Space Force Looks to Build Ties with More Combatant Commands—Like CYBERCOM and SOCOM

April 5, 2023 | By David Roza

Three years after its initial launch, the Space Force is increasing its integration with the joint force by building relationships and standing up components within more and more U.S. combatant commands, top generals said April 5 at the Mitchell Institute’s Spacepower Security Forum.

Already, the service established components under U.S. Central Command, U.S. Indo-Pacific Command and its subcomponent, U.S. Forces Korea, late last year. Now, leaders are working to establish a component within U.S. European Command—and U.S. Cyber Command and U.S. Special Operations Command could potentially follow.

Lt. Gen. DeAnna M. Burt, the deputy chief of space operations for operations, cyber, and nuclear, said these steps are part of the Space Force’s process of “normalizing” as a service.

“Every service presents service components to combatant commanders in order to present forces, to be part of the planning, and to deal with that service’s very specific mission and business and to talk to those threats,” Burt said in a panel discussion.

When the Space Force has a presence at combatant commands, it allows Guardians “to do security assistance and security operation, and talk space with our coalition and allied partners by being at the table in all of those meetings with the combatant commands in each of the theaters,” Burt said.

Chief of Space Operations Gen. B. Chance Saltzman made a similar point in an earlier keynote.

“Strong relationships with combatant commands are critical to our success,” he said. “We will use the service component model to strengthen space integration in all the combatant commands.”

In particular, the Space Force enjoys a “very tight relationship” with both SOCOM and CYBERCOM, Burt said. Those ties are only natural, given how much space, cyber, and special operations depend on each other, suggested Maj. Gen. David N. Miller, director of operations training and force development at U.S. Space Command.

“It’d be a disservice for the Space Force to only talk with the Space Force,” Miller said in a separate panel. “I spend more time with the CYBERCOM and SOCOM J3s [operations than almost any other J3 … and it’s because of the partnerships that are being developed.”

Burt said a Space Force presence at EUCOM is “on the horizon” and that both CYBERCOM and SOCOM were also interested, “so we’re working through the mission analysis of what those look like.”

However, she also cautioned the small Space Force has to be strategic about its growth plan.

“I can’t grow to the point that I can’t execute,” she said. “And so I want to make sure that we have the right resources, we’re getting them the right personnel, we have all the right players in the right places to do the mission.”

Burt likened the task to changing the engine out of a car while driving it. The Space Force “had to keep delivering space capabilities, because the entire joint force and our way of life depends upon it. … Adding these components is now taking us to the next level to deepen that relationship with each of the combatant commands personally and get after their specific problems or challenges in each of their [areas of responsibility].”

Gen. Michael E. Kurilla, the head of CENTCOM, voiced a similar opinion when the Space Force stood up a component there late last year.

“Space underpins every element of warfighting in the CENTCOM region,” he said in a press release at the time. “Today’s ceremony catches us up to the reality of history: since the Cold War, space has ceased to be a sanctuary. It is no longer solely the realm of progress and peace. Space is now a domain of conquest, conflict, and—for us—cooperation.”

Lockheed Martin Looks to Boost LRASM Production as US Rushes to Buy Anti-Ship Weapons

April 4, 2023 | By Chris Gordon

Lockheed Martin has opened a second production line to make two of the Pentagon’s most in-demand weapons: the LRASM anti-ship cruise missile and the JASSM-ER air-to-surface variant.

Wargames have shown the utility of the missiles in countering a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. The problem is that the simulations also show that the stocks of AGM-158C LRASM and JASSM-ER from which it is adapted would be quickly expended in a conflict, putting pressure on the services to boost their modest inventories.

“I think one of the most glaring gaps in our portfolio is anti-ship weapons, especially air-launched ones, and LRASMs are particularly important since it gives you the ability to attack from standoff,” Stacie Pettyjohn, director of the defense program at the Center for a New American Security, told Air & Space Forces Magazine.

“For several decades, we got out of the ship-killing business,” Pettyjohn added. “You actually do have to invest resources in it.”

Department of Defense documents outlining its latest budget request stressed that its goal is to “maximize” its procurement of LRASM.

Right now, Lockheed Martin is producing north of 500 LRASMs and JASSMs a year for the U.S. military, and the defense giant says it is working to increase its current capacity so that it can produce roughly 1,000 LRASMs and JASSMs per year. To do so, the new Lockheed Martin facility has increased automation and made other improvements compared with the original production line, both of which are located in Troy, Ala.

“We were able to quickly bring the production line up to speed in order to meet the orders we’ve committed to our U.S. military partners,” Dom DeScisciolo, the LRASM business development lead at Lockheed Martin, told Air & Space Forces Magazine.

The DOD has placed “quite a requirement on Lockheed to increase that production rate substantially,” DeScisciolo said in earlier remarks April 3 at the Navy League’s Sea-Air-Space conference in National Harbor, Md.

The Air Force has mapped up an ambitious long-term plan to acquire LRASMs. The Air Force budget calls for buying just 27 of the missiles in fiscal 2024, with the Navy requesting 91. But the Air Force wants a multiyear procurement contract for LRASMs that would stretch to 2028. That would more than quadruple USAF yearly buys for around 380 additional LRASMs.

The U.S. military’s shift to the Pacific is the main reason for the focus on anti-ship weapons. But the lessons from Ukraine also loom large. Kyiv has been bolstered by massive munitions donations from the U.S. and Western allies, straining U.S. supplies.

“There is no constituency to support munitions during peacetime,” said retired Lt. Gen. David A. Deptula, the dean of the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies. “I think Ukraine has kind of shaken the dust out of peoples’ eyes.”

But earlier conflicts also showed the need to maintain large munitions stocks. When the U.S. fought ISIS in Operational Inherent Resolve, it used an enormous quantity of precision-guided ordnance. A 2021 RAND report assessed that 115,983 weapons, mostly precision-guided munitions, were released in coalition airstrikes, and led to shortfalls in U.S. stocks of JDAM guided bombs and Hellfire missiles.

LRASMs and JASSMs have many common components and are made on the same production lines. “As the missiles come down the production line some are earmarked as LRASM, some are earmarked as JASSM,” DeScisciolo said. “They’re all sequenced through based on the demand of the customer.”

Lockheed Martin is now exploring using HIMARS mobile-missile launchers to launch LRASMs. The HIMARS launchers have been an enormous asset for Ukraine, which has used them to conduct so-called “shoot and scoot” precision fires against their Russian adversary.

“The concept of coupling the unique lethality and range of LRASM with the survivability of the combat-proven HIMARS for a ground-launch variant provides a powerful combination deployable in a variety of scenarios, including conventional and asymmetric warfare,” DeScisciolo said.

The company is also looking at other “next-generation” LRASM capabilities, he added. Lockheed Martin hopes to make LRASMs work with more aircraft too. Right now, the only aircraft that can launch the weapon are Air Force B-1 Lancer bombers and Navy F-18 Super Hornet fighters. But Lockheed Martin and the military are working on integrating LRASMs with the multi-service F-35 Lightning II fighter and the Navy’s P-8 Poseidon.

Deptula and Pettyjohn said that strengthening deterrence against China does not depend on a single missile and that cheaper and more diverse options are also important. LRASMs cost upwards of $3 million per missile, according to budget documents.

“We do need to find ways to buy larger quantities of more affordable weapons,” Pettyjohn said.

B-52s Land on Guam for Latest Bomber Task Force Deployment

April 4, 2023 | By Greg Hadley

The Air Force continues to BUFF up its presence in the Pacific.

Four B-52 bombers and more than 200 Airmen from Barksdale Air Force Base, La., arrived at Andersen Air Force Base on Guam on March 30 to kick off the service’s latest Bomber Task Force deployment in the Indo-Pacific.

The aircraft and personnel are part of the 96th Expeditionary Bomb Squadron. While deployed to Andersen, they will participate in training exercises and missions with other services, as well as allies and partners, Pacific Air Forces announced in a release.

“The bomber task force, and specifically the B-52s in the Indo-Pacific region, not only allows our crew force to hone their superior technical and weapons system expertise, but also sends an extremely important message,” Lt. Col. Vanessa Wilcox, commander of the 96th Bomb Squadron, said in a statement. “It demonstrates our continued readiness and commitment to our allies in the region to ensure freedom of movement now and in the future, as well as ensures stability in the region.”

The B-52s’ arrival comes a little less than a month after the end of the last Bomber Task Force rotation at Guam—B-1s and personnel from the 34th Expeditionary Bomb Squadron returned home to Ellsworth Air Force Base, S.D., on March 5.

USAF bombers have been active in the Indo-Pacific region since the start of 2023, particularly around the Korean Peninsula as part of the Pentagon’s commitment to expand exercises and cooperation with South Korea, officially known as the Republic of Korea, in response to increased missile tests and threats from North Korea.

B-1s have flown with South Korean fighters four times since the start of February, and B-52s also flew over South Korea with ROK aircraft in early March.

In addition to the Pacific, B-52s have conducted Bomber Task Force missions in both the Middle East and Europe this year, though in both cases, the bombers were from Minot Air Force Base, N.D. This latest deployment to Guam marks the first BTF for Barksdale aircraft and Airmen in 2023, though the base did send B-52s to Andersen for a quick three-day Bomber Task Force mission in late December.

A B-52 Stratofortress assigned to a Bomber Task Force from the 2nd Bomb Wing at Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana, taxis at Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, Mar. 30, 2023. BTF missions support national security objectives through the speed, flexibility, and readiness of our strategic bombers. U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class William Pugh

Keeping the F-22 Credible Through 2030 Will Cost At Least $9 Billion, USAF Leaders Say

April 4, 2023 | By John A. Tirpak

Preserving the F-22 Raptor’s ability to prevail in air combat through the end of the decade will cost more than $9 billion, and that figure depends on lawmakers allowing the Air Force to divest 32 of the oldest fighters, according to budget documents, service spokespersons and USAF leadership’s Congressional testimony.

But if Congress doesn’t allow the retirements—an action taken in last year’s budget—the Air Force will have to rethink not only its F-22 plans but the Next-Generation Air Dominance program as well, since all the savings the service expects to reap from not operating, maintaining, or upgrading those 32 aircraft went into the NGAD account, senior officials said.

“Our budget assumes the success of that proposal” to retire the oldest F-22s, Air Force acquisition executive Andrew Hunter told the House Armed Services Committee’s tactical aviation panel in March 29 testimony.

The Air Force’s proposed fiscal year 2024-2028 spending on the F-22 amounts to $4.2 billion in procurement—with another $1.74 billion “to completion,” circa 2030—and $3.2 billion in research, development, test, and evaluation, for a total of $9.06 billion through the end of the decade. That figure doesn’t include operations and maintenance.

The biggest items are for “sensor enhancement”—requested at $4.13 billion—and reliability and maintainability upgrades, requested at $2.43 billion.

Other major procurement efforts include Link 16 modifications, identification, friend or foe systems, trainer and simulator modifications, anti-jam/anti-spoofing position, navigation, and timing enhancements and modifications to the F-22’s Pratt & Whitney F119 engines.

The Air Force also wants to spend $553 million on stealthy long-range fuel tanks and pylons. Budget documents call for 326 tanks and 286 pylons, which would give each aircraft at least two full sets of each. The F-22 can fly at speeds up to Mach 1.2 with the tanks and pylons, budget documents say.

The tanks and pylons, as well as stealthy-looking pods with an apparent dielectric front-end aperture, have been seen in flight test photos of F-22s captured around Lockheed’s Palmdale, Calif., facilities. They were also shown in an artist’s concept released by Air Combat Command last year, without an explanation of what the underwing stores are.

New sensors and stealthy fuel tanks dominate F-22 spending across the future years defense plan. — Air Combat Command’s Gen. Mark Kelly posted this conceptual image on Instagram of an F-22 firing the AIM-260 Joint Advanced Tactical Missile in 2022, offering the first official glimpse of the new weapon. **USAF illustration**

Aviation experts speculate that the slender pods contain infrared search-and-track systems (IRST) and may have other sensors, as well. A former Lockheed program official has previously told Air & Space Forces Magazine that there is insufficient “real estate” within the F-22’s fuselage to host an IRST, an alternative method of detecting an adversary aircraft built with low radar cross section, like China’s J-20 fighter.

USAF spending plans would see F-22 procurement funding ramp up to over $1 billion a year in fiscal 2026 and 2027, dropping off sharply in 2028 to $426.8 billion. RDT&E on the fighter ends in 2028.

Counting previous spending going back to fiscal 2018, the Air Force is projecting the total cost of keeping the F-22 capable against current and future threats at $16.2 billion, according to an Air Force spokesperson. That comes to more than $100 million for each of the 148 or so F-22s the Air Force plans to retain.

The jets the Air Force wants to divest have been used for basic skills training and not been kept to the same configuration as the frontline fleet. Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall has said he estimates it would cost $50 million apiece to upgrade the them to the current operational fleet configuration, and considerably more to keep them consistent with the rest of the fleet on top of the cost of flying and maintaining them.

Though Air Combat Command has considered requesting funding to upgrade the old F-22s every year for at least eight years, the proposal has always lost out to higher priorities, former ACC commanders have said.

The Air Force asked Congress last year to retire the same 32 F-22s but was rebuffed. It’s asking again this year not only because those aircraft are “no longer operationally representative,” but the cost to bring them up to full capability would be “prohibitive,” Lt. Gen. Richard G. Moore, deputy chief of staff for plans and programs, told the HASC tactical aviation panel. They are also no longer competitive with China’s best stealth fighters, he said.

“Upgrading the Block 20s to a combat configuration is cost-prohibitive and very time intensive,” Moore testified. “Based on the most advanced weapons that an F-22 Block 20 can carry now, it is not competitive with the [Shenyang] J-20, with the most advanced weapons the Chinese can put on it.”

And while the Air Force typically does not specify which cost-saving moves pay for which new programs, “in this case, all of the resources that came from the Block 20 went directly to NGAD, and we believe that we must get to NGAD in order to be able to continue confronting Chinese aggression into the ‘30s,” Moore said. “And so that, to us, was a trade that was worth making.”

Opponents of the F-22 divestment argue the Air Force can continue to use the jets for training, but Moore said the configuration of the cockpit is so different from that of frontline aircraft that “there’s negative learning that occurs.” Pilots have to “unlearn some of the things that they learned in the Block 20 when they go to an operational aircraft.”

Pressed by panel members on what the Air Force will do if not permitted to retire the oldest F-22s, Moore said the answer will depend on the level of funding appropriated for the F-22 program

As for what would happen to the NGAD account—since that is where the F-22 savings are supposed to go—Moore replied, “I couldn’t say. … We’ll have to work with the Congress and determine how we’ll make the F-22 program make it to the end of the year, in the event that divestiture is prohibited but continued operations are not appropriated.”

In any event, an Air Force spokesperson told Air & Space Forces Magazine the service “does not plan to modernize these aircraft to a comparable configuration to receive the majority of the planned F-22 upgrades.”

Neither the F-22 nor NGAD accounts include funding for the AIM-260 Joint Advanced Tactical Missile (JATM), which is to be their primary weapon.

A New Air Force-Wide Study Is Analyzing Suicides to Improve Prevention Efforts

April 4, 2023 | By David Roza

The Air Force expects the final report of a sweeping, first-of-its-kind suicide analysis board in the next few months, as the department looks to refine its prevention and response efforts.

The Department of the Air Force partnered with suicide researchers at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences to complete the study, pulling information from personnel records, investigation reports, medical records, and Department of Defense Suicide Event Reports (DoDSER) and compiling over 1,000 data points for each person who died by suicide. The final report is due this spring, Lt. Gen. Caroline Miller, deputy chief of staff for manpower, personnel, and services, wrote in a statement delivered to the House Armed Services Committee at a personnel posture hearing March 29.

The Air Force “looks to enhance our practices by systematically analyzing factors, identifying aggregated findings and lessons, and delivering generalizable and actionable recommendations to reduce suicide,” Miller said.

Before this analysis board was commissioned, the Air Force’s major commands each performed an annual suicide analysis board where service leaders and subject matter experts reviewed suicide deaths and submitted a report to the Air Force’s integrated resilience office. This new board expands that approach by applying the framework of the Department of Defense’s Standardized Suicide Fatality Analysis to the entire Department of the Air Force.

“This report represents the first standardized and public health-driven methodology for conducting suicide death reviews across the DAF,” Air Force spokesperson Maj. Tanya Downsworth told Air & Space Forces Magazine. “The final reports will include actionable recommendations to inform DAF suicide prevention, intervention, and postvention programming.”

The new board is expected to increase the reliability of the department’s findings, as well the “generalizability of identified lessons learned and recommendations,” she said.

Risk Factors

When the Pentagon released its annual suicide report Oct. 20, it showed the total number and rate of services members who died by suicide declined from 2020 to 2021, a small sign of progress amid a general upward trend over the past decade. For example, the Air Force and Space Force lost 51 Active-Duty Airmen and Guardians to suicide in 2021, compared to 82 in 2020.

“While we are cautiously encouraged by the drop in these numbers, one year is not enough time to assess real change,” Beth Foster, the executive director of the Pentagon’s office for force resiliency, told reporters at the time. “We need to see a sustained long-term reduction in suicide rates to know if we are making progress.”

In the meantime, the Department of Defense and the Air Force are working to identify patterns and risk factors to help better inform prevention efforts. Miller told Congress on March 29 that after accounting for age and sex differences, the suicide rate for Active-Duty Department of the Air Force personnel was 13.9 per 100,000 people, which she said was “lower than the historical U.S. rate for a comparable demographic pool.”

The largest demographic subset of Airmen and Guardians to have died by suicide in 2021 were single enlisted men below the age of 30, between the ranks of E-1 and E-4, using a firearm, Miller said. Male Airmen and Guardians are 3.3 times more at risk of dying by suicide compared to female Airmen and Guardians, while Airmen and Guardians at the age of 30 or younger are at an increased risk of suicide than their counterparts over the age of 30.

Miller also said more than 60 percent of the Airmen who died by suicide had access to some kind of lethal means in their household. Data collected in 2021 showed that less than 15 percent of those Airmen had safely stored their firearms in safes with locks or outside the home, which the Department of the Air Force recommends as part of its effort to put time and space between suicidal service members and lethal means

To encourage so-called time-based prevention, the Air Force distributed over 202,000 locks, safe storage training materials, and firearm retailer tool kits, Miller said. The service wants to “build a culture in which safe storage is commonplace, accelerating our efforts to save lives by reducing immediate access to firearms for those in distress” and by preventing accidental firearm-related injuries or deaths, the general added.

Beyond firearms, Miller said that last year, 18 percent of Airmen and Guardians who died by suicide were facing legal and administrative problems at the time of their deaths. To address this issue, Miller pointed out the Limited Privilege Suicide Prevention Program, which gives increased confidentiality with mental health care providers to Airmen or Guardians who may be at risk for suicide after hearing they are under investigation for possible UCMJ violations.

Another program aimed at the issue is the Investigative Interview Warm Hand-Off policy, where after an interview with an Airmen under investigation, the investigator will hand that Airmen off to their commander or first sergeant. According to Air Force policy, the commander or first sergeant must then run through a check list to make sure the Airman has access to mental health care.

Policies

The Air Force’s findings so far share much in common with those of the Pentagon. In February, the Pentagon’s Suicide Prevention and Response Independent Review Committee (SPRIRC) released a report which made 127 recommendations to enhance suicide prevention efforts across the force. The recommendations were grouped into high, moderate, and low priority, though some of the high-priority measures could prove controversial.

For example, seven of the report’s 23 high-priority recommendations involved more closely regulating the purchase and storage of firearms by service members. One involved raising the minimum age for purchasing firearms and ammunition on Department of Defense property to 25, while another was to implement a seven-day waiting period for any firearm purchased on Department of Defense property.

In its report, 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.

A policy to limit firearm availability had a positive impact on Israeli suicide prevention efforts, SPRIRC pointed out. But implementing some of these measures could require Congress to repeal sections of military law, a tall order given some lawmakers’ fierce opposition to gun control laws.

A separate Pentagon working group is expected to present an implementation plan to Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III in June. In her statement to Congress, Miller said the Department of the Air Force “stands ready” to put that plan into action. In the meantime, the service wants to continue to better understand the problem.

“Moving forward, we intend to examine all suicide deaths from 2018-2021 and each year after as we strive toward zero deaths by suicide,” Miller said.

Speed, Cost, Performance—In That Order—Key to SDA’s Successful Tranche 0 Launch, Director Says

April 3, 2023 | By Chris Gordon

The Space Development Agency successfully got its Tranche 0 satellites off the ground April 2, two and half years after it first awarded the contracts.

Those two and a half years included a few extra days of delays, but when a SpaceX rocket lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base carrying 10 satellites—eight for transporting and relaying data and two for missile tracking—it put SDA’s vision for the future into orbit for the first time. Tranche 0 is part of Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PWSA). The April 2 shot was the SDA’s first dedicated launch and the first launch of PWSA. Beyond the new names and acronyms, the SDA hopes to inject something else new into the DOD: speed.

“We were established to be the disrupter to come up with a completely new way to do space architecture,” SDA director Derek M. Tournear said April 3.

“By hook or by crook, we will get new capabilities fielded in space every two years,” Tournear said at the Navy League’s Sea-Air-Space conference in National Harbor, Md.

The SDA, now part of the Space Force, eventually wants to put hundreds of small satellites in orbit as part of proliferated constellations. The Space Force as a whole hopes to make launching satellites an essential but commonplace part of the Department of Defense—just like the service itself. But SDA will have to make compromises the U.S. government has previously been reluctant to make.

“That means that we cannot go with what is the most exquisite capability,” Tournear said. “We’re going to go with what we can deliver in two years based on what is commoditized technology, what industry can deliver, and that’s what we’re going to push forward. We will put schedule above costs, and we’ll put cost above performance to make sure we hit those timelines.”

The first tranche is what the SDA calls the Warfighter Immersion Layer to give the DOD a way to test out the new systems. The majority of the Tranche 0 satellites, 20 of 28, are for data transport using Link 16, the military’s standard tactical data link. The SDA hopes all of Tranche 0 will be in orbit by June.

The new satellites will “demonstrate low latency connectivity for laser communication” as well as the first ever use of the Link 16 tactical data network directly from space, Tournear said. Bringing Link 16 into space would allow service members to communicate further—important in the vast Indo-Pacific region that is the DOD’s new primary focus.

“Historically, they use their tactical radios to conduct operations and they’ve been limited to a range of a few hundred nautical miles,” Tournear said. “Well, that’s fine if you’re conducting limited operations. But if you’re going to start to prosecute hundreds and hundreds of targets rapidly, you’re going to have to pull in targeteers from all over the globe. Being able to tie into the space transport layer allows you to do that. So you can have people targeting distributed across the globe in a very resilient fashion and send those targeting solutions.”

The other element of PWSA—at least for now—is missile tracking. While Tranche 0 will first track test objects, Tournear says the SDA wants to eventually tackle complex threats.

“We’re going to field a constellation that does advanced missile tracking,” Tournear said. “You’ve heard a lot about these advanced hypersonic glide vehicles, hypersonic weapons. We’ll actually be able to track them so that we can send firing solutions.”

For now, those are just the SDA’s plans. But in less than two years—under the agency’s self-imposed deadline—the SDA’s Tranche 1 will become a new capability available to the U.S. military.

“Tranche 1, which begins launching in just 18 months, will actually be the first initial warfighting capability,” Tournear said “At that point, so now we’re talking in 2025, we’ll be able to have the ability to take the fight to regional theater and bring these technologies to bear.”

The Air Force’s Final MC-130H Heads to the Boneyard

April 3, 2023 | By Greg Hadley

The Talon has officially been retracted.

The Air Force’s final MC-130H Combat Talon II, Tail Number 89-0280, made its last flight April 2, taking off from Hurlburt Field, Fla., with a crew including members of the 15th Special Operations Squadron and led by AFSOC commander Lt. Gen. Tony D. Bauernfeind, a long-time MC-130H pilot.

The Combat Talon II, a variant of the C-130H, was a stalwart special operations tanker and mobility aircraft used extensively for infiltration, exfiltration, and covert resupply for missions in hostile and denied territory from the early 1990s until now.

“I’ve spent a majority of my career being around this amazing airplane, its maintainers and operational support staff,” Bauernfeind said in a release from the 1st Special Operations Wing. “I felt that it should be sent off right, knowing full well that we’re capturing its heritage.”

Families, friends, and former MC-130H crew joined in the ceremony at Hurlburt, reflecting on the unofficial “Talon Standard” motto they said defined the Airmen who flew the 24 Combat Talon II aircraft.

“The ‘Talon Standard’ means holding yourself and your crew to the highest standard,” Lt. Col. Andrew Fisher, an MC-130H pilot assigned to the 5th Special Operations Squadron, said in the release. That storied history included the 1997 Mackay Trophy, which went to a Combat Talon II crew for rescuing 56 people in the Republic of the Congo in the midst of a civil war, and operations in Afghanistan and Iraq during operations Enduring Freedom, Iraqi Freedom, Inherent Resolve, and Resolute Support. Other missions included humanitarian operations in Japan, Haiti, and Nepal.

Replacing the MC-130Hs are newer MC-130J Commando II aircraft, that can refuel rotary aircraft from wing-mounted external fuel tanks and drogue refueling pods. The MC-130J already replaced all the MC-130P Combat Shadows, the last one in 2015. To date, 56 of 64 planned MC-130Js have been delivered to operational units, an AFSOC spokeswoman told Air & Space Forces Magazine. The final MC-130J delivery is anticipated in fiscal 2025.

After three decades of service, the MC-130H fleet was beginning to break down. AFSOC held a safety stand-down last year after cracked propeller parts were found on some C-130Hs, a problem likely caused by maintainers etching serial numbers onto the propellers after inspections. The AFSOC spokeswoman said the entire fleet was inspected. Waivers were granted to fly the aircraft one-way to the Boneyard at Davis-Montham Air Force Base, Ariz., where they will be set to rest in the dry desert air.

The last flight of the Combat Talon II brings to three the number of small fleets recently retired from service. The MC-130Hs join the RC-26 Condo reconnaissance aircraft, used for both counterdrug and homeland security missions, and the C-145 Combat Coyote short-takeoff-and-landing aircraft as taking their last flights in the past five months. The RC-26 Condos began winding down operations in late 2022, as did the C-145 Combat Coyotes.

Space Force Finishes Fit Testing New Uniforms, Targets 2025 Delivery

April 3, 2023 | By David Roza

The Space Force is one step closer to delivering its service dress uniform to every Guardian. On March 30, the service announced it had completed its final service dress uniform fit test, where 100 Guardians worldwide tried on the uniform prototype for proper sizing and fit.

Col. James Jenkins, director of the Space Force Change Management Team, said his office is working fast to finish the uniform in line with the feedback they have received from Guardians.

“From the word ‘go’ we have been committed to keeping Guardian feedback at the forefront of developing the service dress,” he said in a press release. “We know Guardians are excited for a uniform they can call their own and we are accelerating as quickly as possible to deliver a product they can wear with pride.”

Now that the fit test is complete, the next step is the wear test, where selected Guardians will wear the uniform three times a week and provide feedback on its durability, functionality and comfort. The wear test starts this summer, and the Space Force expects to deliver the service dress uniform across the branch in late 2025.

The prototype of the service dress uniform was first revealed at the 2021 AFA Air, Space, and Cyber conference. Some observers criticized the uniform for resembling outfits from science fiction and for being too baggy. The Air Force Uniform Office went to work making the pants fit better, and the uniform went on a “roadshow” to Space Force installations across the globe in order to get their feedback.

Then-Chief of Space Operations Gen. John W. “Jay” Raymond said the prototype actually enjoyed 81 percent approval from Guardians.

“If you get 81 percent on anything, it’s a home run,” Raymond told Air & Space Forces Magazine at the time.

“We listened intently to Guardian design and fit requests,” Wade Yamada, Space Force deputy director of staff, said in the March 30 press release. “In many ways, Guardians helped select our current service dress design.”

Addressing the criticism that the uniforms resemble those seen in Hollywood, the New York Times pointed out in 2021 that the uniforms of the original “Star Trek” television show resembled Navy uniforms.

The Space Force uses the Operational Camouflage Pattern uniform as its duty uniform like the Army and Air Force, with “Space Blue” name tape, Space Force badge, and grade insignia. The service has also unveiled its own PT gear: black shorts with a version of the service’s delta logo in white, and a gray T-shirt bearing the stylized words “Space Force” in white on the back.

BAE Systems to Produce Upgraded Electronic Warfare Suites for F-35

April 3, 2023 | By John A. Tirpak

BAE Systems has received a $491 million contract from Lockheed Martin to produce AN/ASQ-239 electronic warfare suites for the Block 4 version of the F-35 fighter, the company announced April 3. The award follows a $493 million contract in December 2022.

Meanwhile, Lt. Gen. Michael Schmidt, director of the F-35 Joint Program Office, said the F-35 Tech Refresh 3, which will underwrite the new EW suite, will be ready in 2024.

BAE’s work will be done in support of Lot 17 F-35s, with production under the contract starting in mid-2024 and continuing into 2025. The company did not say how many suites the contract covers. BAE has delivered 1,200 F-35 EW systems to date, it noted in a release. The suites are shipped to Lockheed’s Fort Worth, Texas facilities, where they are installed on production aircraft, a BAE spokesman said.

The previous award covered “development and maturation of the Block 4 EW baseline,” the company said at the time, while the new award covers production.

The updated EW suite is considered one of the centerpieces of the Block 4 upgrade, made possible by the Tech Refresh 3—called TR-3 for short—which includes improvements to the aircraft’s processor and other upgrades which recently entered flight testing.

Speaking with reporters at the Navy League’s Sea-Air-Space conference in National Harbor, Md., Schmidt said he feels confident that TR-3 will deliver in 2024.

“I stand behind that window,” he said.

“We were late in hardware development and delivery. The hardware now is there, it’s reliable. … The yield has been a little tough, but it’s been a lot better in the last few weeks, which makes a difference because we’re feeding the labs, the flight test aircraft and the production line,” Schmidt said, adding that contractors and program officials have been working on getting TR-3 into and through testing “seven days a week since Labor Day weekend.”

The AN/ASQ-239, which works in both the radio-frequency and infrared parts of the spectrum, includes “significantly upgraded hardware and software that improves sensing and signal-processing capabilities,” the company said. The improved sensors will increase the F-35’s ability to detect “difficult-to-observe threats” as well as process more threats simultaneously. The improvements include the Digital Channelized Receiver Techniques Generator and Tuner Insertion Program, or DTIP.

The upgrade also includes the Non-Intrusive Electronic Warfare Test Solution (NIEWTS) fault isolation and diagnostics capability. The NIEWST is meant to reduce maintenance costs through more precise troubleshooting.

On its website, BAE said the improved AN/ASQ-239 delivers full functionality “in a smaller footprint, reducing volume and power requirements and creating space for future upgrades,” as well as “improved reliability and maintainability,” with an architecture to allow “continuous capability development,” which allows rapid future upgrades.

“The flexibility of our active production line will allow us to seamlessly transition to the Block 4 design without skipping a beat,” Chris Rossi, BAE director of F-35 production, said in a press release. The system is designed and manufactured at BAE’s Manchester and Nashua, N.H., facilities.

BAE said the AN/ASQ-239 “provides F-35s with fully integrated offensive and defense EW capabilities, including long-range threat warning, self-protection, and targeting support. It provides 360-degree, full-spectrum situational awareness and rapid-response capabilities—allowing the F-35 to evade, engage, counter, and jam threats, and reach well-defended targets.”

The company also builds the F-35’s aft fuselage and vehicle management computer and makes the Eagle Passive Active Warning and Survivability System (EPAWSS), which will equip the F-15E and F-15EX fighters.