‘Electric Air Taxis’ To Begin Testing at Edwards AFB By March ’24

April 26, 2023 | By Greg Hadley

“Electric air taxis” are coming to Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., early next year. The Air Force and Joby Aviation announced a deal April 25 through USAF’s Agility Prime program for rapid acquisition.

Air Force pilots took command of a Joby electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft for the first time earlier this week, remotely piloting the five-seat airframe through its full flight envelope at the company’s Marina, Calif., facility.

The experience was the first step in USAF’s commitment to receive by March 2024 two aircraft and to begin testing them at Edwards, the first time Agility Prime has been used to acquire an aircraft.

Releases from both the Air Force Research Laboratory and Joby Aviation noted the contract extension—now valued at up to $131 million—includes options for up to nine aircraft. An AFRL spokesman told Air & Space Forces Magazine those aircraft could be delivered to other government agencies and no locations besides Edwards for the first two have been decided on.

Joby’s aircraft has five seats, but none of the testing so far, including the Air Force-controlled flights, included passengers. An AFRL spokesman said there are future plans to have pilots and passengers on board the aircraft at Edwards.

At Edwards, the Air Force will work with both Joby and NASA as part of a larger effort to develop Advanced Air Mobility. The AFRL spokesman said the organizations will work on the infrastructure necessary to maintain and operate electric aircraft. The Air Force in particular will study the aircraft’s potential use for “short-to-mid range cargo operations at low operating costs and just-in-time delivery constructs,” the spokesman said.

Additionally, the aircraft could support operations at Edwards’ test ranges, transporting personnel around the 470-square mile base, the spokesman said.

Electric vertical takeoff and landing could be of interest to the Air Force as it looks to reduce its carbon emissions and ensure it can deliver vital equipment and material through the “last tactical mile.”

The Air Force has been pursuing Agility Prime under its AFWERX innovation arm since April 2020. In that time, the service has awarded hundreds of contracts to stimulate development in the eVTOL industry, which has seen intense commercial and government interest as of late.

Joby has been involved in the program for years now, and in 2022, the company scored a high-altitude mark of more than 11,000 feet and a speed of more than 200 miles per hour. It is looking to start a commercial “air taxi” service starting in 2025.

Heading into 2023, Lt. Col. Thomas Meagher, AFWERX Prime division chief, told Air & Space Forces Magazine his focus was on getting more of the aircraft into the hands of Air Force testers and incorporated into exercises when possible.

The Joby S4 is a five-seat electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft. AFWERX Agility Prime announced April 25, 2023, that it has entered into a third extension of its Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase III contract with Joby. The extension enables options for Joby to deliver up to nine of its low acoustic signature, zero-operating emissions S4 aircraft to the Air Force and other government partners. The first two Joby aircraft will be delivered to Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., before March 2024. Courtesy photo

DOD Digs In: F-16s Not a Priority for Ukraine, Despite Russian Airpower

April 26, 2023 | By Greg Hadley

The Pentagon’s top civilian and military leaders for Europe reiterated to Congress that providing modern Western fighter jets like the F-16 to Ukraine is not an immediate priority for the Department of Defense—even as they warned that Russia’s air force remains a serious threat to the region.

Testifying to the House Armed Services Committee on April 26, Gen. Christopher Cavoli, head of U.S. European Command, and Dr. Celeste Wallander, assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs, held firm on DOD’s stance that the U.S. needs to prioritize Ukraine’s most urgent needs in its fight against Russia, and those needs don’t include advanced airpower.

“Our focus has been on … Ukrainian priorities for the fight, and aircraft, while on the list, Western modern aircraft is about eighth on the list,” Wallander said. “And so we have focused with resources on the highest priority capabilities, and that has been air defense, artillery, and armor.”

Wallander also argued that the time it would take to deliver Western fourth-generation fighters and train the Ukrainians on them would be too long for their current fight, an argument other Pentagon officials have also made.

Instead, Wallender and Cavoli touted the recent transfer of Soviet-era fighters from Slovakia and Poland to Ukraine, saying those jets could be quickly integrated into operations.

“Legacy Soviet aircraft have been helpful to the Ukrainians because their pilots are trained on those aircraft, they know how to use them, they know how to maintain them,” Wallander said.

Cavoli also seemed to indicate Ukraine doesn’t need F-16s to deny Russia air superiority.

“In the near term and into the mid-term, what Ukraine really needs to do is control the airspace over its country and over its forces,” Cavoli said. “And they’ve been doing that very effectively with ground-based air defense. So that’s the thing that’s most imperative right now, and it’s been very well served by ground-based air defense.”

Rep. Chrissy Houlahan (D-Penn.), an Air Force veteran, pushed back, noting that the conflict in Ukraine has lasted far longer than expected and shows no sign of letting up—while the question of F-16s has been debated for months now.

“The Congress has at least been asking that question officially since last April. So it’s been more than a year,” Houlahan said. “And I understand that these timelines are long, and it’s very expensive and prioritization, but we have no indication necessarily that this is going to abate anytime soon. And so it just feels as though it’s still an appropriate conversation to continue to ask and to continue to have.”

Russian Air Force

Wallander cautioned against dismissing the Russian Air Force. When Rep. Mike Waltz (R-Fla.) argued the damage done to Russia’s forces in Ukraine has been such that other NATO allies would be able to handle any Russian aggression, Wallander disagreed.

“I don’t think I would agree with you, with respect, Congressman, because Russia still retains strategic capabilities, an Air Force, cyber,” Wallander said.

“Its Air Force can’t establish air superiority in Ukraine,” Waltz replied. “I can’t imagine it establishing air superiority in Poland.”

“We should not make the mistake of underestimating Russia’s military capabilities, because the stakes of getting it wrong are too high,” Wallender said.

Cavoli echoed that point late in the hearing, as he described jhow Russia has been able to wield power in Europe through energy supplies, cyberattacks, and even conventional forces.

“The Russian ground force has been degenerated somewhat by this conflict—although it is bigger today than it was at the beginning of the conflict,” Cavoli noted. “The air force has lost very little. They’ve lost 80 planes. They have another 1,000 fighters and fighter bombers. The Navy has lost one ship. So they still use all of that conventional power as well, and they mix them all together.”

14 Airmen Become US Citizens in New Basic Training Naturalization Process

April 26, 2023 | By David Roza

They came from four continents and 10 countries, but by the end of the day on April 26, 14 men and women had two things in common: they were all Airmen, and they were all U.S. citizens.

The 14 individuals were the first to complete a new streamlined naturalization process which makes it easier for recruits to become citizens. The process is one of several efforts the Air Force is pursuing to help drive recruitment at a time where low unemployment and decreasing propensity to serve have most military services predicting a recruiting shortfall this year. The Air Force in particular anticipates it will come up 10 percent short on the Active Duty side, with a greater gap in the Guard and Reserve forces.

“What we have concluded is that there are multiple areas where we need to adapt and improve performance by single or double-digit percentage points,” Maj. Gen. Ed Thomas, commander of the Air Force Recruiting Service, said in March. “We will continue to take a hard look at ourselves and leave no reasonable option off the table.”

One of those areas is making it easier for recruits to naturalize as U.S. citizens while joining the military.

“We have people who are here, who aren’t citizens yet but are willing to serve and die for this country,” Vice Chief of Staff Gen. David W. Allvin previously told Air & Space Forces Magazine. “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.”

A press release said the Air Force worked with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to reimplement the program in March. Policy changes in 2017 meant that lawful permanent residents had to complete a background investigation before entering the service, whereas before that change, lawful permanent residents could ship to initial military training as long as their background investigation had begun and they had cleared all other screening requirements.

After the 2017 change, foreign nationals also had to complete initial military training requirements and at least 180 days of consecutive Active Duty service or one year of reserve service before they could receive a certification of honorable service for the purposes of expedited citizenship. Previously, foreign nationals could receive that certification after “one day of service,” according to a 2017 press release.

The new Naturalization at Basic Training Initiative seeks to make it easier for recruits to become citizens. Recruiters help by making sure trainees bring all the necessary documents with them to Basic Military Training. When they arrive at BMT, recruits can scan a QR code to create an online Citizenship and Immigration Services account to start their application. They can also consult a study guide in preparation for the test and virtual interview they must pass before earning citizenship.

The 14 Airmen who were formally recognized as citizens at their BMT graduation on April 26 had completed all their paperwork during the previous seven and a half weeks of BMT, but Airmen who do not complete the naturalization process at BMT can continue the process at technical school or their first assignment.

“Their desire to become citizens exemplifies their commitment and dedication to the United States,” Col. John P. O’Dell, vice commander of the 37th Training Wing, where the 14 new Airmen underwent basic training, said in a press release. “These trainees volunteered to serve a country they aren’t yet citizens of and now we get to formally recognize them upon their graduation as American Airmen.”

One of them is Airman 1st Class Natalia Laziuk, a 31-year-old from Russia who dreamt of becoming a U.S. citizen since she was 11.

“I will always be grateful for every opportunity I have here in the best country of the world,” she said.

The other countries represented included Turkey, Mexico, Côte d’Ivoire, Jamaica, Philippines, Cameroon, Kenya, El Salvador, and South Africa.

Pentagon Needs to Do Better Job of Tracking Wargames, Report Finds

April 25, 2023 | By Chris Gordon

The U.S. military relies on wargames to help inform its strategy, tactics, and requirements. But a new report from the Government Accountability Office sees some flaws, including Department of Defense efforts that are chronically stovepiped.

“GAO found that there are barriers to accessing wargame data, information on upcoming wargames is not shared, and the services have not developed standard education and qualifications for wargamers,” the report, released April 24, stated.

The report drew on the interviews with DOD officials, in addition to the oversight body’s research and analysis. After reviewing the critique, the Pentagon agreed with the GAO’s recommendations.

The DOD began a push to increase and improve its wargaming in 2015 under then deputy secretary of defense Robert Work, who wrote in a memo at the time that the ability of the U.S. military to conduct wargames had “atrophied.”

Today, a broad array of commands and organizations conduct simulations internally or in collaborations with outside entities. The Pentagon’s Office of Net Assessment and the Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation office, the Joint Staff, services, combatant commands, and other organizations all conduct wargames for their own strategic, tactical, or educational purposes.

Yet the Pentagon does not have a full understanding of the scope of the myriad wargaming efforts, according to the GAO. Compounding the problem, there are numerous obstacles to sharing information across the department on what wargames are concluding and how they are being conducted.

“In the absence of a department-wide data management approach, barriers to accessing wargame reports and other information remain—results are left completely unrecorded or unshared within organizational stovepipes,” the GAO said. “As a result, wargame sponsors or designers do not have the benefit of consulting a comprehensive database of wargames prior to pursuing their own, losing opportunities to learn from others and leverage earlier work.”

To remedy the problem, GAO said the Pentagon needs an office to monitor and account for the military’s wargames. The department should also “identify a lead organization to create and maintain a common operational picture or master calendar for wargames,” the report states. And those conducting the wargames should be required to provide that information.

Some security experts who have participated in wargames agreed there should be more transparency within the DOD, especially when the conclusions are used to drive important decision-making.

“If we’re going to hear about tidbits from games, it would be good if the games themselves had some explanation,” Eric Heginbotham of MIT’s Center for International Studies told Air & Space Forces Magazine. “So there’s a public component to this. But even within DOD, there’s a big problem in terms of just collecting and making available even within the community the results—everything from game structure to rules to outcomes and lessons learned.”

One possible solution would be to broaden the mandate of a relatively new DOD unit, the Analysis Working Group—the AWG was created in 2021 to guide the Pentagon’s analytic capabilities, including wargames.

One GAO recommendation in particular proposed the Secretary of Defense “should ensure the Analysis Working Group develops and implements a department-wide approach for effectively sharing wargame data that, at a minimum, establishes requirements or standards for reporting wargame data and addresses the fragmentation of data across multiple systems.”

Some wargame designers also said the DOD should understand the limits of what can be learned from wargames, which are ultimately human endeavors subject to practical constraints, such as participants’ time, resources, subject matter knowledge, and individual biases.

Becca Wasser, the head of the Center for a New American Security’s Gaming Lab, said that the Defense Department should be cautious in relying on wargames alone to advocate for particular operational concepts or capabilities.

“Part of this is also always pairing game results with additional research,” she said. “It is a human-centric tool of analysis,” Wasser added. “What one participant might see as the takeaways and lessons learned are different than what another participant sees.”

Retired Lt. Gen. David A. Deptula, dean of the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies, welcomed additional scrutiny of wargaming.

“An evaluation of just how wargaming and simulations are done is certainly warranted because many people place a lot of emphasis on their outcome,” he said.

“They should be used to inform, guide, and familiarize the participants with respect to a particular situation,” Deptula added. “But we have to be very careful about drawing conclusions, particularly from single wargame events, because there are so many assumptions that go into a particular wargame, even the most sophisticated and complex.”

USAFE Moves Air Guard and Reserve Tanker Mission to Poland

April 25, 2023 | By David Roza

Air National Guard and U.S. Air Force Reserve tankers that deploy to Europe will now operate primarily from Powidz Air Base, Poland, the latest effort to bolster the Air Force’s presence in eastern Europe and reassure NATO allies in the region.

The shift from Spangdahlem Air Base, Germany, to Poland is a part of Copper Arrow, a U.S. Air Forces in Europe operation that uses tankers and Airmen from U.S.-based Guard and Reserve units who volunteer to deploy to Europe to support operations throughout the continent.

“These CONUS-based tankers travel with Air Reserve Component members who voluntarily commit to rotations in the European [area of responsibility],” Col. Gary Dodge, Air National Guard advisor to the commander of USAFE-AFAFRICA, said in an April 20 press release. “As non-Active Duty servicemembers, they voluntarily support this endeavor while spending time away from their civilian careers and their families.”

Earlier this month, Air Force Reserve Command’s 931st Air Refueling Wing flew KC-46 tankers out of their home station of McConnell Air Force Base, Kansas to Powidz. From there, they integrated with Finnish Air Force F/A-18s, which officials said demonstrates how closely U.S. Airmen can integrate with partner air forces.

“Our U.S. tankers’ interaction and integration with our NATO Allies are a clear demonstration of how we value our partnerships and the importance of enhancing our interoperability,” Col. Timothy Foery, U.S. Air Force Reserve Advisor to the commander of USAFE-AFAFRICA, said in the press release.

“Look at any image of a KC-135 refueling a Polish F-16 or a KC-46 refueling a Finnish F/A-18, and you immediately understand what we mean by the word ‘interoperability,’” he added.

air guard — A U.S. KC-135 Stratotanker from the 186th Air Refueling Wing, part of the Mississippi Air National Guard, refuels Polish F-16s from Powidz Air Base, Poland, as part of the U.S. Air Force total force exercise, Copper Arrow. Courtesy photo.

In the coming months, 19 different U.S.-based tanker units will also participate in Copper Arrow. Reserve and Guard units help relieve pressure on the RAF Mildenhall-based 100th Air Refueling Wing, the only tanker unit in USAFE. It is also an opportunity for Total Force crews to gain experience operating far from home.

“From a Guard perspective, it’s an opportunity for crews to operate in the European theater for an extended period of time,” Maj. Shay Dickey said about Copper Arrow in 2021. At the time, Dickey was chief of current operations and scheduling for the 116th Air Refueling Squadron and Copper Arrow detachment commander.

“The operating area here is pretty busy, so our younger crews can get some of that experience working in a new region, and it really broadens our horizons for future work in the European theater,” he said.

More than a year after Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Copper Arrow moving to Poland is also part of a larger NATO effort to deter Russian advances in eastern Europe.

“For the first time in history, U.S. forces will be permanently stationed on the eastern flank of Europe, in Poland,” Mark Brzezinski, U.S. Ambassador to Poland, said in the press release.

Referencing Tadeusz Kościuszko and General Casimir Pulaski, two Polish soldiers who fought against the British in the American Revolutionary War, Brzezinski said the 10,000-plus U.S. Airmen and Soldiers on Polish bases today are the latest examples in a nearly 300-year tradition of Polish-American military cooperation.

“Americans have sacrificed for Polish freedom and Poles have sacrificed for American freedom,” he said. “Today, America and Poland share the same freedoms.”

LRSO Stealth Nuclear Missile On Track for Production Decision in 2027

April 25, 2023 | By John A. Tirpak

The Raytheon AGM-181 Long-Range Standoff missile is on track for a production decision in 2027, having passed its critical design review in March, according to Air Force budget documents.

Justifications for the fiscal year 2024 budget request show that LRSO’s low-rate initial production waypoint—referred to as Milestone C—is set for the third quarter of 2027, when there’s a major shift in planned spending from research, development, test, and evaluation to procurement.

The LRSO’s critical design review—which set the near-final design of the stealthy nuclear missile—narrowly met the program’s projected timeline finishing up in the final few days of February and the early days of March this year. Senior Air Force officials, speaking at the midpoint of the CDR process, predicted no significant issues after its conclusion.

Gen. Duke Richardson, head of Air Force Materiel Command, has said he expects “big bang” design reviews will give way to “rolling” events, made possible by digital design and development, wherein all stakeholders can see the design as it is at any given time.

The LRSO, being developed in secrecy, will succeed the 1980s-vintage AGM-86B Air-Launched Cruise Missile (ALCM), which is being phased out after undergoing several life extension programs. It has even outlasted its previous planned complement/successor, the stealthy AGM-129, which was retired as a cost-saving move in 2012.

President Joe Biden’s administration confirmed the need for LRSO in its Nuclear Posture Review last year, despite previous speculation that it might cancel the program.

Indeed, procurement funding for LRSO ramps steadily upward over the next five years, with a particularly huge increase in fiscal 2027. Air Force budget documents show planned requests of $67 million in 2024, $135.2 million in 2025, and $295.1 million in 2026, before funding balloons to $1.01 billion in 2027. Fiscal 2028 procurement is projected to be $1.7 billion, with another $6.5 billion expected after that through the life of the program.

Conversely, RDT&E funding profile for LRSO peaked in fiscal 2023 at $928.9 million and is slated for a steady decline over the next four years, with $911.4 million in 2024, $704.9 million in 2025, and $600.5 million in 2026. Research funding then plummets to $287.8 million in 2027, with just $76.4 million planned in 2028 and no more monies planned after that.

Gen. Anthony Cotton, head of U.S. Strategic Command, told the Senate Armed Services Committee in March that he was “quite pleased” with the Air Force’s progress on LRSO. At the same time, Cotton also said the ALCM, carried exclusively by the B-52H, is “still a reliable, safe, and secure weapon,” but warned that it is past its projected service life and must be replaced.

The Air Force is planning on an average of about $32 million per year in ALCM procurement funding through 2028, with less than two years funded after that, suggesting an initial operational capability date for LRSO of about 2029-2030.

Raytheon won the contract to build LRSO in July 2021, beating out Lockheed Martin.

The LRSO will initially equip the B-52J but will also be integrated on the stealthy new B-21 Raider bomber. The ALCM was never fitted to the B-2.

Little has been revealed about the LRSO, such as its range and speed, but the Air Force has said it plans to build 1,087 of the missiles, of which some 67 would be used in the development phase. Initially expected to cost about $10 million each, the most recent estimate is that LRSO will cost $13 million each. The Air Force has also said the missile will not be hypersonic.

In its budget justifications, the Air Force said fiscal year 2024 activities for LRSO will include verifying and maturing the design and planning for “manufacturing maturation.” Former AFMC commander Gen. Arnold Bunch reported that the technology maturation and risk reduction phase was extended to work on design elements that would reduce the LRSO’s cost of production and ownership and make it more reliable.

Other activities in FY24 include working with the Director of Operational Test and Evaluation on a test plan for the LRSO and completing B-52 flight envelope testing and “Control Test Vehicle flight testing,” according to the budget justifications. The program will also be working on development of “carriage and launcher equipment, trainers, test equipment and support equipment.”

The Air Force is also wants to ensure it owns the underlying technical baseline of the program. This involves establishing a digital engineering system including a supporting environment and infrastructure to perform digital activities and collaborate with and communicate across stakeholders.

Additionally, work is underway with the Department of Energy, on designing, developing and testing the LRSO’s nuclear warhead, integrating it with the missile, and planning for nuclear certification activities.

New ‘Power Projection Wing’ to Replace A-10s at Davis-Monthan

April 25, 2023 | By Greg Hadley

The Air Force plans to put a new Special Operations power projection wing at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Ariz., replacing A-10s that have been there for years, service and Congressional officials told Air & Space Forces Magazine.

The base is also slated to receive new EC-37 Compass Call electronic warfare aircraft and HH-60W Jolly Green II helicopters as upgrades for its other missions. EC-130Hs and HH-60Gs are currently based at Davis-Monthan.

Details of the Air Force’s plans for the base over the next five years were shared with members of Arizona’s Congressional delegation in a briefing several weeks ago. After years of fighting over the future of the base’s A-10 “Warthogs,” there now appears to be consensus that the Air Force can retire the aircraft, a Congressional source said.

As recently as two years ago, Congress shot down Air Force plans to retire 42 A-10s. But this year Congress is letting the Air Force cut 21 of the beloved close air support jets from the Indiana Air National Guard, and as Congress starts work on the 2024 National Defense Authorization bill, Sens. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) and Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.), along with Reps. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) and Juan Ciscomani (R-Ariz.), released a joint letter saying they were “encouraged by the Air Force’s intention to bring new, durable flying missions” to Davis-Monthan.

Air Force spokeswoman Sarah Fiocco told Air & Space Forces Magazine that details of that mission are still in the works. The emphasis on “durability,” though, is revealing. Two years ago, the Air Force plan to replace Davis-Monthan’s A-10s centered on transferring weapons schools and test squadrons for the A-10 and HH-60G from Nellis Air Force Base, Nev. Neither of those aircraft are in the Air Force’s long-term plans.

Air Force budget documents indicate plans to establish a new 492nd Power Projection Wing at Davis-Monthan, and Fiocco confirmed that the wing will be under Air Force Special Operations Command.

But just what a power projection wing is remains unclear. No other such wings exist today. Fiocco said it will be a “special operations unit based in the U.S. that can be sent anywhere.”

AFSOC’s 492nd Special Operations Wing is now based at Hurlburt Field, Fla., where it is responsible for training and education programs. Fiocco couldn’t say whether the 492nd Power Projection Wing would replace the Hurlburt wing.

In their letter, members of Arizona’s Congressional delegation wrote that the Air Force indicated “there will be nearly the same number of airmen and civilians employed at the base” in five years’ time. Fiocco confirmed the Air Force expects the base population to return to roughly 9,600 personnel once the new wing is in place.

But while the lawmakers offered support for the Air Force’s plans, they also asked Secretary Frank Kendall to expand to brief more local officials and organizations—something Kendall did during an April 17 visit, according to images posted by the Air Force and Kelly’s office.

The lawmakers also noted in their letter that the timeline laid out by the Air Force is “ambitious” and asked to be kept informed on progress.

Work on the transition has already begun—a Site Activation Task Force has convened, Kelly’s office confirmed to Air & Space Forces Magazine. The Air Force is seeking $5 million in the fiscal 2024 budget for an Environmental Impact study and an Area Development Plan for the 492nd Power Projection Wing.

Meanwhile, Air Force leaders seem increasingly confident that they will be able to retire the A-10 completely in the coming years. Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. has said the service is removing the A-10 from its “4+1” fighter plan and hopes to have every Warthog divested by 2029.

Kadena Receives More F-15Es as Eagles Set to Leave By September

April 24, 2023 | By Chris Gordon

The Air Force’s overhaul of Kadena Air Base, Japan, took yet another step with the arrival of more F-15E Strike Eagles to replace the aging F-15C/Ds at the base. According to a service spokesperson, the Air Force plans to send all F-15Cs at Kadena back to the U.S. by September, replaced by rotational forces of newer aircraft as part of plans first announced in October 2022.

On April 22, F-15Es from the 391st Fighter Squadron at Mountain Home Air Force Base, Idaho landed at Kadena, the Air Force said. According to a news release from Kadena’s 18th Wing, the aircraft will operate alongside F-15Es that arrived earlier this month from Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, N.C., as well as fifth-generation F-35 Lightning IIs from Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska that arrived in late March.

The Air Force has sent 18 F-15Cs back to the continental United States from Kadena since the service announced plans to wind down operations there, according to Air Force spokeswoman Ann Stefanek. Four of those aircraft have been retired, she added. Before the drawdown, Kadena had around 48 permanently based Eagles in two squadrons.

“The Air Force plans to divest the remaining F-15Cs from Kadena in FY23,” Stefanek said, referring to fiscal 2023, which ends in September. It was not immediately clear if the same timeline applied to the remaining two-seat F-15D models at the base, one of which the head of Pacific Air Forces, Gen. Kenneth S. Wilsbach, recently flew in.

Lt. Gen. Richard G. Moore, Jr., deputy chief of staff for plans and programs, told the House Armed Services Committee in March that of Kadena’s Eagles, there are “three that are grounded forever and four that can only that are only capable of one-time flight to the Boneyard.” The Air Force previously said the Eagles from Kadena would either be retired or enter Air National Guard service. Kadena’s Eagle operations date back to the late 1970s.

As for the recently arrived Strike Eagles, a spokesperson for Mountain Home said the base sent aircraft and Airmen from the 391st Fighter Squadron along with Airmen from its associated maintenance support group, the 391st Fighter Generation Squadron. The spokesperson did not say how many aircraft deployed. The Air Force has previously declined to specify exactly how many jets are deploying to Kadena under each rotation, citing operational security.

“As the 18th Wing continues the phased return of Kadena’s fleet of Eagles, the Department of Defense will maintain a steady-state fighter presence in the region by temporarily deploying newer and more advanced aircraft to backfill the F-15s as they retrograde,” Kadena said in its release.

The F-15Es and F-35s replaced F-22 Raptors from Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska and F-16 Fighting Falcons from Spangdahlem Air Force Base, Germany, the first two sets of aircraft to begin the rotational presence at Kadena in place of permanent squadrons.

The Air Force is removing Kadena’s F-15C/D Eagles, the last of the type on the Active-Duty fleet, due to their age and airworthiness. Long-term plans for the base have yet to be announced.

“Between our permanent party Airmen and our deployed forces, we are well postured to deter, deny, and if necessary, defeat any threat to regional stability and the U.S. homeland,” said 18th Wing commander Brig. Gen. David S. Eaglin. “The robust combat capability here on the Kadena flightline serves as a powerful deterrent to potential adversaries and offers unique integration opportunities with our allies and partners.”

Kadena, on the southern Japanese island of Okinawa, is an important strategic location for the U.S. military, lying some 450 miles from the possible flashpoint of Taiwan, the self-governing island that the Chinese government claims. The top U.S. commander for the Indo-Pacific said recently he does not favor reducing the number of aircraft deployed within the so-called First Island Chain, a strip of islands in the western Pacific close to the Asian mainland, including China, America’s “pacing challenge.”

“As we align and execute the National Defense Strategy, the positioning of those forces certainly would be beneficial to be maintained,” Adm. John C. Aquilino, the head of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command (INDOPACOM), told the House Armed Services Committee on April 18 said when asked about the Air Force’s presence in the Pacific. “Inside of the first island chain … I have supported those forces to remain in place and/or be replaced by equivalent capability and numbers.”

SASC Chair Says There’s Bipartisan Support to Build Up Munitions Production

April 24, 2023 | By John A. Tirpak

Senate Armed Services Committee chair Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) thinks there will be strong bipartisan support—both in the Armed Services and Appropriations committees—to increase production of munitions and build up the defense industrial base.

Speaking in a webcast with the Center for New American Security, Reed said the fiscal year 2023 National Defense Authorization Act took steps to provide for multiyear procurement of munitions, which signaled to industry that “we’re in it for the long term; that they can be confident of having a demand so they can adequately staff and…supply their industries and produce these weapons systems” economically.

Expect similar moves in the 2024 NDAA, Reed suggested. Committees in both houses are “looking very, very closely during this NDAA at what other steps we can take to enhance the nation’s … industrial base,” he said.

However, while there’s bipartisan support for increased military spending, some Republicans on Capitol Hill have called for cutting the government’s overall budget back to fiscal 2022 levels, with the cuts coming entirely from non-defense spending.

Reed criticized that approach, noting that in the past several years, Congress has come together in a bipartisan way to boost defense spending and provide for the services’ unfunded priorities lists.

“We were able to reach a number that was satisfactory, and also did not punish domestic spending,” Reed said. Cutting “valuable programs for non-defense … [is] going to cause a tremendous controversy, to be polite.”

Still, the worst possible outcome, Reed suggested, would be a continuing resolution, under which spending levels are frozen at the previous year’s level and new starts are halted.

“That has been strenuously voiced to us by every commander that’s come before the panel,” he said.

Surge Production

The need for more robust weapons production has been highlighted by Ukraine’s war against Russia and the U.S.’s diminishing stockpiles as it gives hundreds of millions of dollars worth of munitions to the Ukrainians.

However, surging production has proven to be a challenge, and Reed argued the U.S. lost that surge capability during the advent of the AirLand Battle concept, in which it was assumed that conflicts would be “a very short-term effort because of precision weapons; because our ability to overwhelm and control the sky.”

“The concept was that we didn’t need that elaborate defense industrial base [and] munitions because these [would be] very swift victories,” Reed said.

The conflict in Ukraine, however, has resulted in “a huge volume of munitions consumed by both sides,” and as a result, the U.S. must reconsider its plans and invest in production capacity, Reed said.

Such industrial base initiatives will receive “support throughout the Congress on a bipartisan basis … to reinvigorate our industrial base for military procurement. It makes quite a bit of sense,” Reed added.

In addition to increased capacity, Reed also said Congress and the Pentagon should look to invest in and develop new technologies and get rid of those that are no longer useful.

“That’s a significant aspect of deterrence,” he said. The U.S. has to make “hard choices” about “not only what new systems to invest in, but what systems are not particularly capable to engage in this new type of warfare.”

He said the Navy’s Littoral Combat Ship is emblematic of the situation. Expectations that the Navy would be more involved in “brown water operations” in the future have been pushed aside by the need to compete with the Chinese navy in “blue water” scenarios, Reed said. The LCS is “no longer relevant” to the likely fight, and the Navy must change tack.

Support for Allies

In addition to investing in the industrial base, Reed also advocated for reforming the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) rules and the Foreign Military Sales process.

Allies are waiting too long to get weapons they need to partner with the U.S., and potential allies can turn to China, which can supply weapons much faster, though of an inferior quality, Reed said. Relaxing regulations will also help the industrial base by increasing the volume of certain munitions produced.

For Ukraine in particular, Reed cited air defense systems as a top need. Noting the pending arrival of dozens of Western battle tanks, Reed said air defenses will be their backstop.

Ukraine has been “shooting down the vast majority of the incoming missiles as well as the drones that Russia has been using,” Reed said. And while they have been less successful shooting down hypersonic missiles, “they’ve done a really effective job, using a patchwork of systems from a lot of different countries.