annual McAleese Defense Programs Conference March 15. 

“In a world where China is the pacing challenge and Russia is the acute threat, the Army really has to be able to do six things,” Wormuth said. “And I’ve noticed that my good friend Secretary Frank Kendall has gotten a lot of traction talking about the Air Force’s seven Operational Imperatives. So I’m going to upgrade the Army six things to six Operational Imperatives and see if I can similarly get some traction the way Frank has.” 

Wormuth’s operational imperatives are based on six requirements she’s emphasized that the Army needs to do by 2030: 

  • See and Sense Farther 
  • Mass Dispersed Forces with Combat Fist 
  • Win the Fires Fight 
  • Protect Forces from Air, Missile, Drone Threats 
  • Communicate and Share Data Rapidly 
  • Sustain the Fight Across Long Distance 

Wormuth connected these six operational imperatives to the Army’s plans to field 24 key new systems by 2023. 

Kendall introduced his Operational Imperatives at the 2022 AFA Warfare Symposium in Orlando, Fla. What began as talking points have expanded into a structured approach to sorting out priorities.  

“My highest personal goal has been to instill a sense of urgency about our efforts to modernize and to ensure that we improve our operational posture relative to our pacing challenge, China, China, China,” Kendall said at the time. “The most important thing we owe our Airmen and Guardians are the resources they need, and the systems and equipment they need, to perform their missions. To achieve this goal, I’ve commissioned work on seven operational imperatives. These imperatives are just that; if we don’t get them right, we will have unacceptable operational risk.” 

Kendall’s seven OIs are: 

  • Space Order of Battle 
  • Operationally-Focused Advanced Battle Management Systems 
  • Moving Target Engagement 
  • Tactical Air Dominance 
  • Resilient Basing 
  • Global Strike 
  • Readiness to Deploy and Fight 

Since he first detailed them, Air Force and Space Force leaders have seized on the structure and focus of the seven as a means to prioritize focus and investment, using them and citing them as guiding principles. At the 2023 AFA Warfare Symposium in Aurora, Colo., Kendall said the OIs played a fundamental role in informing and shaping the fiscal 2024 budget request the Air Force recently released. 

“As a result of our work on the DAF operational imperatives, we will be requesting close to 20 new or significantly enhanced efforts,” Kendall said in his keynote address.

The department may yet come out with even more OIs, Air Force acquisition executive Andrew Hunter said last summer.

To learn more and stay up to date on the latest news regarding the Air Force’s OIs, visit Air & Space Forces Magazine’s Operational Imperatives resource center.

The Air Force Changed Its Mind on Some Cuts to the F-15EX Buy—But Won’t Go Any Farther, Kendall Says

The Air Force Changed Its Mind on Some Cuts to the F-15EX Buy—But Won’t Go Any Farther, Kendall Says

March 16, 2023 | By Chris Gordon

The Air Force upped its buy of F-15EX Eagle IIs in part to fulfill the homeland defense mission and ensure the Air Force reached a goal of 72 new fighters a year, top Air Force leaders said March 15. But the service does not plan to buy any more of the Boeing-made jets in the future, leaving it with a final fleet of 104 F-15EXs.

“There’s no intention to do that right now,” Kendall said when asked if the Air Force planned further F-15EX purchases at the annual McAleese and Associates defense conference.

The service originally planned to stop buying the refreshed version venerable fourth-generation fighter by now. But Congress budgeted for 24 F-15EXs in fiscal 2023 and Air Force matched that number in its request for fiscal 2024. The Air Force wants to purchase 48 F-35s in fiscal 2024 along with the 24 F-15EXs, which makes up the 72 fighter figure.

“It’s not just the 72 a year, it’s the mixture of capability and capacity that goes with that fighter capability,” Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. said.

The Air Force has not detailed exactly where the new airframes will go, but Kendall indicated some of the F-15EXs would replace aging F-15C/D Eagles in the Air National Guard fleet.

“The reason we do that in part because of the cruise missile defense mission,” Kendall said of the F-15EX and F-35 buys.

The Air Force’s plan F-15EX buy would not fully replace F-15C/Ds in the fleet, however, and some Air National Guard F-15C/Ds are being replaced with F-35s. The Air Force has around 200 F-15C/Ds that it will eventually retire, and the service wants to divest 57 in fiscal 2024. The Air Force made the decision to pull its 48 F-15C/Ds from Kadena Air Base, Japan in late 2022, with some of those aircraft destined for the Air National Guard.

“We’re going to continue to draw that fleet down until there’s none left,” the director of the Air National Guard Lt. Gen. Michael A. Loh told reporters March 8 at AFA’s Warfare Symposium. “So the recapitalization is occurring. … The two things on the production line right now are F-35 and F-15EX.” 

But the Air Force says it will not be increasing its long-term commitment to F-15EX at the expense of stealthy F-35s, which it sees as the future backbone of the fighter fleet.

The additional batch of F-15EX will give the Air Force 104 F-15EXs, up from the 80 F-15EX fleet it detailed in last year’s budget request. The Air Force originally planned to buy 144 F-15EXs and has now changed that position several times. But a final inventory of 104 jets will remain the Air Force’s position—at least for now.

“23 came out a lot bigger than they had asked for, and so 24 is an increase on that,” Kendall said. “So basically, we have the capability to buy more, and so we did—same thing with F-35.”

The Department of Defense has been waiting on committing to buy more F-35s until the updated Block 4 and Technology Refresh 3 capabilities come online.

“We’d like to start climbing up the ramp a bit when we are pretty confident we’re going to get Block 4 aircraft,” DOD comptroller Michael A. McCord told reporters. 

“This was probably the least debate about JSFs that I’ve seen inside the building process in the times I’ve done this,” said McCord, referring to the Joint Strike Fighter, the original name for the F-35 program. McCord previously served as the comptroller from 2014 to 2017, when the F-35 was first introduced into the Air Force fleet.

McCord said the services had more conversations inside the DOD to make sure F-35s didn’t show up on unfunded priorities lists. The Department of the Navy wants a mix of 35 F-35B and F-35C variants in its fiscal 2024 budget for the Marines and Navy, giving the Pentagon a wish list of 83 Lockheed Martin-made F-35s.

“We’ve kind of had a little bit better clarity in our internal process early on,” McCord said. “This is the comfort spot for the Department of Navy and the Department of Air Force and we didn’t really move off of that a lot or have a big discussion about it.”

On ABMS, Air Force Steers Between Status Quo and ‘Boiling the Ocean’

On ABMS, Air Force Steers Between Status Quo and ‘Boiling the Ocean’

March 16, 2023 | By James C. Kitfield

Since 2018—when the Pentagon began its strategic pivot toward competition with near-peer powers Russia and China—the Air Force has worked to restructure and advance its Advanced Battle Management System (ABMS) program.

Originally envisioned as a replacement for the E-3 AWACS (Airborne Warning and Control System), ABMS was reimagined as a holistic “system of systems” designed to seamlessly and securely share data across multiple weapons systems, the service’s contribution to the Defense Department’s broader Joint All Domain Command and Control (JADC2) effort to connect sensors and shooters around the globe.

“What exactly is ABMS? Is it software? Hardware? Infrastructure? Policy?” Gen. David W. Allvin, Vice Chief of Staff of the Air Force, wrote in May 2021. “The answer is yes to all.”  

Five years from the start of that reimagining, Air Force and industry experts made clear at the AFA Warfare Symposium last week that the precise parameters and definition of the ABMS program remain a work in progress. 

“Within the broad construct of what the Air Force is doing with [command-and control and battle management], I would say there is a ditch on both sides of the road we’re traveling that we’re trying to avoid,” said Brig. Gen, Luke C.G. Cropsey, the Air Force’s program executive officer for command, control, communications, and battle management (C3BM).

On one side is the ditch called “status quo,” he said, and there is general agreement in the Air Force that continuing on that legacy path is unsustainable giving the escalating threat. 

“The problem is, if we overcorrect we hit the ditch on the other side of the road, which is trying to connect everything, everywhere, all of the time,” said Cropsey, who characterized that approach as trying to “boil the ocean.”

“That’s not going to work either … because there’s a long list of acquisition programs that adopted that ‘Big Bang’ theory [of connectivity], and they ended poorly as a result,” Cropsey said during a panel discussion.  

The Air Force’s lodestar for avoiding those ditches is to always keep in mind the needs of the warfighter in any future great power conflict.  

“The way we stay in the middle of the road is to be ruthlessly, laser-focused on the operational problems that need to be solved in order for us to win the next fight,” said Cropsey. “We need to stay grounded in the fundamental belief that if we identify and clearly articulate the operational problem we’re trying to solve, and do that in a way that allows us all to share the same vision of the challenge, then we can work our way back through the mission threads and the kill chain and arrive at a solution. That’s what we mean by staying operationally focused.”  

Retired Air Force Lt. Col. Ron Fehlen, general manager of Air and Space Force programs for L3Harris, likened the importance of staying operationally focused to the evolution of the cell phone.

“Frankly, deciding what you want [ABMS] to do from a data perspective is no different from the cell phones we use every day,” Fehlen said during the panel discussion. “I suspect not many of us are using the old ‘flip phones’ anymore, and that’s because we demanded more data and processing power out of those phones, and then we wanted teenagers to be able to stream Netflix on their phones, so we demanded full-motion video.”

That kind of demand-driven process drove cell phone manufacturers towards different bandwidth and security requirements, he noted.

“Similarly, [ABMS] boils down to going through a process of identifying what the warfighter needs, when they need it, and where that data needs to flow” said Fehlen. “Then industry can help take the technology to that next level.”   

Achieving a more holistic command-and-control and battle management “system of systems,” will likely require the individual services to conduct more upfront operational analysis to reach a common understanding of the future battlespace and their roles within it.  

“Many times when we speak to our military customers, we hear ‘Well, we didn’t actually know that the other services were doing it this way,’” said Elaine Bitonti, general manager at Collins Aerospace for connected battlespace and emerging capabilities. “But if the communications system standards for the Air Force are different than for the Army and Navy, and there may be operational reasons for that, it still has an impact.” 

In the case of Collins Aerospace’s work on the largest global command-and-control network for commercial airlines, for instance, the airlines first came together to create a common infrastructure. “They knew that had to have a common infrastructure to run all the data they wanted,” Bitonti noted.  

Dan Markham, director of Joint All Domain Operations at Lockheed Martin, agreed on the need for the armed services to come together early and establish common interfaces and standards.

“It’s important to ensure active participation by the other services early on, so industry doesn’t show up and try and integrate something only to find the interfaces between the Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps, and Army are different,” he said. “That’s not effective or efficient.”  

WATCH: Video of Russian Fighter Crashing Into US MQ-9 Released

WATCH: Video of Russian Fighter Crashing Into US MQ-9 Released

March 16, 2023 | By Chris Gordon

The Pentagon released video of a March 14 incident involving a Russian Su-27 fighter and a U.S. Air Force MQ-9, which resulted in the American plane crashing into the Black Sea. The MQ-9 Reaper was conducting a surveillance mission when two Su-27 Flankers intercepted it. The Su-27s harassed the U.S. drone by making close passes and dumping fuel on it. Eventually, one Russian fighter clipped the MQ-9’s propeller.

In the short video, which DOD said was edited for length, an Su-27 Flanker makes a close pass over the U.S. surveillance drone. At first, a Russian jet comes up behind the MQ-9 while dumping fuel on the American plane. In a second pass, a Russian jet hits the American plane and the video cuts out. When the picture reappears, the American drone’s propeller is visibly damaged.

The U.S. drone became unflyable, and the American operators brought the drone down in the Black Sea, according to the U.S.

The U.S. says it hasn’t concluded whether the Russian pilots intended to crash into the drone or were trying to disable it with their tactics. Either way, the Russians could not be said to have kept a safe distance from the American plane.

“This was unsafe, it was unprofessional,” State Department spokesman Ned Price said on CNN March 15, describing the video. “It was also tinged with a great deal of incompetence.”

U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark A. Milley made calls to their Russian counterparts.

“We take any potential for escalation very seriously and that’s why I believe it’s important to keep the lines of communication open,” Austin said at a joint press conference with Milley on March 13. “I think it’s really key that we’re able to pick up the phone and engage each other. And I think that that will help to prevent miscalculations going forward.”

The MQ-9’s wreckage lies almost a mile down at the bottom of the Black Sea after it “probably broke up,” Milley said. The U.S. is aware of where the drone landed.

“We know where it landed in the Black Sea,” Milley added. “It’s probably about maybe 4,000 or 5,000 feet of water, something like that. So any recovery operation is very difficult at that depth by anyone.”

Milley indicated the U.S. took steps to prevent any unwanted material from getting into the wrong hands.

“There’s probably not a lot to recover, frankly,” Milley said. “We did take mitigating measures, so we are quite confident that whatever was of value is no longer of value.”

Pentagon Press Secretary Air Force Brig. Gen. Patrick S. Ryder said the U.S. believes Russia is attempting to recover parts of the MQ-9, but added that deep water would make that mission difficult.

“We do have indications Russia is likely making an effort to recover MQ-9 debris,” Ryder said during a briefing at the Pentagon on March 16. “We assess it is very unlikely they would be able to recover anything useful.”

However, the U.S. objects to any Russian exploitation of the wreckage.

“The key point here is this is U.S. property and it’s an intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance asset,” Ryder said. “We have capabilities and means at our disposal to protect and safeguard the information which we have taken.”

The U.S. has experienced several near collisions between Russian and Chinese jets and American surveillance planes over the past year. U.S. officials say they are within rights to conduct operations in international airspace, regardless of protests and adversarial harassment.

“The United States will continue to fly and to operate wherever international law allows,” Austin said.

This article was updated with comments from Pentagon Press Secretary Brig. Gen. Patrick S. Ryder.

How Do You Train for a War in Space? Saltzman Says USSF Is Working on the Details

How Do You Train for a War in Space? Saltzman Says USSF Is Working on the Details

March 15, 2023 | By Chris Gordon

The Space Force increasingly views space as a contested environment it might have to battle through due to China’s increasing capabilities. But that does not mean the service is unprepared if it had to fight tonight, according to Chief of Space Operations Gen. B. Chance Saltzman.

“That’s why we have the Space Force,” Saltzman said March 15 at the annual defense conference hosted by McAleese and Associates. “In terms of China, we are not lagging behind. If you were conducting a wargame, and you were picking which space force in the world you want on your side, you would pick the United States Space Force. We have the greatest capabilities, we have the most capable force—the envy of the world.”

While China may not have a space force, the People’s Liberation Army stood up the Strategic Support Force (SSF) in 2015. This newest part of China’s armed forces focuses on the “strategic frontiers” of space and cyber, including electromagnetic and information warfare—as well as disrupting adversaries’ capabilities in the same domains.

In light of new threats, most acutely from China, the USSF has moved with urgency. Its fiscal 2024 budget request proposes growing the budget by 15 percent to $30 billion and expanding to 9,400 Active Guardians. The service wants to rapidly put new satellites in orbit, with some going from development to orbit in two or three years. The Space Force also wants to rely more on commercial capabilities, which may be preexisting and can provide a layer of redundancy.

In the 2024 budget, the service hopes to invest in its missile warning systems, update the global positioning system, and launch new vehicles. It would also spend over half its budget, $16.6 billion, on research, development, test, and evaluation. Exactly what that money is for is largely unknown to the general public.

“I struggle a little bit with how to describe the space budget because so much of it is classified,” DOD comptroller Michael J. McCord said. “We have progress on a number of fronts there.”

But Saltzman said the Space Force’s push for readiness is not just a race to acquire more kit to put in orbit.

“When we talk about a gap, what I’m worried about is we’re out in front of the race,” Saltzman said. “But how fast is the competition closing on? How fast do they want to close the gap that they see? And it’s that pace, and it’s the mix of the weapon systems that they’re pursuing. That’s what’s got us concerned. So we’re looking back and saying, what do we need to do next to make sure that we can counter our competition.”

Saltzman’s answer is one typically offered by service chiefs: the U.S. has the best people. In particular, Saltzman highlighted unique aspects of the Space Force’s “flat” organization that streamline command and the ability to commission industry professionals as officers in the service.

But to get as much as possible out of Guardians, the Space Force needs to up its training—Saltzman has noted that there has never been a war in space, and how the Space Force would train for one is still up in the air.

“We’re still working through all the details,” Saltzman said. “It wasn’t prioritized to the same degree about thinking about a contested domain. Now, we are prioritizing that, obviously. But I don’t have the training facilities and infrastructure that allows us to do the kinds of simulations and training that I need.”

The Air Force can fly training missions and drop live ordinance and other services can practice on Earth. But the Space Force must create virtual environments in lieu of traditional exercises. Saltzman said current simulators at the USSF’s disposal are focused on ensuring service members are proficient with systems.

“It’s about how fast we can shift and pivot to resilient architectures that we think will support deterrence and how fast I can provide the tools to our Guardians to do the kind of training they need to be ready to deal with a dynamic thinking adversary,” Saltzman said.

While much of its focus on protecting its satellites, USSF won’t be doing its own live-fire exercises to test our their resilience—though it is concerned about other nations’ anti-satellite weapons tests.

“We’re expanding our capabilities to do constructive virtual training and ranges so that we can conduct those kinds of events,” Saltzman said.

Overall, a Space Force prepared for a fight with China will allow it to deliver better capabilities in peacetime or during a grey zone conflict, according to Saltzman.

“There’s not some day in the future, where X, Y, and Z are accomplished and I will say, we are now ready,” Saltzman said. “If something goes down, the Space Force is going to be there.”