One-and-Only Air Force PJ Dog Prepares to Wrap Historic Career

Sept. 25, 2024 | By David Roza

It was there, dangling from an HH-60 helicopter’s hoist cable in a snowstorm in the middle of the night, that Master Sgt. Rudy Parsons realized he was part of something special.

A pararescueman with the Kentucky Air National Guard’s 123rd Special Tactics Squadron, Parsons was helping the Alaska Air National Guard search for a 70-year-old hiker who’d gone missing on a trail outside Anchorage. While the rest of the search party was grounded by the foul weather, the Air Guard crew in their rugged HH-60 kept looking.

But Parsons did not descend into the cold darkness alone. His teammate, a Dutch Shepherd named Callie, was strapped to his body, ready to sniff through the avalanche debris below to find the missing hiker. In the end, they could not locate the man, but the Guard’s rapid response and Callie’s sharp nose gave him the best shot of being found.

“That’s the moment where I realized this is a capability that does not exist anywhere else in the world,” Parsons recalled three years later. “And it’s at such a level that this could actually mean the difference for this man’s life … It gave him the most likely chance of survival because of our capability to push out.”

Over the course of her six-year career, Callie—the only search and rescue dog in the Department of Defense—has jumped out of planes, hoisted out of helicopters, and rode to the rescue aboard jet skis, snowmobiles, and everything in between.

“She can do anything a pararescueman can do, besides scuba diving,” Parsons said. “We have a top-tier capability canine that can go anywhere in the world faster than anybody else because we’re part of the United States Air Force and we have all of those assets behind us.”

air force dog — Master Sgt. Rudy Parsons, a pararescueman assigned to the Kentucky Air National Guard’s 123rd Special Tactics Squadron, rappels from the Big Four Bridge in Louisville, Ky. with Callie, the only certified search-and-rescue dog in the U.S. military, as part of an annual team-building event held Dec. 12, 2022 (U.S. Air National Guard photo by Staff Sgt. Clayton Wear)

The idea of Air Force Pararescue dogs first emerged after the 2010 Haiti earthquake, where a group of PJs spent three days digging through the rubble of a collapsed school. A canine rescue team from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) cleared the pile much faster.

“Within 20 minutes, that dog found there was nobody actually in that pile,” Parsons said. The PJs “had just wasted three days of manpower when they could have been helping out elsewhere.”

PJs are combat search and rescue specialists, but a dog can make the search side much more efficient and effective than any other technology.

“How can we hone our capabilities as search experts as well as rescue experts?” he asked.

Master Sgt. Rudy Parsons, a pararescueman in the Kentucky Air National Guard’s 123rd Special Tactics Squadron, searches debris fields with Callie, his search-and-rescue dog, in Cookeville, Tenn., March 3, 2020 (Courtesy Photo)

‘Trust Your Dog’

Search and rescue dogs date back to at least the 18th century, when monks at the Great St. Bernard Hospice in the Swiss Alps used the eponymous breed to save travelers in the surrounding mountains. Even before Callie, the U.S. Army and Air Force dabbled with search and rescue dogs during the Cold War, Parsons said.

But after Haiti, there wasn’t a clear path forward on a new program until Parsons got involved around 2017. Parsons spoke with experts around the country, and within four months he started working with the 15-month-old Callie. The young dog was named after an Australian Shepherd who, along with her handler, Peggy Faith, searched the rubble of the Pentagon after it was attacked on Sept. 11, 2001.

It took another three months to pick up certifications in urban and wilderness search and rescue from the Penn Vet Working Dog Center, the acclaimed research, training, and breeding program which raised Callie.

“The hardest part was just learning how to communicate with another living creature that has a mind of its own,” Parsons said. “Luckily for me, Callie’s incredible at her job and she could make up for all my mistakes.”

He recalled one drill where he and Callie had to find a Penn Vets intern hiding in a large warehouse.

“Callie started barking at a tiny cabinet and I’m like ‘there’s no way she’s in there,’” he recalled. Of course, the cabinet opened and out popped the intern.

“That was a big realization for me … you talk to any dog handler, they’re going to tell you the number one thing is ‘trust your dog,’” Parsons said. “Callie is 100 percent every single time. She’s never made a mistake.”

Callie, a search and rescue dog for the 123rd Special Tactics Squadron, and her handler, Master Sgt. Rudy Parsons, search through the rubble of the Mayfield Candle Factory in Mayfield, Ky. after it was struck by a tornado in December 2021. (Photo courtesy Master Sgt. Rudy Parsons)

Since then, the pair have responded to tornadoes, floods, missing persons cases, and an avalanche, clearing swathes of ground and rubble in hours compared to the days it would have taken otherwise. In 2021, they responded to a tornado that leveled a scented candle factory in eastern Kentucky. The candle smells were overwhelming.

“Within 15 minutes I had a headache, because it was such a strong smell,” said Parsons, who called Penn Vets to ask if Callie could do her job in such an environment. While working a scent, search and rescue dogs sniff five to 10 times a second, compared to humans who typically breathe once every 1.5 seconds.

“They were like ‘put her on the pile and watch,’” he recalled.

Sure enough, Callie and Parsons cleared the factory and found the remains of two people in the rubble. When a FEMA team arrived about 10 hours later, Parsons already had the spots marked on a map so they could quickly confirm the findings, giving resolution to the victims’ families that much faster. An Air National Guardsman, Parsons appreciates being able to help his neighbors during a crisis.

“These are people that we drive by and we see regularly, so it’s been very neat to have this capability that helps those around us directly,” he said.

A headshot of Callie, the U.S. military’s only search and rescue dog, wearing the maroon beret of Air Force Pararescue. (Screenshot via Instagram/@sar_pup)

‘She’s One of Us’

Search and rescue work takes a toll on dogs just like it does on people. Callie’s been bit by a rattlesnake, had surgeries on both of her knees, and taken plenty of scrapes over the years. Rescue dogs typically work barefoot so they can keep their balance while climbing through rubble piles, so Callie got a few bad cuts while climbing through the “Dr. Seuss landscape” of the wrecked candle factory, Parsons said.

“She was in pain but just kept working and did her job exceptionally,” he said. “It just shows how stoic these dogs are. They’re amazing.”

Like her ability to skydive, Callie’s wounds and stoic attitude are part of what makes her a PJ.

“I can’t relate to a drone, but I can really relate to Callie,” Parsons said. “I’ve had knee surgeries, I’ve had back injuries … She’s putting herself on the line just like we are. She’s one of us.”

But even special operators have to hang up the hat someday, and Parsons anticipates the seven-year-old Callie will retire within the next year. The 123rd Special Tactics Squadron is looking to replace both Callie and Rudy, who wants a successor to keep the program going.

“I think for it to be sustainable, I can’t shoulder it the whole time,” he said. “So as much as I want to stay in and do it the rest of my life, I think I need to share the blessing.”

Could a search and rescue canine benefit other Air Force rescue and special tactics squadrons? The appetite is there, Parsons thinks, but manning is a challenge, since special operators are already swamped with training and mission requirements.

Parsons himself did not realize how much work it takes to hone a world-class canine rescue team. For example, before he could jump out of an airplane with Callie strapped to his chest, he took three months getting her comfortable with her jump bag: first having her nap in it, then jumping off benches with her in it. Same thing for her goggles, ear protection, muzzle, and the airplane itself.

“Before Callie jumped she had over 100 hours of flight time,” Parsons said in a 2022 interview. “We’ve put a lot of time and effort into this.”

When Callie finally retires, Parsons will officially adopt her. But after years of nonstop adventure, Callie’s retirement promises to be anything but quiet.

“I’ll see if I can help her relax,” Parsons said. “I don’t know if she’s able to.”

Master Sgt. Rudy Parsons, a pararescueman with the Kentucky Air National Guard’s 123rd Special Tactics Squadron, and Callie, his search and rescue dog, participate in Patriot North, an annual domestic operations exercise designed to provide natural disaster-response training at Volk Field, Wis., July 17, 2019. (U.S. Air National Guard photo by Staff Sgt. Joshua Horton)

Space Force Picks 4 Firms to Work on New Resilient GPS Small Satellites

Sept. 24, 2024 | By Greg Hadley

The Space Force has selected four contractors to work on concepts for a batch of new, small GPS satellites meant to proliferate the critical position, navigation, and timing constellation.

Space Systems Command announced the four firms selected for the Resilient GPS program Sept. 24: Astranis, Axient, L3Harris, and Sierra Space.

L3Harris is the lone prime contractor in the bunch, but Sierra Space has also received contracts from the Space Development Agency in the past. Astranis and Axient, by contrast, are relative newcomers. Just a few days prior to the R-GPS announcement, Astranis received a strategic funding increase from Space Systems Command and U.S. Space Command to add military Ka-band frequency compatibility to their planned Omega satellites that will go in geosynchronous orbit.

“A mix of traditional and non-traditional defense space companies were selected for this initial award based on their innovative and integrated concepts,” according to an SSC release.

The first iteration of Resilient GPS, dubbed “Lite Evolving Augmented Proliferation One,” will consist of eight satellites, with the goal of launching as soon as 2028. At some point, the Space Force will trim the list of contractors with a final design review and contracts to build prototypes, followed by a final contract award for “one or more vendors,” per SSC.

Resilient GPS is one of the two “Quick Start” programs the Department of the Air Force selected to start work on prior to getting approval from Congress, an authority for which Secretary Frank Kendall made a concerted push last year.

“Thanks to the Quick Start authority that was approved by Congress, we were able to field and award contracts for these low-cost satellites in less than six months,” Kendall said in a statement. “This authority allows us to move faster and start new Space Force and Air Force programs, and we appreciate Congress providing us this authority.”

The Space Force is pushing an aggressive timeline. If the launch date of 2028 holds, the satellites would go from concept to orbit in four years—by comparison, the contract for the latest batch of GPS III satellites was awarded to Lockheed Martin in 2008, and the first bird went up in 2018, with still more launches planned into 2026.

The R-GPS satellites are expected to be smaller than the main fleet of GPS satellites, the latest iterations of which measure 8 x 5 x 11 feet and weigh more than 4,000 pounds each.

“R-GPS provides resilience to military and civil GPS user communities by augmenting the GPS constellation with proliferated small satellites transmitting a core set of widely-utilized GPS signals,” SSC stated in its release. “The decision to pursue R-GPS was based upon outcomes of recent resilience studies recommending an additional proliferated fleet of small GPS satellites.”

Further batches of R-GPS are expected to follow on this first eight-satellite group, with improved capabilities, the command noted. All told, service officials have described a goal of around 20 R-GPS satellites.

Over the past several decades, GPS has become an essential part of everyday life for many Americans and a regular example leaders turn to when explaining to the public what the Space Force does.

At the same time, officials and experts have grown concerned that both the military and the public have grown over-reliant on GPS, especially as Russia has turned to jamming GPS signals during its invasion of Ukraine.

“If we lose GPS in this nation, we can’t get crops out of the field, we can’t get goods off the shelf or off the boat, we can’t get ambulances to your house, and you can’t travel,” Vice Chief of Space Operations Gen. Michael A. Guetlein warned at the Defense News Conference earlier this month, noting that even a 15-minute disruption could cause a $1 billion hit to the economy.

“There is an enormous amount of attention from the White House on position, navigation and timing (PNT) and how to shore up those signals, looking at alternative capabilities,” Guetlein said. “Is there another way we could be doing this, that’s more resilient, more survival against the threat? I would say we could be doing more in this area.”

However, not all are convinced Resilient GPS is the right answer. In its version of the 2025 budget released in June, the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense turned down the service’s request to reprogram $77 million for Resilient GPS. The panel cited unclear benefits, questioning whether the additional satellites would better protect against GPS jamming compared to other methods, and noted the program for focusing solely on satellites while overlooking the need for the M-code equipment—an encrypted GPS signal essential for jamming resistance.

Charles Galbreath, senior resident fellow at Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies, echoed the concern that the new satellites would not solve the question of jamming.

“Whatever solution the Space Force pursues, it must address the variety of the most likely and most dangerous threats, such as jamming, cyber and potential threats to the on-orbit architecture,” he previously told Air & Space Forces Magazine.

Tyndall Braces for Major Storm, with Its F-35s Out of the Way

Sept. 24, 2024 | By Unshin Lee Harpley

Tyndall Air Force Base is bracing for a major potential storm this week, as the new Tropical Storm Helene is forecasted to intensify into a Category 3 hurricane with winds reaching 110 miles per hour and hit the Florida Panhandle around Sept. 26.

As of Sept. 24, the base has declared Hurricane Condition Level 3, indicating the storm has become a “potential threat to Tyndall with destructive winds possible within 48 hours.”

The base commander has not issued any evacuation orders for personnel yet but is recommending people staying at the installation’s “Fam Camp” campground to evacuate as a precautionary measure, the base shared on its social media page.

Base officials are currently “in close coordination with Bay and Gulf Counties and Bay District Schools,” and 325th Fighter Wing personnel are expected to report during normal duty hours on Sept. 25.

Tyndall’s 95th Fighter Squadron deployed its F-35s to Nellis Air Force Base, Nev., before the storm warnings hit the area, a spokesperson told Air & Space Forces Magazine. “They will be safe there until conditions are cleared at Tyndall,” the spokesperson added.

Helene is projected to hit the Gulf of Mexico by Sept. 25, with landfall expected along the Florida Panhandle by the evening of Sept. 26. Tallahassee, located about 90 miles east of Tyndall, is currently in the center of the storm’s forecast path, according to the National Hurricane Center. Tyndall and nearby Panama City are within the forecast “cone” and are under a tropical storm warning.

The Air Force is investing $5 billion into Tyndall Air Force Base, Fla., not just restoring what was all but destroyed by a hurricane in 2018, but ensuring it can withstand future superstorms, as well. Among the new features: a 360-room lodge designed to stand up to 165-mile-per-hour winds. **Airman 1st Class Zachary Nordheim**

The base received its first F-35s last August, marking its shift from F-22 Raptor training to becoming a key hub for the Lightning II. The 95th Fighter Squadron, assigned to the mission, was reactivated in June 2023 after a four-year hiatus following Hurricane Michael’s devastation in 2018.

Tyndall is still undergoing years of reconstruction and upgrades today, but the base confirmed that Hurricane Helene and current warnings won’t slow down progress.

“Our contracts incorporate anticipated weather delays, which is built into the schedule, so there are no progress delays,” the spokesperson said.

Hurricane Michael tore apart Tyndall’s hangars, damaged several F-22 Raptors, and left much of the base in ruins, causing around $5 billion in damage. The storm was later upgraded to a Category 5, making it the first Category 5 storm to make landfall in the U.S. since Hurricane Andrew in 1992.

A Category 3 hurricane means “devastating damage will occur.” Well-built homes may suffer major structural damage. Widespread tree uprooting, blocked roads, and prolonged power and water outages lasting days to weeks are also expected in the region. Damaging winds and heavy flooding rains are expected for the northern part of the state.

Remnants of Hurricane Helene are expected to bring heavy rain and gusty winds through Alabama and Georgia by Sept. 27. The storm is forecast to continue tracking northward through Tennessee and into the Midwest over the weekend.

USAF Needs to Stop Talking, Start Moving on Next-Gen Training Tech, Industry Says

Sept. 24, 2024 | By Greg Hadley

Artificial intelligence and open systems can better prepare the Air Force for a potential high-end fight against the likes of China and Russia, but the Air Force has work to do to make that a reality, service officials and industry leaders said last week.

Across two panels at AFA’s Air, Space & Cyber Conference, experts said the training enterprise has made progress towards better representing the threats the U.S. will face in the future and the means to counter them. But to be effective, that training needs to be less fragmented, more open to sharing data, and adopt a faster approach to cybersecurity.

Most of the work left to do will be in the digital realm. The Air Force’s flying hour program has declined, and some of the capabilities on new systems such as the F-35 are so sensitive that training with them in the open air would risk exposure to adversaries.

“Every time we go fly, people are seeing and sniffing everything we’re doing and they’re bringing that back and informing how they think about navigating and countering our proposition for deterrence,” said Mike Benitez, director of product for Shield AI.

Combined, those factors have pushed the Air Force to emphasize simulators, said Maj. Gen. Gregory Kreuder, commander of the 19th Air Force—to the point that new F-35 pilots “are demanding that we spend more time in the sim to train the high-end fight,” he said.

Officials agreed that the quality of Air Force simulators has increased dramatically in the past few decades.

“When I joined the Air Force about 30 years ago, in the mid-90s, late-90s, the sims were crap, essentially,” Kreuder said. “They were emergency procedures training, doing some approaches on them. They were isolated. They didn’t connect to anything.”

Programs such as the F-35’s Joint Simulation Environment (JSE) and the Air Force’s Digital Test and Training Range helped the service create “a physics-based environment that has the fidelity, the realism, to actually train in that virtual environment,” said Benitez.

Yet the realism of a simulator is inherently limited in several ways.

“If I’m in a simulator, unless the building catches on fire, I’m generally not afraid that I’m going to lose my life,” noted Maj. Gen. Clark Quinn, deputy commander for Air Education and Training Command.

On top of that, “if you survey 2,000 fighter pilots, 1,999 would tell you that the adversary forces in the sim are terrible,” said Benitez.

The next step, officials said, is a blend of live, virtual, and constructive (LVC) training—constructive refers to simulated players in a training scenario who respond to the human’s actions, whether it be an adversary or a wingman. But the time for merely considering LVC training is over, experts said.

“We’re past the point of it being an imperative that we have to look at live, virtual, and constructive,” Benitez said. “It should be a foundational part of generating readiness.”

“We have to increase the value of every hour we spend in the air,” added Dan Ourada, vice president at Amentum. “Having threat replicators with live blended synthetic and live, virtual, constructive recreates the experience of a high-end fight.”

AI could play a central role helping pilots learn to work with autonomous wingmen like the forthcoming Collaborative Combat Aircraft, said Matt George, founder and CEO of Merlin Labs.

“If a human pilot is flying with a system that is a non-human pilot next to them, or flying with a Shield AI wingman on board a CCA, or flying with any other AI-enabled tool, that is dramatically different than how we train our pilots today,” George said. “So by actually getting stuff out there, learning where the gaps are, getting into the simulator, getting into flight, we could start to develop those tactics and trainings in a way that, in my opinion, we’re never going to be able to get to if we keep this at an academic level.”

Yet while Kreuder marveled that “it’s incredible where the technology’s at,” the Air Force needs a shared vision for tying it all together, industry officials said.

“The one thing that we can do better is defining a common set of pipes and a common set of infrastructure that we can all develop too, so that we can begin to develop some common ways of being able to touch those pipes with some modularity in terms of systems, intelligence, mission systems that come into those systems,” said George.

Doug Gill, senior staff scientists at FSI Defense, voiced a similar view, saying the main issue with LVC training is “it’s actually kind of fragmented.”

The Air Force has increasingly emphasized open, modular systems across new aircraft and networks, allowing for easier sharing of data. When it comes to training, though, the system is stovepiped across different programs, Gill warned. Even JSE, which provides a common platform for multiple services and partners to work together on the F-35, can be more open in sharing and incorporating data from other simulation environments, he said.

“We’re talking about a joint mission that also has Army and also has Navy and has coalition,” said Gill. “And I think JSE actually should be an open part of that system, and it’s bringing a few great new ideas in.”

AI helped make large-scale simulators a reality, processing huge amounts of data to produce more precise, realistic results. But producing more granular data while including coalition partners will test the Pentagon’s already stressed networks, said Cathy Johnston, vice president of mission integration at Peraton.

Further complicating matters is the cybersecurity risk of such systems.

“We are stopped with that risk management framework. It halts funding. It halts progress. It halts moving forward,” said Ourada. “So as we look at the fifth-, the sixth-, and seventh-generation [simulators], we have to find a better way to secure what we call open architecture, to secure data.”

New Air Force PT Gear Rollout Delayed Again

Sept. 24, 2024 | By David Roza

The long-awaited rollout of the new Air Force physical training uniform, already two years behind schedule, has been delayed again, this time “due to production issues with the manufacturer,” according to an Air Force spokesperson.

The new workout gear was first unveiled in March 2021 with an October 2022 debut date. Global supply chain issues pushed the rollout date to March 2024. Then it was pushed to April for trainees at Basic Military Training, and July for shelves at Army & Air Force Exchange Service shops.

July has come and gone, and while BMT trainees began receiving the new PT gear that month, the rest of the Air Force can start to expect it at AAFES shops “in Fall 2024 for a phased rollout,” an Air Force spokesperson told Air & Space Forces Magazine.

The Air Force did not provide answers in time for publication when asked what kind of production issues came up most recently or for more details about the phased rollout: specifically, when Airmen might expect to see the new uniforms at base exchange stores across the continental U.S. and then around the world.

Air Force Uniform Office members 1st Lt. Avery Thompson and 2nd Lt. Maverick Wilhite put updated versions of the Air Force PT uniform through their paces at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, Feb. 25, 2021. Air Force photo by Jim Varhegyi.

Don Lee, acquisition program manager for the Combat Ready Airman program under Air Force Materiel Command, told Air & Space Forces Magazine at AFA’s Air, Space & Cyber Conference that the new PT gear would be available at the end of fiscal 2025—July to September 2025—or the beginning of fiscal 2026.

Earlier this year, the uniforms were delayed by “a previous fabric shortage and pending resolution of an ongoing color match concern for the running and all-purpose short,” a spokesperson said in March.

Hopefully the new gear will be worth the wait. The old uniform, first introduced in the early 2000s, is notorious for its bulky, “noisy” fabric.

An Airman wears the old PT uniform at Balad Air Base, Iraq in 2009. (U.S. Air Force photo)

The new gear consists of a jacket, pants, and two types of shorts—all in dark blue with a gray stripe and the Air Force logo—as well as a gray T-shirt with the Air Force logo on the upper left chest and a patterned “Air Force” across the back.

When the gear was first revealed in 2021, the Air Force said it would use “soft, quick drying” and antimicrobial fabrics to help control smell and moisture. The uniform was designed for a wider range of exercise using materials that were not around 20 years ago, Lee said.

“The warfighter today is exercising differently: more than just running and push-ups and sit-ups,” he pointed out. “Some of that [old] gear doesn’t enable the flexibility or range of motion that you would need. So a lot of these uniforms have more moisture management and flex.”

Meanwhile, the Space Force is further ahead in the rollout of its PT gear: the service announced its workout uniform started to come out in March.

Air Force to Keep Up Bombers Rotations in Australia amid China’s ‘Heavy-Handedness’

Sept. 23, 2024 | By Unshin Lee Harpley

The Air Force is keeping the momentum going with its bomber deployments in Australia, with regional allies increasingly “welcoming” them as a strategic counterbalance to China’s growing assertiveness.

“We continue to build up the infrastructure at [Royal Australian Air Force base] Tindal, I got to see that with my own eyes,” Gen. Kevin B. Schneider, commander of Pacific Air Forces, told reporters at AFA’s Air, Space & Cyber conference. He added that the command is closely working with the Air Force Global Strike Command to find “the right times” to bring out bomber deployment to the theater.

This follows Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin’s announcement last month that the U.S. would increase rotations of bombers and maritime patrol aircraft across Australian bases. The Pentagon is investing in Australia’s base infrastructure, with plans for facilities that could house up to six B-52 bombers and refueling aircraft at RAAF Tindal to project power into the South China Sea.

“The heavy-handedness of what Beijing is doing around the region is opening a lot of doors for us, so we continue to look for other opportunities, as other partners in the region look to have greater interaction with the United States Air Force and are welcoming the bomber presence,” added Schneider.

Last month, three B-2 Spirits deployed to RAAF Amberley for the first time since the summer of 2022. Accompanying them were over 180 Airmen from the 110th Expeditionary Bomb Squadron and two KC-135R tankers from the Illinois National Guard.

The stealthy bombers flew 34 sorties, engaging in joint exercises with RAAF F-35 Lightning IIs, F-18 Super Hornets, EA-18G Growlers, KC-30A tankers, and E-7 Wedgetails across southeastern Australia. The squadron made a pit stop at Diego Garcia and Guam, coordinating with U.S. tankers, including KC-46s and KC-135s. The mission also included one of the bombers conducting joint training with four Japanese F-35As over the Pacific Ocean for the first time. The bomber trio is back at Whiteman Air Force Base as of last week, a base spokesperson confirmed.

“The presence of the B-2 and our Airmen highlights the ongoing commitment to security and stability in this region,” Lt. Col. Justin Meyer, 110th EBS commander, said in a release.

The B-2 crew also collaborated with the RAAF Marine Rotational Force stationed at Darwin Base to conduct inert bombing runs—exercises that involved dropping nonexplosive munitions to improve targeting and coordination.

Schneider also noted that Pacific bomber missions focus on enhancing “maritime strike capabilities” by working closely with Air Force Global Strike Command.

“We work with Gen. [Thomas] Bussiere and his team to continue to evolve the anti-ship capability, whether it’s through the platforms towards the weapons, the tactics, techniques and procedures,” said Schneider.

While all three bomber aircraft can be equipped with the Long Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRASM), the B-1 stands out for its speed and large payload capacity. The B-52 Stratofortress, capable of carrying a wider variety of anti-ship missiles than the Lancer, including both the LRASM and the AGM-84 Harpoon, also remains a key option for sea-based attacks.

“We’re in the business of sinking ships,” Schneider said, noting that his area of responsibility continues to witness Beijing’s unsafe behaviors at the highly contested Second Thomas Shoal “on a regular basis.”

In May 2024, a Chinese J-10 fighter dropped flares in front of a Royal Australian Navy MH-60R helicopter operating from a navy warship. This took place in international airspace over the Yellow Sea while the helicopter was on a United Nations mission enforcing sanctions against North Korea. The Australian officials labeled the incident “unprofessional,” leading to a formal complaint to China.

Last month, Beijing’s Y-9DZ electronic intelligence collection plane came within 12 nautical miles of Japan’s Danjo Islands, located 80 miles west of Kyushu, Japan’s southernmost main island. Japanese officials deemed the incursion “utterly unacceptable” as this marked the first time a Chinese military aircraft had violated sovereign Japanese airspace since Japanese Self Defense Force began tracking such incidents in 1967.

Air Force to Revamp PME for Top Enlisted to Focus on China

Sept. 23, 2024 | By Rachel S. Cohen

A professional development course for the highest-ranking enlisted Airmen will go on hiatus for several months as the Air Force revamps its curriculum to reflect modern geopolitics, the service said in a recent release.

Overhauling the Chief Master Sergeant Leadership Course at Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala., aims to better prepare those Airmen for an era of “great power competition” as the U.S. vies for military supremacy with China and Russia, the service said.

“We are always striving to improve our curriculum and courses,” Col. Damian Schlussel, commander of the Thomas N. Barnes Center for Enlisted Education at Maxwell, said in the release. “Our chiefs have a huge impact on our force, so we need to provide them the best professional military education possible—especially during a time of such consequence.”

The Chief Leader Course is the highest level of enlisted professional military education in the Air Force. It runs 10 times each year, with about 80 students in each cohort. About 2,500 chief master sergeants, or E-9s, currently serve in the Air Force, according to Pentagon data.

Over the course of two weeks, students prepare to serve in their first roles as chief master sergeants—who advise their unit’s top officer and are responsible for the welfare of troops under their purview—and learn to bridge their tactical experience with strategic goals. The class is targeted at squadron-level chiefs and is mandatory for Active-Duty Airmen within two years of being selected for promotion to E-9.

Once the final class of fiscal 2024 graduates Sept. 27, the Chief Leader Course will pause for about nine months while stakeholders from across the military design a new course to be rolled out in 2025.

Barnes Center officials said they hope to offer a more in-depth, rigorous approach to today’s military problems than the current curriculum provides.

“Two weeks was frankly not enough time for the outcomes we need at this level of leadership,” Chief Master Sgt. Bridget Bruhn, the Barnes Center’s command chief, said in the release. “We need to go deeper on topics such as operational teaming with partners, mission command, and joint warfighting for today’s fight.”

Airmen who had planned to attend the course in fiscal 2025 will be postponed until it resumes, Air Force spokesperson Marilyn Holliday said Sept. 23. Troops travel to Maxwell to attend the classes but don’t move there permanently as other professional military education programs require.

Air University at Maxwell will continue running other professional development courses for chiefs to attend while the leadership course is paused, the service said.

Air Force officials in recent years have begun to reimagine enlisted PME as part of a broader push to foster well-rounded Airmen who are as emotionally intelligent as they are technically skilled. Senior leaders hope to provide lessons that reinforce the service’s standards while becoming more relevant to the challenges supervisors now face.

Space Force Wants a Market for Commercial Satellites That Can Maneuver in Orbit

Sept. 23, 2024 | By Greg Hadley

The Space Force is eyeing a new marketplace to take advantage of commercial satellites that can move in geosynchronous orbit, the head of Space Systems Command’s Commercial Space Office (CSCO) said last week.

Speaking at AFA’s Air, Space & Cyber Conference, Col. Richard Kniseley said his office recently solicited ideas from industry for a program called “Maneuverable GEO” that would create a pool of vendors who can compete for task orders.

The Commercial SATCOM Office under Kniseley’s organization took a similar approach last year for its Proliferated Low Earth Orbit (PLEO) Satellite-Based Services program—more than a dozen companies were selected for the effort, which allows Pentagon agencies and services to take advantage of commercial satellite communications.

Maneuverable GEO will include SATCOM providers, but it will also address other mission areas such as position, navigation, and timing, and environmental monitoring, Kniseley told reporters.

“it’s not going to be experimental. It will be an actual acquisition vehicle that will be utilized by the CSCO office, but it will be open to anybody in the DOD,” Kniseley said. “I mean, most of the awards that we do through PLEO are for different agencies, the combatant commands. So as people come in with their requirements, we’re able to kind of formulate the best path forward there.”

The goal, Kniseley added, is to “exploit capabilities that are already out there,” a central tenet of the Commercial Space Office and the Space Force’s broader efforts to tap into the commercial market. Officials like Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Space Acquisition and Integration Frank Calvelli say that given the cost and time it takes to build new satellites, the Space Force should follow a strategy of “Exploit What We Have, Buy What We Can, and Build Only What We Must.”

Maneuverable GEO adds a wrinkle to that by focusing on satellites that can shift around in orbit—a capability in which Space Force leaders have expressed interest, but which private industry is just starting to figure out. The ability to be dynamic in orbit can help satellites avoid adversary attacks, move closer to inspect threats, and more.

“That’s going to be a game-changer for us in the military, where you’re not at a stagnant orbit, and you’re able to drift from point to point, especially supporting us in the event of a regional or national war so that we can maneuver more of our capabilities and be more agile to the warfighter,” Kniseley said.

Tapping into the commercial market is also another sign that the Space Force is looking to bolster its own investments for space maneuver, which have been relatively modest to date. In fiscal 2025, the service requested just $14 million for research into space mobility and logistics, but followed that with a strategic funding increase for startup Starfish Space to launch and test a “jetpack” satellite that can dock with another satellite and propel it in orbit.

Yet the commercial market for space maneuver remains new and somewhat undefined, with both Space Force and industry officials expressing uncertainty as to whether the technology for servicing satellites can translate into a sustainable business model.

For his part, Kniseley said that Maneuverable GEO will allow his office to “onboard innovation” and expressed optimism that in at least some cases, space maneuver will make commercial sense.

“In the areas that were that we’re looking at near term, there’s a number of companies that are maturing and progressing very well,” he said.

The goal for Maneuverable GEO is to award a contract next year, Kniseley added.

“A lot of companies ask me about it constantly,” he said.

How the Air Force Reserve Overcame Its Recruiting Crisis

Sept. 23, 2024 | By David Roza

After two years of storm clouds, the future looks bright for Air Force Reserve Command recruiting, which exceeded its fiscal year 2024 goal of 7,200 Airmen by about 1.2 percent.

The news marks a sharp comeback from fiscal 2022, where the Reserve fell short about 1,500 recruits, and fiscal 2023, which saw a nearly 30 percent shortfall in both the Reserve and the Air National Guard.

Even this April, the forecast looked bleak, with AFRC commander Lt. Gen. John P. Healy warning Congress the component would miss its end strength goal of 69,600 members by about 2,900.

While AFRC is still short of its end strength, the command succeeded on the recruiting side of things in 2024. Hiring more recruiters did the trick, Healy said.

Air Force Reserve recruiters are Active Guard Reserve (AGR) status, meaning they serve full-time. The trouble was that the number of AGR authorizations was being held at 6,000 since 2022, “so we couldn’t increase our AGR end strength anywhere in the Air Force Reserve,” Healy told reporters at AFA’s Air, Space & Cyber Conference.

During fiscal 2019, the Air Force Reserve had 298 Reserve recruiters looking to bring in both new Airmen off the street and prior Active service members looking for a change. But then the COVID-19 pandemic hit, recruiter retention rates sank, and the number of recruiters fell to below 220 by the end of fiscal 2022.

Over the past two years, Healy bumped the level of recruiters up to 237, “and we’ve seen the results of that already this year,” he said.

Incentives also help. In 2023, the command rolled out a $10,000 bonus for fully-qualified, prior-service enlisted Airmen who signed up for three-year commitments in the Reserve. Today the Air Force recruiting website advertises up to $15,000 bonuses for many enlisted specialties.

“At the end of the day, we want our Active-Duty Airmen to serve 20 years in Active-Duty. We’re not trying to poach them,” said AFRC’s senior enlisted leader, Chief Master Sgt. Israel Nuñez. “We’re trying to get the ones who are leaving, see if we can affiliate those individuals.”

Ideally, AFRC aims for 70 percent of its force to be prior-service and 30 percent non-prior service, which helps retain expertise and cut down on training costs, Nuñez explained.

Further progress could be in store as AFRC aims to build the number of recruiters back to 280 over the next few years. That’s still short of 100 percent manning, but it should help the component keep pace with its rising recruiting goals and help it get to full end strength, Healy explained.

“We should expect to see a lift in our AGR end strength, and with that, we should be able to prioritize even greater to the recruiters, so we can get more bodies out there shaking hands and getting people to sign the dotted line,” he said.

Retention at AFRC is “fantastic” at 88.2 percent, the general said, which means recruiting is the last step to hitting end strength goals. He said that the command is working with Lt. Gen. Adrian Spain, the Air Force’s Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations, to come up with new incentives so that more Active Airmen make the jump to the Reserves instead of leaving the service.

Part of that means shoring up quality of life issues such as finding child care during drill weekends amid a nationwide child care provider shortage.

“If it’s already challenging during the week, just imagine how challenging it is during the weekend,” said Nuñez, who flagged affordable, accessible health care as another area he wants to improve for Reservists.

“A data point that we like to provide is that we have close to 800 Reserve members who are currently in a non-deployable status because of a dental issue,” he said. “Had they had good, affordable, quality dental care, they would no longer be on a non-deployable status.”

In the meantime, AFRC has a new goal to hit: 7,600 recruits in fiscal year 2025, or 400 more than this year’s target. The Active-Duty side is seeing a similar bump to 32,500 recruits after hitting this year’s goal of 27,100 Active-duty enlisted Airmen.

Like on the Reserve side, the head of the Air Force Recruiting Service thinks that hiring more recruiters is the key to hitting that goal: AFRS aims to plus-up by 370 recruiting staff this year.

“It’s ambitious, but I believe it is executable,” Brig. Gen. Christopher Amrhein said at the conference. The extra staff “is a sizable jump, and I think it definitely sets us in the best footing we can.”