Off-Road Reaper: Air Force MQ-9 Roughs It for ACE Exercise

Jan. 7, 2025 | By David Roza

Over its 20 years of service, the MQ-9 Reaper drone has typically landed on paved runways, where it is rearmed and refueled by a large group of maintainers and support staff.

But a recent exercise saw Air Force Special Operations Command land an MQ-9 on a dirt strip in New Mexico on Dec. 16, where it was rearmed, refueled, and launched again by a small group of Airmen. The tactic is part of Agile Combat Employment, the Air Force’s strategy to send small groups of Airmen to many different remote or austere operating locations in a conflict with China or Russia so that they are more difficult to target.

“In the future fight, we assess we will no longer be able to rely exclusively on the main operating bases that have persisted,” the flight commander of the 1st Special Operations Mission Sustainment Team (SOMST), which met the Reaper on the ground, said in a Dec. 31 press release. The release did not state the commander’s name or rank.

“Operating in austere environments anytime, anyplace, and anywhere is critical,” the commander said. “It enables commanders to have options—something critically needed in special operations forces.”

air force mq-9 — A U.S. Air Force MQ-9 Reaper completes a 180-degree turn on a dirt surface during Exercise Reaper Castillo at Melrose Air Force Range, New Mexico, Dec. 16, 2024. (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Gracelyn Hess)

Exercise Reaper Castillo took place at Melrose Air Force Range, N.M., near Cannon Air Force Base. A pilot and sensor operator controlled the drone from Hurlburt Field, Fla., more than 1,100 miles east.

Officials from the Hurlburt-based 1st Special Operations Wing told Air & Space Forces Magazine it could not say how many Airmen supported the MQ-9 at the dirt strip or how quickly they turned the aircraft around, citing security reasons. But they did say the Reaper needed no physical alternations to land on the dirt.

Reaper Castillo is the latest in a series of experiments to break the MQ-9 out of the conventional procedures and operations in which it has been used over the past 20 years.

Typically, Reaper missions involve crews operating the aircraft from ground control stations hundreds or thousands of miles away, while crews closer to the aircraft handle takeoff and landing, where the shorter signal delay reduces the chance for catastrophic error in those dangerous phases of flight.

But since at least 2021, the Air Force has begun to let the Reaper land itself using an autopilot function known as the automatic takeoff and landing capability (ATLC). That cuts the aircraft’s footprint by about 55 people and lot of equipment. Past exercises in New Mexico and the Pacific shrunk the footprint to just 10 Airmen and a pallet and a half of gear, small enough to fit aboard relatively light transports such as CV-22 Osprey and C-130 Hercules.

Besides auto takeoffs and landings, then-AFSOC commander Lt. Gen. Tony D. Bauernfeind said in 2023 that he envisioned a future where Reapers act as “capital ships” from which smaller uncrewed aerial systems (UASs) launch to establish a sensor grid or a communications pathway for the joint force.

The idea was part of a project known as adaptive airborne enterprise, where MQ-9s stretch beyond their traditional role as intelligence and strike platforms to become mobile control centers for a network of sensors, communications devices or loitering munitions for far-flung special operators.

“Can we establish a network that goes 5 miles, 50 miles, 500 miles?” Bauernfeind said. “I don’t know, we have to work the physics and the tactics, techniques, and procedures to find out how far we can push these networks out that will then give us that grid that we need to support the joint force.”

The vision became reality later that year, when a single crew at Cannon controlled three MQ-9s for about 30 minutes. Six days later, a crew air-launched two smaller drones from an MQ-9 and controlled them with an additional crew member. Reaper Castillo shows the capability could travel far from established bases.

“We have to break out of the mindset that we need a huge, paved runway with co-located launch and recovery aircrews,” the Reaper Castillo mission commander said in the Dec. 31 release. The commander’s rank and name were also not provided. “If we can free ourselves from the traditional mindset, it makes MQ-9 combat reach nearly limitless.”

Recent shootdowns of MQ-9s in the Middle East over the past few months are a reminder that the slow-moving Reaper may not be able to evade anti-air weapons in a near-peer conflict. Networks of smaller drones controlled by the Reaper may extend its reach and help keep the $30 million aircraft out of range of those weapons. Either way, it beats the risk of sending a human pilot to do the job, said the mission commander.

“The MQ-9 is extremely relevant in today’s fight and will be in the future as well,” the commander said. “It allows us to go places and do things that we cannot risk sending manned aircraft—such as high-threat environments.”

Airmen assigned to the 1st Special Operations Support Squadron Mission Sustainment Team refuel an MQ-9 Reaper assigned to the 1st Special Operations Wing at Melrose Air Force Range, New Mexico, Dec. 16, 2024. (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Gracelyn Hess)

Space Force Eyes New Jam-Resistant Tactical SATCOM Options

Jan. 7, 2025 | By Greg Hadley

Two competing prototype payloads, developed by Northrop Grumman and Boeing and both set to launch in 2025, aim to open a new era of secure, jam-resistant tactical communications.

Northrop has finished assembly and testing of its payload for the Protected Tactical SATCOM-Prototype (PTS-P) program and is now working on integrating the system onto one of its ESPAStar buses, the company said Jan. 6. Boeing is in the advanced stages of integrating its PTS-P payload with its new Wideband Global SATCOM satellite, WGS-11, a spokesperson told Air & Space Forces Magazine.

The Space Force has sought more secure communications solutions for several years and sought to ramp up the effort in its fiscal 2025 budget request. PTS-P seeks to develop a secure communications system impervious to adversary jamming. The prototypes will employ new cryptography, signals, and more. How the variants perform will influence how USSF proceeds with a program projected to cost some $2 billion over the next five years, according to budget documents.

The intensity of electronic warfare jamming in the Russia-Ukraine war has highlighted the need for jam-resistant satellite signals, but the Space Force program dates back even further. USSF’s Advanced Extremely High Frequency satellites provide jam-resistant tactical and strategic comms today, but the Space Force plans to split its tactical and strategic requirements in the future.

Evolved Strategic SATCOM for nuclear command and control and other strategic missions will handle one set of signals, while USSF’s Protected Anti-Jam Tactical SATCOM (PATS) family of systems, includes PTS-P and the Protected Tactical Waveform and ground infrastructure, called the Protected Tactical Enterprise Service, will support tactical requirements.

Both Northrop Grumman and Boeing passed a preliminary design review for PTS-P in 2020, and the Space Force awarded prototype contracts in 2021. Northrop’s version passed its critical design review in September 2021, and will be a “free flyer” with its own dedicated satellite, an ESPAStarHP bus. Boeing’s version completed its critical design review in 2022, with the decision made then to host it on the WGS-11 satellite. (Sharing payloads is one way of the Space Force is holding down costs, as with the Enhanced Polar SATCOM-Recapitalization payloads, which are hosted on a Norwegian satellite launched in 2024.

Boeing’s PTS-P payload will supplement WGS-11’s main mission. The WGS constellation provides high-bandwidth global communications coverage, which lacks advanced anti-jamming capabilities. Congress funded the newest WGS satellites, the 11th and 12th in the series, in 2018. Boeing and Space Force officials say the newest iteration will be able to direct its signals in a narrower beam, making it harder to spoof or jam its signals.

A Boeing spokesperson told Air & Space Forces Magazine that PTS-P will be able to demonstrate its prototype technology even as the rest of the WGS satellite operates, then transition to become fully operational after the demonstration if needed.

The Space Force has split the PTS program into two phases: PTS-Prototype and PTS-Resilient. Even as Northrop and Boeing are working on PTS-P, they are competing for PTS-R, which will operationalize the technologies demonstrated in the prototypes. The plan is to create two payloads “with full signal processing and switching capability that allows direct connectivity between users,” and that can either orbit on their own dedicated satellites or be hosted on other spacecraft.

On top of that, the Space Force is also working on what it calls PTS-Global, which “bridges the gap between the more focused capabilities provided by PTS-R and the broadly available but also the lower assured access capabilities provided by existing/emerging MILSATCOM and commercial services,” according to budget documents.

The Space Force is seeking nearly $250 million to get started on PTS-Global in the fiscal 2025 budget, which has yet to gain final approval. That budget would also fund PTS-Resilient for source selection this year, with the goal of launching satellites in fiscal 2029 at a total cost of some $2.14 billion over five years.

Has China’s Secret H-20 Stealth Bomber Broken Cover?

Jan. 6, 2025 | By John A. Tirpak

Imagery has appeared on Chinese social media of a new large combat aircraft, apparently making a test flight, which may be China’s new secret H-20 stealth bomber. The location and exact date of the imagery were not disclosed, and the People’s Republic of China has not made an official comment about the footage, the authenticity of which cannot yet be established. The U.S. Department of Defense just recently predicted the bomber would not debut for years.

The grainy imagery is circulating just a week after footage appeared of a new Chinese medium bomber-sized aircraft and a somewhat smaller design, possibly a new fighter or uncrewed combat drone. The new medium bomber and fighter images appeared on the birthday of Chinese leader Mao Zedong, whose birthday has been marked with new aircraft disclosures in the past. There have been fewer social media images of the purported H-20.

The new footage shows a large aircraft that has an overall stealthy diamond shape, in which the planform edges agree with each other’s angles for low radar cross section. It is not, however, a “flying wing,” with distinct and lengthy wings, a large empennage, and a large central fuselage.

The imagery shows a planform very similar to a Chinese wind tunnel model of a “notional” bomber, images of which circulated on the internet in 2022. Those photos showed an aircraft with large-area tail control surfaces that could be shifted to either produce lift or directional stability. Artist’s concepts of that wind tunnel model as an operational bomber have appeared in numerous Chinese and Pacific publications, but Beijing has not commented on their veracity. Chinese senior military leaders have said in the last year, however, that the appearance of the H-20 would be imminent.

Share more pictures. 😎https://t.co/vTo2TSUmR9 pic.twitter.com/ZjGXZwAeIw
— 彩云香江 (@louischeung_hk) August 22, 2022

An industry official noted that the wind tunnel design has an overall shape similar to that of Northrop’s proposed A-12 attack plane program from the 1980s, but with the addition of the large tail control surfaces and scaled to an overall larger size.

The aircraft in this most recent social media video has a sharper angle of wing sweep, with a slight “cranked kite” shape. Curiously, the aircraft is emitting a single contrail, although it is certainly a multi-engined aircraft. The aircraft seems to have a flat exhaust, but details are difficult to discern.

The aircraft was chased by a J-16 fighter, but the two aircraft did not seem to be at the same altitude and were not flying in close formation in the images, making it difficult to estimate the new aircraft’s size.

If the aircraft is indeed the H-20, China is making strides with the bomber faster than expected by the Pentagon, which said in its most recent China military power report that the aircraft might not appear for another 10 years.

That report, released in mid-December, said the H-20, “which may debut sometime in the next decade” is likely to have a 10,000-mile range, allowing China to project power beyond what it calls the “Second Island Chain” of its strategic defense concept. With aerial refueling, the aircraft could “cover the globe,” the Pentagon said, adding “it is expected to employ conventional and nuclear weaponry and feature a stealthy design.”

It was not clear whether the DOD meant that the H-20’s “debut” would mean its appearance in test or its readiness for operations.

The H-20 has been reported to be in the works for at least 10 years. The appearance last week of a possible medium-range bomber prototype seemed to suggest that China is having problems with the H-20 and needed a stopgap solution for a stealthy, penetrating long-range strike platform. The appearance of this new aircraft would contradict that.

Imagery has also appeared in recent days of China’s new KJ-3000, an AWACS-like aircraft based on the Y-20 cargo aircraft, complete with a rotating radome, which also seems to have extensive electronic warfare gear.

A U.S. Air Force official said that service has been “closely monitoring” China’s ongoing military modernization efforts, and said of the appearance of the medium-bomber and fighter aircraft last week that these developments are “consistent with our understanding of China’s strategic objectives and long-term force planning.” But the official also said these new weapons require “highly skilled personnel to actually employ them to the max extent of their capability.”

F-16s, F-15s, and A-10s Conduct Airstrikes Against ISIS in Iraq

Jan. 6, 2025 | By Chris Gordon

The U.S.-led coalition and Iraqi forces stepped up their campaign against Islamic State fighters over the past week, including a confrontation with militants holed up in an Iraqi cave, U.S. Central Command said Jan. 6.

F-16s and F-15s carried out airstrikes against ISIS fighters operating in Iraq’s Hamrin Mountains. U.S. Air Force A-10s, which were called in to support ground forces, were successful in killing Islamic State militants fighting in the cave, the command said.

One member of the multinational coalition was killed, and two others were wounded, CENTCOM said. CENTCOM did not identify the nationality of the coalition casualties, but it said no American personnel were injured.

The operations against ISIS come amid concerns that the group is attempting to rebuild its capabilities, including by taking advantage of the confusion in Syria following the overthrow of Syrian President Bashar Al Assad.

“Partnered operations like these are critical to maintaining pressure on ISIS and preventing the terrorist group from taking advantage of the rapidly changing security environment in the region,” CENTCOM commander Army Gen. Michael “Erik” Kurilla said in a statement. “The enduring defeat of ISIS is a global effort that relies on our Coalition, allies, and partners. U.S. Central Command remains committed to aggressively pursuing these terrorists that threaten the region, our allies, and our citizens.”

Operation Inherent Resolve, as the coalition’s campaign against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria is called, is scheduled to end in September 2025. At that point, the U.S. and Iraq are expected to continue to have bilateral security arrangements, which have yet to be defined.

Around 2,500 U.S. troops are in Iraq as part of the campaign against the Islamic State group. U.S. officials say that number is likely to shrink under the new arrangement, though officials on both sides have declined to spell out the specifics, which could be influenced by events in neighboring Syria.

Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al Sudani is under domestic political pressure to shrink the U.S. presence, but Iraqi officials are also concerned about the possibility that ISIS may attempt a comeback.

Not all of the recent operations against the Islamic State group were in Iraq. On Jan. 2 and Jan. 3, the Syrian Democratic Forces, the Kurdish-led group that is America’s partner in the country, conducted an anti-Islamic State operation “enabled by CENTCOM forces” in Deir Ez Zor in eastern Syria, the command said. That operation led to the capture of “ISIS attack cell leader,” the command added.

The U.S. has some 2,000 troops in Syria to work with the SDF against Islamic State forces and recently carried out airstrikes in areas of central Syria formerly controlled by the Assad regime and Russian forces.

The Islamic State’s self-declared caliphate was defeated in 2019, but the U.S. and its allies are attempting to prevent the group from regaining strength and carrying out attacks in the Middle East and potentially beyond.

“ISIS retains capabilities, as we’ve seen in Iraq and Syria, and that’s why we have our forces in both of those countries to ensure that ISIS can never reconstitute or resurge or surge back to what it was just a decade ago,” Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh said Jan. 3. “The entire mission of our force presence there is to ensure the enduring defeat of ISIS, and that’s why we’ve partnered with the Syrian Democratic Forces over the past few years and that’s why we continue to conduct strikes against ISIS positions, whether it be as recently as in the Badiya desert or elsewhere.”

An Army veteran who carried out a truck-ramming attack in New Orleans on New Year’s day declared his allegiance to the group. President Biden said that the veteran was “inspired” by ISIS. But U.S. officials have not presented any evidence that he was directed by ISIS or in contact with the group.

This Little-Known Air Force Team Flies Dangerously In the Name of Safety

Jan. 6, 2025 | By David Roza

They are not fighter pilots, but they make air traffic controllers nervous with their low-flying maneuvers. They are not civilian pilots, but they almost always fly with civilian crews. They are not transport pilots, but they fly around the world like transport pilots do.

The Air Force’s 375th Operations Group Detachment 1 is a group of 27 pilots, mission specialists, flying crew chiefs, and other staff who perform a little-known mission which military aviation relies on: combat flight inspection, or CFIN.

At night or in bad weather, pilots use navigational aids (NAVAIDs) to land or take off, such as GPS or the instrument landing system (ILS), which uses radio signals to guide pilots to the runway.

On the civilian side, Federal Aviation Administration crews fly safety inspections of NAVAIDs for airfields around the globe. But for airfields in combat zones, that task falls to Det. 1 and their reservist colleagues in the 1st Aviation Standards Flight and a small Army contingent, Det. 1’s then-commander Lt. Col. James Arnold told Air & Space Forces Magazine last year.

“The FAA is entrusted with keeping the National Airspace System safe, and part of that is inspecting navigational aids and procedures and all those things aircraft use to get from one place to another,” Arnold said at the time, before rotating out of the unit. “We do that mission alongside them. And then our sole purpose is to go into those areas of the world where it’s too dangerous for them to go into.”

air force flight inspection — An FAA C-143B after its crew performed a flight inspection mission over the ice runway at McMurdo Station, Antarctica, October, 2024. (Photo courtesy Lt. Col. Eric Penney)

Det. 1 members spend the vast majority of their time flying with their FAA civilian counterparts inspecting non-combat airfields. Often a single Det. 1 member is the only military crew member on an otherwise civilian flight.

“Really the all-mil is just reserved for combat zones,” Arnold explained. “When we’re flying with the FAA, that’s kind of our on-the-job training to accomplish the all-mil mission.”

The team is based at the FAA’s Mike Monroney Aeronautical Center in Oklahoma City, but their job takes them everywhere from Alaska to Antarctica and from the Middle East to Guam. Arnold estimated Det. 1 members combined fly about 5,000 hours a year, and that’s just a fraction of the larger FAA flight inspection team.

“Wherever there’s U.S. aviation interests happening, we’re supporting that,” he said.

‘Worst Case Scenario’

On Sept. 24, 1929, then-Lt. Jimmy Doolittle flew the first-ever “blind” takeoff, flight, and landing at Mitchel Field, N.Y., using only radio and instruments such as a direction gyro, an artificial horizon, a barometric altimeter, and more that are now standard features on all aircraft.

“To prove he wasn’t ‘cheating,’ he had a hood placed over his entire seat, effectively trapping him in a blind bubble with only his instruments, the radio, and his determination to improve aviation,” the FAA wrote about the event, which showed how aviators could keep flying through bad weather or visibility.

Nearly a century later, today’s NAVAID includes systems such as ILS, Very High Frequency Omnidirectional Range Station (VOR), and the military-specific tactical air navigation system (TACAN). Thousands of those systems around the world make flying across continents in darkness or poor weather a routine thing.

In fact, the main reasons commercial airlines cancel flights during bad weather and poor visibility are airspace limitations and increased space required between aircraft, explained Lt. Col. Eric Penney, Det. 1’s current commander.

In poor visibility conditions, air traffic control “must increase spacing as aircraft can no longer apply ‘see and avoid’ reduced separation requirements,” he explained. “Effectively, traffic is restricted and the airlines will sometimes have to cancel to meet congestion requirements.”

But like any infrastructure, NAVAIDs are affected by age, maintenance, construction, and the environment, so the systems and the procedures for using them require inspections to make sure they work. Runways in combat zones are no exception; during the Cold War, the Air Force ran flight inspection squadrons in the U.S., the Pacific, and Europe. During the Vietnam War, Air Force inspection planes were damaged by enemy fire 26 times.

The military inspection program gradually shrank over the decades, and in 1991 the FAA assumed the entire Air Force flight inspection mission. Among the FAA’s fleet of flight inspection aircraft are six C-143s—Bombardier Challenger 605 business jets modified with defensive systems, secure radios, and other equipment so that all-Air Force crews can fly them in combat.

Flight inspection is no walk in the park: inspectors fly the “worst-case scenario” speed and altitude minimums around the airfield, and then a little bit under that, Arnold explained.

“You’re intentionally coming in below glide slope,” he said. “So you cruise in the whole way just above the treetops, and sometimes ATC will even ask if we’re doing OK, because we’re coming in low. So it definitely throws people for a loop sometimes.

A flight inspection team flies an inspection profile over the runway on Ascension Island, a remote island in the middle of the South Atlantic, May, 2024. (Photo courtesy Lt. Col. Eric Penney)

‘Worldwide Impact’

A typical flight inspection crew involves two pilots flying, a mission specialist taking readings on a computer, and sometimes a flying crew chief to provide maintenance support. Because flight inspection is so specialized and dangerous, Airmen tend to commit to the program for at least four years, much of which is spent training for the FAA ratings that they need to do the job.

Air Force flight inspection pilots usually come from the tanker or transport world, while the mission specialists often come from the flight engineer or radar, airfield, and weather systems specialties. Flight inspection is a one-of-a-kind experience, Arnold said.

“It’s a unique assignment where you become an expert in instrument flying,” he said. “You go to all these airfields that you typically would not go to in a manner that you typically won’t ever fly. It’s a lot of work, but you learn a lot while you do it.”

A flight inspection team flies a C-143B on an inspection profile.

In a conflict, CFIN likely will not fly in on night one to validate NAVAIDs. But if a new airfield in a hostile environment has a mobile TACAN, for example, CFIN can conduct a contingency inspection, then a full-on commissioning inspection once more infrastructure is in place. In other words, they don’t blow down the door, but they show others how to get through it.

“That enables the C-17s and everybody else to deliver payloads in all weather conditions,” Arnold said.

Det. 1, and its reservist counterpart, the 1st Aviation Standards Flight, as well as a small Army contingent, are the only organizations that conduct flight inspection in the U.S. military. That makes them a key part of agile combat employment, the Air Force’s strategy to dart between small operating locations in a conflict with China or Russia. Flight inspectors already check out NAVAIDs across the Pacific, and Pacific Air Forces could request CFIN in a conflict as need arises.

“We go to Guam a few times a year, both the international airport and Andersen [Air Force Base], and we go to all the surrounding fields: Wake, Kwajalein, you name it,” Arnold said. “If it’s got U.S. NAVAIDS, we go there.”

Operating out of a civilian base with a largely civilian crew for nearly four years is an unusual situation for Active-Duty Airmen, but CFIN crews never have to worry about making a difference.

“We just got back from Europe, we’re getting ready to go to the Pacific, we have Antarctica later,” Arnold said. “You do realize you have worldwide impact, you just see it every day.”

‘Air Force One’ Plane to Transport Carter for State Funeral

Jan. 6, 2025 | By Chris Gordon

The U.S. Air Force VC-25 aircraft commonly known as Air Force One is scheduled to transport former President Jimmy Carter for the final time this week for services in Georgia and Washington, D.C., before he is laid to rest Jan. 9 after a multiday state funeral for Carter began on Jan. 4.

Carter died at the age of 100 on Dec. 29, 2024, in his hometown of Plains, Ga. He served as president from 1977-1981.

A funeral service was held at the Carter Center in Atlanta on Jan. 4. Carter will lie in repose there until Jan. 7, when his body will be transported to D.C. for two days of ceremonies. After that, Carter will be flown back to and buried in Georgia on Jan. 9.

The Air Force has a fleet of two Boeing VC-25A jets. When they are carrying the current president, they have the call sign Air Force One. Otherwise, their call sign starts with SAM for Special Air Mission.

On Tuesday, Jan. 7, at 11:15 a.m. Eastern Time, Special Air Mission 39 is scheduled to take off from Dobbins Air Reserve Base, Ga., for Washington, D.C., with the late president and his family. VC-25A tail number 92-9000 arrived at Dobbins Air Reserve Base on Jan. 5. The call sign Special Air Mission 39 is in honor of Carter’s service as the 39th president.

The late president’s body and family will board the aircraft after an arrival ceremony at the base, according to Joint Task Force-National Capital Region, which leads state funerals on behalf of U.S. Northern Command. The Department of Defense is directed by the president to conduct state funerals, which President Joe Biden ordered for Carter.

At 12:45 p.m., Special Air Mission 39 is expected to arrive at Joint Base Andrews, Md., where Carter’s remains will be transferred to a hearse, which will head to the U.S. Navy Memorial in Washington. A horse-drawn caisson will take Carter from the Navy Memorial to the Capitol, where his body will lie in state in the Rotunda until a funeral service at the National Cathedral in Washington on Jan. 9. Biden has declared Jan. 9 a national day of mourning.

“Air Force One” has transported the president’s remains for previous state funerals. Most recently, after the death of former President George H.W. Bush in 2018, the same VC-25A that will transport Carter also took Bush home to Texas from Washington to be buried after a funeral attended by Carter and all other living former presidents.

Likewise, presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and Donald Trump—as well as Biden—are scheduled to attend Carter’s funeral Jan. 9.

After the funeral at the National Cathedral, the late president and his family will travel to Joint Base Andrews and board Special Air Mission 39 again, where at approximately 12:15 p.m., the aircraft will depart for Lawson Army Airfield at Fort Moore, Ga., for Carter’s burial in his hometown later that day.

“Prior to interment, the U.S. Navy will conduct a missing man formation flyover in honor of former President Carter’s naval service and time as commander-in-chief shortly after the motorcade’s arrival at the residence,” the Joint Task Force announced.

Carter graduated from the Naval Academy in 1946 and served as one of the nation’s first nuclear submariners. He left Active service in the Navy in 1953 to run his family’s peanut farm after his father died and was in the Reserve until 1961.

President Jimmy Carter and National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski aboard Air Force One in 1977. Photo courtesy National Archives.

During his presidency, Carter flew one of two Boeing 707s converted for presidential use as the VC-137C and occasionally carried his own luggage. Carter primarily used an aircraft known as SAM 27000, which is on display at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. The backup Air Force One used during Carter’s presidency, SAM 26000, is on display at the National Museum of the United States Air Force.

Carter will be buried at his residence in Plains in a private ceremony.

U.S. service members with the Ceremonial Honor Guard lay down the casket of former President Jimmy Carter during his state funeral service at the Carter Center in Atlanta, Jan. 4, 2025. DOD Photo by U.S. Air Force Senior Airman Zach Heimbuch

How Air Force Special Warfare Can Improve Its ‘Soft’ Skills

Jan. 3, 2025 | By David Roza

The Air Force Special Warfare training pipeline produces experts in combat search and rescue, tactical air control, and special reconnaissance who can do their jobs in the most challenging circumstances alongside the military’s toughest special operators.

It takes years to hone the long list of technical skills—everything from infantry tactics to closed circuit SCUBA diving—that special warfare Airmen need to do their jobs.

But a federally funded think tank identified four nontechnical attributes—drive, teamwork, trainability, and stress tolerance—that are not deliberately developed, which could hamper trainee development during the pipeline and later in their careers. The Air Force says these traits are crucial for effective special operators.

“Initial skills training for Air Force Special Warfare is designed to efficiently teach unskilled Airmen the technical knowledge and skills required to perform a particular occupational specialty,” the RAND Corporation wrote in a Dec. 27 report. “However, there is an emerging need to also develop the nontechnical attributes (e.g., teamwork, stress tolerance) required to effectively learn and perform jobs in an increasingly dynamic and uncertain future.”

The Pipeline

The Air Force Special Warfare Training pipeline starts with the special warfare candidate course, followed by the special warfare assessment and selection course, both at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, Tex. Part of the goal of those courses is to put candidates through intense physical training to see if they can handle the demands of the profession.

Those who pass through assessment and selection go on to a series of schools across the country such as pre-dive swimming and water confidence, static line parachuting, freefall parachuting, and survival, evasion, resistance, and escape (SERE) training.

After that, candidates go to apprentice courses for pararescue, special reconnaissance, and combat control, where they learn the tools of their specific trade, then on to a formal training unit to refine those skills.

The whole thing takes about two years, or about a year for tactical air control party (TACP) Airmen, but RAND focused on the apprentice courses and formal training units, where much of the job-specific technical training takes place.

“This course … is four months of a firehose of information,” one TACP student told RAND. “We probably have, like, 60 or 70 different PowerPoints that you had to know … and then you have to therefore apply that knowledge in those tactical problems.”

special warfare — Students from the 351st Special Warfare Training Squadron tend to an injured Airman during a rescue mission exercise at Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M., Dec 2, 2021. (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Karissa Dick)

Instructors at the courses noticed shortcomings in four key areas:

Drive: which RAND defines as taking deliberate and persistent action to accomplish tasks and goals to high standards.

Stress tolerance: the ability to continue performing under difficult, unpredictable, and ambiguous conditions

Teamwork: working productively with others and adapting to different roles and situations

Trainability: the capability to learn and execute core tasks and duties, particularly at the fast space of special warfare training.

Inherent Expectations

To an extent, candidates are expected to show up to the apprentice courses and formal training units with these attributes already in place.

“We don’t have enough time to teach these guys,” one pararescue apprentice course leader told RAND. “So, you end up seeing who studied enough, who practiced on their own, because when they don’t, they fail.”

Indeed, the Special Warfare Training Wing makes clear on its website that the wing provides expert instruction, but candidates are expected to bring nontechnical attributes like the four noted in the RAND report. Candidates also have to develop those attributes by nature of surviving the pipeline.

“[We are] trying to strike the balance between how much do you firehose them with challenges and information versus how easy do you go,” a pararescue apprentice course leader said. “And the side that we default to is the firehose, because generally speaking, the harder you push them, the better they do.”

There are informal opportunities to encourage nontechnical attributes through feedback and mentorship. One TACP leader mentioned pulling aside students for a course correct.

Trainees from the 352nd Special Warfare Training Squadron conduct a simulated ambush during small unit tactics training on Mackall Army Airfield, North Carolina, Oct. 24, 2023. (U.S. Air Force photo by Capt. Xiaofan Liu)

The majority of AFSPECWAR students are performing well, RAND wrote, but there is room for improvement: instructors indicated that several nontechnical attributes are unevenly developed across initial skills training.

“If you don’t maintain a high level of drive, you’re not going to be successful, so that’s important,” one TACP formal training unit leader said. “But I don’t know if we are training that appropriately.”

Case in point, one combat control/special reconnaissance apprentice course instructor noticed students trying to get away with decreased effort.

“They’re trying to find an easy way to get everything accomplished and take shortcuts on just about everything now,” the instructor said. “And that is a theme that’s been going on for probably about—since I’ve been here.”

Instructors and leadership noticed similar gaps in teamwork, due in part to the current assessment and selection process, one pararescue leader said.

“Definitely, there’s a lack of teamwork,” the leader said. “That’s by far the most obvious characteristic. They’re selected as individuals.”

Likewise, trainability is something candidates are expected to already have when they show up to class.

“We teach a hell of a lot, and we expect them to acquire it, but we aren’t teaching them how to learn,” a pararescue leader said. “That meta aspect of it is not there.”

“I don’t know that we’re assessing whether or not they are capable of acquiring knowledge or if they are good at learning new skills,” a TACP leader said.

A combat controller student motions for his team to move during Tactics Field Week on July 18, 2023, in the North Carolina forests. (U.S. Air Force photo by Miriam Thurber)

How to Improve

The Air Force Special Warfare Training Wing is not alone in trying to hone soft skills amid a packed curriculum. Long thought to be an inherent trait among successful fighter pilots, stress tolerance is actually a skill that Air Force pilot trainers have focused on over the past eight years or so.

“It’s kind of a default that you either sink or swim, and it was certainly when I went to pilot training in 2010,” Hasard Lee, an F-35 instructor pilot, told Air & Space Forces Magazine in 2023. “That’s an effective technique, you know the people who come out the other side are going to be solid. But the problem is the training is very expensive … so if people get halfway through that training and wash out because they have some issues with being resilient, that could waste a lot of taxpayer money.”

Cognitive performance training, rooted in techniques such as positive psychology, diaphragmatic breathing, and visualization, have already saved many pilot students from washing out, improved the performance of others, and reduced the number of hours needed to master pilot skills.

Similarly, RAND suggested that a deliberate effort on drive, teamwork, stress tolerance, and trainability could improve outcomes. Rather than carve out a training block on nontechnical attributes, RAND recommended weaving attribute development into the rest of the course.

“[S]ome events could present multiple opportunities to demonstrate one or more attributes,” researchers from the think tank wrote. “These events should be considered as sources for collecting formal evaluation data and for tracking individual-level changes over time (e.g., mission brief during full mission profile to evaluate Communication).”

It takes skilled instructors to recognize those opportunities, so RAND authors also called for teaching instructors when to provide feedback and when to let students make mistakes; students indicated such feedback was not always consistent or constructive. The think tank also recommended reintroducing interviews to prescreen instructors, a practice that had been abandoned due to resource limitations.

Other recommendations included:

Reward students’ efforts and improvement on attribute-related behaviors through feedback, since objective standards for nontechnical attributes are generally undefined.

Tying the importance of nontechnical attributes to real-life operational experiences

Encouraging a climate of respectful peer-to-peer feedback

Address some interpersonal skills such as teamwork earlier in the pipeline, or even in basic military training

Reevaluate gaps in attribute development with fresh analysis every few years

Air Force Tests Subscale Model of Blended-Wing Body Jet, on Track for First Flight in 2027

Jan. 3, 2025 | By John A. Tirpak and David Roza

The Air Force is collecting data from flight tests of a subscale version of its Blended-Wing Body demonstrator, and using that data to revise the full-scale aircraft’s control software and final configuration—the first flight of which remains on track for 2027.

In August 2023, the Department of the Air Force tapped startup JetZero to build a prototype Blended-Wing Body (BWB) aircraft for testing and demonstrating new technologies. Nearly 18 months later, a service spokesperson offered one of the first updates to the project.

The subscale demonstrator, nicknamed “Pathfinder,” has a 23-foot wingspan and is about one-eight the size of the planned full-scale aircraft, intended to explore BWB concepts for future Air Force and commercial airlifters and cargo aircraft. The BWB concept could reduce fuel burn by 30 percent versus existing cargo aircraft, which is why the project is being led by the Air Force assistant secretary for energy, installations, and the environment.

The Federal Aviation Administration gave the green light for testing in spring 2024.

“The subscale aircraft, initially flown at Crow’s Landing, Calif., confirmed that the current JetZero BWB concept has similar flight dynamics to previous BWB subscale aircraft, namely X-48,” an Air Force spokesperson said.

The X-48 program, concluded in 2013, included several sizes and configurations of a blended-wing body not unlike the BWB now being pursued. It was tested with both two and three engines, and with different configurations of the wings and winglets.

While JetZero is running the BWB program, its partner, Northrop Grumman’s Scaled Composites division, is fabricating the full-size airplane.

Though not officially connected with the Air Force’s Next-Generation Air refueling System (NGAS) program, “BWB concepts are likely to inform NGAS analysis efforts as well as discussions regarding next-gen airlift,” the Air Force spokesperson said. “The desired optionality extends beyond aerial refueling and airlift platforms,” she added.

At the time of the award, Air Force officials said the performance of the BWB would inform an analysis of alternatives for the NGAS and other future mobility concepts.

“Inception of the Blended Wing Body project occurred independent of the program of record known as NGAS,” the spokesperson said. “As such, the BWB project is more broadly intended to accelerate innovation for the next generation of large aircraft and generate optionality for future capability needs.”

Testing with the subscale demonstrator is already paying dividends, she said.

“Due to dynamic scaling, subscale aircraft efforts have enabled refinement of flight control laws applicable to the full-scale demonstration aircraft, and further flight testing will serve to validate [Computational Fluid Dynamics] models and performance characteristics of the outer mold line,” she said.

Scaled Composites “has begun manufacturing full-scale parts for testing purposes. For example, a wing test article was recently built to refine and validate structural models being used for the full-scale aircraft build,” she said, while JetZero has made “significant progress in its integrated test facility … which enables systems integration testing to begin well before initial manufacturing of the full-scale aircraft. This is a risk reduction strategy which Gulfstream has used for previous developmental aircraft.”

The Air Force said fabrication of the full-scale aircraft will take place throughout 2026 and ground testing will start in April 2027. First flight is expected in September 2027.

In addition to a future air refueling jet, the Air Force is beginning to look at options for a successor to all its main airlift platforms: the C-5, C-17, and C-130. The C-5 recently concluded a lengthy upgrade and re-engining intended to extend its life into the 2040s, though that program has failed to yield the expected increases in aircraft availability. The Air Force is contemplating either a service life extension for the C-17 or a replacement type, and Air Mobility Command and Special Operations Command need a more survivable aircraft than the C-130 for future tactical airlift missions.

Besides feeding future fuel-efficient aircraft designs, “the BWB effort aims to accelerate innovation and create optionality for future capability needs, which could be applied to several aircraft, including cargo, transport, tanker, and bomber aircraft designs (which make up 60 percent of Air Force fuel burn),” the service spokesperson said.

“The BWB project supports the [Department of the Air Force] strategy by leveraging new transformational aircraft technology that is significantly more efficient (at least 30 percent) than current platforms. It has the potential to significantly increase our capability and readiness, specifically with the logistics challenges presented in INDOPACOM.”

Air Force officials have frequently noted that the vast dimensions of the Indo-Pacific will force the service to extend the range and efficiency of future platforms, especially to make the Agile Combat Employment concept work. Under ACE, the Air Force will need timely and survivable airlift support in many dispersed, austere locations, and aircraft will need to be able to move cargo and fuel while burning as little of their own fuel as possible.

“This transformational technology could be vital for a fight in the Pacific, giving us the operational edge we need,” the spokesperson said.

The BWB program is funded under a cost-sharing arrangement, under which the Air Force will put up a total of $230 million, while investors will put up an undisclosed amount, but at least matching the Air Force’s contribution. Industry officials said some $300 million in private funds are committed or pledged to the project.

Laughlin Bids Farewell to Its Final T-1 Trainer

Jan. 3, 2025 | By Greg Hadley

The final T-1 Jayhawk at Laughlin Air Force Base, Texas, took off for the Boneyard last month, as the Air Force continues to retire its venerable trainer for “heavies.”

After three decades in action, the Jayhawks are retiring rapidly. The last flight from Laughlin came Dec. 17, heralded by a five-plane flyover that also featured two T-38s and two T-6s.

“The T-1A is an excellent plane, it prepared pilots for the next plane they would be moving on to,” Capt. Nickolas Johnson, 86th Flying Training Squadron chief of operations, said in a release. “It gives pilots the opportunity to train on crew resource management, which is what they will do on the heavier aircraft.”

A five-ship formation flys over the Air Traffic Control (ATC) tower Laughlin Air Force Base, Texas, Dec. 17, 2024 to commemorate the final flight of the T-1A at Laughlin. Joining the Jayhawk were two T-6A Texan IIs and two T-38C Talons. (U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Nicholas Larsen)

The Air Force is retiring the T-1s before they fulfill their expected service life to avoid “expensive engine overhauls,” according to budget documents released in April 2024. The retirements will free up “funding and instructor pilots for higher priorities,” the documents assert. Officials have argued the loss can be made up with a combination of simulators and other flying platforms, including the new T-7A Red Hawk.

USAF has been working on the retirement plan for several years now, first asking Congress to let it divest 50 T-1 Jayhawks in fiscal 2023. Data from the 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group—the Boneyard at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Ariz.—shows that 48 aircraft arrived there in fiscal 2023.

Another 52 T-1s were set to retire fiscal in 2024, part of a plan to shelve every T-1 at Laughlin as well as at Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph, Texas; Vance Air Force Base, Okla.; and Columbus Air Force Base, Miss. That would have left just a few for combat systems officer training at Naval Air Station Pensacola, Fla.

But Congress barred the service from retiring aircraft until “full, fleet-wide implementation” of the new Undergraduate Pilot Training curriculum is in place, an action that wasn’t completed until April 2024. Through the rest of fiscal ’24, only 33 T-1 airframes arrived at the Boneyard.

In fiscal 2025, the Air Force is seeking permission to retire 22 more T-1s, including those used for combat systems officers, leaving 53 more to be retired through fiscal 2029.

Laughlin joins JBSA-Randolph in bidding farewell to all its Jayhawks—the Texas base had its final flight in July 2024.

The Air Force has significantly reduced or retired completely several other fleets in recent times, including the KC-10 tanker, the A-10 Thunderbolt attack jet, the E-3 AWACS, and the EC-130H and J variants. It is also making deep cuts to its aging F-15 fleet.